How to undo all the damage and have nice skin in your late 40's?

[harrietpot]

I am going to be 45 this year and over the past few years my skin and face have aged quite a lot and in the past year it seems to be even worse.

I do and have always liked a drink at weekends, I'm still single and so going out has always been a big part of my social life and in my 20's that often meant hanging out in smoke filled clubs and bars. I was a sun bather into my 30's and that hasn't helped either. Now I am dealing with actual wrinkles, not just fine lines but deeper wrinkles round my eyes and mouth (lips are also thinner) and on my forehead. I have some facial sagging as well and my eye area is quiet bad and I know I will probably need surgery if I want to correct the protruding bags I have. I also have hyperpigmentation, sun spots that no longer fade away in the winter on my forehead and cheeks, I feel it makes my face look dirty. My skin also often looks sallow or even greyish and the texture has changed to so my pores are larger. I am also dealing with increase facial redness, thread veins and small red bumps or spots which I suspect could be rosacea as it seems worse after I've had alcohol.

I always wear full make up and so the past I was able to use a high coverage foundation to hide any skin issues but now I find that higher coverage foundations just settles into my wrinkles, lines, pores and looks awful.

One of friends who is 2 years older than me is still very fresh faced at 47 but she has never drank alcohol, or done any sun bathing and been a skincare devotee since her teens so was always diligent about things like cleansing properly and a using high factor spf daily. Her skin without make up (which she rarely wears) is very smooth, plump, even and clear, I can't see any fine lines on her face at all, not even round her eyes or lips.

Her skincare is pretty basic but she's been doing it since her teens and so its been all about prevention and I think not sunbathing, drinking or hanging out in pubs and clubs with all the second hand smoke is probably the main reason her skin still looks so great. However its too late for me to prevent all the damage I have to my face so I want to know how can I get skin more like her now? How do I undo all the damage?

I'm still dating and feel confident enough with my face on but once the make up comes off I feel really bad about myself. I do have some money to spend on this but no idea where to start with it all. Should I see a private cosmetic dermatologist? Should I go for a consolation at one of these skin clinics? I just don't know!

@CarefullNow Skin & me started me off low dose which gradually increased month by month. Not had any issues just improvements with this. Hoping to see more as time goes on. Also have niacinamide & azelaic acid in which the latter has helped with redness loads!

@LuubyLuu thats so interesting to hear, glad it’s working for you. Are you finding HRT is helping with perimenopause symptoms?

OP if you have some money to throw at the situation and want proper results, I would visit a dermatologist, or at least a well recommended laser and skin clinic.
You can do tretinoin and vitamin c etc. at home but the results will take a while. In the meantime you could get a series of skin peels or in office treatments like fraxel or ipl to give you a boost. They won't fix the sagging, but can give your skin a glow and reduce the amount of wrinkles/sun spots etc, and give your skin a collagen boost.

Just make sure it’s hydrolysed.

A big tub of it will do – I would forget the little capsules, they’re needlessly expensive and the dosage is unlikely to make a difference.

I am also dealing with increase facial redness, thread veins and small red bumps or spots which I suspect could be rosacea as it seems worse after I've had alcohol

I don't think this is rosacea - it's much more likely to be the alcohol. Unfortunately!

How much water do you drink? And do you have a good diet?

I would start spf 50 everyday and IPL laser to get rid of mild pigmentation and thread veins.
Then I would have a course of skin pen micro needling to get some collagen production going.
After that profilo and filmed beautiful eyes for the eye area to aid hydration.
Finally Botox and perhaps a tiny bit of filler in you lips.
As it's been mentioned before, filler stays for years and can look odd years down the line. Getting it dissolved can dissolve your own collagen. Davina Taylor is currently trying to restore her collagen due to having filler dissolved (see Instagram).
After all of this include tret and azalic acid in your skin care.
Sorry for the spelling mistakes, I'm dyslexic.
You could try an at home LED face mask (current body do a decent one).
Upper and lower eye surgery can make a huge difference with minimal down time and it's under £3k with guaranteed results.
I'm your age if that makes a difference.

I hear you OP. I am 46 but I think my face looks a good 5-10 years older. I liked to party in my youth; binge drank and was a pretty committed smoker for a lot of years. Also was slapdash about SPF and liked getting a tan on my face. I’m paying for it now, but my body is in good nick at least 😂 I don’t have a great deal of fat which I think doesn’t help. My friends with fuller faces look younger.

I have accepted I can’t do much to change the damage, but I do now use tret which has helped even out skin tone overall and got rid of some of the pigmentation. It’s also done wonders for my acne scars. I’m much more fastidious about SPF now too, and use it throughout the year on my face.

I am going to have some Botox next month. Tried it once before but didn’t see much effect- my nurse friend did it and used quite a low amount I think so going to try a little more next time. I feel a bit conflicted about the whole idea of cosmetic treatments, but think I’m going to do it.

I’ve had the worst of both worlds skin-wise: acne kicked in when I was 20 and stayed fairly consistently for the next 20 or so years. It finally buggered off and I had nice skin for about two years before the wrinkles started appearing, exacerbated by a double bereavement, Covid and then perimenopause. I’ve aged about 20 years in the last 10 😂

I really recommend Genius RF micro needling. It's microneedling combined with radio-frequency, done at the dermatologist. I've also had, and recommend, Fraxel laser.
Both helped with unevenness of tone, sun-spots, and the sagging.

https://www.takumifinch.com/en/therapies-japonaises/bienfaits-kobido/#:~:text=Kobido%20is%20a%20precious%20Japanese,dull%2C%20tired%20and%20aged%20faces.

I'm having regular face massages as a lift and it's made a big difference to me skin tone and shape.

It's not expensive but you do need to keep going. It's better than surgery in my opinion because it's so non invasive.

I think it is rosacea and my facialist thinks so also but it does get worse after alcohol which isn't unusual. I don't drink every day or even every week more recently and it still gets bad without drinking. I think it isn't uncommon for women to develop rosacea as they get older and closer to menopause, my mum did for example and she never drank at all.

I do drink water but not enough and my diet is variable, for years I ate low calorie as a priority as opposed to healthily to keep my weight down.

Thank you everyone, so much to think about and look into in all these posts! Interesting to hear about HRT, I am having still regular periods so I don't think I am there yet but I didn't think about it affecting your skin.

Microneedling definitely, you need 6 or so sessions to see a result but then it lasts for a long time, it builds collagen, I bought an electronic microneedling pen and do it myself at home, you need to apply numbing cream first.
A313 cream 3 nights per week, it’s a French retinol that you can buy on amazon.
SPF 30-50

Thanks for the video recommendation @Queenonfleek

I'm thinking of dipping my toe into the led mask water...

@LuubyLuu

useful comment, would you mind letting us know what type of HRT are you on

omg I saw Davinia Taylor on insta with a big dent in her cheek and wondered if she’d had dissolver!!

@CarefullNow yes, she's having treatment to try and repair lost collagen. It's put me off filler!

totally, this is what put me off ever getting it done!

I was considering it a few years back and by chance heard a feature on Woman’s Hour about dissolver. They mentioned a facebook group ‘Botched fillers and hyaluronidase damage support’, which I joined for further info. Some of the stories and experiences on there are horrific. And poor Davinia!

My HRT is just the usual progesterone tablets & transdermal oestrogen. I took HRT to deal with with number of perimenopause issues (and has largely been successful).

It's interesting and logical that the decreased oestrogen which for me meant aching joints, brain fog, migraines etc also looked like an acceleration in skin ageing.

But I went on HRT very very early, had been on it for years and the wrinkles just turned up one day in my early 40s 🤷

Same 🙂

I would try picosure laser for the hyperpigmentation.

Agree with the recommendation for Skin+Me - much better value than going to see a dermatologist face to face. Get into a good skin routine ie a retinoid at night, vitamin C in the morning, spf every day. Then maybe investigate some of the in salon treatments mentioned on the thread.

Btw people fear retinoids unnecessarily - a bit of irritation/dryness while you get used to it is entirely normal and doesn’t mean you are damaging your skin. This is the kind of thing a ££££ dermatologist would guide you through but you don’t need one. There are tips online for how to minimise irritation - you could start with a gentler type of retinoid eg retinol (French pharmacy brands are great for this). Make sure you use an spf everyday and you’ll be grand.

Good luck!

Btw the skincare routine needs to be built up slowly ie don’t try and introduce retinol and vitamin C at the same time - one active at a time till you get used to it - a slowly slowly approach over time is best. I can now practically slap tretinoin on as if it were a mild moisturiser but I built up to it very gradually

Disagree about the retinoids – for most people a bit of irritation is the worst they’ll experience, however there are a whole range of side effects, and some people have worse outcomes than others.

I used a retinol that left me with lasting skin issues. I’d previously used prescription tret with no problems. I made sure to use SPF 50 every day, including indoors. I was left with extreme photosensitivity that lasted years, and damage to my skin that was sadly a one way street. Lots of people also experience volume loss (there have been no studies on this so there is no research evidence on this). Not everyone will experience side effects, but lots of people do.

@CarefullNow Sorry to hear that happened, maybe it is always best to be guided by a derm then. Strange that a retinol did that when tretinoin didn’t.