Why don't women have amazing skin compared to men?

[ilovemincepies24]

Like many women I buy various skincare products. Cleansers, serums, retinol, eye creams, moisturisers etc. I buy more now I'm in my 30s and starting to see the first signs of ageing.

But most men I know never moisturise and use the same shower gel to wash their body, face and hair. They would think eye cream is something you use when you have an eye infection.

As women tend to use all these beauty products, surely they should look better and years younger than men the same age? But usually, they don't. They look the same age, despite most men using next to nothing in the way of skincare.

I know spf is essential from a sun safety POV and my skin does feel dry if I don't use a moisturiser. And of course, skin should be cleansed to remove make up etc.

Are we being conned - Does skincare actually do anything?

I only use Tretinoin and nothing else, except sunscreen and Olay. My skin is better than DHs. I don't personally need anything else. I am nearly 53.

Wouldn’t know where to start , same shower gel for the lot , happy in my own skin though

I don't use anything and my skin is fine. I suspect that for a lot of people, all these products are half the problem.

My skin is far smoother, softer and nicer than my husbands. Most of the women I know have lovely skin, the men much less so.

Men's skin is, on average, thicker and oilier that women's skin, and also has a higher collagen content than women's skin, so shows age less.

Also, men don't generally wear makeup, so their skin is allowed to breath. I've seen some older women beautiful skin, but they tend to be in religious groups that forbid the use of make-up.

Agree. I've come to the conclusion that most of the premium on skincare, shampoo and so on is for things that don't make a difference to your looks - e.g. how a cream smells, how shampoo lathers, or packaging. For me at least, a few very basic cheap products leave me looking at least as good as the next woman, and no worse than when I was buying more expensive products and using more products.

I don't think that men have better skin than women. Everyone is different. I use very little product or makeup. I presume if you use lots it blocks your pores or something?

It's not that they have better skin, it's that their skin is no worse. (I read it the other way first too!)

Of course women are being conned! There is no point in using anything that isn't tret or sunscreen. Oh, and bimatroprost. Or Botox and fillers if you are that way inclined.

I don't use a lot of products or wear much make up. But I need something under my eyes, otherwise I look like death warmed up with big dark circles.

But I get more sleep than DH and he always looks so bloody fresh faced and awake. Annoying.

I think you've answered your own question OP

we are being conned

or as Caitlin Moran put it, 'are the men bothering about this'- answer, no they are not = patriarchy at play on this matter

I suspect it's all those creams etc. I rarely used to do anything to my skin and as long as I washed the dirt off it was fine. Then my skin started getting dry so I added a moisturiser .I think I still have a fairy minimal routine.

Morning
Wash with water
Serum, hyaluronic acid and aloe vera
Acid toner
Either Cien ageing moisturiser or
E45 facial sunscreen.

Evening
Wash with water
Serum as day
Tret + whatever else dermatica put with it (about 5 times a night.
Nivea night

Most of these are to counteract my dryness. The acid toner is from a beauty box and I won't replace it.

My skin is the same as DH's mostly. In the lead up to my period it's worse. Men don't have shifting hormones. At other times it's the same, but I don't use any products.
The more moisturiser you use, the less your skin self-moisturises. Unless you have an actual skin condition, moisturiser is rather pointless, but lots of women start using it in their teens and then their skin relies on it. Fake moisturiser is probably not as good as your skin's own!

It's using all the products, especially make ups, that causes women's skin problems.

Men don't have better skin, they have different skin. It's thicker so tends to age to craggy leather (or pale and puffy for indoor men) rather than the thinner crinkling of women's skin. The sagging and jowelling tends to be more pronounced for men, which skincare doesnt address anyway. Neither looks better or younger than the other its just we're constantly told (by men) that their aging is more attractive than ours.

Have seen numerous things where dermatologists say that vaseline does what fancier creams do.

Isn’t some of the joy of the high end products how lovely they make your hair or skin smell?

I definitely buy shampoo partly (mostly?) for the scent, because they all do the same job.

Well yeah, skincare was invented to sell products to women not to improve skin.

Think about it, why would the skin on our faces be so disgusting and weak that it requires lots of special washing and endless products to be healthy when the skin on our forearms or anywhere else for example doesn't? Why would we have evolved this way?

I suspect in many cases "skincare" actually creates a lot of skin problems through over washing and irritation and then handily sells more products to "solve" them.

My skin is so much better since I stopped cleansing or scrubbing it with anything other than water or maybe a little bit of soap/shower gel in the shower if it's actually dirty that I don't feel the need to wear foundation or concealer any more which is much more comfortable. I still wear other, fun makeup like mascara and blush, lip products but no skin makeup now if you see what I mean.

Skin, including face skin is a functioning organ that in many cases is better left alone to do it's own thing.

Agree. If you look at women's skincare ads, they are all about making women feel like our skin is not good enough. Too spotty / oily / dry / wrinkly / saggy / flaky / red... I could go on. Generating or playing on our insecurities to get us all to drop money.on the latest snake oil... At a pink premium.

In what world do women not look better than men? Men do not age well, on the whole, although we are conditioned to believe they do. But women generally have better skin and fewer wrinkles.

@GettingStuffed I'm not quite sure that counts as minimal.

Out of interest if dryness is your issue how is your general water intake during the day?

I chuck Olay Beauty Fluid on my face morning and night and the Blue Nivea body moisturiser on my body 3 times a week. My skin is clear and soft, and I use it more as protection from the weather than anything else.

I look forward to aging and a wrinkly, interesting face, growing old is an honour many don't get so I have no intention of messing with the process but my skin is faring for better than my hair which seems to have another load of silver everytime I look in the mirror.

My mum is religious with her skin care and really looks after herself (very expensive brands) whereas my dad has never put cream on his face in his life and he looks MUCH younger than my mum (even though he's a year older). They are both in their late 60's but people think my dad is my husband and my mum his mum 😱

Also have you seen Hugh Grant lately? He's as wrinkly as a bloodhound ( I love him, btw). But if Nicole Kidman or Jennifer Aniston tried that, they wouldn't get any work.

You can start to see it when men age. Most people have nice skin when young. I don't think many men age very well on the other hand, the lack of moisturiser and spf starts to show.

Honestly?
Thats because those products do fuck all,
Nothing apart letting the skin get used (extremely quickly, doesn’t take me more than a few days) to moisturisers so if you stop using them, your skin feels awful.

Each time, I’m trying some creams, I regret it due to that.
And then it takes a good week to get back to normal.

Its not a man vs woman type of skin @ilovemincepies24