Six Beauty Tweaks To Make In Your 40s

Six Beauty Tweaks To Make In Your 40s
Now no one is saying that in a sort of weird retelling of Cinderella that come midnight on the last day of being 39 you suddenly need to chuck out your whole skincare and makeup stash, start ‘having your colours done’ and taping up your cheeks behind your ears. But about a year into 40, I realised the mainstays of my beauty arsenal that had served me faithfully for the past two decades needed a bit of a shake-up. Here’s what I found worked for me.

Bright & Breezy Mornings

I adore sleep. Nine hours a night is my beauty secret. With super reactive skin and rosacea (more of that later) I can’t go in too hard on anti-ageing treatments and active ingredients, so the Zzz’s have to make up for what science can’t give me. However somewhere around 41 and ¾, I started to notice that bright-eyed and bushy tailed was being replaced by puff and squish with deep pillow wrinkles that took until lunchtime to disappear. Enter silk everything: Slip Silk Pillowcase, hair wrap, and eye mask have become highly effective preventative measures alongside Herbivore Rose Quartz Facial Roller, fresh from the fridge, along the jawline first thing. The way I roll (pun intended) on particularly puffy mornings is to pop on a sheet mask first as it offers my sensitive skin a little bit of protection and means I can apply more pressure without causing a rosacea flare-up.

Hair Apparent

Lockdown forced a big hair change on me; pre-pandemic I was a bleach blonde addict, visiting the salon every six weeks to cover my grey roots. Eighteen months later and I’ve made the transition to almost fully white. Some of the changes I’ve needed to make like adding in purple toning products to balance out the brass were totally expected but other less so. I’ve majorly missed the ‘roughened up’ texture bleach gave me and have been horrified that I now have to wash my hair more than twice a week if I don’t want roots flatter than Emily Ratajkowski’s stomach. A decent dry shampoo deals with these issues. I blast it from mid-lengths to ends for that Debbie Harry ‘ruined’ feel and blow dry into roots for lift. To combat any potential ageing effects of grey, I also maximise shine - grey naturally reflects way less - with what I see as a topcoat for hair.

Lip Synch

A matte bright lip, perfectly lined was my favourite beauty look of my 30s - from chalky finished shocking pinks to suede-esque textured scarlet, it was my ultimate five-minute face. Fast forward to knocking on the door of 42 and it wasn’t quite working. As I noticed a subtle dip in volume and definition in my lips, a too-perfect-pencilled-on-mouth was suddenly rather more ‘queen-that-goes-on-week-one of Ru Paul’s Drag Race’. The solution was to soften my application and textures, opting for more of a ‘kissed off’ stain effect with tints and even revisiting lip gloss. I’m pleased to report the PVA texture of the mid 90’s has largely disappeared, and you can now wear it without a light breeze causing an inadvertent handlebar moustache as half your hair sticks to your mouth.

Body Works

I am a lifelong body moisturiser avoidant. No matter how luxe, unctuous, or deliciously scented the creams and lotions are, they just feel cold and slimy to me. Plus, I never have enough time to let it sink in, so I can add clammy to my list of reasons why not. Then along came 40 to laugh at me and my lack of suppleness, the alligator legs and those ‘retired to Benidorm’ cleavage wrinkles that install themselves on anyone further down the bra alphabet than a C cup who dares sleep on their side. I had to at least try to change my ways. If you too are a cream-phobe, then do as I did and reach for an oil. A spray format, like Ouai Rose Hair & Body Oil, is the easiest and quickest thing in the world and has none of the chill/sticky/hanging around naked for ages factor.

Your legs may need something a little heavier duty that also gives a sheen, I love This Works Skin Deep Dry Leg Oil (perfect if you don’t want to tan but want to improve the tone). And, if you need even more incentive to apply, choose an oil with a deliciously holiday-esque scent, such as Tom Ford Soleil Neige Shimmering Body Oil and you can fake a vacation at the same time.

Skin Up

Much like the fabled ass vs face debate that supposedly goes on in our 40s, I fight my own mid-life aesthetic battle of anti-age vs rosacea. In the (literal) red corner, we have skin that freaks out if I deviate from a very simple routine, but across in the blue there’s impending wrinkles, loss of firmness and texture changes that are crying out for some serious actives. I chose a draw and meet my opponents in the middle with daily SPF 50 to keep them both happy, along with a low level retinol, such as Medik8 Crystal Retinal 1 Stable Retinal Night Serum.

For the more serious wrinkles it’s straight to the needle for me. I’ve had Botox injections in my forehead for around 10 years on and off now and my favourite practitioner is Dr. Jane Leonard. She’s no-nonsense and realistic so I’ve never once had that cement brow feel, which other more well-known experts have left me with.

Posted: Monday, 28 June 2021

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