One advantage of age: We’re more comfortable with the skin we’re in.
One disadvantage of age: Our skin is the not the same as when we were younger.
Face it (pun intended)…appearance changes, especially post-50. As the beloved Nora Ephron once said, “I often do what so many women my age do when stuck in front of a mirror: I gently pull the skin of my neck back and stare wistfully at a younger version of myself.”
We can’t turn back the hands of time, but short of following Ephron’s advice, there are things we can do to address the changes that happen to our skin.
Also known as “liver spots” or “sun spots,” these harmless, flat, gray, brown or black spots usually turn up on areas most exposed to the sun: the face, hands, shoulders, and arms.
“When we’re young, our cells turn over every 28 days,” says New York City board-certified dermatologist Deborah Sarnoff, M.D. But just as our memory and walking slow down as we age, so does our skin’s cell turnover. Even if you’ve never been a sun worshipper, extra production of melanin can happen simply from aging or genetics.
Do you smile? Frown? Squint? Chew? In short, do you move your face? Combine a loss of collagen and elasticity as we age (especially pronounced in sun-exposed areas), and you’ve got…fine lines and wrinkles.
The At-Home Fix:
Blame genetics and age for those large pores that can make your skin look older. “During puberty, the skin produces sebum and pores start enlarging and producing a lot of oil,” says Sarnoff. With age, the breakdown of collagen and elastin in the skin causes it to get more lax, and pores appear even more visible. If you’ve had acne in the past, you’re more likely to have enlarged pores as an adult, she says, as they’re usually an indication of increased size of the oil glands and oil production.
If your formerly heart-shaped face now resembles a square, you’re not imagining things. When we’re young, our face is shaped much like an inverted cone, says Sarnoff. But then, things shift. Much like we start to shrink in height, “the bony structure of the face gets smaller,” she says. The underlying facial bones lose volume, contributing to an aged appearance and robbing the face of its former youthful plumpness and definition.
Many times the two go together. With age, tendons and skin around our eyes get looser and the fat bulges forward, Sarnoff says. “Undereye darkness is sometimes like an optical illusion; what you’re really seeing is more muscle, bone, blood vessels and a loss of fat padding.”
The At-Home Fix:
“Always start at the inner corner of your eye and blend the concealer over the dark circle, then down to the bottom of your nose; then make another line to meet the outer corner of your eye, like an upside-down triangle. This creates a light effect under the eye area and gives the illusion of bright healthy skin right at the center of your face, she says. For a makeup tutorial on this special technique, called “the V of Light,” Christen suggests tuning into YouTube to watch a demonstration.
Splurge! The Derm's Fix:
Loose skin around your neck can be an age giveaway. The culprits: Genetics, weight gain, or underlying lax muscles.
The At-Home Fix:
This is a tough one. Rather than trick your own eye, you may have to trick the other person’s. Many cosmeticians say that emphasizing your eye and cheek area can force an onlooker’s glance upwards. So can a new hairstyle. One to try: a cut with face-framing layers to draw the attention away from your aging neck. (Find the best hairstyle for your face, here.)
The Derm's Fix:
There’s no one-size-fits-all fix.
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