| The iVillage anti-ageing guide
Feeling like it’s time to correct years of sun damage, or do you just want to prevent wrinkles before they start? No matter what your goal is, here’s how to make your skin look fabulous With all the recent advancements in skin creams, lately it seems as if the skincare industry has gone the way of rocket science (in fact, one creator of the pricey ‘cult’ cream Crème de la Mer used to work for NASA). Where once women made do with a dab of Pond’s Cold Cream, they now want anti-ageing products and lifestyle advice to help defy lines and wrinkles from a very young age. According to Nuala Briggs, skincare expert and founder of Harley Street’s Skin Therapy Clinic in London this is the right course of action – ‘you’re never too young to start taking care of your skin and protecting against sun damage with SPF creams’, she says. How, we wish we had listened to our mums and worn sunblock during all those summers as a kid. What can you can do to minimise wrinkles? Pure and simple: stay out of the sun. ‘Ninety per cent of problems associated with ageing are the result of too much sun exposure,’ says skin expert Dr. Peter Pugliese. When sunlight hits the skin, its rays trigger the production of ‘free radicals’ (molecules which break down the collagen and elastin) that give skin its firmness and tone. It also turbo-charges the production of skin pigment, known as melanin, which results in the appearance of ‘sun spots’ or ‘age spots’. Taking preventive steps against the harmful effects of the sun is, in the long run, better than trying to cure damaged skin. Shielding skin from burning rays UVB (remember ‘B’ for burning) and damaging UVA rays (remember ‘A’ for ageing) is crucial in the months between April and October. Skin creams delivering this optimum protection are easy to find, and good choices include: Clarins Hydra-Balance Lotion SPF15 (£26), Olay Total Effects Time Resist Moisturiser SPF15 (£18.50), Body Shop Vitamin C SPF15 Daily Moisturiser (£8), Origins Have A Nice Day Super-Charged Moisture Cream SPF15, £22.50 (call 0800 731 4039 for mail order), and L’oréal Plénitude Age Perfect (£9.49). In winter, though, and certainly if you live in Northern Europe, you’ll need to rethink your sunscreen strategy and adapt your skincare routine. If you spend more of your time indoors, or it’s raining or cloudy and you barely see the light of day, there’s no need to overload skin with chemical sunscreens. An antioxidant moisturiser featuring a generous dose of vitamins like A, C, E (and other plant elements such as pycnogenol, an antioxidant from pine bark, or polyphenols, which comes from grapes and help ‘mop up’ the damage caused by exposure to sun and pollution) will offer adequate protection. However, ‘if you’re going skiing or spending a lot of time outdoors, playing golf, or walking on a bright winter’s day when there’s frost on the ground, an SPF15 is a good idea,’ says Professor Nicholas Lowe, a Consultant Dermatologist who has clinics in London and Santa Monica, California, and is a Clinical Professor at University of California in Los Angeles. Excellent choices for protection in winter weather are Elemis Skin Multi-Vitamin Serum, £26.50 (call 020 8954 8033 for mail order), Avon Anew Multi-Boost Daily Vitamin Moisturiser, £10 (call 0845 601 4040 to order direct, or visit www.avon.com), Clarins Energising Morning Cream (£29.50), E’SPA Concept Regenerating Moisture Complex (£40), and Intensive Bio Complex, £35 (call 01252 741600). According to Dr Daniel Maes, Estée Lauder’s star skin researcher, ‘if women are only going to do one thing for their skin, I would say use a moisturiser with an antioxidant.’ Dr Maes is such a proponent of antioxidants that he believes, ‘it ought to be the duty of the cosmetics industry to provide this protection in every new product.’ He explains that antioxidants protect skin and actually enable it to repair itself to a small extent. Can we really ‘undo’ ageing? Today, skin repair is possible with a wide range of products, and again, vitamins are increasingly playing a role. Vitamin A can help diminish wrinkle depth, as its light inflammatory action ‘puffs up’ the skin so wrinkles look less deep and vitamin C has a brightening effect as it helps to boost circulation and collagen production. Alpha Hydroxy Acids (AHAs), or ‘fruit acids’, can reduce the visible signs of ageing, but women with sensitive skin may find they cause redness and mild stinging. When Sarah Stacey and I wrote our anti-ageing bible, Feel Fabulous Forever (£16.99; Kyle Cathie publishers), we tested hundreds of miracle creams on 1,060 women (with 10 women per panel). The winning creams among those surveyed included Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair (£29), Nina Ricci Time Defense Extract (£35), Neal’s Yard Remedies Frankincense Cream, £9.50 (mail order 0161-831 7875) and Clarins Extra-Firming Night Cream (£38.50). Always remember to try skincare products before you buy. And if you have a skincare consultant at a beauty counter in a department store, fully explain your concerns. You’ll often be given samples, which should be sufficient in helping you to tell whether or not you’ll like the product. Is there anything that can be done about age spots? Skin protection in the form of an SPF moisturiser will stop these skin discolorations from getting worse, and certainly it’s never too late to start using them. Vitamin A skincare products can help fade these spots, as can mulberry extract and kojic acid which is derived from mushrooms. Hydroquinone is another common ingredient in skin-bleaching creams, but some experts advise caution when using it. According to Dr Maes, ‘…this ingredient basically kills the skin cells.’ Other anti-ageing lifestyle advice
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