It eventually starts to happen, gravity and time send you a bill in the form of aging skin. Depending on your genetic makeup, diet, exercise level and beauty regimen among other factors it may happen earlier or later but at some point you will start to notice you aren’t looking like a spring chicken anymore…What can you do?
I you allow me to be brutally honest, here it goes in a nutshell: you will age and you will start seeing some dreaded wrinkles and fine lines –if you haven’t already- which is something that unfortunately you cannot stop. What you can do, is age gracefully, ideally without invasive treatments that ultimately make you look like a different person. You love yourself, people around you love you, you have a beautiful face, great eyes, a nice smile….you do want to keep that, the goal is to just take care of your skin so you look your age (or a bit younger even!) and not years older. You can make the time after those “35” to be the best, most confident, better looking years of our life. But how?
After turning 35 myself and a tough period in life (which I consider to be the factor that most contributed to any aging I currently have) I started going crazy, looking for any product high and low that could restore my skin a little bit. I visited many many dermatologist and even went to two cosmetic dermatologists that scared –excuse my French- the $%*! out of me. One dermatologist, older doctor, very nice man with weird (but tight) skin, who was all about selling his product at Nordstrom. Fancy office in Rodeo Dr where I spent more than I care to admit on the product and found them to be just alright, my skin didn’t glow, there was no amazing transformation happening. He did say I had good genetic makeup (the more mixed, the better I guess) and that I was dehydrated from pregnancies and nursing and he did not once mention any injections or anything, I did appreciate that. But this was not what I was looking for.
The problem is that I felt super young inside, young and silly (and sometimes very immature if I must add) yet my skin didn’t say that. Sometimes I would catch myself looking in the mirror in the morning, saying a disappointed “what the hell?” as I started seeing expression lines and spots. So I continued my search….I fell for the famous sisterhood frenzy (the ones with the big butts) and started following their doctor on Instagram which supposedly delivered amazing results. I picked up the phone one day and made an appointment, a 6 week wait for an appointment and upfront payment probably meant there was something amazing in there. I waited anxiously for my appointment. Never will I forget what I saw when I walked in….the waiting room was full of women and a few men, most of them looking pretty similar: puffy, stretched out, humongous lips, difficult smiles….what in the world was I doing here? The appointment was short and it basically showed me what I shouldn’t be doing. Not now, and hopefully not ever.
The third one I visited was a mother of 3, super cool young mom (young as in about my age, that’s young to my standards these days) but all about injecting injecting injecting… Should I? should I not? I couldn’t help but stare at her face while she kindly explained to me all the procedures. As she smiled, her eyes made this weird movement as if she was really laughing out loud, yet her face wasn’t laughing with her. That marked the moment to me. I can’t do this. I left the office with a list of about 10 procedures that were recommended. As much as I would love to be young, I much rather be me. I did get a couple of creams that she recommended to complement my current night and morning routines. Which seem to be good, I am happy to report.
So after searching for the fountain of youth this past 4 years, these are the only things that I found to actually help my skin:
1. Morning: Cleanse- toner-Vitamin C –Day cream + Drops of Argan- SPF
2. Night: Cleanse- exfoliate-toner- Retinol cream- Night cream + Drops of Argan
3. Applying one layer of Aynara pure argan oil before my makeup as a primer, has completely changed my game.
4. Drink plenty of water, don’t wait to be thirsty
5. SPF, SPF, SPF….and add more if you live in a sunny area
6. Invest in a nice hat that you can wear to different occasions (I love this onefrom Rag and Bone). It easier to protect than fight the effects of UV on your skin.
7. Take daily Fish oil, Biotin and if you can, get collagen powder. (a quick Amazon search will give you a ton of choices).
8. A wonderful, natural, paraben free and organic skincare line that deeply moisturizes your skin (I love Ormana, which has an amazing argan oil based day cream)
9. A Clarisonic may be a girls best friend, it really cleanses your skin.
10. An excellent exfoliation cream to take away impurities and prepare the skin to absorb the nutrients on your cream, you can either buy something like this one from Lancer which works great, or make your own by simply mixing a few drops of argan oil with brown sugar and rubbing it o your face with circular movements, it feels amazing and it has zero chemicals, win-win.
11. Stress less and workout often, yeah, easy to say but it makes such a difference!
12. If you wear makeup, invest in good quality, fit-for-your-skin, as pure as possible make-up. Bad quality make-up can dry your skin and make more damage instead of helping you. You know what works amazing? argan oil drops in your sponge to set your concealer and foundation for an added boost of greatness.
Above is the take-away from trying to repair the damage to my skin. I am learning as I go that I have to embrace what’s coming my way and help my skin look the best it can, starting from within and helping it from the outside. I have seen results by implementing what I am recommending, my skin truly feels better than ever, so I hope this helps you a little bit.
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