10 Things I’ve Learnt About Skin Care For Mature Skin in My 40s
Amanda Ramsay is an award-winning professional makeup artist who specialises in makeup content and education for mature skin. Known as your over 40s makeup expert, Amanda has worked with thousands of Aussie women, including celebrities and personalities like Julia Gillard, Sophie Monk, Delta Goodrem, Collette Dinnigan, Jackie O, Miranda Kerr and Mia Freedman.
Oh boy oh boy, there are many things I’ve learnt about skin care in my 40s.
But first, let’s acknowledge what a minefield it can be.
How overwhelming all these skin care for mature skin lotions, potions, treatments, tweakments, tools and associated paraphernalia can be, right?
Sheesh.
Simply walking through the beauty department can make a girl break out in a dizzy sweat, and swiftly walk right on out again (towards the nearest joint selling a stiff drink or the closest lounge for a lie down!).
To save you all the drinking and laying down, I’ve put together a list of the top 10 things I’ve learnt about skin care in my 40s.
Some are practical tips to alleviate the confusion around skin care for mature skin.
Others, I hope, will point you in the right direction if you’re feeling a certain way about mature skin and ageing, or a little lost in the skincare woods.
1. Hydration Is Key.
For optimal skin health and function, hydration is key.
Your skin functions more optimally when hydrated.
And here's a fact: Often fine lines are more pronounced because your skin is dehydrated.
As oestrogen levels drop with age, hydration becomes even more key to skin health.
Seek products that are hydrating – cleanser, toners, moisturiser, serums, face oils, beauty teas, wellness supplements – hydration is key.
Beauty editor Joanna takes us through the (many) benefits of hyaluronic acid in this YouTube video...
2. Acceptance and Celebration.
Take a long look at yourself in the mirror. Like, really look at yourself. She’s beautiful.
It’s time to love where you are at, love the age you are, love what you see in the mirror, love how damn amazing you are.
Love yourself sick.
Beauty is in your imperfections. It’s these quirks, crinkles, wrinkles, scars and marks that make us all uniquely beautiful.
For far too long, we’ve been fed this bullsh*t that youth is the only definition of beauty.
That ageing is something we should be “anti”, yet we all age from the moment we are born.
The ridiculousness of “anti-ageing” needs to stop with you.
Celebrate ageing. Embrace the privilege it is to age.
It’s OK to want to look and feel the best at every age. But please, for the love of life itself, let go of the pursuit of perfection.
Beauty is so much more than youth. It’s a vibe, an energy, a love of self.
For more tips on over 40s makeup tips to shine and love yourself sick, watch this YouTube video below.
3. Wear Sunscreen Every Single Day.
Yes, it’s about as sexy as bed socks, but sunscreen your number one skincare must-have.
Put it this way, if you’re spending a tonne of cash on skincare products but you aren’t applying a broad-spectrum high factor sunscreen every darn day, you might as well be blowing your hard-earned cash into the wind.
All that money you’ve invested in skin care? It's wasted without sunscreen.
The sun undoes all that hard work your skin care is doing… and don’t be using vitamin D deficiency as your excuse.
And I’m talking from experience here!
If you’re diagnosed with a vitamin D deficiency as you enter peri menopause and menopause, work with your healthcare professional on the best ways to up that vitamin D, without getting “your face in it!”
It’s not too late. Jump on it now.
My top sunscreen suggestions?
- Bougie = Anything from Ultra Violette, but for me, it’s gotta be Ultra Violette Queen Screen SPF50+ 50ml Luminising SKINSCREEN
Apply and reapply your sunscreen as directed, always read the label, you know the drill.
Oh, and sunscreen isn't the only form of sun protection, either. Wearing protective clothing, a hat and sunnies, and seeking shade is important too.
Yet to find your perfect sunscreen? Watch the YouTube video below to find out our top 10 best selling SPF products.
4. Have A Skincare Routine After 40.
Simply having a routine – a little morning and evening skincare ritual – is the road to healthy skin.
It does not need to be complicated nor financially crippling.
The best mature skin skincare routine is the one that you do.
Start simple. Do what will work for you. Just make sure you’ve got one.
You only get one skin, it’s yours for life, it’s the largest organ of your body, so it needs a little TLC.
P.S. When we talk 40-year-old skin care routines and a skincare routine for women over 40, we are talking face to boobs.
Yes, don’t forget your much-neglected neck, chest, décolletage (and hands!).
Remind yourself that your skincare routine goes from forehead to bust. Significant signs of premature ageing appear on your décolletage.
5. Be Realistic About What Skin Care Can (& Can’t) Do.
Throughout the ageing process, we humans lose bone, particularly in our skull.
Your bone structure is changing. No cream in the universe can change that.
Acceptance of what is achievable with even the best mature skin care products is an important learning.
Get real about what your skin care can in fact help you to achieve.
Focus on skin health and worry less about total transformation.
6. Seek Professional Help.
Please seek the help and guidance of a professional if you don’t know where to start, or have a specific skin condition you want to manage.
Take me: A fair-skinned chick who grew up in Queensland with significant sun damage.
To significantly treat the appearance of my hyperpigmentation and vascular redness, I try skin treatments like IPL (intense pulsed light, for treating pigmentation) and Fraxel laser for collagen support, strengthening and induction.
When it comes to skin care for mature skin, there is often a temptation to “throw everything at it” in the pursuit of “fixing” your skin.
You wind up trying every peer-reviewed option and 'cream for mature skin' and 'the best facial oils for mature skin', wasting a pile of cash in the process.
Especially if you have a skin condition or concern like dermatitis, rosacea, acne, melasma, hyperpigmentation, psoriasis (you get the jist), seek the guidance of a professional before embarking on a complex mature skin skincare routine.
Often, pulling back and simplifying what we are using is the secret to success.
Learn more about professional skin treatments in this episode of our Dermal Diaries podcast series below.
7. Best Skincare Ingredients For Over 40.
What are the best skin care products for 40-year-olds (in Australia) and over?
The best skincare products for over 40s are anything with the ABCs (and E, and HA).
These are your basics, your ABC key ingredients for healthy mature skin:
- Vitamin A - Focuses on skin cell turnover, stimulates collagen production, anti-inflammatory, reducing the look of acne and hyperpigmentation.
- Niacinamide or vitamin B3 - The ultimate all-rounder that builds collagen, balances oil, minimises the look of pore size, rebuilds healthy cells, addresses pigmentation, reduces inflammation.. it kind of does it all!
- Vitamin C - A powerful antioxidant for brightening, radiance, promote collagen production.
- Vitamin E - Another powerful antioxidant that addresses sun damage, inflammation and moisture (not for our oily skin-havers).
- Hyaluronic Acid - A humectant that attracts water, locking hydration into the upper layers of the skin, plumping and hydrating.
As for products, choose ingredients and products that best match your skin type and skin concerns.
Not what your bestie is using! Not what a stranger on the internet is using.
Skin care for a 60-year-old, 30s skin care, the best skin care for 50-year-olds, skin care for mature skin, oily skin products and dry skin care - it's all going to be different and unique!
For example, if your main concern is hyperpigmentation, include a potent vitamin C serum into your routine.
If enlarged pores are your thing, try a product with salicylic acid.
Here are some of my favourite active skincare products:
8. Lip Care For Mature Skin.
If I had a dollar for every time I was asked about how to stop lipstick from bleeding or lip tips for mature skin, I'd have... about $200 bucks.
You can watch my YouTube video on lipstick hacks for mature skin above, but know loss of volume and loss of hydration are natural parts of this ageing process.
Many of your oestrogen receptors are located in your mouth zone.
With the significant drop in oestrogen through peri menopause and menopause, expect this zone to start to show signs of ageing.
You can help alleviate this by keeping lips nourished and hydrated.
A kick-ass lip balm that lives next to your bed, in your handbag, on your desk will keep lips looking plumper and healthier.
Here are some lip balms I love:
9. Best Collagen Supplements.
Collagen is the essential protein you need for healthy skin, nails, hair, bones, ligaments.
Heaven knows we over 40s are well aware that this baby is fast disappearing!
Unless you’re smashing a load of bone broth, you’re probably not actually getting much collagen in your diet.
And you can’t apply collagen topically – the molecule is just too darn big to penetrate into your skin (which is a total bummer!) - so you’ve got to drink it!
Vida Glow Natural Marine Collagen - Original is a popular option, plus the packaging is easy to use and very cute.
The Beauty Chef COLLAGEN Inner Beauty Boost 500ml is a 100 per cent plant-based option if that’s your thing!
Repeat after me: Beauty from the inside out with a focus on skin health. Got it?
10. Slow Down and Rebuild.
Finally, if you want to effect real change in the health of your skin, slow down.
If you’re always in a hurry for “results”, you are more likely to do damage.
Many women 40+ I work with have a compromised lipid barrier from questionable products we used in our youth.
Shift your focus from “quick results” to healthy skin.
Once you flip that thinking and put the health of your skin first (rebuild the delicate mantle of your skin), the results will come.
If you’re impatient and you want it all now now now, that’s when you get your butt into a qualified professional like a dermal therapist.
They’ve got the big guns, the equipment, technology and expertise that can escalate change.
Don’t try to DIY speedy changes.
Final Thoughts on Skin Care For Mature Skin.
- Happy healthy radiant skin is a magnificent accessory.
- Skin care for mature skin does not need to be complicated.
- Switch the focus to healthy skin.
- Be realistic about what’s in fact achievable from skincare alone.
- Nurture and love the skin you’re in.
Need a bit of extra help? Know I’m here to help you every step of the way to skincare and makeup confidence.
For all the “how to’s” for mature skin, check out my online makeup masterclass series The Shine Sessions.
Want more mature skin tips? Read these Beauty IQ articles below:
