Aisling on beauty: Up your cleansing game to repair fortysomething skin

I thought I had covered all the bases in skincare until a recent shower of emails reminded me I hadn’t. “When are you doing a skincare routine for fortysomethings?” I was asked. “You have covered every other age group except ours and we would like a routine to follow.”

It is true that fortysomething skin does need special attention. Around this time skin can go bonkers due to hormonal changes. Collagen production is so lazy that if it were a person it would have been fired by now. Some people will find themselves in the deeply upsetting position of coping with acne for the first time in their lives. Other will find they want to throw everything claiming to reduce “fine lines” out the nearest window with rage, as lines are no longer “fine”.

Up your cleansing game.Use a rich oil cleanser or balm as a first cleanse; I like Emma Hardie Moringa Cleansing Balm or Super Facialist Vitamin C Skin Renew Cleansing Oil. Then use a glycolic cleanser or toner to exfoliate without scrubbing, as your skin is more fragile. Clarins Gentle Exfoliating Brightening Toner and Pixi Glow will give that lazy collagen and elastin a good kick-start.

Get ready to meet a retinol product. This is the only ingredient proven to repair skin. Labs Retinol Skin Resurfacer and This Works No Wrinkles Night Repair are both good. If you really want to give it some welly, SkinCeuticals Retinol 1.0 Maximum Strength Refining Night Cream, which is 1 per cent pure retinol, is the strongest preparation you will find without a prescription.

Finally, take your foundation coverage down a level and choose a moisture-rich product. If foundation is too thick it will settle into lines. Mac Face and Body is a good option, as is Chantecaille Future Skin.

• amcdermott@irishtimes.com
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