Best Skin Care Tips for your 40s, 50s and 60s

Your skin is getting drier and blotchier. Stick with the cleansers you've been using, but add chemical peels regularly and avoid gritty scrubs that can irritate your skin.

"Consider using a vitamin-packed facial serum to brighten and revive your skin," recommends Laura. "After you cleanse, smooth it all over your face. It can help boost collagen levels, firm your skin and give your face a healthy glow." In your 40s and 50s your skin will become dryer and will continue changing its texture - skin will start thinning a bit more. Due to the collagen breaking down you will develop more fine lines. You may also notice that your skin is losing its tightness and you can observe more signs of photo aging like spots, blotches, freckles, and discoloration. Facial tone will appear duller and your pores may become more visible. In your late 40s to early/mid 50s your skin condition will be influenced by pre-menopause and menopause changes in your body. The loss of estrogen and progesterone will worsen the symptoms described above. However, the good news is that there is a lot that can be done about it. Loss of Collagen: To treat the fine lines and the loss of plumpness Dr. Brandt, recommends choosing skin care products with skin plumping peptides. Retinol (Vitamin A) increases cell turnover and smoothes the surface of your skin. Retinol has been shown to have strong effects in reversing both photo damaged and naturally aged skin. However in some people application of Vitamin A containing products can cause skin irritation.

Make sure your skin care products contain antioxidants and don’t forget about the miracles vitamin C can work to fight skin damage and improve collagen synthesis.

Deepening Crow’s Feet and Lines:

Retinoid in your eye cream will help you not only to hydrate skin around your eyes but to battle crow’s feet as well.

To fight deepening lines on your forehead and around the mouth and crow’s feet around your eyes you might consider discussing with your dermatologist more aggressive treatments such as injectable wrinkle relaxers and fillers. Note there are also topical muscle relaxers available. Make sure to consider all the possible side-effects and choose an experienced specialist for this procedure.

Skin Sagging:

The loss of collagen and elastin as well as natural related to aging depletion of skin's fat layer result in sagging of the skin and loss of definition of facial contours. Skin care products with DMAE (Dimethylaminoethanol) produce a firming effect on the skin. DMAE may be the first agent proven in a study to have at least some positive effect on facial sag. It is still not completely clear how exactly DMAE works however it does show noticeable though not dramatic results. Although DMAE cannot fully reverse the existing signs of skin sagging it can reduce further progression, there are reports of cumulative effect with continued regular use.

Dull Skin Color: The answer to this problem is once again in application of topical antioxidants. With age the antioxidants we consume with fruit, vegetables and vitamins have a harder time reaching the skin. Applying them topically can make your skin glow. Another recommendation is regular (1-2 times a week) exfoliation. To achieve best results you can introduce into your daily skin care routine a moisturizer with exfoliating ingredients such as alpha- and beta-Hydroxy Acids, lactic acid, salicylic acid, and urea. Dark Spots: Add products that lighten dark spots to your daily regimen to reduce the appearance of brown spots and make your complexion appear more even. Skin Dryness: Dry skin is the root of many problems, so moisturizing is becoming an even more important part of your 40's skin care regimen.

Hyaluronic Acid helps to keep skin smooth and "plump" through its amazing ability to attract moisture and hold up to 1,000 times its weight in water. This is one reason why I like the Hylunia skin care products.  Hyaluronic Acid aids the formation and maintenance of collagen. Another important moisturizing ingredient is NaPCA - one of the skin’s natural moisturizers. However older skin has twice as less NaPCA than younger skin. NAPCA facilitates the moistening by pulling water into the skin from the air.

Of course as we age, there are medical facial procedures that can be performed to enhance our appearance, including:  the Threadlift which has gained in popularity, Thermage, which uses radio waves to tighten the skin. The Titan, a light-based treatment similar to photo rejuvenation and Accent which uses the same basic radio waves technology as Thermage, but tweaking of this technology also allows this device to melt fat.