Midlife Maintenance

Soap and water, lotion (Aveno is what's on my shelf right now).

From what I understand, a skin perkiness is mostly genetic and environmental. Yes, sun, wind, salt, diet - these things will take a toll. But then, some people just luck out in the gene department.

My dad, for example, drinks like a fish, is in his seventies, and smoked three packs a day for decades. He worked construction from twenty and is still in the sun daily (he lives near the equator). Yah, he has a few wrinkles, but for his skin is beautiful. Dark, soft, clear.

My mum grew up in the southern hemisphere and she's got fair skin. This being in the day where people dowsed themselves in baby oil and sat out to brown. She has the cleanest lifestyle and her skin glows - and also she's got sun spots and complains of wrinkles (my mom is seriously silly about her looks though - she'll be sixty soon and she is an absolute fox, wrinkles or no).

We'll see how my skin ages. I've put my body through some hell and I don't wear sun screen. I can see some age in my face but I like it. I have smile crinkles around my eyes and worry lines in my forehead. Shows my heart better, having these marks of life.

Mary Kay is what I use. Gentle cleansing and the mask. I'm 48 and I look younger, at least 47! =)

I used all new flavors of moiturizers and looked good until MENOPAUSE. Now nothing makes me look good, omg, it's a nightmare.

Your post could not have come at a BETTER time. As I sit here letting my zit medication dry on my face, I can totally relate to using all of the wonderful products to address all of our lovely issues =)

I've recently decided that it's important for me to address my congested skin, so I'm using retin-a, clindamycin gel, a moisturizer, and a few other products. I notice that I am taking WAY better care of myself in my late 30s than I ever did before. It feels like a lot of "work" but I like that I am taking care of me. It's part of our self-maintenance and self-care.

Thanks again for posting this. It gave me a smile.

Arbonne eye cream (about $50 per bottle) each night and am before makeup
Burts Bees Day Cream (about $30 per jar) before makeup
Vivite Night Cream (about $50 per jar) before bed each night
Salycilic Spot treatment (about $10 per tube) in the event I have a blemish forming
Retinol A (about $60 per tube, Tretinoin I believe is the name )about 2-3 times a week - EXTREMELY helpful for wrinkles and imperfections!
I am 33 and LOVE my skin!

ETA - Hey Riley J....if you had to pick just one or two of the intraceuticals products, which would you pick? The eye cream and daily serum?

Lots! Currently use Retin A, Vit C+E Serum, nightime moisturizer with nianicimide and peptides, daytime moisturizer with with sunscreen, eye cream, hydroquinine, daily glycolic peel, weekly masques, body cream, hand cream, cleanser, eyemakeup remover, makeup remover.

Oh my, I use one moisturizer. No meds or anything fancy, but a $10 moisturizer. I am now 30, and I often wonder if I should do more. I'm typically mistaken for much younger then I am, but I'm afraid I'll wake up one day and look older.

I find skin care so confusing, I wouldn't even know where to start.

I'm 46 and use only coconut oil at night as a moisturizer and occassionally when I'm feeling like something more will use a bentonite clay mask that I make myself by adding distilled water to bentonite clay found at my local health food store. It removes the toxins and smoothes out my skin. It's affordable and makes me look particularly more beautiful if that were even possible after all I am still a cute girl.

I don't, at least not usually...

My bestest brought home a swag bag from a film festival that had the BEST stuff.

Intraceuticals. "Only" about $800 per week cost for the entire skin regimin (Can't do that!). I'm 33. For a solid week, my skin looked 12. No. Lie. I got carded EVERYWHERE. That hasn't happened for years. I also met some people who guessed my age as mid 20's. (As in the whole, "Well, you're young, just wait until you're in your 30's and 40's." insert snooty stare "I mean, you're what? 23? 25?")Whoa. Crazy amazing stuff.

Apparently the 15 minute 'instant' treatment is what most stars use before red carpet.

I have lots of questions -- just now catching up with what I should have been doing all along. Ugh :-(. There are some good beauty blogs out there - I follow The Skin Center Medical Spa's beauty blog (they are in Pittsburgh but their blog info is general most of the time). They just did a post on BB creams - moisturizer, sunscreen and anti-aging products in one - that was really helpful. Just remember sunscreen sunscreen sunscreen - all the time - and you'll be doing your skin a huge favor.

**Noxzema facial wipes....
**oil-free moisturizer, usually with an SPF....in the morning
**intense hand lotion....multiple times each day
**night-firming creme....couple times each week
**Vitamin E, super-saturated foot lotion....overnight, 3-4 times/week
**basic lotion...all over....couple times each week
**& I use a wetness barrier creme along my C-section scar when I know I'm going to be hot/sweaty....otherwise I end up with a yeast infection. (tmi)

None and I'm 49. Tried using face lotions like my MIL's favorite L'Oreal and Oil of Olay, but wound up getting pimples which is far worse than trying to avoid wrinkles. I will admit to washing my face with Noxema ever since I was young. I think my mom started me on it around 10 or 12 yro. She always said it's important to keep the pours clean and free from oil so you don't get lots of pimples. She's right. I can't use any heavy lotions and have to get oil control makeup. I guess I don't have lots of wrinkles, because of my oily skin. I do use suncreen once in a blue moon, when I know I'll be outside for a long time. Should use that stuff more. The sun can really age you. My eldest sister was out in the sun 24+, because she was always out with the horses and taking people for rides. She was the only one in our family with lots of wrinkles. Sometimes I do get dry skin in the winter and will use a little Ponds on the dry spot. (Ponds is cheap and light, so I don't break out with it.) I have found that body butter is great for the legs and feet. Better than that stupid "Bag Balm" I tried from the local feed store. Queen Helene's whipped cocoa butter is good too, but greasey.

The only things I use are homemade soap and a body cream on the face. Of course the ingredients in the soap are natural and include pineapple, papaya, strawberries, coconut/castor/olive oils and oatmeal. Face is soft, smooth, even toned and bright at 64. Maybe I should bottle this stuff and market it.

Good luck to you all.

The other S.

PS I do drink a lot of water.

I'm 51. I'm not using any creams that I haven't used since my 20s, just Clinique 3-step. No meds except the same birth control pills I've been on since my 20s. No hair dye, I don't have any grey, just about a dozen silver hairs. I don't expect my face to look like it did in my 20s or 30s, and I won't spend 100s of $$ to try, I like it just how it is. I get lots of exercise and fresh air, eat relatively well, and am working on setting a regular bedtime...

Added: "Americans spent a whopping $33.3 billion on cosmetics and other beauty products in 2010, up 6% from 2009, according to the Commerce Department. That's more than consumers shelled out to buy new foreign cars ($27 billion) or TVs ($25 billion)." And they don't work. Think what better things we could be doing with this amount of money...

I just use Clinic 3 in 1, and sometimes a night recover. That's about it. I am terrible with taking care of my skin, but my grandmother had lovely skin and all she did was wash it with water and put a gentle cream on it.