Your skin in your 50s and 60s is not the same skin you had in your 20s and 30s, which is why you need to treat it differently. Not only does it look different, but it also acts different. As skin experiences more and more damage and the effects of aging further set in, skin can’t regenerate itself like it used to. That’s why more potent anti-aging ingredients and in-office treatments, which work more at a dermal and cellular level, are necessary.
Place a heavy focus on smoothing out lines and wrinkles with fillers and injectables.
Why you need them: Treating lines and wrinkles will smooth the surface of your skin. “If your skin has never received an in-office treatment, the best thing to consider is a fractionated laser treatment. It will even out skin tone and also stimulate collagen,” says Washington, D.C., dermatologist Tina Alster, MD.
What else you should know: If lines and wrinkles are deeply etched around your mouth (usually from smoking), microneedling can break apart the lines. Injectables and fillers, in addition to neurotoxins like Botox, Dysport and Xeomin, are helpful, too, because they work to restore lost volume. The combination of a neurotoxin with a filler works better than either one alone.
What to use: After undergoing a skin procedure, use products that won’t irritate your skin and also speed up healing, like Avène Cicalfate Post-Procedure Skin Recovery Emulsion. $30, dermstore.com
Load up on creams and serums that nourish and strengthen skin.
Why you need them: The older you are, the more depleted your skin becomes of nutrients, meaning it can’t protect itself as well or function optimally, and the effects of aging start to become really evident. During this stage of life, skin tends to benefit most from ingredients that firm and stimulate collagen.
What else you should know: Some creams (more so than serums) can be chock-full of preservatives and filling agents that don’t do much for your skin, so make sure you know what you’re using. Peptides also offer the added benefit of firming your skin, which means you get more than just a nourishing effect from these types of products.
What to use: RéVive Intensité Crème Lustre Night Firming Moisture Repair floods skin with ultrahydrating ingredients. $385, reviveskincare.com
Don’t neglect your neck with anti-aging products and treatments.
Why you need to do it: Your neck is a dead giveaway as to how old you really are, which is why you need to treat it with the right products and in-office treatments. When loose skin is a problem, it can be tightened to some degree with a skin tightener; neckbands can be smoothed out with Botox, Dysport or Xeomin; and textural changes can be addressed with a laser.
What else you should know: Santa Monica, CA, dermatologist Ava Shamban, MD, says that because the neck ages in a variety of ways—laxity, texture changes and banding—you need to treat each problem with the right course of action.
What to use: Elizabeth Arden Prevage Neck and Décolleté Firm and Repair Cream takes the anti-aging benefits of its Prevage products and puts them to use in a neck cream that claims to firm skin while improving radiance. $115, elizabetharden.com
