As part of our perfect month, we’re bringing you eight This Works blog posts, each one linked to a benefit of a different perfect product. For perfect hands, for example, we look at ageing, and for perfect eyes we explore crying. It’s an opportunity for you to share your own experiences and opinions about modern natural beauty concerns with us and other This Works users.
“Age ain’t nothin’ but a number,” said the singer, Aaliyah. Talking to women of all ages, I realise this little sound bite carries a lot of truth. We are scared of gaining miles on the clock, but why? Does age really matter?
Throughout their lives, women are preoccupied with ageing. Most teenage girls can hardly wait to turn eighteen, gaining freedom from those years of angst about love, looks, friendships and future.
Next you hit your twenties and you start to dread the onset of thirty, a looming milestone on the horizon. You nervously start analysing your face for fine lines and wrinkles, and worry that you’re not engaged yet (or worse – shock, horror – you don’t even want to get engaged!)
Then something else happens. You turn thirty and breathe a sigh of relief. My friend Emma put it perfectly, “I was so terrified about my 30th. But when I woke up on my birthday I just thought, ‘thank goodness that’s all over.’ In your thirties you know more about what you want out of life.”
So much of what we dread about getting old relates to our looks. We are frightened of the ageing process, wrinkles emerging, our busts heading south and our hair turning grey. While all of this is ultimately inevitable, age also brings with it some fantastic qualities like wisdom, self-knowledge and the ability to seize the day.
The media wants women to look like eighteen year olds, but very few of us would say we were the happiest we’ve ever been at eighteen, would we?
I certainly wouldn’t want to return to my teenage years, although I do sometimes think I’d like to preserve the looks of my youth while enjoying the benefits of growing older and wiser.
There are obvious ways of slowing the physical onset of age, which you’ll find easily on the This Works website. We say to stay out of the sun, wear a hat, an SPF and use natural skin care containing actives like Retinol that really work.
Another excellent tip from This Works MD, Dr Anna Persaud, is to moisturise and apply 
SPF to your hands. “You can have flawless facial features at forty,” says Anna, “but if you haven’t looked after your hands, the wrinkles and pigmentation will be a real giveaway.”
The new This Works perfect range helps you celebrate who you are, including your age. That’s why I like it. It answers my unique beauty needs, and frees me up to enjoy getting older while helping to keep my skin feeling young.
I’ve just had my birthday and, although I dreaded it yet again, I am noticing a pattern. I’m becoming more at peace with myself the older I get. How has ageing changed you?
