Tips and tricks for a middle-aged skincare regime

As a now 55 year old who grew up in the Tropics, and whose worry about sun / skin as a teenager consisted of conversations with friends as to whether Baby oil or Coconut Oil would fry us faster, how we could wriggle another hours sun baking into our schedules, and agreeing with each other that the only thing SPF did was give you pimples I suppose I wish I’d been better educated and started looking after my skin better and earlier.

But I was lucky – blessed with hereditary resilient skin I managed to skate by for years, sashaying into middle age  feeling pretty good about the way I was aging compared with my peers.

Then one day about 6 years ago, I was saying goodbye to a friend, leaning on her drivers door open window on my elbows , and caught sight of the side of my face in her wing mirror. My first thought as I looked at the crumpled sun blotched sight was 'whos that'. My second was that there was something wrong with the glass in her mirror. The third is unprintable.

When I got home I had a good look in the bathroom mirror. Tilted my chinup. I took a pinch of cheek and it felt like an hour until it morphed back into shape. I am not particularly vain , but it gave me a horrid shock. The end was nigh and it was happening fast.

As for face products?  I’d just slapped on whatever I got talked into , or what was on sale for about the past decade. It obviously wasn’t working . So I looked around and picked the friend I thought had the best skin and asked what she was using. Ultraceuticals.  A little known brand to me, but I did some reading and liked the Science behind it. I went to About Face , who stocked it , and had a consult and splashed out on a lot of product. Luckily a little goes a long way ! I can honestly say that I feel better about my skin now than I did six years ago. I love the Ultra Brightening range. The Ultra Brightening Cleanser is foaming and thorough , and removes all makeup without feeling stripped afterwards.  I use it  twice  a day. I follow in the morning with Vitamin C serum , and then the  Ultra UV Protective Moisturizer. At night I cleanse with Ultraceuticals B Micellar water, and then use the Ultra Brightening Serum and Ultra Brightening moisturizer. It really does “ brighten “the complexion, and I have no new age spots.

Last month I was travelling and visited a lady who had been best friends with my mother. She had not seen me since I was 19. I subsequently had an email from her, saying that 'the years had been kind to me and she couldn’t believe I was the mother of two grown girls'. Thank you Ultraceuticals.