Facing up to ageing: what makes us appear old

It also bears the brunt of other environmental exposure from, for example, traffic fumes, cigarette smoke, etc., so suffers from the effects of both intrinsic and extrinsic ageing. Facial skin can also, through its colour and expressions, reflect many emotions and feelings. Blushing for example, resulting from dilation of blood vessels in the skin, can show embarrassment.1 So the face signals many different things in the way it appears to the casual observer. Over time the skin covering the face changes, dryness may make the skin look rough and scaly, fine lines and wrinkles begin to appear, coloration alters, pores can become enlarged and sagging of the cheeks and jowls is often observed. When all these factors are combined they result in influencing how old we actually appear or are perceived to be, as opposed to our actual chronological age. Beauty products can be used to change this perception, enhancing certain features such as the lips and eyes to draw the observer’s gaze to them or camouflaging and covering up redness, blemishes and less attractive areas to minimise their impact.2,3 In the following article we will identify the key factors that can affect our appearance and describe changes that can happen over time, the causes of these changes and what can be done to either prevent this happening, rejuvenate the skin, or camouflage problem areas.

Fine lines and wrinkles

Recently an excellent review of ‘wrinkle theory’ has been produced by Humbert et al.4 which gives comprehensive details of the causes and effects of wrinkle formation. It is stated that as age increases, fine and reducible lines evolve to form permanent wrinkles, one of the earliest and most visible signs of skin ageing, developing mainly on the face, neck and hands (i.e. areas which are both exposed to the elements but also visibly on show).4 Wrinkles appear over time due to changes in the support structures of the skin from chronological ageing, but photoageing speeds the process considerably leading to quickly formed, deep wrinkles.5 A recent study has shown that facial skin undergoes a considerable change around the age of thirty years, showing a step change in wrinkling morphology at age thirty-three years.6 It has also been noted that skin surface topography is more important in terms of perceived age than skin colour and that only small changes are needed to alter perceived age significantly.7,8 As well as the crow’s feet area (at the side of each eye) fine lines and wrinkles were also observed to occur in the forehead, glabella, upper and lower eyelids, nasolabial groove, cheek and corner of the mouth of older volunteers.19 Fortunately there are a number of excellent products to protect the skin from such damage and further ones which even go some way towards turning back the clock. SPFs go a long way in protecting the skin from UV rays which cause so much of the damage. Most moisturisers now contain at least SPF 15 and a degree of UVA protection, but if one is exposed to sunlight for any length of time a specific sun cream is needed. The newer water phase UV filters such as Tinosorb M and Tinosorb S Aqua from BASF, allow for efficient UVA and UVB protection without overloading formulations with oils, allowing for light textures. Retinol has been shown to be an effective treatment for lines and fine wrinkles. It increases cell turnover and stimulates the production of more collagen and elastin. Vitamin C is essential for the synthesis of collagen and is an antioxidant, so can help reduce skin damage caused by free radicals, and there are a large variety of skin rejuvenation and anti-wrinkle products containing it such as The Body Shop’s Vitamin C collection. Oils are gaining popularity in facial skin care as they can produce very good results. The buzz word used by testers is ‘plumped’. These oils gently sink into the skin plumping out lines and wrinkles while also smoothing and nourishing skin. One such product is Nude Replenishing Night Oil which contains a blend of natural oils including jojoba, raspberry and cranberry. Omega 3, 6, 7 and 9 restore cellular metabolic function, essential nutrients and antioxidants help cells renew and resist damage. Of course there is good old fashioned moisturiser too. On application these improve the appearance of fine lines as humectants draw moisture to the skin plumping it out. Silicone elastomers impart a soft silky feel to skin and have a matte finish which leaves a soft focus effect on the skin helping to optically blur imperfections.