More Skin Care: What’s a Mature Woman (or Man) To Do?

After last week’s skin care and beauty routines, I received a lot of great feedback. Most of you wanted to share which products you use, and some of you asked questions about products we’d listed or for recommendations. But one piece of feedback got me thinking, and it was about the lack of consideration for so-called “mature” skin. Mature skin is thinner and more sensitive than younger skin, so it requires special consideration. At twenty-eight years old, I don’t yet have mature skin, though I will someday. So, with this lack of experience, here’s my best attempt to give recommendations for sustainable skin care for those of you with mature skin. (As always, please feel free to leave a comment if you think I missed something, or if you have something to add.)

The number one thing I’d recommend is coconut oil. While younger people use it on their skin because of its anti-microbial and anti-viral properties (to fight acne), my favorite thing about coconut oil is how incredibly hydrating it is. To get scientific for a minute, coconut oil is absorbed deeply by your skin, beneath the subcutaneous layer of skin tissue (read: really deep). Most moisturizers and lotions are only absorbed into the top layers of skin, which is why they make your skin sticky when you sweat in the summer. Coconut oil may take longer to absorb because, well, it’s oil. But you can be assured that once it’s absorbed, it’s really absorbed. It’s also very gentle, and it has a nice, light smell. If you’d like to add a little scent, you can add essential oils to your coconut oil, though my favorite way to spruce up a jar of coconut oil is to add flowers or herbs directly to the oil. Let it sit in the sun for a day or two, and then remove the plant bits. Try things like rosemary, cinnamon sticks, or hibiscus flowers.

For tender skin in the eye area, Suki makes a great eye tissue repair product. The company also recommends using it around the lips, where wrinkles may exist. I’ve started using a mixture of shea butter and red palm oil under my eyes and at the corners of my mouth. Shea butter is very high in Vitamin E, and red palm oil is high in both Vitamin E and Vitamin A, the latter of which gives the oil its vibrant red hue. This oil mixture is slightly yellowish when it goes on, but it absorbs well and the color will go away.

For cleansing mature, dry skin, it’s important to avoid any harsh cleansers with abrasive ingredients. My favorite gentle cleansers are Suki’s cleansing lotion and Pangea’s facial cleanser. Both products have a creamy consistency, and they remove makeup while cleansing. They both leave my face feeling moisturized and soft, which would be good for mature skin.

I have a couple of recommendations for masks and other treatments. Pangea has a face mask that contains extracts of green tea, goji berries, and acai, which are all known for their antioxidant (and anti-aging) properties. But this product has its downfalls, one of which is the $35 price tag. While some of the products I’ve recommended here and elsewhere are also pricey, the problem with this mask is that it just doesn’t last that long. It’s gone after a few applications, which makes it seem hardly worth the price. Plus, if I’m being honest, it stinks. Literally. This mask smells like rotting leaves in mud. Who wants to pay big bucks for that? It’s worth a shot, though, if you don’t kind the price (or the smell).

My favorite overall mask is made by Aubrey Organics. Their Green Tea & Green Clay Rejuvenating Mask is great for gently purifying pores. It has a light scent to it, and the green clay is incredibly gentle. It never really dries completely, so you don’t get that stinging, tight sensation that some other clay masks can give you. Plus, it warms slightly over time, which is really relaxing. Of course, you can always make your own masks and treatments and home. Mix some yogurt with raw honey, or some mushed avocado with green tea powder, and voila! You’ve got an organic, hydrating mask. For red skin, add some aloe vera gel, or grow your own aloe vera in a pot (I do).

My best advice for those of you with mature skin is to avoid products with long ingredient lists full of unpronounceable chemical names. For example, Alba has a new product line called Alba Ceranade coming out soon. These products have all sorts of claims, such as their intense hydrating properties or the ability to repair deep damage. I can’t speak to whether these claims are true, but I can say that their ingredients aren’t clean. They are free of parabens and petrochemicals, though, so it’s up to you. Other product lines, such as Burt’s Bees Naturally Ageless line, are a mixed bag. Their repair serum looks basically decent, but the other three products in the line contain a few chemicals here and there.

There is a school of thinking in the beauty industry that skin with special needs (mature, dry, sensitive, etc.) needs products with special chemicals. Many of these chemicals are made in labs, and some of them have been extracted from natural ingredients in the same labs. We are constantly inundated with ads in magazines and on TV that make us feel inadequate, and the only cure is to buy the products these companies are selling (and at a ridiculously high profit margin, I might add). To me, it sounds like they’re trying to create a market for the products they want to sell, not the other way around. I’ve always been a big believer in nature, and skin care is no different. When it comes to dry mature skin, slathering your face with “scientific” products full of chemicals just doesn’t feel right. It furthers the idea that we have to “fight” nature in order to be beautiful, but I think that we can work with the natural world to be even more beautiful.

Nature has been so kind as to provide us with healing and soothing ingredients that already exist; why pay hundreds of dollars to buy a product that attempts to recreate those properties out of their natural context, which only serves to further line the pockets of chemical companies? The best thing you can do, besides using healthy products and making your own at home, is to start from the inside out. If you eat well, it will show on your skin. Drink lots of water, eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, cook with life-giving healthy fats, and try to reduce stress in your life. These practices will show in your skin, and you’ll be healthier and happier for it.