Recently I was chatting to a lady and when she found out I was in the skincare industry she said "oh gosh, you must hate looking at faces like mine, look at all my wrinkles AND I still get spots". Honestly? I do not judge people by their skin and if I'm on the school run I probably haven't got my contacts in yet so I can't see you anyway!
The word anti-ageing is being thrown around a lot these days and many people don't know how to feel about it. On one hand it's a dirty phrase, invented by skincare companies to shame women in to thinking lines and wrinkles make them ugly and undesirable, on the other hand it's there to describe products that may help to slow down the appearance of ageing on our skin.
Do I use the term "anti-ageing" in marketing? Yes I do! Firstly because it's a term people are used to hearing and secondly, while I do not judge anyone by their lines and/or wrinkles there are many women, myself included who want to keep their skin as line free as possible for as long as possible. But I would much rather use a term that promotes skin health and skin confidence.
To some women, skincare is low down in their list of priorities, but there are many of us that don't feel the same way. My mother in law isn't bothered with skincare, she is in her 60's and has beautiful skin. My mother has wrinkles, she had her spleen removed in her late 30's which had a big effect on her health and consequently, her skin. She knows she was lucky to reach 60 but she still doesn't like the lines, I however think she's so beautiful. The same goes for my grandmother in her 80's with her beautiful smile crinkles.
When it comes to skincare and anti-ageing, I do find a lot of adverts misleading, not only are there limitations to what skincare can do, a lot of the ambassadors used have either had cosmetic surgery and/or photoshopped in adverts, giving us an unrealistic idea of how we should look, something I've written about previously.
So here's the thing, if your skin is bothering you, firstly chances are no one else see's you the way you do, we're so over critical of ourselves. And if you couldn't care less about your skin, again that's absolutely fine, I have plenty of people tell me they have no kind of cleansing routine, so what? I'm certainly not going to tell people how to live their life, I've been told I eat too much chocolate, I disagree and most certainly have no plans to stop!
So whatever you feel about the word "anti-ageing" I don't think it makes anyone right or wrong, we may have different views on what the word represents but ultimately, I feel that as long we build each other up and support each other, regardless of our personal choices, that's all that matters! But I'd love to hear what others think, please feel free to leave your comment below.