Susan Jane White

An easy home-made skincare miracle

You want to stay young? The answer is not giving hundreds of your hard-earned cash to some marketing headf**ck who abuses our vulnerabilities. Nor is it wearing lame drainpipes and a sleeve of tattoos, like something Electric Picnic heaved up.

The secret to ageing gracefully, my friends, is owning it. Wear those wrinkles like you made them! They are there to tell 20-yearold twits not to mess with us. So go rock them.

I’ve taken to making my own beauty products from natural, cold-pressed oils. It feels deliciously empowering. Yup. Green beauty is trending, not because it’s non-toxic and kinder to the environment. Green beauty is trending because it works.

Check out this deep-penetrating night serum. My face drinks it up with gratitude. No amount of creams can achieve the same glow I get from one week on argan oil. Yes, argan oil can sometimes smell like a wet barnyard animal. But you will expertly high-jump this nasal challenge by adding grapefruit essential oil and the spectacularly perfumed tamanu oil.

Grapefruit essential oil is a brilliant astringent to help seduce large pores and zits. Tamanu delivers a consignment of protective antioxidants, and is traditionally associated with improving scar tissue. We like the sound of that. Both tamanu oil and argan oil have vertiginous amounts of vitamin E, and zero per cent synthetic gunk. Vitamin E is important to our ageing skin because it helps protect it against the chaos that free radicals unleash. We can’t stop ageing, but we can slow it down.

I share the task of DIY cosmetics with friends to reduce the cost. It makes sense to do a large batch of face serum, and dole bottles out to a group of friends. Maybe your pals will do the cacao body butter, or another similar treat in return? Score! Another tip is to store the oils in the freezer when they are not in use, which will substantially extend their shelf life.