Is never using moisturiser the secret to perfect SKIN?
MOISTURISERS and wrinkle creams line the shelves of every beauty counter and are hailed as the secret to younger-looking skin. No wonder nearly every woman uses one daily — in fact, in a lifetime, the average woman will spend £18,000 on her face.
But now experts say these creams may be doing far less for us than we think. Only last month, actress Julie Walters, 65, confessed to never using moisturiser until she hit the menopause at 50, and many others like her happily exclude it from their beauty routines. Take Christianne Wolff. At 44, she has
never used moisturiser, and just washes her face with water and a flannel.
To most, it would be a horrifying thought — aside from the tightness and flaky skin, what about missing out on the anti-ageing benefits of face cream?
Yet Christianne insists it actually makes her skin look better.
‘People are always saying I look ten years younger than I am,’ says the author and health and fitness expert from Chartridge, Bucks.
‘I have sensitive skin and don’t tend to wear much make-up, but if I do, I’ll mix a bit of coconut and almond oil and pour it on to the flannel to wipe it off.
‘My mother had good skin and never wore moisturiser, and she taught me that what you put into your body can have more impact on nourishing your skin than what you put on it. Face cream is a waste of money.’
Christianne is passing these beauty lessons on to her six-year-old daughter, Angelique, and is determined to keep off the moisturiser for as long as she can.
‘Ageing is inevitable and I am noticing my skin change as I get older,’ she says. ‘Even now, I can see frown lines developing in between my brows, but instead of slapping on a moisturiser that is full of chemicals, I stick on Frownies stickers (a tiny adhesive strip, that smooths out the wrinkle as you sleep) overnight to stop them forming.’
Dr Mark Friedmann, consultant dermatologist at The Harley Street Dermatology Clinic, believes Julie Walters and Christianne have a point and that moisturisers can be superfluous until a woman reaches a certain age.
‘The skin essentially is self-moisturising,’ he explains. ‘ We have built in grease - producing glands — t he sebaceous glands — that are designed to secrete an oil known as sebum, which works to naturally lubricate the skin.’
DRRABIA MAlIk, GP and cosmetic doctor agrees. ‘We never t hi nk of putting moisturiser on children because they don’t need it,’ she says. ‘If you have healthy, wellfunctioning skin, wearing moisturiser is not always necessary.’
Most moisturisers are a combination of two active ingredients: emollients — oils that mimic the lubricating function of sebum, the oil produced by the sebaceous glands, and are blended into the cream to give the soft, rich feel to our skin — and humectants, which have the capacity to bind to water and lock it into the skin cells to hydrate and keep the moisture in.
Some scientists think that by wearing moisturiser, we teach our skin to produce less sebum, getting trapped in a cycle where we need to keep using creams. Those who never start using it, therefore, don’t have any need for it.
However, f ace cream does become more important as we age, as Julie Walters clearly discovered when she reached 50.
‘As we age and go through the menopause, the sebaceous glands function differently and our oestrogen levels drop, so we lose oil and water and our skin becomes more dry,’ says Dr Malik.
‘After the age of 30, we also lose around one per cent of collagen a year from our faces, which is what keeps the skin looking elastic and youthful-looking and provides volume. Women who may not have needed to use moisturiser before may suddenly feel they do.’
While the age at which you need to start wearing moisturiser — if at all — is debatable, the importance of protection against the sun’s powerful UV rays is not.
‘Ninety per cent of skin damage is down to the effects of the sun,’ says Dr Friedmann. ‘Exposure to UV rays causes wrinkles, collagen and skin damage.’
It is for this reason that celebrity facialist Sarah Chapman recommends we start wearing a moisturiser with a SPF15 as early as our mid to late teens.
‘Your daytime products should be focused on SPF and defence, protecting your skin from harmful UV r ays and environmental damage,’ she says.
‘Just think of your day cream as an overcoat for your skin.’
Dr Malik also recognises the sun’s dangers and swears by serums packed f ull of antioxidants, which neutralise its harmful effect.
‘The sun tries to damage the DNA of skin cells and the serum protects against this happening and should be applied every morning from the age of 20,’ she says.
There is, of course, the option of avoiding the sun altogether, as Taj Gill has done.
Friends of
t he
47- year- old revenue officer can’t believe she’s approaching 50 and she attributes her youthful skin to not wearing moisturiser and always wearing a hat to protect her face when the sun is shining.
‘I have very sensitive skin, so I like to keep it out of the sun,’ says the married mother- of-two from Slough, Berks.
‘I did put on a moisturiser once, but I broke out in spots.
‘My mum is 67 and she does exactly the same as me and looks about my age, so I don’t plan on changing my routine.
‘I do have the beginnings of lines at the corners of my eyes, but overall my skin is plump, clear and smooth, and I’m sure it’s because I hardly interfere with it.’
As well as wearing make-up only very rarely, Taj’s diet includes lots of fruit and vegetables and she tries to drink at least a litre of water a day.
‘Diet can have a big impact on the skin,’ says Dr Malik.
‘The nutrients found in fruit and vegetables will i mprove the appearance of your skin. Increasi ng your i ntake of omega 3 essential fatty acids, found in oily fish such as salmon and mackerel, will help skin cells retain water and flush out toxins.
‘last, drinking between one and two litres of water a day will keep your skin plump and hydrated.’
Drama teacher Nathal i e Adam, 49, is a stickler for eating healthily and prefers to splash out on fresh food than pay for a pricey moisturiser.
‘When I was younger and trying to make it as an actress, I didn’t have much money to pay for fancy moisturisers, so I got into the habit of buying oils f r om a pharmacy — such as almond or rosehip — and using them to keep my skin soft and supple,’ says the French-born mother-of-two, who lives in Oxford.
SHEadds: ‘They last a long time and are so much cheaper. Now I’m getting older, I am noticing that my skin is a bit drier, so I’ve started to clean my face with a cotton wool pad dipped in a mixture of olive and argan oil. I also wear a cream with SPF 50+ if I’m in the sun.’
Nathali e has also taken hyaluronic acid supplements for the past two years, to help her ageing skin. Hyaluronic acid is a naturally occurring humectant that locks moisture into the upper levels of the skin.
‘As we age, we lose the ability to produce this little molecule and a woman in her 40s will have 50 per cent less hyaluronic acid than a woman in her 20s,’ says Rebecca Hopkins, founder of skincare brand Balance Me. ‘It works to plump the skin from within by holding 1,000 times its weight in water, thus smoothing out wrinkles and fine lines.’
Whether you wait until lines appear before you start a moisturising routine is up to you.
‘If you don’t feel that you need moisturiser, then don’t bother,’ says Dr Malik.
After all, Julie Walters waited until she was 50 and got away with it, and Christianne Wolff certainly won’t be rushing to the beauty counter any time soon.
‘If what I’m doing is working, then why change it?’ she says.