Your guide to being a (menopausal) sleeping beauty
Hannah Betts Better...not younger
THE beauty world is still reeling from last week’s revelation that postmenopausal women on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) have youngerlooking complexions than those who abstain.
Scientists at Manchester University claim HRT users have greater levels of elastic fibres in their skin and better levels of waxy moisturising substances called lipids, which maintain the waterproof nature of skin as a barrier.
But, wait — are we really reeling? I’m surprised by the surprise.
Isn’t it logical that youthful fertility hormones will make women look younger and more fertile, bolstering our facial buoyancy in the same way they do our bones?
More shocking was the revelation that only 10 per cent of postmenopausal women are taking HRT, after the number of users plummeted in the wake of studies 20 years ago suggesting it increased the risk of breast cancer.
These studies were so flawed even I could see the holes. As a result — despite my mother having died relatively young of a hormonal cancer — I take HRT for peri-menopausal purposes.
If you can’t take HRT for whatever reason, seek out skincare with ceramides, a form of lipid naturally found within the skin that can be topped up as we start to lose it.
Budget brand CeraVe has ceramides at its core (from €4.80, Boots). Or try Elizabeth Arden — first to use the ingredient and boasting it everywhere from its Advanced Ceramide Capsules Daily Youth Restoring Serum (€87, lookfantastic.ie) to its slap and sunscreens.
ABOUT 20 years ago, the head of a global beauty conglomerate asked me what his company was missing. I suggested hormonal face care, pointing out that there is never a moment when a woman is not hormonal. It’s a shame I’m not a red-hot (flush) entrepreneur because everyone and their dog has since got in on the act.
Thus far, I am yet to be impressed by menopausespecific ranges. Instead, I prefer to cherry-pick products that target specific symptoms of hormonal flux.
Currently, in mid-August, this means sleepless summer nights due to my lunatic PMT insomnia. If you’re a sufferer, too, have a magnesium-infused bath (either bath flakes, or I like to use BetterYou Magnesium Sleep Body Spray, €11.63, meaghers
pharmacy.ie). Magnesium is known as ‘nature’s Valium’, helping to quiet the nervous system, and something we all tend to run low on.
Next, you need melatonin and a mask. After a lifetime’s disordered sleep, melatonin has been the discovery of my not-so young life: a naturally occurring, sleep-inducing hormone which many middleaged women are deficient in. Get yourself a private prescription, or buy it online and knock back 3mg before bed. When I say ‘mask’, I’m not talking any old one, but the Drowsy Silk Sleep Mask (€60, oliver bonas.com). An adjustable wrap-around-thehead affair, this cult creation blocks out light, muffles noise, cushions eyes and won’t mark skin. I used my midnight blue version on a long-haul trip and slept six hours on the way out (during the day!) and eight on the return (by night). Trying is believing. For pillow sprays, head straight for Drowsy Sleep’s Sleep S.O.S. Essential Oil Blend (€18.70, drowsysleepco.com). It’s supposed to be deployed in a burner, but I drop it into the tub and on my bedding until I’m drunk on cedarwood, lavender, ylang ylang and vetiver. For waking in the middle of the night, This Works’ Deep Sleep Breathe In rollerball (€20.45, lookfantastic.ie) is a comfort. A cooling spritz will also be a relief, but not one that jerks you into consciousness. Mario Badescu’s Facial Spray with Aloe, Chamomile and Lavender (€13.50,
cultbeauty.com) is a 4am winner. Skincare-wise, don’t have truck with anything too rich or chemically active, or you’ll wake up a spotty, scarlet mess.
Ahead of a long, hot summer night, I’ll do an exfoliating tone with Ren’s Ready Steady Glow Daily AHA Tonic (€17, renskin
care.ie). Then I’ll slather on Neom’s divinely fragrant, vitamin-rich Scent to Sleep Perfect Night’s Sleep Face Oil (€47.95, lookfantastic.ie).
For already sufficiently oily complexions, opt for Dermalogica’s simple, satisfying, lavenderscented Sound Sleep Cocoon Transformative Night Gel-Cream (€85, dermalogica.ie).
And, remember: tomorrow is another (unslept horror of a) day.
food, water and danger for centuries. The matriarchs of the herd use their remarkable memory to recall these migratory routes, leading their families to suitable feeding grounds with the changing of the seasons.
But in the case of the Chinese herd, we know human intervention is at work, too. When they approach a village, loudspeakers urge locals to shut themselves in – preferably upstairs, well out of reach.
Power supplies are cut to prevent the elephants electrocuting themselves or sparking fires, and vehicles are parked across roads behind the herd or on side routes to keep them moving forward.
The herd was photographed on Sunday night crossing a bridge over the Yuan river, near Yuxi city. This meant they were at last heading in the right direction. But they were still about 120 miles from home.
As these new photographs show, they have been hosing each other down, playing follow-my-leader and, charmingly, lending a supportive trunk when any of their number has struggled. One endearing image shows a baby elephant being helped up a slippery slope in Yuanjiang County; another captures the group spooning as they sleep on the ground in protective clusters. A third shows them jumbled together as they trek through scrubland foliage.
Becky Shu Chen, a leading conservationist at London Zoo, told the Mail that elephants have become prone to roam because of an increase in deforestation to clear land for mainly rubber plantations.
‘We’ve seen elephants expanding their range for decades as their populations increase and they search for more food,’ she said. ‘But this movement to the far north does seem an unusually big expansion.’
According to Shen Qingzhong, from the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve Management Bureau, it’s ‘likely the elephants will head north again in future’.
And who can blame them? The travel bug is hard to shake off. There are always pastures new to explore. But such a trek is not something to be embarked on lightly, even for these heavyweight ramblers.