How YOU look fabulous at every age!
Lipstick that hides lines. Mascara that conditions lashes. And polish that takes years off your hands. Forget the election, the votes are in on the most important poll – our first Anti-ageing Beauty Awards . . .
Every year, we ask you to spill your beauty secrets. We want to know the products you rely on, the ones you’d recommend to a friend and those you would take to a desert island.
But this, the third year of the Inspire Beauty Awards, came with a twist — we asked specifically about your anti-ageing heroes. The lipsticks that can be trusted not to feather into fine lines around your mouth, the concealers that really conceal without caking or sitting in creases, and the night treatments that let you wake up looking and feeling a decade younger. Because in 2019, the focus has been on beauty at any age.
Women including Jane Fonda, 81, Helen Mirren, 74, Julianne Moore, 59, Isabelle Adjani, 64, and Isabella rossellini, 67, now front beauty campaigns, and brands are finally starting to tackle beauty issues related to the menopause.
The industry is waking up to the fact that older women, who have so much financial power, have been sidelined and it is making moves to change that.
That’s why we are delighted you decided to share your top anti-ageing products. Because while our esteemed panel of judges — top dermatologist Dr Sam Bunting, make-up artist and beauty entrepreneur ruby Hammer, beauty expert and broadcaster Alison
Young and Inspire’s own beauty columnist elsa McAlonan — helped create the shortlist, it was your votes, more than 10,500 in all, that decided the winners.
And those winners reflect how ageless beauty really is. Among them are products that could rightly be called ‘cult’ or ‘classic’, alongside innovative formulations that have just hit the shelves.
This is a perfect reflection of the way in which we, as beauty consumers, are savvier than ever about the products we buy. We don’t dismiss an old favourite that works simply because something newer comes along. But, equally, we’re excited to try something new — especially when it comes to colour cosmetics, with which we’re often more prepared to experiment.
We’re willing to splash out on something we know will perform week in, week out — whether that’s a face cream or a hairdryer. Yet at the same time, we appreciate a bargain that outperforms its price.
THE MAKE-UP WINNERS
WHIle you might think of skincare when you hear ‘anti-ageing’, make-up also has a role to play.
For the foundation you trust, you plumped for Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation. launched in 2000, it has become something of a make-up artist and A-list favourite — the Duchess of Sussex’s former make-up artist revealed Meghan was a fan. With six shades added last year, more women have become converts.
Similarly, your concealer of choice was a tried-and-tested one — NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer gets Dr Bunting’s seal of approval for being a ‘great, blendable product that doesn’t clog pores, comes in a good range of shades and works under the eye and on blemishes’.
Your other make-up picks also proved that the idea finishes must be matte as you get older, while a dewy glow is only for the young, is outdated. The blusher you chose as your winner was bareMinerals Endless Glow — a product that’s actually a highlighter, but, as Alison Young points out, the Joy shade of peachy gold ‘gives a wet-look blush that is healthy, modern and wearable at any age’.
This willingness to appropriate products as we see fit to use them, rather than as has been dictated by the manufacturer, is a trend in the industry. It’s partly because, for environmental reasons, we’re looking to use fewer products: we want multitaskers and are happy to use, for example, a highlighter as an eyeshadow or a lipstick as a blusher.
When it comes to lipsticks, your pick was L’Oreal Age Perfect Rouge Lumiere. This is the first lipstick l’Oreal developed for more mature lips. As well as glossy pigment, it contains hydrating oils to moisturise, leaving lips smoother in two weeks.
This kind of dual benefit is increasingly what we expect from cosmetics. The mascara you chose as your winner, Lancôme Hypnôse, not only leaves lashes coated in deep-black pigment that thickens and lengthens, but also contains ProVitamin B5, a conditioning ingredient that helps them feel soft and supple.
Finally in the make-up category is your favourite palette. You chose Revolution’s collaboration with make-up artist lan Nguyen-Grealis, the Ultimate Artist’s Palette. At £15, it’s proof we all love value for money, and are prepared to experiment, if it’s not going to cost a fortune.
It not only contains 16 matte and shimmer shadows, from neutrals to brights, but also packs in eight lip shades, three bronzers, four blushers and a highlighter. If this isn’t on your Christmas list, it should be.
SKINCARE MIRACLE WORKERS
MAke-UP may be a key part of your anti-ageing armoury, but skincare forms the foundation.
The winners in this category were a mix of products with highperformance ingredients — such as the winning serum, Elizabeth Arden Vitamin C Ceramide Capsules.
These capsules, the latest in the brand’s range of capsule skincare, contain a potent form of vitamin C, one of the hero ingredients in anti-ageing skincare. Vitamin C is famed for its ability to brighten skin, even tone and protect against premature ageing, while the biodegradable single-use capsules stop the ingredient being damaged by light or air before use.
Similarly, Olay Regenerist 3 Point Age-Defying Night Cream, the winning night treatment, includes ingredients proven to help skin look its most youthful — from niacinamide, which can work on skin tone, to peptides, which encourage synthesis of collagen, the protein that keeps skin firm, and hyaluronic acid, which draws water into the skin so you wake with a rested-looking complexion.
It’s this sort of result that elemis’s pro-collagen technology was devised to create — so little wonder you voted two of their products skincare must-haves.
The original Pro-Collagen Marine Cream, which won in the day cream category (and which we’re giving away free with the Mail today, see below right), launched in 2003, and its moisturising yet gel-like texture made it an instant favourite.
The product spawned an entire pro-collagen line by elemis, which includes your favourite cleanser, Pro-Collagen Cleansing Balm —a fragranced, oil-based cleanser that feels like a daily facial. like the cream, it includes the anti-ageing algae extract padina pavonica, which moisturises and firms skin.
There are plenty of face masks out there, but few deliver what they promise. Avène Soothing Moisture Mask does, as evidenced by the fact that, for the second year in a row, you voted it your favourite. With