My absolute mantra is that beauty isn’t age-related. I’m getting more and more press releases recently that are specifically targeting older skin, but wait! There is a positive spin on anti-ageing right now that wasn’t there, say, five years ago.
Press releases of old used to be filled with dire phrases, such as ‘crow’s feet’, ‘smile lines’ (as if smiling could ever be a bad thing), ‘deep furrows’ and oh, all sorts of words for normal skin ageing that made it sound like anyone over 40 needed to be on life support. While we’ve not managed to do away with negative connotations about ageing skin, there’s certainly a change and more careful thought from many about how to address it.
I’ve written about being an older blogger before – it’s a strange thing because the general expectation is that bloggers are young – but age is no barrier to enjoying beauty. It’s only when you’ve got a body of older women who are prepared to look at beauty in a less obvious way that it begins to become an accepted, mainstream way. And, that’s definitely happening right now. The most feedback I tend to get via my blog contact form is from older women – or much younger, new bloggers looking for a little advice.
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I don’t like the terms ‘older’ or ‘mature’ but use them for want of anything better; they sound apologetic in an arena where age isn’t really all that relevant. I like ‘beauty plus’. You can be 80 and love a lipstick as much as someone who is 18.
The beauty industry is massively influential in how we perceive ageing and beauty. It’s probably our biggest subliminal influencer that has shaped our perceptions of what is acceptable beauty today. However, with many, many brands turning their attention to older women and their skin, we’re going to see that influence working in our favour. The beauty industry has decided that we’re hot right now!
It’s probably one of the most exciting things happening in beauty – even though we have a summer ahead of glamour in the shape of Louboutin Beauty (red, red and more red) and Gucci Beauty (which I suspect might be a lot like D&G beauty). Everything is shaping up to embrace the 40+ woman as someone with a rightful place in beauty, and not a forgotten, apologetic entity (that incidentally keeps the beauty market propped up financially). And remember, bloggers are only ageing one way – nobody’s getting younger here, so as key influencers in the blogger and YouTube arena start to explore ageing, it will make on-line beauty content even more important. It’s going to be interesting to see how next-generation older bloggers influence the beauty industry.
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