Facial Skin Care & Aging
“The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.
The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mode, but the true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives the passion that she shows. The beauty of a woman only grows with passing years.” Audrey Hepburn
The lovely woman in pink is my mom on her 102nd birthday. Sadly she passed away last March 2020, but she was a beautiful lady inside and out.
I couldn't help thinking about her as I began writing a blog about facial skincare. She seldom wore makeup. She loved our Whipped Squalane and when she went out she would wear a bit of blush (she called it rouge) and lipstick.
I actually wrote some of this content in January 2020 for a video we created. When I told my mom about the project she stroked my hair and said, "You just tell them that you are beautiful without makeup." I REALLY miss her!
When this picture was taken my mom could barely hear, even with her fancy hearing aids, and was legally blind. But that never stopped her. She loved looking nice, wearing "sporty" clothes, helping people, spending time with friends and family, and took everything that life threw at her with grace. Her attitude made her young.
So what does my beautiful mom have to do with a blog about facial skin care? It is all about aging!
We often judge ourselves too harshly and the many changes that come along with aging often exacerbate those feelings. So as we age and our skin changes, we must remember, as my mom did, to love ourselves for who we are and we will be beautiful inside and out.
Caring for the skin on our face is so important. As we look in the mirror every day, this part of our body, probably more than any other, affects our sense of self.
Eliminate the Noise!
Aging is a natural process of life! Sadly, we are constantly bombarded with commercials and seduced by beautiful ads that promise to eliminate every sign of aging and provide flawless skin because aging is undesirable and unattractive.
To me, it is just noise to make us feel bad about who we are and about getting older.
In a few months, I will be 68 years old. I celebrate my age.
But I must admit that sometimes as I look into the mirror I think … wow I am almost 70 (as my daughter recently reminded me when I was complaining about my body shape).
But how can that be? I don’t feel almost 70!
Actually, I don’t really know how 70 is supposed to feel. I am a grandmother and yet I don’t feel like the “old matronly” grandmothers that I picture from my youth.
But that mirror reminds me as I watch my face mature. Almost every morning I discover some other small reminder that I am growing older.
My once youthful, adorable freckles are now called AGE SPOTS, my smile lines are now called WRINKLES. There are new slivers of gray in my thinning eyebrows, the sagging chin, and of course the "chicken neck!"
Like the woman in the photo, sometimes I pull the skin taught on my face hoping to see that youthful face reappear. But it doesn’t look like me in my youth!
Then I realize, it is OK. Aging is something to be proud of. I have realized that I don’t need to LOOK young, I need to feel good about myself.
I do not need to get rid of all the facial imperfections that tell my story, I need to embrace them.
The picture to the right is from a beautiful collection of photographs called “Reflections of The Past” taken by photographer Tom Hussey. (You can view all of the heartwarming photos on his website. Look under "stories" and then "reflections.")
“I don’t care how old you are, when you look into a mirror, you think of yourself as younger than you are,” says Hussey.
Sometimes when I look in the mirror I too “see” my younger self.
Obviously, the number of years that have passed since you were born is an unchangeable fact.
But imagine, for one moment, that you have no birth certificate and your age was not based on what you see but simply on the way you feel inside.
How old would you say you are?
My beautiful mom truly believed that the age you feel and your natural beauty come from within... and I agree.
Do not be drawn into the trap of loving yourself from the "outside in." Instead, love yourself from the "inside out."
But we do need to take care of the outside and provide our facial skin with all of the TLC it needs because aging gracefully does not mean you have to look old.
For tips on how to care for your delicate facial skin, please read"Creating a Facial Skin Care Routine" which is a discussion of facial skin and products to help keep it healthy.
