Six years ago, my family experienced a huge scare when my then 65-year-old mum was rushed to the ER in order to receive an emergency cardioversion—aka a medical paddle used to restart her heart. The day before the trip to the emergency room, we’d been travelling, and my mum (who has since discovered she has an extreme sensitivity to sugar) had a pumpkin spice latte and an almond-filled French pastry for breakfast and then later on after dinner a small vanilla ice cream cone. As she explains, it was enough sugar (at least for her) to send her heart into atrial fibrillation, or an uneven heart rhythm.
“As scary as the experience was, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise,” she tells me. “I banished heavy sugar doses from my diet and noticed that my skin started looking better. Soon after this, I forced myself to watch a programme on PBS I’d recorded called The Age Fix, hosted by plastic surgeon Anthony Youn (and later read his book by the same name). I’d resisted watching the show because I knew it wouldn’t be my personal choice to go the route of plastic surgery when it came to age prevention, but as a makeup artist who specialises in helping women over 50, I felt like there could be some helpful information.”
As my mum told me over the phone, Youn connected the dots for her when he said the most important thing we can do for our skin is to eat a clean, healthy diet and that sugar basically equals wrinkles. So as my mum began to reduce her sugar intake and make healthier choices when it came to meals and snacking, her skin started looking better and better, and she became more interested in what else she could do to help some age-related redness, dark spots, fine lines and not-so-fine lines that were becoming ever harder to miss when she looked in the mirror each morning. (Her words, not mine!)
“Frankly, I’m also embarrassed to admit I’d never done much besides a morning facial cleanse in the shower, some moisturiser under my makeup, and an evening cleanse,” she laughs. “But as I started checking into skin-enhancing serums and products that might benefit my skin, I realised that to get the best results from these products, I needed to make sure these formulations could penetrate deeply into my skin. I purchased an electronic cleansing brush which, according to research, can get your skin six times cleaner than a normal cleansing routine, and I began to add a few other exfoliating skincare products into my regimen as well.”
However, it wasn’t until my mum began introducing various anti-ageing serums into her skincare routine that she says she truly began to notice a difference in the appearance of her skin. “I also switched to a natural moisturiser which has made my routine a bit cleaner and has been a game changer in terms of my skin’s hydration levels, especially since we spend our winters in the Arizona desert.”
So are you curious to know the specifics of my mum’s anti-ageing skincare routine and her favourite serums? Keep scrolling! Ahead, she’s sharing the best anti-ageing serums and formulas that have actually made a difference in the way her skin looks and feels.
This article was originally published at an earlier date on Who What Wear US and has since been updated.