How Your Routine Should Look as Skin Changes with Age

Your skin is ever-changing. Sadly, we’re not destined to maintain the ever-soft baby skin we came into this world with. That doesn’t mean that our skin can’t be great no matter what stage of life we’re in. You can and should adjust your beauty routine to your skin’s needs as it changes.

How Your Skin Changes With Age

As we mature, acne begins to look like one of the least of our worries, and things like fine lines, dehydration, and hyperpigmentation become a bigger concern as our skin’s regenerative processes begin to slow down. Here’s a little break down of what your routine should look like at different stages of your life.

Your 20s

Hydration
Sunscreen
Blemish control

If they haven’t been already, water and sunscreen should be a HUGE portion of your daily routine. Your body is 70% water, and your skin is the biggest organ. If your body’s dehydrated, your skin’s dehydrated, and dehydrated skin is not youthful-looking skin.

There’s a reason your mom was so adamant about sunscreen growing up. It works! As warm and friendly as the Sun feels, its effects on your skin are anything BUT. Protecting your skin from harmful UVA and UVB rays can be the difference between fine lines or wrinkles in your 30s. The better you treat your skin when you’re younger, the better it will look, and the healthier it will be when you’re older.

You may have kicked your hormonal acne phase, but that doesn’t mean you’ll never see another blemish in your life. Including ingredients like salicylic acid, lactic acid, and glycolic acid will help your skin’s cell turnover, keep your skin’s texture smooth and fresh! Using a lactic acid like Sunday Riley Good Genes Treatment works to gently exfoliate your skin and retexture the surface of your complexion to replenish any dull or tired-looking skin!

Your 30s

Eye cream
Exfoliator
Serum

In your 30s in when you’re going to start seeing some fine lines as your collagen production continues to decline. The skin around your eyes will be one of the first places to show it. This will be a good time to invest in a good eye cream and to treat the thin, delicate skin in that area.

Along with collagen production, cell turnover begins to lag. Adding an exfoliator to your regimen can help the frequency of that cell turnover and keep the texture of your skin fresh and glowy!

Every little bit counts, so adding an anti-aging serum like SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic Combination Antioxidant Treatment delivers a potent Vitamin C formula to the skin to help boost collagen production and cell turnover. Think Vitamin C equals collagen. This powerful serum continues to work in the skin for up to 72 hours!

Your 40s

A day or night cream
Neck and decollétage treatment
Retinoids

If you haven’t already been treating the delicate skin around your neck and decollétage, this is the time to start before the fine lines and sagging become visible.

Using a neck serum or cream like StriVectin TL Advanced Tightening Neck Cream provides lifting and tightening benefits that reduce the look of sagging due to gravity. Experience immediate and long-term benefits as this cream improves elasticity, smoothness, and hydration!

You read hydration, right? Another thing our skin does as we mature is its water retention goes down, making it that much more important for us to keep our skin hydrated! If you haven’t already, it’s about time for you to add a day cream or a night cream to your regimen. Consider Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream that delivers lifting effects to the delicate decollétage and neck area within just 15 days! Infused with Shea and Vitamin E this anti-aging cream provides fabulous tightening benefits while also packing in moisture to the skin.

Retinoids become your best friend at this point. If you need a good place to start, SkinCeuticals Retinol offers the highest concentration of retinol on the market, designed for maximum stability and efficiency. This retinol stimulates cell regeneration and collagen production, reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, while also helping with uneven skin texture and blotchiness!

Your 50s+

Richer cream
Pigmentation correction
Collagen booster

With the onset of menopause comes a drop in estrogen. This, in turn, causes a very significant decline in collagen. Your skin may not be what it used to be, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t look fabulous in your fifties as well.

By this point in your life hydration is the most important it’s ever been! Adding a richer moisturizer to your regimen will help your skin retain the moisture it needs to stay soft and supple.

A rich night cream like Erno Laszlo Phelityl Night Cream enriched with glycerin and sweet birch, is lightweight and non-greasy moisturizer that locks in hydration fills in fine lines and helps your skin’s natural rejuvenation process.

As you get older you may begin to see more hyperpigmentation. This is also a good time to start using a product that specifically targets those problem spots. SkinCeuticals Phyto+ is a gentle formula that reduces the appearances of age spots, with hyaluronic acid and infused with cucumber and thyme extracts to help soothe and calm discomfort. Overall leaving the skin with a fresh and revitalized feeling!

No matter where you are in your skincare journey, it’s never too late to improve! The more you take care of yourself, the healthier and happier you’ll look and feel. Discover more skincare essentials on our SkinStore website here.

SkinStore Editors

Writer and expert

Our team of beauty experts cover everything from skincare to makeup, picking out the most effective products from the best brands and latest trends. Stay up to date on everything beauty with the SkinStore blog, and find all your essentials in one place.