Surrey Homes | SH50 | December 2018 | Health & Beauty supplement inside

Sponsored by
How
to age
naturally
What does it mean to embrace the passage of time
– gently, holistically and positively? asks Eminé Rushton
Ageing – as natural as breathing. So, why do we strive
so very hard to stymie the passage of time? The
Western take on ageing is rooted in fear. We worry
that we’ll become less attractive, less relevant, less important.
A multi-billion pound industry feeds on this deeply ingrained
societal insecurity – promising ever-more innovative (and
sometimes ludicrous) ways to stop the clock.
73-year-old Helen Mirren put it brilliantly when she said,
“You only have two options in life: die young, or get old.
There is nothing else.” It would seem that Mirren’s candour
and common sense are steadily catching on.
“Traditional ways of marketing – specifically around age,
gender and ethnicity – are becoming less relevant,” says Alexia
Inge, co-founder of online beauty giant, Cult Beauty.
“There has been a slow move in focus away
from eternal, youthful perfection to a spirit of
positivity, confidence and psychological and
emotional health.” Whereas the impossibly
ironed-out face of a 50-something starlet might
once have propelled those anti-ageing product
sales, now we are savvier and increasingly cynical
and, crucially, fewer and fewer of us want to
look artificially ‘anti-aged’ in the first place.
As Inge explains, the beauty we most aspire to comes from
within – a glow of good health and happiness; a twinkle
in the eye. There is also a societal sea change happening
all around us too. After generations of insecurity-preying
advertising, women have savvied up and are ever more
vociferously rejecting archaic, limiting and perfectionpeddling
beauty ideals.
Big brands themselves are now embracing the pro-ageing
movement and across social media and glossy magazine
covers, the woman of the moment is increasingly real, wise,
strong and inspiring. So, if you’re feeling ready to embrace
“One of the
biggest impacters
on our outward
appearance is
nutrition ”
your age – whatever it is – here are some celebratory, soft and
kind ways to boost your inner and outer glow, and embrace
the skin that you are in.
Feed skin from within
We have all heard it before, but one of the biggest impacters
on our outward appearance and the vitality of our skin, is
nutrition. From getting a diet rich in essential fatty acids
(lovely, skin-restoring good fats, found readily in oily fish,
chia seeds, egg yolks, avocado and flaxseed oil), to those
naturally anti-ageing brightly coloured vegetables, red wine,
darkest chocolate and good olive oil (rich in antioxidant
polyphenols and phytonutrients, which, handily, help our
body mop up those prematurely ageing free radicals from UV
light, pollution and infrared-emitting devices),
it makes good skin sense to eat a varied,
delicious, natural diet.
Happy days for skin
I love Roald Dahl’s quote: “If you have good
thoughts they will shine out of your face like
sunbeams and you will always look lovely”
– because it’s true. Happiness is beautiful, and
there is a scientific reason for this, too.
When we are happy, when we smile, when we laugh, we
produce more serotonin. This happy hormone significantly
reduces our cortisol levels.
“Elevated cortisol levels induce
inflammation and suppress
the immune system,” says
dermatologist, Dr Jennifer
Linder. “Inflamed cells are
also prone to breaking down
collagen, the protein that
17 surrey-homes.co.uk