There's an entire industry built on trying to reverse wrinkles, with shelves of products promising to 'erase' the hard-earned lines on our faces and endless in-clinic offerings claiming to reverse the years.
Yet, according to one aesthetics expert, your wrinkles aren't the main culprit when it comes to making you look older.
Dr. Fiona McCarthy of The Bronte Clinic cautions that there are other concerns that could be impacting your skin, making you look older than you feel – and you might not have even realised.
Which skin condition ages you more than wrinkles?
Dr. McCarthy says that uneven skin tone, with dark spots and sun damage, sometimes known as hyperpigmentation, is more ageing than wrinkles.
"In The Bronte Clinic, we see women from their late 30s onwards who didn't use SPF and are paying for it. We roasted ourselves when we were younger in the sun and on sunbeds and it is showing."
Pigmentation can often worsen in midlife, she says. "Our skin health changes, particularly at this stage of midlife when we are going through the perimenopause.
"We become more prone to sensitive skin, our barrier function changes and we are more susceptible to pigmentation and redness."
Luckily, there are ways to lessen these issues and create a flawless skin canvas, helping us look fresh and youthful.
"If your skin is lovely, glowy and clear, it makes everyone look more youthful. So much so that you may decide you don't mind your natural wrinkles," she says.
How to get a good skin canvas
Before heading to an aesthetic clinic to treat wrinkles with injectables, you should start the work in your own bathroom to get your base in tip top condition.
1. SPF is not just for sun days
"What you do at home every day will have the biggest impact on your skin," says Dr. McCarthy. "Follow a sensible skin care routine with an SPF30 minimum every day as the last step after moisturiser.
"SPF in your makeup doesn't provide sufficient as the protection is minimal," she cautions.
2.
"Add antioxidants to your routine," she says. "Vitamin C is the best one as it improves pigmentation, UV damage and stimulates collagen. It is a one-stop shop for everything."
3.
"A Vitamin A, such as a retinol or tretinoin, is the gold standard in anti-aging, although I hate that word!
"The ingredient is good for skin tone and texture as it increases the cell turnover, so helps reduce the appearance of lines and wrinkles and improve the skin texture, and skin tone."
Once your home skin care routine is sorted, you can move on to the fun stuff to max out the results.
4. BBL treatments
"I am a huge believer in broadband light BBL,” Dr. McCarthy says, explaining: "This is a light-based therapy that improves pigmentation and blood vessels on the face. It looks at the red and brown patches in the skin and extracts them quickly, with the end result being fresh, glowy skin.
"Gene expression studies have shown that BBL also turns on anti-aging genes, so it ends up being a preventive treatment too."
BBL treatments are an investment and can range from around £575 for a single treatment but the results can be instant and effective. "Once you have lovely clear, glowing skin everything else can flow from there,” says Dr McCarthy, who adds: "When you have skin that good, you may realise you aren't as bothered by your natural wrinkles and choose to embrace them instead."