The term ‘anti-ageing’ has been widely used in the beauty industry for many years, but if we stop for a moment to consider what it means, ‘anti-ageing’ is actually derogatory. Why be ‘anti’ ageing? Ageing is a privilege, not a right.
Yes, women want to look as good as they possibly can. This is just as true for a 20 year old as it is for a 60 year old – whatever your age, time doesn’t change that. And as we get older, we inevitably start to see the changes in our face, in the form of lines, wrinkles, age spots and so on. But in today’s culture we have been programmed to believe that these are issues to be battled with and cured, with endless ‘miracle’ creams promising hope in a jar.
But there’s a welcome sea change happening in the beauty industry, as highlighted in the news recently when Allure magazine announced it was banning the expression from its pages. “Whether we know it or not, we’re subtly reinforcing the message that ageing is a condition we need to battle,” Michelle Lee wrote in her editor’s letter. “Changing the way we think about ageing starts with changing the way we talk about ageing.”
It’s a movement that has long been championed by influential beauty bloggers such as British Beauty Blogger, who are maximising their social impact to encourage a change for the better, by championing ageless beauty and dismissing the anti-ageing expression.
This is one of the values close to our hearts at Willowberry. You'll never see us use the term anti-ageing. We encourage a positive view of ageing – it’s a fact of life, not a disease to avoid at all costs. Wrinkles are a sign of the smiles, the tears, the laughs and every expression you have pulled throughout your eventful life. What’s not to love about that? When a family member looked at a photo of herself recently and said ‘Oh no, look at my creases’, I didn’t say ‘what creases?’ I said ‘I love your creases. They are part of who you are’.
We need to re-programme ourselves to learn to love our faces as they are. Our own individual beauty that makes each one of us unique. Of course we all want to look the best we possibly can and beauty products are often an integral part of that, but it needs to be from a realistic point of view such as using a moisturiser to provide hydration to dry skin and give it a healthy glow, rather than hoping a cream will make your wrinkles disappear. Because at the end of the day, no cream can do that.
