Old? Really? How So?
October 21 | 5 minute read
Words by Jean Godfrey-June
We shouldn’t be surprised when gorgeous people age and somehow… still look gorgeous, but we are surprised – if they’re female.
I remember the jolt of looking behind the curtain of cultural programming when a famously beautiful friend of mine laughed at me after I’d winced about turning 38 or 39. “Look at me,” she commanded. “Look at me! I’m 41! It’s great! Look! It’s just not that bad!”
Most of the things I’d always thought spelled disaster in the looks department turned out to be big, fat fake-outs from our hate-the-ladies culture. For example, I assumed I’d have to work hard to “get back into shape” after having a baby, when the truth turned out to be that your body goes back into shape on its own, eventually, with or without SoulCycle.
By far the biggest fake-out was getting old – as if there is an actual ‘old’; old has meant 20, to every one of us, at some point. There really is only an ‘older’: you are older than you were last year. A 26 year old is older than a 20 year old.
My friend, the body-positivity activist, Katie Sturino, always says, “There’s no destination with size.” Meaning that the size 4s in her office had the same body issues as the size 18s. There’s no body that’s the ‘right size’ in our culture, and for well over half of our lives – if we’re female – no age is acceptable, either.
Our entire lifetime is spent ageing. The ageing accelerates and slows at various points (adolescence, for example, is the time of our bodies’ most rapid ageing), but it’s a birth-to-death process.
I’m 60, but I remember feeling that turning 25 was pretty much the beginning of the end. Every big-decade birthday, my mum always remarks that she can’t believe she has a daughter who’s x age, and then she sighs and tells me how great that decade was for her. “Oh, my fifties were so great,” she’ll say. My fifties turned out to be great, too – more fun than my wildest imaginings. This myth that there’s a line you cross and everything goes to hell is just nothing but poison.
The myth that beauty products (or anything else) can keep you on the ‘right’ side of the imaginary line turns what should be a sensory pleasure into something fear-based – beauty into ugliness. Beauty products are fun and intriguing and sensual and sometimes just drop-dead gorgeous. They’re there to make us feel beautiful. If something doesn’t make you feel beautiful – and this rule applies to much more in life than simply lipsticks and perfumes – do not add to cart.
JEAN GODFREY-JUNE’S MECCA SHOPPING LIST
If I could only have only 3 GOOP items…
I would be ok. Because these are the three:
The new Youth Boost Peptide serum surprised even world-famous plastic surgeon (and very charming, very handsome long-time Gwyneth friend, which is how we connected with him) Dr Julius Few. Dr Few conducted the clinical trials on the serum, and I remember him texting some of the before-and-after photos as they came in – the results were actually jaw-dropping. Like, I could not believe what I was looking at.
Unlike most age-focused skin treatments, it has no exfoliating action, so it works with products that do (you can layer it over retinoids and AHAs to great effect, just wait a few minutes between layers), and it works under makeup, too. You can use it all the time, and if you do, your skin improves – wrinkles, brightness, everything – to a pretty amazing degree.
I couldn’t understand the concept behind this hair serum – putting it in your hair before shampooing made no sense. Why wouldn’t the shampoo wash out any benefits? But somehow it really, really works. It works so well that I hoard this serum a bit. Like if I used it every time I washed my hair, I wouldn’t be able to rely on the significant improvements it delivers – it smooths frizz, amps up shine and gives your hair amazing texture, all of which lasts until the next shampoo.
When I need a great hair day, I crack out the serum, put it on, wait 20 minutes, and shampoo as usual. It never, ever fails.
You could be a teenager or you could be in your seventies, any skin type, doesn’t matter – use vitamin C every day, and your skin will be better, full stop. Vitamin C gives your skin a noticeable, healthy glow and improves it overall by fighting free radicals (compounds that damage and break down skin).
It’s been studied extensively, and it works, but this vitamin C is the one because unlike most vitamin C serums, it stays fully potent.
When it touches water, vitamin C degrades. It doesn’t become bad for you, it just becomes ineffective. This happens even in formulas filled with preservatives. The GOOP solution is that you buy two bottles – vitamin C powder plus hyaluronic serum – and mix them together when you’re ready to use, and it lasts for three months (it’s a three-month supply). Try it for a week and tell me you don’t start getting unprompted compliments on your skin.
If I could add some other favourites to my cart …
I’d go to town, in precisely this way:
These three constitute a total and forever hair upgrade: less frizz, less breakage, more silkiness, shine and softness, and a significantly more luxurious, self-indulgent (the good kind) routine.
The Rich Cream is a worldwide bestseller because it’s superior. If your skin gets dry, this is the fix. And the hot pink ( ‘Coral’) sheer tinted balm instantly wakes up my whole face. Sofia Coppola (who designed it) is a sheer-lip-tint obsessive and she has perfected the form.
The best scent in the chicest pump container (aluminium = more sustainable, also). Your shower will look better, feel better and smell better.
I am obsessed with anything Flamingo Estate – anything they make, I repeat, I want. The tomato candle makes me feel like I’m high up on some sunny terrace in their LA villa. The body wash is gigantic and looks (and smells) fantastic in any shower.
I alternate between these two, because I literally cannot choose. They’re chic, sophisticated, complex, fresh, totally original, sexy, sunny – absolutely irresistible.
When your skin needs serious richness, bring it. (Fender concocted it for her Florida clients who needed it to take to Aspen. Particularly amazing on a plane, btw.)
I have a pale spot right in the arch of one brow; one flick of this and I don’t, all day.
This isn’t just ‘great clean mascara’, it’s just great – inky-black, lush, non-smudging and ultra-defining – mascara.
This extremely easy to use, elegant pen will change your life. Use it, connect-the-dots style, to fill in at the very base of your lashes: it’s the ultimate ‘no-makeup makeup’. It defines your eyes practically invisibly – you’ll need one coat of mascara, max, but your eyes will look wide awake, bright and enormous.
