Vaccines have proven very effective in medicine to prevent disease. So Givenchy must have thought: why not take that idea of a vaccine and use it to fight aging!

They came up with this new product: Givenchy’s Vax’in for Youth Serum. The serum was a collaboration of Givenchy with high-profle biogerontologist Professor Suresh Rattan and it promises to improve cellular repair processes which will give a boost to your skin.

The serum works by causing ‘stress’ to the skin cells which in turn try to defend themselves with an age-defying protein known as HSP70.

The serum aims to prevent aging and is therefore recommended for women as young as 25,

It’s a very interesting idea but it will be hard to tell if it actually works. I haven’t seen many online reviews of this product yet, so if you have tried I would be keen to hear what you thought of it.

All the best,

If you have ever thought of any kind of cosmetic surgery or are considering any procedures, then you can consider reading the book: Fabulous Faces by Dr. Adamson, an Otolaryngologist — Head and Neck Surgeon, practicing in facial plastic surgery.  Rather than just describing the procedures, this book goes into depth on why you would want surgery in the first place and narrates the experience from patients from decision making all the way to recovery. The book was given to me for review on this site.

Why have plastic surgery?

Is beauty important? Should I really be spending all this money on surgery on myself? Is it too self-indulgant to have surgery? Am I not taking too big risks just for the sake of vanity? These are just some of the questions the book is trying to answer. It actually does this by narrating the experiences from many previous patients in Peter Adamson’s practice. They tell about how they came to make the decision to ‘have work done’ and how this decision taking process can sometimes take more than 20 years.

Of course all interviewees have actually proceeded with the surgery so you don’t get the point of view of women and men that have opted not to go ahead, but it is clear that for most of the women and men it was not an easy or instant decision. Peter Adamson actually emphasizes that a lot of thought usually goes in and should go into the decison to undergo cosmetic surgery.

From the book:

James writes, “As I reflect back, one main theme jumps up continually and that is that you should have the surgery for one person’s satisfaction, and only one persons’s satifaction, and that person is yourself. You’re setting yourself up for failure otherwise.”.

Reasons for surgery and ‘blending in’

Another theme that comes back time and time again in the book, is that plastic surgery should not be about creating someone new but rather about ‘blending in’ and looking natural. Certainly for older women and men, the emphasis is more on restoring what was once there and getting rid of the often ‘depressed” or ‘angry’ look that you can develop as you get older, rather than altering things.

From the book:

“Most people who have cosmetic facial surgery are driven by a desire to discover and reveal who they really are. It’s not about looking for the “new me”. It’s about finding the “real me”.

Finding the right doctor and what to expect

The book goes on to give some pointers on how to find the right doctor and exactly what to expect at your consultations. It does this, as before, by telling the stories of patients. Patients tell about their procedures through recollection and through diaries that they have kept and also give recommendations on the best way to recover from the procedure.

From the book:

Day 1: The Zombie look. “Shortly before the 7 a.m. discharge time, the doctor comes in to examine me. The operation went well. My head is generously wrapped all around in white gauze. It’s the zombie look. The swelling, combined with the dressing, seem to double my head’s volume.”.

Wo should buy this book?

I think this is a good book for anyone thinking about cosmetic surgery. This book may answer a lot of questions about the procedure itself but also about the lingering questions whether you really think it’s the right thing to do for you. It does not gloss over all the concerns people may have or the discomfort you may have after the surgery. However, bear in mind that you will read only the experiences of women that went ahead with the procedure and were happy with the outcome, so you will not get the opposite point of view.

For more info on the book and to buy at Amazon: Fabulous Faces: From Motivation to Transformation Through Facial Plastic Surgery

I have written about blueberries before in my posts anti-aging antioxidant superfoods and the power of berries and why you need our recipe.

But now new research by the Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Centre has revealed that blueberries are even better for you than we already knew! In addition to being a powerful antioxidant, it is now believed that the berries also contain compounds that help with building strong, healthy bones.

Although the research has only been carried out on rats the results are promising. The rats that were given a food ration containing 10% freeze-dried blueberry powder had significantly higher bone mass as apposed to the the group that were fed normal meals.

This would suggest that the compounds in blueberries that also give blueberries their colour, called polyphenols, also contribute to bone health. As you can imagine that would be excellent news as we could then take positive action in preventing osteoporosis.

Further research will need to be done to examine all the effects of polyphenols on humans, but this research is encouraging and extra reason to start consuming blueberries or blueberry extract.

Photo by Simply Bike

Growing older comes with its challenges. One of them is to decide what you’re going to focus on and what you want to do with your life. As you approach ‘the second half of life’, these questions become more urgent. There is only so much time left and you never know how much time you still have in perfect health.

When you realise that, you also realise that there is no time like the present. If there were ever things that you want to do with your life, there really is no point delaying. The best time is now.

Ok, that’s all well and good, but what if you don’t know what to do in the now? What if you don’t know what you still want to achieve or what your purpose is?

Dorothy from Aging Abundantly wrote a blog about this recently: What am I supposed to be doing now that I’m alsmost old? And she came up with the idea that we need to look more into the past.

What? Have we not been taught not to dwell too much in the past? Aren’t we supposed to live in the now and at least plan or set goals for the future? I even wrote a blog post about this a while ago: why there is no point dwelling in the past.

But she does make a good point though. If we’re kinda lost and we don’t know what makes us happy or what our goals should be, a lot of the answers to this can actually be found in the past. Think about the times when you were happiest in your life? Why was that? Which elements were present for you to feel this happy or energetic? Then you could write a shortlist and actively work towards bringing these elements back into your current life. When I look back at times when I was really happy, these elements were present:

• Good friends
• Exciting living environment and new experiences
• Music and dance
• Creativity
• Sport

So here is what I’m doing:

• I’m going to make more friends both on- and offline. This is a challenge as I live abroad in an expat world and 2 of my best friends have just left. I also tend to sit too much behind my computer…
  As for online I’ve incorporate an old site and I’ve now setup an even more personal site SylviaOnTheWeb that I will use to send people to and connect more on a personal level.
• I’m doing even more work that excites me. This involves doing less work for clients and more work on my own websites. I’ve come to accept that I can’t just concentrate on one website, but want to keep several and write about things that occupy my mind at any particular time.
• I’ve taken up photography. I’ve bought a fantastic new camera and am really enjoying looking at the world with different eyes and capturing it all.
• I’m going to travel even more and capture the experience. I’m leaving in one week for the Netherlands and after that 3 weeks more in the USA and Canada. Very much looking forward to that.
• I’ve got to find a way of bringing more dance and music into day to day. This is a challenge as one dance I love, the argentine tango, is difficult to participate in here in Singapore due to a lack of male dancers.
• I’m not going to feel too guilty about spending money on fashion. I love it and it’s fun. Check out my new website of beauty, style and fashion for women over 40.
• And of course I’m going to enjoy spending time with my family.

I’m actually really enjoying myself now. I’m starting to accept that I can’t just focus on one thing, but want to do a whole lot of differnent things and just go with the flow. That is working for now.

So how about you? How do you feel about getting older? Do you know what you want to do in the second part of life?

I had the pleasure to interview Mr Jeff Murad, Vice President Product Development of Murad Skincare. He provided a lot of interesting insight on how our skin ages and how we can best avoid it. Learn about the ceallular water principle, the main thing you need to do to delay aging, the cultural stress phenomenon and topical hormonal treatment.  Enjoy!

What is the focus of Murad Skincare?

Jeff Murad: “The main philosophy behind all of our products is something we call the cellular water principle. There are countless theories on aging disease, the free radical theory, the telomere theory. But what they all have in common is a reduction in water within the body cells. So all of our products, our supplements and topical products are all designed to help rebuild the cell membranes and refill the cells with water, so that they can function more like they did when we we were younger.

So how exactly can you restore the water balance within your cells?

Jeff Murad: “There are a number of ways that you can do that. The most important is providing the body with the substances it needs to help rebuild the cell membranes, like essential fatty acids and certain amino acids. You also need antioxidants and anti-inflammatories to help prevent the damage to the cell membranes and then ingredients like osmolites that help attract water inside the cell.

What would a typical Murad treatment plan be for someone over 40 who is starting to develop wrinkles?

Jeff Murad: “We recommend a range called age reform . In addition to solving the problem with the cell membranes we also want to add water to the connective tissue like the dermis and the cells above the dermis, the epidermis. So we have a supplement called youth builder which provides your dermis with everything it needs to attract water. That will help rebuild the elastin, the collagen, the hyaluronic acid within the dermis. And then we have the topical range that helps treat the genetic aging, which is the aging we are all going to go through. The main target there is fine lines and wrinkles.

It’s a 3 stop process:

1. Cleanser
2. Treatment: in this particular line it’s called the intensive wrinkle reducer
3. Moisturizer: 2 moisturizers, Perfecting day cream and night moisturizer, which is calledPerfecting night cream.

What is your view of natural products versus products using synthetics?

Jeff Murad: I think a lot of botanicals have a lot to offer. There are a lot of plants that have evolved over the course of time to protect themselves from the environment and the sun’s rays, so these ingredients can be just as effective on human skin as they can be for the plants. So yes, there is a wealth of benefits to be found in the natural world, but we don’t like to limit ourselves just to that. We definitely make as much use of that as we can but we also use peptides, glycolic acid and other ingredients.

What is the most important thing women over 40 can do to improve their appearance?

Jeff Murad: The most important thing is sunscreen.

So use a separate sunscreen or have it as part of your moisturizer?

Jeff Murad: there is no need to have it separately. If you have a good moisturizer with an SPF you don’t need 2 products to do the same thing.

But how to cope with the Singapore weather if for example you play 2 hours of tennis in the full sun?

Jeff Murad: We have different products for different types of activities. One of our sunscreens is called waterproof sunblock and that’s designed to stay on  (spf 30).

Do all your moisturizers contain spf?

Jeff Murad: Yes our day moisturizers all contain spf.

So what about some doctors saying that we have gone too far with sun protection and we are not getting enough vitamin D?

Jeff Murad: I think you will always want to protect your face from the sun at the very least. It’s probably a good idea to get some sun somewhere on your body for 5-10 minutes a day, for example your arm or your leg, but your face has the most delicate skin on your body. It’s also the part of your body that is so expressive that you’re constantly causing these wrinkles, so you don’t want to increase the effect of that with all this UV damage. You really can’t protect your face enough from the sun.

Especially with this humid weather, and especially if you are doing physical activity I would definitely recommend a water resistant or waterproof sunscreen product.

Another thing is that if you’re worried about vitamin D, vitamin D supplements are very effective. You don’t need the sun for vitamin D.

How to prevent the little pigmentation spots that you get while getting older, sunsreen again?

Yes,  the sun is responsible for most of the hyper pigmentation that we see, but there are different ways of treating them as you get them.

What about little spots that you get, that don’t go away?

Exfoliation is great for retexturizing your skin, making it smooth and firm, so treatment is also very important. You can use ingredients like glycolic acid  and help exfoliate the dead skin and uneven skin tone and vitamin C to help brighten and lighten those dark spots. Treatment is very important but the most damage that we see in the skin comes from the sun.

Do I need to wear sunscreen even I’m inside ?

You need uva protectection when your’re inside. The UV rays which cause sunburns, can’t penetrate through glass and they don’t really penetrate through clouds, but UVA rays which are the longer waves  do much more of the damage that cause wrinkles. They can penetrate through glass and through clouds so you should use a good UVA protection no matter what the weather is.

How to cope with Singapore’s weather condition where you have really humid weather but then find yourself often in air conditioned spaces?

Humidly is probably better, because it provides more hydration for your skin, but at the same with all of that heat and all the sweating, it’s going to cause your sunscreen to come off more quickly. So you may want to reapply more often or use a water resistant sunscreen. Indoors, or with a lot of air conditioning and dryer environments, you want to use something that is really going to hydrate your skin and prevent water loss to really prepare the barrier function of your skin.

In Dr Murad’s new book “The Water Secret: The Cellular Breakthrough to Look and Feel 10 Years Younger”, he discusses the cultural stress phenomenon? What exactly does he mean by that?

Jeff Murad: Nowadays people work around the clock a lot more. They are connected on the internet 24 hours a day. A lot of people are working and living in more urban environments and at the same time there is a lot more isoltation because there is less human contact. And that isolation and that stress has an effect on your cells and your complexion as well. So you want to address your nutrition, your topical products which would be your sunscreeens, but it is also important to address your emotional wellbeing to really address your cellular health.

How exactly does this stress affect cellular health?

Jeff Murad: There is a definite link between you mental state and your cellular state. They’ve done studies with medical students and right before final exams, there is a lot less water within their cells. So when they’re stressed their cellular menbranes are much weaker. So all your neurons, your brain, your way of thinking,  your mood, your immune system, your skin and your hormonal system are all connected. So when one of them is weaker, it’s going to affect all of them.

What is your take on hormone balancing for older women?

Jeff Murad: A reduction in esterogen causes a lot of mainly negative effects for the skin. You may see more dullness, your skin may start to break out more along the jaw line, you lose elasticity in the skin, so we actually have a line of products specifically targeted to hormonal aging. The main ingredients in there are phytoestrogens, like soy and wild yam and red clover extract, to help replace some of the lost esterogen.  They help topically. When your use phytoestrogens, they help fill in the absense of the natural esterogen in your skin.

How about melatonin?

Jeff Murad: Melatonin is not really an anti-aging supplement. Melataton is a hormone that is produced in your body naturally. And you produce less of it as you get older. It’s what adjusts your internal clock. It’s a great anti-oxidant and it will also help regulate your sleep patterns. If you are someone who has trouble sleeping, melatonin is a good ingredient. We actually also have a product called sleep reform which is a topical serum which has some melatonin in it. And what we found is that skin cells all have melatonin receptors and that melatonin is much more bioavailable through the skin, than it is through the digestive tracts. The serum is excellent because it keeps your skin hydrated but it also infuses your body with the melatonin it needs to help repair itself while you sleep overnight. As far as I know our product is the only melatonin topical serum.

It’s great for traveelling. Perfect for jetlag.

Any further advice for women over 40?

Jeff Murad: In addition to using sunscreens and eating the right foods like fruits and vegetables, make sure that you take time for yourself. And allow yourself to de-stress and maintain passion in your life and keep your mood elevated. That is going to have much more impact on your complexion than anyone realises.

Hope you enjoyed this interview! If you want to find out more about Murad products then check out their website at: www.murad.com

All the best,

Did you realise that Madonna is already 52 years old? Yet if you look at the image below you wouldn’t say so. Even though you may have seen the images where Madonna was seen without makeup and sagging skin, clearly showing the results of gravity and proving that she is just like us, there is no denying that on gala events she looks absolutely stunning.

Why is Madonna an anti-aging icon?

To me Madonna is a true anti-aging icon. She is a personification of aging with style and grace while at the same time ignoring all the ‘rules’ of dressing age appropriately. She will still dress very sexy in rock gear while going out with her young boyfriend to a night club and still performs at her own concerts with next to nothing on.

Here are just some of the things Madonaa does to stay young at heart and looking great.

• She has a vigourous workout regime which includes weight training, yoga and cardio.
• She consumes an extremely healthy macrobiotic diet.
• She keeps her mind active with new business ventures.
• She dates a far younger boyfriend.
• She uses some of the best skincare products available.
• I’m sure she also has cosmetic treatments on a regular basis. But since she does nothing too radical it keepsher look fresh and natural.

What do you think? Do you find Madonna inspiring?

All the best,

As you grow older, strength training and exercize becomes more important. Strength training helps to increase  bone mineral density and can prevent osteoporosis and weakness of bones.

However, if you are like me, you do not enjoy spending any (significant) amount of time in the gym. I have tried several times and I basically get so extremely bored that I never last for more than 30 minutes, if at all. So I’m always looking for quick, fun and effective ways to get any strength training. At the moment I certainly don’t do enough.

So, when I came across a fitness training that promised to give the same results in less time, I was definitely interested. Enter: Power Plate®.

What is PowerPlate®

Power Plate® is a device that vibrates the body while doing exercise. The vibrations result in energy waves throughout the body, leading to muscle contractions of about 25 to 50 times per second. The vibrations aim to accelerate your fitness training so that you get more benefit from your workout in a shorter time.

What are the benefits?

Using the Power Plate has the following benefits:

• The vibrations cause an immediate improvement in blood circulation
• Muscles become stronger and more flexible
• Your cellulite may be reduced
• Vibration stimulates incrreased bone mineral density
• You will recover quicker from any injuries

My experience

I’ve just started working out with Power Plate® and my first impression is very good. The ‘class’ is not very long at all and my class ended with a bit of massage from the Power Plate®. As the classes are shorter, you will be able to push yourself a bit further and get maximum benefit from your training session. In the beginning the vibrations feel a bit strange, but I got used to it pretty quickly. I think it’s essential to have a good trainer though, that will make sure you are doing the exercizes correctly.

Who else is using it?

Although it was new to me, apparently the Power Plate® has already been discovered by various stars like Clint Eastwood, Claudia Schiffer, Courtney Cox, Sting, Hillary Swank and Rachel Weisz, to name but a few. I was surprised to see how many studios there are in my area using the Power Plate®!

Where to go for Power Plate® training?

There are already many places where you can practice with the Power Plate®. If you want to find a training centre near you, a good place to start is this website.

How about you? Have you tried the Power Plate® yet? Has it been effective for you?

All the best,

In our last section of our over 40 makeup lesson we discussed the eyebrows and eyes. Here we will proceed with the final touches of the makeup as we proceed with blusher, bronzer and concealer.

Blusher

Blusher is used to add some extra colour to the face to make your cheeks appear naturally healthier.Before applying blusher make sure to dab your brush into a tissue first to avoid a big plash of colour concentrating on one place. You can use a sponge to blend the blusher well over your face. The clip below shows clearly where you should apply the blusher.

Bronzer

Bronzer is something I do not normally use so it was interesting to learn how you can use it to define and contour your face. You use it to highlight the prominent part of your face and to draw attention away from the shadows at the side or a facial shape that is not desired. Maninder explains this a lot better than me in the below clip, where she will also show how to apply a bronzer.

Concealer

I talked about concealer in the first section of our over 40 makeup lesson where Maninder explained that is better to  apply concealer last, so that you can cover up any smudges from the other makeup. Of course, the concealer will also be used to cover up the dark shadows under the eyes. As explained before it is best to use a fluid concealer for the thin and sensitive skin underneath the eyes. Concealer is then applied by tapping the concealer on to the face as the clip below will demonstrate.

Well, there you have it. That’s the end of the makeup lesson. So how did I look after the session? Here are some before and after pictures. Let me know what you think!

All the best,

This is the second in my how to apply makeup after 40 series. I asked Maninder Krishnan, a makeup artist and image consultant, to give me a makeup lesson on how to properly apply makeup, suitable for an over 40 woman. Last time we discussed foundation and powder, this time we will look at the eyebrows and eye makeup.

Eyebrows

You may want to use an eye brow pencil to give your eyebrows more definition of fill in some empty patches. However, it is important not to draw just a line with the pencil, as Maninder says: “Everything in makeup is about blending.” A good tip from Maninder is to use an angled brush instead of the pencil. Take the colour from the pencil and then apply with the angled brush. Maninder also shares some good tips on how to determine where to end your eyebrows.

Eye Makeup

I don’t have a lot of eye makeup and the pallette I have recently bought consists of 4 colours ranging from light pink to dark purple. Not very suitable for day according to Maninder, since these are frosted colours as well.

A good tip in applying eye makeup is to use foundation over the whole eyelid. It evens out the skin tone and lightens the eye. Since I have quite deep set eyes, it was decided to only use minimal eye shadow. It was amazing for me to realise that Maninder also agreed that eye shadow didn’t really work so well for my eyes. Perhaps my natural instincs of hardly using any eye shadow all these years was right. However, she felt it was important to define my eyes with eye liner and apply mascara, to make the eyes come out a bit more. She also used foundation on part of the eyelid.

Mascara

In order to get a good application of mascara it is important to brush the mascara on the eye lashes and sweep it out. This will result in full, balanced eyelahes. Check the below clip for a demonstration by Maninder.

Well, that’s the eyes covered. Tomorrow the finishing touches. Blusher, concealer, lipstick and before and after pics!

All the best,

I’m absolutely terrible when it comes to applying makeup. I have always been quite a bit of a fan of going “natural”. Or you could just call me lazy because I do like to get ready within 5 mintures when it comes to makeup. However, I do find that as I get older I also start to look more ‘tired’ or ‘depresseed’. Add to that the extra lines and more unevenness in the skin and I can imagine that a little makeup would actually make me look better.

Time for a makeup lesson!

I made a few attempts at applying makeup and bought a few products, but was only half happy with the results. So I decided to take action and invite makeup artist and image consultant Maninder Krishnan, director of Imagendme, over to give me a makeup lesson. In the coming posts I will summarize some of the highlights of this lesson and show you some video clips on how to apply makeup.

Foundation

Foundation becomes increasingly important as you need to cover up more blemishes and colour changes in older skin. There are a few things you need to keep in mind:

• The foundation should give you enough coverage without being too thick.
• The foundation should look as natural as possible.
• The colour should match your skin exactly. Usually liquid foundation is best.

Foundation application

It is important to apply foundation the right way. It is best not to use your fingers when applying foundation or as Maninder says “when you are using your fingers you are rubbing the foundation in like a moisture.That way you will not cover any redness or spots you might have”.

So it’s better to use a sponge. With the sponge you will have to make sure though that it is porus enough to absorb the foundation. Check out this clip for a detailed explanation and demonstration of applying foundation. The foundation used on me was Chanel’s Lift Lumiere, no. 40.

Concealer

I asked Maninder about using a consealer, especially for those areas underneath the eyes. “The skin underneath the eyes is the part that wrinkles first and is the softest part of the skin. You will need the lightest coverage there. The concealer needs to be smooth and creamy and not dry. Otherwise it will just go into the creases and cake up, which would make your wrinkles or dark spots more obvious.

Another good tip is to NOT apply your consealer straight after your foundation. As you will still do your eye make. Some eye makeup will usually fall in the area just below the eyes and things can get very messy if eye consealer has already been applied there. More on concealer in an upcoming post where I will also share a clip of the makeup lesson.

Powder

Loose powder is very good to use to solidify makeup, set your foundation and get rid of shiny ness.

Compact powder is very convenient to use when you are on the road. Using a brush is always better than using a sponge as it gives you a very even application. A sponge can make your powder application very patchy. However, it can be a good option when you are out on the road. Make sure though that you use quite a few strokes to blend the powder well.

How do you know if you have enough powder on your face? Check your face for shiny spots and matt them out with the powder. As your face will get oily quite quickly again when going out, you may want to use a bit more than you think you need.

Here is a clip where Maninder shows how to apply powder. Apologies for a bit of noise at the beginning of the video….

That’s all that I will cover from the makeup lesson today. Tomorrow we will go into more detail on eyebrows, eye makeup and after that blusher, bronzer and concealer.

Both me and Maninder are very happy to answer any questions you may have so if you have a qeustion just ask it in the comments below.

All the best,