The teen and young adult years aren’t the only time to focus on your appearance and look younger. In fact, with a few simple tips and habits, you can age gracefully and maintain a youthful look in your 50s. Here are some of the best ways to look younger in your 50s and keep your beauty routine age-appropriate.
Take Care of Your Skin
One of the most important steps in combating the signs of aging is taking care of your skin. That means cleansing your skin regularly, using moisturizers with SPF, exfoliating several times a week, and using anti-aging serums to reduce the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines.
Additionally, ditch the heavy foundation and opt for lighter coverage. Heavy coverage can actually make your skin look older and can settle into fine lines and wrinkles. A tinted moisturizer and a bit of concealer can give you a more natural and youthful look.
Eat a Healthy Diet
Your diet plays a major role in your skin’s health and appearance. Eating too many processed foods, refined sugar, and unhealthy fats can have a dramatic effect on your skin’s appearance and cause it to look dry and aged.
Instead, make sure to eat a healthy diet filled with fruits, vegetables, healthy fats, and proteins. Or, consider adding supplements like collagen peptides or other anti-aging supplements to your diet to help keep your skin looking youthful and wrinkle-free.
Avoid Sun Damage
In your fifties, you may be tempted to enjoy more time out in the sun, but sun exposure can be damaging to your skin. UV radiation from the sun is one of the most common causes of premature aging.
To keep your skin looking younger for longer, make sure to wear sunscreen every day, and for extended periods of time in the sun. Try to wear hats and sunglasses as much as possible to avoid sun damage and lines and wrinkles around your eyes.
Stay Hydrated
Staying hydrated is essential for any age, but it is especially important in your fifties. Water helps replenish and maintain skin elasticity and helps keep it soft and smooth. It also helps flush out toxins, which can cause your skin to look dull and aged.
In addition to drinking plenty of water, use moisturizers after washing your skin and applying products. Facial oils and face masks can also help keep your skin looking hydrated and youthful.
Get Regular Exercise
Exercise isn’t just about weight loss and keeping your heart healthy. It also helps keep your skin looking younger. That’s because exercise helps bring more blood to the skin, which can help keep wrinkles and lines from appearing.
Make sure to focus not just on aerobic exercise, but also strength-training exercises. These can help build more muscle tone beneath the skin, giving it a firmer, younger look.
Get Enough Sleep
Your mom was right—you really do need your beauty rest. Without enough sleep, your skin is more prone to wrinkles and breakouts, and it can also have a dull, ashen appearance. Lack of sleep also causes a build-up of cortisol—the stress hormone—which can cause you to have dark circles under your eyes.
Aim to get an uninterrupted seven to eight hours of sleep each night. Make sure your bedroom is cool, dark, and comfortable and trial other bedtime habits like exercising earlier in the day, reducing your night-time caffeine intake, and avoiding blue light from your devices before bed.
Use Eye Cream
One of the first places you’ll start to show signs of age is around your eyes. That’s why it’s important to use eye cream as part of your anti-aging routine. Look for an eye cream that contains hyaluronic acid, peptides, antioxidants, and ceramides, as these ingredients can help keep your eyelids and the skin around your eyes looking firm and wrinkle-free.
Vitamin C Serum
If you’re looking for one product you can add to your beauty regimen to help keep your skin looking young in your 50s, it should be a vitamin C serum. Vitamin C helps promote collagen production and can help protect your skin from UV damage.
It can also help even out your skin tone, reduce the appearance of fine lines, and help keep your skin looking luminous and youthful. Make sure to use it twice daily, in the morning and at night, and follow up with a moisturizer.
Avoid Bad Habits
One of the biggest contributors to premature aging is bad habits. That means staying away from cigarettes and cutting back on your alcohol consumption (especially drinks high in sugar). Smoking and drinking can actually strip your skin of its essential nutrients and reduce collagen production, making your skin look older and wrinkle-prone.
In addition, make sure to minimize your stress levels. Stress can also lead to premature aging, so try to limit stressful activities and find ways to relax and de-stress like yoga and meditation.
It’s important to keep in mind that the best way to keep your skin looking youthful and ageless for years to come is to use a combination of all of these tips. Eat a healthy, balanced diet, take care of your skin, avoid sun damage and bad habits, use eye cream and vitamin C serum, stay hydrated, get enough sleep, and exercise regularly. Most importantly, be consistent—each and every day—with your beauty routine to keep your skin looking younger and glowing.
