By Karen and Erica

We are on record as applauding Allure magazine for abandoning the use of the words “anti-aging.” We are also on record as saying that the only possible way to avoid aging is to expire young, which seems extreme.

Having said all of that, our dispute is with the language characterizing the products—not the products themselves. We acknowledge our age, but we reject the suggestion that our age means we are, or we need to look, “old.” Indeed, we might be OK with “anti-old” instead of “anti-aging”. And we have no problem using emollients or hair color that enhance what we look like at our age. We are pleased that L’Oreal Paris has made silver the hair color of the year. L’Oreal does silver better than most of us do naturally, so we accept the help. The point is to have ageless style, not to abandon products that can help us get there.

For the same reason, we are not that perturbed by the language that has replaced “anti-aging” in the marketing of cosmetics. We’re OK with “glow” and “radiance.” We founded Lustre, after all, which perfectly describes one of the main characteristics of women our age. We don’t love “anti-wrinkle,” but by the same token we don’t think we are required to have wrinkles just because we are over 50. Words like “clean” or “authentic” are also fine. In fact they make us a bit nostalgic—the “natural look” was in when we were growing up in the 60s.

Do we have to spend vast sums on beauty aids? We’re not sure. We’re not cosmetologists, but we suspect the main point of most of the face and body products is to moisturize, and we further suspect that it is probably not necessary to bathe in donkey milk in order to moisturize. But we like products that are well packaged, look and smell good, and smooth our skin. So we checked out what was on the market this year.

Town and Country magazine has a good roundup of high end products that moisturize. Some are still labeled “anti-aging,” because they haven’t caught up yet, but if you can get past the label, and if they work, you may want to try them. Some are really expensive, like YSL OR Rouge Face Cream, which we actually tried and which is pretty divine—and makes us look pretty divine. But we are also pretty happy with some of the much cheaper creams, including some on this list, like the Olay Regenerist line which we have used for years. And we recently learned about Vanicream. We tried it too. It works, it is affordable, and it couldn’t be simpler.

We would love to hear from you what you use. And whether you care about how it is advertised.