We Do Want to Look Great. We Do Not Want to Look Younger.

Erica and Karen

We regularly rant about the anti-aging marketing of cosmetics. 

We are not against cosmetics. Far from it. We want them and need them, and wish we knew more about how to use them to better effect. But we are not interested in anti-aging. We are interested in pro-aging. We are in our seventies, and proud of it. We want to keep aging, since the alternative is a full stop. We want to look our best. Cosmetics can help.

We agree completely that taking care of ourselves, including our faces, is important. But that is a far different thing from trying to eliminate from our faces the evidence that we have lived for decades. As one writer put it:

Just a few years ago, I was completely oblivious to the fine lines on my face. Now, it seems they’re all I can see when looking in the mirror, often making me feel like they’re something that needs “fixing.” 

Again, it’s important to take care of your skin, but it’s also completely normal—not to mention a privilege—to show evidence of aging. It’s beautiful that our bodies offer us proof of living, laughing, loving, and reacting.

Marketing to us by calling a product anti-aging does not work. Nor would any suggestion that our faces need to be fixed. Pro-aging would work nicely.

We have also often noted that fear of aging is instilled, especially in girls, very young–for no good reason. That message is now targeting younger and younger people. Apparently a cohort of Gen Alpha (born between 2010 and the mid 2020s) uses the appellation Sephora Kids:

[G]en Alpha are busy buying products containing ingredients such as retinol, harsh exfoliating acids or pricey moisturisers, toners and serums designed to minimise the effects of aging. In other words, products that traditionally have been aimed at slightly older consumers.

It’s big business.

A publicly listed company, e.l.f.’s stock prices have been “off the charts” lately, [Denish Shah, an associate professor of marketing at Georgia State University’s Robinson College of Business] says. Throughout the past year, e.l.f.’s stock price has surged 203%, per Marketwatch. And those soaring stock prices are a direct result of e.l.f.’s enormous sales growth.

“The company’s sales have increased exponentially over the past year, and that’s significant because they position themselves as really affordable cosmetics. And if you look at their marketing efforts, they’re all targeted toward that tween demographic,” says Shah.[

We can’t speak to the physical effects of very young people using anti-aging products. But it seems obvious that young people do not need such products. As Allure Magazine notes, children need to age.

[T]here is real emotional danger when it comes to anti-aging marketing and the psyche of children and teenagers. The trend of younger and younger girls worrying about aging has been on the rise for years, as evidenced both by research and the content teens are posting on the internet. When researching this piece, it didn’t take me long to find several TikToks from recent years that alarmed me: someone showing the results from getting Botox in their forehead at 18; a 14-year-old sharing the routine she uses to “slow down the aging process;” another teenager touting the advantages of early wrinkle prevention. The internet is rife with this kind of content.

But kids need to age, to grow! That’s their entire job, and it’s society’s responsibility to help them do that safely and healthily—and without harmful beauty standards being thrust upon them.

It also seems obvious that telling young people to fear aging conveys the message that people, especially women, have a sell-by date, and that date gets earlier and earlier. We don’t think better of it because men are now also being targeted–though perhaps not at such young ages–by ads like this:

Based on advanced dermatological research, this anti-aging cream is engineered to combat the signs of aging. Formulated for daily use, Particle Face Cream is the ultimate solution for men who want to look healthy and youthful.

We’ll keep using cosmetics–and doing everything else we can to stay fit and healthy and to look our wonderful ages. And we’ll keep trying to get the message out–age is a wonderful privilege, entirely consistent with looking good. Don’t run from it, revel in it. No matter how old you are.