

Thintervention: Get Firm Skin

Get tight, firm skin with these anti-aging skin products

Lisa Shin

It's part of the irony of getting older: While you're logging hours at the gym trying to keep extra inches off your waistline, the areas where skinny isn't a good thing keep getting thinner. "Skin starts to lose its youthful volume in our mid-twenties, and our hair loses it shortly thereafter," says Macrene Alexiades-Armenakas, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant clinical professor of dermatology at Yale University School of Medicine. "Excess sun exposure or smoking can speed up the damage." Factor in naturally occurring bone and fat loss and hormonal triggers, and you have the perfect recipe for skimpier hair, slimmer lips, and fragile skin that can make you look years older. Thankfully, you can beef up these beauty assets: Women who received hyaluronic acid fillers in the cheeks and nasolabial folds (the creases that run from the edges of the nose to the outer corners of the lips) were perceived to be 6.1 to 7.3 years younger than their actual ages, according to a study in Dermatologic Surgery. Read on for less invasive ways to get similar age-defying effects.


The skinny: Think of collagen and elastin as the power couple you hope never breaks up; when they do, your taut cheeks start to go south. "Collagen is the skin's scaffolding; it creates a nice tension on the surface," says Alexiades-Armenakas. "When it disintegrates, the skin starts to thin and you get wrinkles."

Meanwhile, degenerating elastin causes skin to lose firmness and tone, which is when you start to see sagging. The biggest saboteur of both: the sun. That's why sun-exposed areas like the cheeks and jawline thin, sag, and wrinkle faster than the forehead, which is often covered by hair.

Fatten up: Retinoids are the topical ingredient most proven to stimulate collagen production. Prescription Retin-A is the strongest, but OTC retinol (SkinCeuticals Retinol 1.0 Night Cream, $59, skinceuticals.com) packs an effective punch too. It can often be irritating, so choose one in a cream base and smooth it on every other night for several weeks, so your skin can adjust, before moving to nightly use. And always apply an SPF 30 sunscreen year-round, even if you're indoors, since UVA rays can penetrate windows.

Fake it: For pinchable cheeks, choose a moisturizing serum that has micronized hyaluronic acid, which floods the skin with water, making it appear fuller. Try Dermadoctor Wrinkle Revenge Lift & Replenish Serum ($65, dermadoctor.com). Top that with a silicone-gel-based primer. "It fills fine lines and creates a barrier so that makeup won't sink into your wrinkles," says Quinn. The shimmer from a rose-gold blush doesn't hurt, either: By reflecting the light, it will visually pad sunken cheeks. "Apply it on the sides of your face and dust into the hairline for a lifted look," says Quinn.

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