Beauty’s New Language Changed How I Feel About Getting Older

It’s 2014 and I’m in an aesthetician's office talking through her new skincare range. “Frown”, she tells me. I do so and she grimaces before saying, “There’s not a cream in the world that can help you”. 10 minutes later, she’s injecting Botox into my forehead. I’m 24 years old.

It was only 11 years ago, but it feels like a completely different time. The magazine I worked on still ran an annual Ageless issue—an entire edition dedicated to the pursuit of looking and feeling younger. Anti-ageing was everywhere. Tweakments were becoming mainstream, filters were smoothing out every wrinkle on Instagram, and comparison culture was quietly taking root.

Even at 24, Botox felt like a sensible idea. My youth was my biggest asset; my appearance, something I felt I had to preserve.

Now I’m 35, and that fearful mentality of ageing is still my default setting—I feel the cognitive dissonance of getting older while working in beauty acutely. I seem to find myself reaching for the tweezers when I spot a grey hair and I keep up with my regular tweakments and skincare routine—after years in the industry they are habits that have become second nature.

But, thankfully, something is slowly shifting. In my head, and in the wider industry. “Anti-ageing” is starting to sound antiquated—the term is even being banned on progressive media titles. In its place, a new word has taken centre stage: longevity. Not just the superficial pursuit of looking young, but of living well for longer. And the more I learn, the more I realise this isn’t just a rebrand; it’s a quiet rewiring of how we think about getting older. The question is not just why, but why now?

“The shift could be rooted in improved education, science within regenerative approaches becoming more mainstream across social and media,” says consultant plastic surgeon Paul Banwell. “Science has advanced at a remarkable pace, and advances in regenerative science and medical-grade skincare have made early intervention even more meaningful.” Take the new treatments that stimulate the skin to repair itself, like biostimulating injectables from polynucleotides to exosomes, which originated in regenerative fields such as wound-healing and drug delivery systems before making their way into mainstream wellness and beauty. Major players like L’Oréal Groupe are also directing significant research into longevity science and skin biology, reinforcing how deeply the industry’s priorities have evolved.

It’s also more neutral. Anti-ageing is, by definition, negative, built on the idea of resisting and rejecting what’s natural. Longevity, by contrast, focuses on empowerment and optimisation—supporting your body rather than fighting it. “When I first started in the industry in the mid-1980s, everything was positioned as ‘anti-ageing’ as if time itself were an enemy we should be battling,” says Ruby Hammer MBE, the global makeup artist, brand founder and beauty expert. “I was on the popular Channel 4 programme 10 Years Younger, and the entire premise was about reversing the clock. That was the mindset of the time: fix, fight, conceal. Today, we know better. Ageing isn’t a flaw; it’s a privilege.”

According to Hammer, healthy skin, at whatever age, is beautiful, and the wave of new skincare products appearing on shelves mirrors her sentiment. Their focus is on entirely new metrics, such as barrier integrity, hydration levels and inflammation score, rather than simply erasing wrinkles or looking younger.

“There’s been a definite shift from fixing to future-proofing,” says Dr Christine Hall, dermatologist at Taktouk Clinic. “Patients are coming in younger now – not wanting dramatic changes, but wanting to ‘bank collagen’ and support their skin long-term. It’s far more about prevention than correction.”

Dr Banwell agrees: “The whole conversation has evolved. Patients today aren’t coming in with a list of things they want to ‘correct’; they’re asking how to support their skin for the future. Early, subtle interventions combined with disciplined skincare can deliver incredibly elegant, natural results.”

Cynics will wonder whether longevity is just anti-ageing, rebranded – and they would be right to question it. “The effectiveness of the old ‘anti-ageing’ messaging was rooted in exploiting fundamental psychological vulnerabilities, primarily social comparison and the need for social acceptance,” says Thomas Midgley, a CBT psychotherapist and body-image specialist at The Body Image Treatment Clinic. “Most of the women I treat feel pressure around ageing because of social comparison—the deep-seated need to maintain social status and ranking among other women.” If longevity simply becomes a new standard to measure yourself against, the pressure doesn’t disappear, it just changes shape.

And there is always the potential for marketers to exploit it. We’re already seeing the extreme end of longevity, such the billionaire biohacker who injected himself with his son’s plasma, alongside endless IV drips and the relentless optimisation culture. “I believe empowerment means having genuine choice—where women feel free to make decisions about their bodies based on their own values, not fear or external pressure,” says Dr Helena Lewis-Smith, Associate Professor of Psychology at UWE Bristol. “The red flags appear when something framed as ‘empowering’ is actually subtle social pressure wrapped up as empowerment.” In other words, longevity may sound like a gentler, more pragmatic approach to self-care, but the cogs of the commercial machinery are constantly turning.

Despite this, at its heart, longevity is more personal and more inward-looking than traditional beauty stances. No one knows that my skin’s biological age is 33, or that my skin barrier has never been more resilient. These new metrics are private and invisible, belonging only to me. And this is what feels genuinely empowering. It’s ownership. It’s reclaiming my skin as something to care for, not to be broadcast for approval.

“Authenticity is about making peace with the process,” says Hammer. “Every single day you are older is a day you’re alive—that’s something to celebrate. Confidence in ageing comes from owning your choices, caring for your skin and your wellbeing, and refusing to let anyone dictate what ‘acceptable’ looks like.”

As I edge further and further into my thirties, I’m realising that defying ageing isn’t the end goal. It’s about feeling at home in the skin I’m already in. I’m not going to pretend like I haven’t got my next Botox top-up booked. But the grip of the age-old fear is loosening. Longevity gives me permission to put myself before the approval of others and that feels like progress enough.

The Skin Longevity Edit

With skin longevity in mind, these are the products I’ve grown to depend on to support natural collagen production, boost barrier resilience and give my skin a quiet, healthy glow.