Three Essential Skin-Care Products If You’re in Perimenopause
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Welcome to Wrinkles Week on the Strategist, where we’re deeply vetting skin-care solutions for anyone who’s looking to smooth fine lines and wrinkles (or prevent them showing up in the first place). For more, head to ourWrinkles Week hub.
“Perimenopauseis when women come into my office and say, ‘One day, my face just fell apart,’” says Doris Day, M.D., M.A., a New York City dermatologist. We have declining levels of estrogen to thank. Estrogen keeps the skin radiant, plump, hydrated, and firm. So dropping levels have the opposite effect: Skin gets thinner, less firm and elastic, and more prone to irritation. To keep things simple, we’ve picked the three products for perimenopausal skin that’ll have the most impact. When you’re having a skin issue you don’t need to start your routine over from scratch (in fact, you probably shouldn’t). Too much change when you’re already in the middle of an issue can be overwhelming for both you and your skin.
Want to explore another skin-care type?Choose one here.
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Start by replacing some of the estrogen that you’ve lost. During perimenopause and menopause, some women may use vaginal estrogen creams to treat things like painful sex and dryness. If you’re one of them, don’t apply that cream to the face: “Prescription vaginal estradiol is not appropriately formulated for skin care,” says dermatologist and owner ofSkin & Aesthetic Surgery of Manhattan, Michelle Henry, M.D. There are prescription estrogen face creams that are formulated properly for the skin. “My patients who are on them say their skin is better hydrated and less reactive,” she says. Look for a cream like this one from Musely with estriol. “You don’t get as much systemic absorption as estradiol. But both versions work well,” said Dr. Henry.
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What your skin also needs right now is “moisture, moisture, moisture,” says Henry. “Hyaluronic acid serums, ceramides, fatty acids, and lots of antioxidants to protect your collagen.” Henry is a fan ofLancôme Rénergie H.C.F. Triple Serum, which combines hyaluronic acid, vitamin C, ferulic acid, and peptides and is packaged in a pretty three-chamber bottle that separates and preserves the actives until application. If you’re using both topical estrogen and retinol, Dr. Henry suggests using estrogen cream in the morning and retinol at night or on alternating days.
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One paradox of perimenopause is that just when your skin could benefit the most from retinol, you might not be able to use it. Says Henry, “Patients may no longer be able to tolerate the retinol they’ve been using for years.” If that’s you, your backup plan should be packed with peptides — short-chain amino acids that signal your skin to rebuild collagen and elastin — to pick up the slack, as it were. Henry likes this drugstore darlingOlay Regenerist Collagen Peptide Moisturizer, which uses clinically proven peptides plus cell-energizing niacinamide to give skin back its bounce without irritation.
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