Menopausal Skin Heroes: Vichy Mineral 89 Probiotic Fractions, Biossance Squalane + Copper Peptides

Vichy and Biossance weren’t necessarily thinking of women with dry, ‘mature’ skin when they created these two serums, but I would like to thank them both from the bottom of my desiccated little heart.

Just adding moisture to dry skin always struck me as a wasted opportunity, so thank god for serums in general for their high water content plus skincare ingredients. But thank god for these two specifically, for boosting my skin’s defences for the long-term, while keeping me from looking like a wrinkly sphynx cat in the short term.

Vichy Mineral 89 Probiotic Fractions Regenerating and Repairing Booster, $49.95, Shoppers Drug Mart, is a Six Million Dollar Man (better, stronger, faster) version of Vichy’s classic Mineral 89 hyaluronic acid and thermal-water-loaded skin booster. Vichy Mineral 89 Probiotic Fractions adds 4% niacinamide to help even out skin tone and juice up your skin’s defences to protect against moisture loss while probiotic fractions optimize the good bacteria on your skin and strengthen its barrier function. All this in the original, cooling, jellified water formulation. It’s great straight out of the shower.

Because the entire Biossance line is built around squalane (a sugarcane-derived version of squalene, a component of our skin’s sebum that sadly diminishes as we age) it’s perfect for menopausal women. Squalane is a truly lightweight oil that absorbs easily to lock in moisture and its anti-inflammatory properties help reduce redness. Biossance Squalane and Copper Peptide Rapid Plumping Serum ($88, Sephora) gives menopause-dried skin elasticity, softness and moisture while the copper peptides stimulate the growth of skin-firming collagen and elastin to plump skin and soften fine lines.

Shaving Face: Peach Fuzz Belongs on Fruit (repost)

Gillette Venus Extra Smooth Sensitive multi-blade razor is the best dermaplaning tool.

I’m reposting this from two years ago to remind you that you do NOT need single blade ‘dermaplaning wands’ to shave peach fuzz and dead skin cells from your face. Schick just launched a pack of six such ‘wands’ for $25 and I know you have better things to spend that money on. Keep reading to find out how to dermaplane safely with a well-made, proper razor and stop buying unnecessary things.

***

Some of the things that my mother didn’t warn me about turning 50:

• Thinning lips

• Increased chance of UTIs (That one was definitely unexpected)

• Overnight, weed-like growth of facial hair

And I don’t mean chin hairs — the stealthy ones that you don’t see until they're an inch long, that you tweeze and wonder if you’re becoming a werewolf.

What’s a real nuisance is the all-over “peach fuzz” that appears at menopause when your estrogen levels fall while androgens (primarily testosterone) rise. This ‘vellus hair’ (unlike the thicker ‘terminal’ hair of whiskers, brows, lashes and the hair on your head) may appear in a “male pattern distribution” that starts as pale, downy sideburns and can soon colonize your entire face. Get enough of it and you look fuzzily Muppet-ish when the light hits it just right.

You can go to a med spa for dermaplaning, where someone in a white coat goes at your face with a sharp, single blade, removing that top layer of dead skin to stimulate cell turnover and enhance the penetration of your anti-aging skincare products. As a bonus it takes all that peach fuzz along with it.

But because I am semi-lazy while also being high maintenance, I do it myself and remove the fuzz and dead skin with a proper, multi-blade razor. I don’t trust dedicated, lady face-shaving devices or single-blade ‘wands’ that come in multi-packs. Plus, using a razor with multiple blades “allow(s) you to cut more hairs with less strokes and less irritation," California-based dermatologist Dr. Peterson Pierre recently told Good Housekeeping magazine.

I want the sharp, safe razors built by the obsessives at Procter & Gamble who spend their days worrying about blade-on-skin friction ratios, say things like “we do more welding than most car manufacturers” and get excited by the fact that “the radius of the blade’s tip is 25 nanometers.” (That’s one millimetre divided by 40,000, in case you didn’t know.) 

The Venus Extra Smooth Sensitive razor is perfect for any face-shaving newbie, and with five ‘low cutting force’ blades and a lubricant strip, designed to minimize irritation, it’s already meant for sensitive skin.

Please note that this is an off-label use, that is NOT RECOMMENDED BY THE BRAND. They would say that their Gillette blades for men are designed for faces while the women’s are meant for the straight-away real estate that is your underarms and legs. 

But unlike men who have to go under the chin and down their tender necks and all over uneven terrain (a skill that takes years to master), female vellus hair really just grows in that afore-mentioned sideburn pattern, so you will only be shaving flat areas anyways.

Which I do. I make a point of shaving the fuzzy outer portion of my face in the shower whenever I change blade cartridges. That way I'm using the sharpest blades possible, ensuring an easier and closer shave. And don't worry about the hair growing back thicker if you shave it off. Hair is dead when you cut it, so that’s a myth. It might feel spikier because you razored the ends which makes them pointier. That’s it.

And do remember that peach fuzz and dead skin cell removal will leave your skin receptive to the brightening properties of a Vitamin C serum.

So shave, and then apply some vitamin C and consider that a morning well spent.

Heavenly-Smelling Weleda Sheer Hydration Moisture Mist Fights Inescapable January

I love Tiktoks of men showing off the beer fridges built into the sides of their man-cave couches. I want tricked-out seating too, but I’d prefer a Montauk 'Scarlett' armchair, with a hidden fridge stash of Weleda Sheer Hydration Moisture Mist, bottled water and some cubed watermelon.

New from Weleda (and perfect timed to counteract January’s moisture-free air and general awfulness) Sheer Hydration Moisture Mist, $19.99, contains prickly pear cactus extract which helps winter-ravaged skin retain water. Prickly pear cactus leaves are full of mucilage, (the same ingredient in kindergarten glue), which is loaded with water-bonding polysaccharides. Add aloe vera juice, skin-plumping betaine and water-attracting glycerine and you have a near-perfect moisture delivery system.

It smells wonderful, its green mandarin and palmarosa scent providing an olfactory jolt of happy along with the moisture surge. Palmarosa smells like a field of roses took a beach vacation: lightly rosy, sunny and energizing.

The range also includes moisturizing lotion, cream and unscented eye gel that could live in your couchfridge™ to soothe Zoom-weary eyes. But for instant gratification, the hydrating mist is it. When you are too lethargic to open tubes and moisturize, you can always manage to lift an arm and spritz.

Aveeno Restorative Skin Therapy Soothes Itchy “Dragon Shins”

Aveeno Restorative Skin Therapy Itch Relief Balm is a descriptive, but not terribly fun, name.

In Through the Looking Glass, the Red Queen famously tells Alice “it takes all the running you can do to stay in the same place.” Which, in menopause terms, means that after 50 you spend a lot more time moisturizing skin that now feels like it shrunk in the wash. Estrogen loss thins the skin at the same time as you’re losing collagen, losing moisture (thank you, slowed down lipid production) and losing all that juicy, subcutaneous fat.

Throw in the moisture-free, super-dry air of a classic Canadian winter and you have the recipe for the itchy skin that comes from a disrupted skin barrier made worse by scratching. This is dramatically visible on one’s shins - once gleamingly smooth and reflective, they are now rather scaly and dragon-ish.

You can’t just slap on thick cream and hope for the best. You need something that will strengthen your skin barrier and calm the itch, while feeling nice (otherwise you won’t actually use it.)

Right now, Aveeno Restorative Skin Therapy Itch Relief Balm, $9.77, Walmart, is the only thing preventing me from relentlessly clawing away at my itchy, dry shins. If I were in their marketing department, I would change the name to Aveeno Anti-Dragon Shin Balm, complete with a menacing dragon graphic wrapped around the tube.

This balm contains colloidal oatmeal, which not only “possesses antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties” to soothe inflammation, but oats are also a prebiotic, encouraging the proliferation of good, protective bacteria in your skin’s microbiome. Plus, for immediate itch relief, it also has the topical analgesic Pramoxine Hydrochloride, a light anesthetic (NOT a steroid) that effectively soothes your skin so you don’t scratch. Because it’s that wretched scratching that keeps the cycle of disruption going and prevents your skin from healing.

I’m not done with the dragon simile though. I’m going to hunt down a sticker of a dragon to put on my tube. My Covid lockdown-awakened obsession with childhood things continues apace.

Dr. Roebuck's Surf Chaser Reverse Aging Serum for the Impossible to Please

Not too heavy, not too light

It’s easy to get Goldilocks-level picky about skincare: one serum is too watery, or a cream is too heavy and smells old ladyish. (But why are so many rich creams strongly fragranced? Do brands think anyone with dry skin is an elderly women who has lost her sense of smell?)

If your skin has gotten drier and lightweight serums feel like a waste of time, Dr. Roebuck’s Surf Chaser Reverse Aging Serum ($75 Can, Shoppers Drug Mart) will give you the the right amount of soothing moisture without feeling sticky, heavy, gloopy.

Surf Chaser calls itself a serum, which I don’t get at all, because it’s almost a lightweight balm, disappearing handily into skin but leaving it feeling nicely plumped and smoothed. It has what cosmetic formulators call an ‘elegant texture’ and is perfect for when you just need a little bit more but don’t want to start spackling with super-rich creams. 

And as nice as it feels, Surf Chaser also feeds your skin with peptides and amino acids to support collage production and minimize the look of wrinkles, and it contains Spilanthes Acmella Flower Extract, a natural active ingredient which mimics the effects of Botox and may even stimulate collagen production.

Dr. Roebuck’s is an Australian dermatologist brand, run by the good doctors’ (not a typo, both parents were doctors) twin daughters who exude cheer, intelligence and good health. They radiate a kind of glamorous practicality, like you’d be an idiot not to use what makes them so glowy.

Dr. Roebuck’s feels like an under-the-radar discovery, despite having been around since 2012 and having launched in Canada in 2014. (A soothing cream for reactive skin based on a 30 year old recipe was their first product.)

The line’s marketing trots out all the standard green beauty buzzwords, assuring you that it contains ‘no nasties’, but textures and cutting edge ingredients and formulas (and spare, elegant packaging) make it feel luxe, so you don’t have to sacrifice anything to stay green.

Caudalie Beauty Elixir: Why Live Without It?

Just because something is frivolous doesn’t mean it’s not essential

Sure you can live without Caudalie Beauty Elixir, but why would you want to? Are the pleasures in your life so thick on the ground that you can afford to reject one?

You skin certainly doesn’t need Caudalie Beauty Elixir. For cooling you could just splash on cold water from the tap, but then you’d miss out on that famous scent: a garden’s worth of rose, orange blossom, rosemary, along with benzoin and myrrh and Caudalie’s signature grape water loaded with polysaccharides for moisture and mineral salts to calm redness.

Without it, your days, which can seem endless at the 4:00 p.m. mark, whether you are working from home or not, would be a lot greyer. “It’s the Starbucks coffee of the skin,” says Caudalie founder Mathilde Thomas, selling it rather short, frankly. It is, in fact, the “stroll-through-Paris-with-your-lover-on-a-sunny-day-and-then-have-a-tête-à-tête-in-a-sidewalk-cafe” of the skin.

This year’s limited edition bottle, with its pink ombré glass and line drawings of herbs and flowers, will easily be the nicest-looking thing in your fridge. Keep it stowed there (a work from home benefit) for regular, chilly blasts during these endlessly hot days. Or spray the air around you in a witchy ritual to banish dull air and dull thoughts and make your workspace just that much nicer. And Frencher.

Shaving Face: Peach Fuzz Belongs on Fruit

Gillette Venus Extra Smooth Sensitive is the best dermaplaning tool

Some of the things that my mother didn’t warn me about turning 50:

• Thinning lips

• Increased chance of UTIs (This one strikes me as extraordinarily cruel)

• Overnight, weed-like growth of facial hair

And I don’t mean chin hairs, like the stealthy ones that you don’t see until they're an inch long and beginning to curl. So you marvel at their length, tweeze them and wonder if you’re slowly becoming a werewolf.

No. I’m talking about the all-over “peach fuzz” that can appear when menopause hits and your estrogen levels fall while androgens (primarily testosterone) rise. This ‘vellus hair’ (unlike the thicker ‘terminal’ hair of whiskers, brows, lashes and the hair on your head) may appear in a “male pattern distribution” that starts as pale, downy sideburns and soon threatens to colonize your entire face. Get enough of it and you start looking like a Muppet when the light hits it just right.

Sure, in “the before times”, you could go to a med spa for dermaplaning, where a nice woman in a white coat would go at your face with a sharp, single blade, removing that top layer of dead skin to stimulate cell turnover and enhance the penetration of your anti-aging skincare products. And as a bonus it would take all that peach fuzz along with it.

But because I am horribly lazy (and possibly cheap?) while also being high maintenance, I like to DIY and shave the fuzz off myself with a proper razor. 

I don’t trust dedicated, lady face-shaving devices (usually pink) or single-use blades with flimsy plastic handles that come in multi-packs. I want a sharp, safe razor built by the obsessives at Procter & Gamble who spend their days worrying about blade-on-skin friction ratios, say things like “we do more welding than most car manufacturers” and get excited by the fact that “the radius of the blade’s tip is 25 nanometers.” (That’s one millimetre divided by 40,000, in case you didn’t know.) 

The Venus Extra Smooth Sensitive razor ($15, drugstores) is perfect for any face-shaving newbie, and with five ‘low cutting force’ blades and a lubricant strip, designed to minimize irritation, it’s already meant for sensitive skin.

Please note that this is an off-label use, that is NOT RECOMMENDED BY THE BRAND. They would say that their Gillette blades for men are designed for faces while the women’s are meant for the straight-away real estate that is your underarms and legs. 

But unlike men who have to go under the chin and down their tender (so very tender) necks and all over uneven terrain (a skill that takes years to master), female vellus hair really just grows in that afore-mentioned sideburn pattern, so you will only be shaving flat areas anyways.

Which I do. I make a point of shaving the fuzzy outer portion of my face in the shower whenever I change blade cartridges. That way I'm using the sharpest blades possible, which means an easier and closer shave. And don't worry about the hair growing back thicker if you shave it off. Hair is dead when you cut it, so that’s a myth. It might feel spikier because you razored the ends which makes them pointier. That’s it.

And do remember that peach fuzz and dead skin cell removal will leave your skin receptive to the brightening properties of Vitamin C. (I always encourage the use of vitamin C.)

So shave, and then apply some vitamin C serum and consider that a morning well spent.