This is What Skincare in Your Thirties Should Look Like

Thirty might not feel all that different from 29 or even 20, but right around that age your skin’s started a pretty significant transition that may leave it feeling drier and more irritated than it ever has. Strange spots also seem to crop up overnight when you are taking care of your skin.

It’s all completely normal. With skincare in your thirties, cell turnover starts to slow down and our skin recovers less easily from inflammation. Collagen and elastin breakdown faster, even as less of it is being made. And Hyaluronic acid, which is so vital to giving our skin that plump appearance, is also starting to wane.

Life, essentially, begins to catch up to our faces in our thirties. Forehead wrinkles and laugh lines become a little more prominent, and crow’s feet and bags under the eyes gradually appear. All of which is helped along by a loss of estrogen, which causes a loss of volume and bone mass in the skull, cheekbones, and jawline.

It’s easy to feel a bit helpless with skincare in your thirties, but you’re far from defenseless. Incorporate these tweaks to your skincare regimen and you’ll be able to stave off the earliest signs of aging for years to come.

Offset premature aging

Daunting as a slowing skin-cell turnover probably sounds, it’s a process that actually started in your twenties. Come your thirties, they’re turning over every 28 to 35 days, whereas they once turned over about every 14 days when you were a child.

There are a few things you can do to offset that effect. For starters, exfoliate twice a week with a gentle exfoliating scrub. Basically, you’re manually ridding your skin of the dead cells and revealing the newer ones underneath, which will not only help make your skin look more glowing it’ll also enable your face to better absorb products.

Next, seek out more vitamins, namely A, C, and E. They can be applied topically in the form of serums, toners, and moisturizers. They’ll slow the breakdown of collagen by reducing free radicals caused by drinking, exercise, UV sunlight, and pollution. You can also (and should) consume more antioxidant-rich foods, like berries, spinach, and avocados.

And if you aren’t already, slather on a broad-spectrum sunscreen every day. For all of the ways our bodies begin to work against us in our thirties, premature skin aging is still largely driven by sun exposure. Which makes a broad-spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher the most vital anti-aging skincare product you can own. It’s not sexy, I know, but it’s true.

Skincare in your thirties: be patient with acne

You probably thought you left acne behind in your late teens. But, thanks to changing hormones, adult female hormonal acne can rear its ugly head in your thirties. You can’t treat it the same, though, as you did those pimples during your teenage years. Adult skin is much less resilient than teenage skin.

So, avoid harsh, over-the-counter acne products that can really dry out your skin. Instead, use a gentle hydrating cleanser, spot treat blemishes, and be patient. Because your skin’s drier, more sensitive, and has a harder time recovering from inflammation, it’s going to take longer to see a result. And jumping to new products is likely to only make the acne worse.

Turning 30 isn’t the end of the world. Far from it. But your skin’s going to let you get away with less and less from here on out. Be proactive now and you’ll set yourself up for brighter, healthier looking skin for the rest of your life.