Does Your Skincare Routine Change with Age?

In short

🔑 At any age, the three steps are the same: cleanse, moisturise and protect from the sun. What changes over the years is what gets added on top, not the base.
Skin collagen declines with age, and in women it is lower at every age. It is a measured fact, not a line from a brochure.
The menopause is the change that weighs most, and it is not gradual: the lack of oestrogen thins the skin, takes away collagen and elasticity, dries it out and reduces its blood supply.
⚠️ A good part of what we call “age” is accumulated sun. It is why daily sun protection is the best investment at 25 and at 60.
⚠️ The retinoid goes in when the skin tolerates it, not when a birthday says so, and with the stepped schedule.
🚨 A new mark, a lesion that changes or one that bleeds are not “just age”: they are looked at in the consulting room.

A routine does not change because you have a birthday: it changes when your skin changes. And skin does change with age, yes, but also with accumulated sun, with hormones, with smoking and with genetics, and those things do not all move at the same pace. There is 30-year-old skin with more sun damage than other skin at 50, and that is why a routine by decade — “the 30s one”, “the 40s one” — is a magazine format, not a clinical criterion.

What can be stated with data is what changes in the skin over time and which steps in a routine answer to that. That is the content of this page. And it also explains a decision of our tool that surprises people who use it: age is not among its eight questions.

This page sits inside the dermocosmetics guide. If what you are after is the specific routine for working on wrinkles and texture, with products and two budgets, it is in the anti-ageing routine.

What really changes over the years

Collagen falls, and not equally in everyone

The classic work that measured this took a large sample of healthy people and measured the collagen of forearm skin, dermal thickness and collagen density. The results: skin collagen declines with age and is lower in women at every age, and there is a direct relationship between collagen and the thickness of the dermis.

That is what lies behind thinner skin, wounds taking longer and lines showing even when the face is at rest. No cosmetic gives that collagen back; what a well-tolerated retinoid used consistently achieves is an improvement in the quality of the surface and of the texture.

The menopause, which is a step and not a slope

Here the change is different in kind. The review of oestrogens and skin ageing describes it precisely: oestrogen deficiency after the menopause produces atrophic changes and accelerates skin ageing. Oestrogens modulate skin physiology through keratinocytes, fibroblasts, melanocytes, follicles and sebaceous glands, and they improve angiogenesis, wound healing and the immune response. When they are missing, the skin becomes thinner, with less collagen, less elasticity, more wrinkles, more dryness and less vascularisation, and its defence against oxidative stress falls.

Translated into a routine: it is the point at which many people need to change the texture of their moisturiser — from a gel to a cream — and at which the skin tolerates less well what it used to cope with. It is not that an anti-ageing product is “due”: it is that the ground has changed.

⚠️ The same review goes over the role of hormone therapy and of selective oestrogen receptor modulators. That is medicine, not skincare, and it is decided with whoever is managing your menopause.

And what is not age is sun

A good part of what we put down to the calendar is photoageing: the difference between the skin of the face and that of the buttock on the same person at 60 is the household proof. And there is a trial that quantifies it: in 903 adults followed for four and a half years, skin ageing measured by microtopography was 24% lower in those using sunscreen daily than in those using it at their own discretion.

It is the only cosmetic with a long-term randomised trial behind it. And it is the one least related to age: it works just as well at 20 as at 70.

Two of the three clocks cannot be stopped. The third explains why sun protection does not depend on age.

Why our tool does not ask your age

The skincare routine tool asks eight questions: how your skin is most of the year, what you would like to improve, whether you have used retinol or acids, whether you have had recent surgery or a recent treatment, whether you are pregnant, whether you have been diagnosed with a skin disease, and whether you want your sun protection to add colour and in what shade.

Age is not there. It is not an oversight: it is the signatories’ decision, and the reason is that age adds nothing the other questions do not capture better.

If your skin is drier than it used to be, you have already said so in the first question, and the routine changes its base.
If what worries you is wrinkles and texture, you have already said so in the second, and the retinoid goes in.
If you have never used actives, you say so in the third, and the retinoid goes in on the lowest step, whether you are 32 or 58.

Asking your age would be good for one thing: selling you more products for having birthdays, which is exactly what we do not want the tool to do. Skin of 45 with no sun damage and no dryness needs less than skin of 35 with both.

What it is worth having at each stage

It is not a routine by decade: it is an order of priorities that holds at any age and is filled out according to what happens.

Always, from the moment you decide to look after your skin: a gentle cleanser, a moisturiser suited to the skin you have now and daily sunscreen. That is already a complete routine, and in many cases it is enough.

When a priority appears — texture, pigmentation, spots, redness — the treatment that matches it is added, just one, and given time. The retinol trials measure at 24 weeks.

When the skin changes its behaviour — drier, more reactive, duller — what is adjusted first is the texture of the moisturiser and how harsh the cleanser is, not the number of actives.

When skincare reaches its ceiling, the next step is not a more expensive bottle: it is a treatment in the consulting room. Our tool says so at the end of every routine.

A routine is extended by what the skin does, not by the year that is starting.

Frequently asked questions

At what age should you start using anti-wrinkle products?

There is no age. The product with the most evidence against ageing is sunscreen, and that is worth using from adolescence. The retinoid is introduced when there is a priority of texture or wrinkles and the skin can tolerate it, with the stepped schedule in how to start with retinol.

Do I need a specific cream “for mature skin”?

What you need is the texture and composition your skin is asking for now, and that often coincides with what is sold under that label: richer formulations. But “for mature skin” is neither a legal category nor a criterion: look at the skin, not at the claim on the pack.

Does the routine change at the menopause?

It usually does, and above all in two things: the moisturiser moves to a richer texture and tolerance of actives falls, so you have to go more slowly. The lack of oestrogen thins the skin and reduces its collagen, elasticity and vascularisation; sunscreen and the retinoid remain the steps with evidence, and the skin sets the pace.

Is collagen in a cream any use?

Collagen applied to the skin does not replace the collagen in the dermis: the molecule is too large to get there. And there is a figure behind that, it is not an opinion: the reference rule for skin penetration holds that a molecule has to weigh less than 500 Daltons to cross the stratum corneum, and a collagen molecule weighs in the order of hundreds of thousands of Daltons. It is not near the limit: it exceeds it by three orders of magnitude. It works as a moisturising agent on the surface, which is not nothing, but it is not what the name promises. What does change the quality of the dermis with evidence behind it is the retinoid, and slowly.

And collagen supplements?

There the trials do exist, and they deserve an answer rather than a referral. Two systematic reviews with meta-analysis, independent of each other, point the same way: one brought together 26 randomised trials and 1,721 patients and found significant improvements in hydration and elasticity against placebo; the other, with 19 studies and 1,125 participants, found them in hydration, elasticity and wrinkles, with the effect at 90 days.

⚠️ And now the caveats, which come from the literature itself and not from us: the first of those meta-analyses expressly identifies several biases in the trials it pools and calls for large trials to confirm it, and the second drew a letter published in the same journal questioning the heterogeneity of the studies it added together.

🔑 Translated: there is a measurable effect — with instruments, not by eye — on hydration and elasticity, it is modest, it takes about three months and the quality of the trials is disputed. It does not replace anything on this page and it does not restore what is lost in the dermis. With that on the table, anyone who finds it worthwhile is making a perfectly reasonable decision.

At 20, are a moisturiser and sunscreen enough?

Almost always yes, with a gentle cleanser added. If there are spots or visible pores, that is already a specific priority and the routine changes for that reason, not because of age. It is in the routine for spot-prone skin and open pores.

I have been told that from 40 onwards you have to use stronger products. Is that right?

No. The concentration goes up when the skin tolerates the previous one, and there is skin that never needs to move past the low step. Going up by age is the quickest way to get irritated and give up, and irritated skin gets worse at exactly what you wanted to improve.

Sources

Shuster S, Black MM, McVitie E. The influence of age and sex on skin thickness, skin collagen and density. British Journal of Dermatology, 1975;93(6):639-643. PMID 1220811. — It measured skin collagen, dermal thickness and collagen density on the forearm in a large series of healthy people: skin collagen declines with age and is lower in women at every age, with a direct relationship between collagen and the thickness of the dermis. It is the classic reference for the finding, and its authors warn that dermal thickness is no guide to collagen content where there is disease.
Thornton MJ. Estrogens and aging skin. Dermato-Endocrinology, 2013;5(2):264-270. PMID 24194966. — A review of the effect of oestrogens on human skin: their deficiency after the menopause produces atrophic changes and accelerates skin ageing; the skin becomes thinner, with less collagen, less elasticity, more wrinkles, more dryness and less vascularisation, and its defence against oxidative stress falls. It also goes over hormone therapy, selective oestrogen receptor modulators and phyto-oestrogens, which are medical decisions, not cosmetic ones.
Hughes MCB, Williams GM, Baker P, Green AC. Sunscreen and prevention of skin aging: a randomized trial. Annals of Internal Medicine, 2013;158(11):781-790. PMID 23732711. — A 4.5-year randomised trial in 903 adults: 24% less skin ageing measured by microtopography with daily sunscreen use than with discretionary use. The reason sun protection does not depend on age.
Kafi R, Kwak HS, Schumacher WE, et al. Improvement of naturally aged skin with vitamin A (retinol). Archives of Dermatology, 2007;143(5):606-612. PMID 17515510. — Randomised, double-blind, arm-against-arm trial with 0.4% retinol three times a week for 24 weeks in 36 people with a mean age of 87: significant improvement in fine wrinkles against the vehicle. ⚠️ A very elderly population and arm skin: it supports the mechanism and the timescale, not a result that can be promised by decade.
Bos JD, Meinardi MM. The 500 Dalton rule for the skin penetration of chemical compounds and drugs. Experimental Dermatology, 2000;9(3):165-169. PMID 10839713. — It holds that a compound’s molecular weight must be below 500 Daltons to allow skin absorption, and that larger molecules do not cross the stratum corneum. Three arguments: practically all known contact allergens are below 500 Daltons, as are the active substances in common topical use in dermatology and every drug used in transdermal systems. ⚠️ It is a reference rule with described exceptions in the range of hundreds of Daltons; here the difference is not within that margin.
Pu SY, Huang YL, Pu CM, Kang YN, Hoang KD. Effects of Oral Collagen for Skin Anti-Aging: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Nutrients, 2023;15(9):2080. PMID 37432180. — A meta-analysis of 26 randomised trials with 1,721 patients: hydrolysed collagen significantly improved hydration (Z = 4.94; p < 0.00001) and elasticity (Z = 4.49; p < 0.00001) against placebo. The effect on hydration varied with the source of the collagen and the duration of intake, with no significant differences for elasticity. ⚠️ The authors themselves identify several biases in the included trials and call for large trials to confirm the findings.
de Miranda RB, Weimer P, Rossi RC. Effects of hydrolyzed collagen supplementation on skin aging: a systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Dermatology, 2021;60(12):1449-1461. PMID 33742704. — 19 randomised, double-blind, controlled studies with 1,125 participants aged 20 to 70 (95% women): results favourable to placebo in hydration, elasticity and wrinkles, with hydration and elasticity also confirmed in the subgroup meta-analysis; the authors conclude that intake over 90 days is effective.
Peres G, Ianhez M, Polo TCF, Abbade LPF, Miot HA. Concerning the heterogeneity of the studies included in meta-analyses. International Journal of Dermatology, 2022;61(3):e120-e121. PMID 34196407. — A letter published in response to the previous meta-analysis questioning the heterogeneity of the studies pooled. ⚠️ It is cited deliberately: it is the formal criticism of the work the page has just used, and publishing it is what distinguishes citing the evidence from picking it.
Commission Regulation (EU) No 655/2013 laying down common criteria for the justification of claims used in relation to cosmetic products. EUR-Lex. — Truthfulness, evidential support and informed decision-making: the yardstick for a “for mature skin” or a “restores collagen” printed on a box.

Book your consultation

If you want to know which routine is right for you by how your skin is — and not by how old you are — the skincare routine tool does the assessment in eight questions and gives you both ranges with the weekly schedule. And if you would rather a person went through it, write to us: the medical team will look at it with you, free and with no obligation.