Anti-Aging Skincare Routine
A simple routine using the right anti-aging products can help improve visible signs of aging, including the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, and dullness. This anti-aging skincare routine features serums, sunscreen, and moisturizers formulated with ingredients to help restore and maintain the skin barrier for soft, healthy-looking skin.
WHAT ARE THE FIRST SIGNS OF AGING IN SKIN?
Although the natural aging process is slightly different for everyone, the first signs of aging skin tend to appear in your 30s and 40s. This is when skin begins to lose more and more of the vital components it needs to maintain its elasticity and moisture levels—leading to visible skin aging. Here are some of the first signs to look out for to help you build the perfect anti-aging skincare routine for your needs:
- Fine lines and wrinkles: Wrinkles and fine lines are usually one of the first visible signs of aging noticed by men and women. They tend to be most noticeable on your face (especially around your eyes and mouth), as well as your neck. Wrinkles and fine lines occur with age as your skin becomes more fragile and can be worsened by many factors, such as smoking or UV exposure.
- Dullness: Over time, you may notice your complexion showing signs of dullness, splotchiness, or uneven skin tone. This is often the result of photodamage to your skin over time.
- Dry skin: Skin eventually starts to produce less of the natural oils (a.k.a. sebum) that are needed to help keep your skin looking hydrated and plump. This typically results in drier skin (especially for those 40 and over) that may feel itchy, tight, or uncomfortable. Fine lines and wrinkles are also usually more pronounced.
- Age spots: As skin begins to age, you might notice age spots (also known as sun spots) appearing more frequently. These flat, dark areas on the skin usually appear wherever your skin is most exposed to the sun’s rays—including your hands, arms, and face. Age spots are typically harmless but may be a sign that extra sun protection is needed.
- Rough skin texture: Skin that feels drier with age may take on a rougher texture and might not look as smooth as it once did. This change in overall skin texture is a natural result of the skin’s aging process.
- Visible pores: One common complaint among those with mature skin is often larger, more visible pores. Although pore size is largely genetic and varies from person to person, you may notice enlarged pores over time. This occurs when collagen and elastin weaken, allowing for the widening of pores.
- Sagging skin: As you age, your skin increasingly loses structural components like elastin and collagen. This can cause your skin to lose firmness and take on a sagging, loose appearance.
Key Anti-Aging Ingredients in This Routine
This simple skincare routine uses gentle yet effective formulas that feature our favorite anti-aging ingredients. These ingredients can be used to support youthful-looking skin during any decade of life—whether you’re in your 20s, 30s, 40s, or beyond.
- Hyaluronic acid helps retain the skin’s natural moisture.
- Vitamin C is an antioxidant that helps visibly brighten the complexion and promote more even skin tone.
- Retinol helps refine and resurface skin while improving the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, rough texture, and radiance.
- Peptides improve the appearance of tired-looking skin.
- Ceramides help maintain the skin’s natural moisture barrier to help lock in moisture.
Products In This Routine
CeraVe's easy-to-use products create an anti-aging routine that you and your skin will feel good about.
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1. Cleanse -
2. Target Skin Concerns -
3. Moisturize & Help Protect
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1. Cleanse
Hydrating cleanser for normal-to-dry skin
Hydrating Facial Cleanser
For Normal to Dry Skin
CeraVe Hydrating Facial Cleanser was designed to cleanse and refresh the skin without over-stripping it or leaving it feeling tight and dry. Featuring three essential ceramides to restore the skin's barrier, hyaluronic acid to hydrate the skin, and MVE Delivery Technology to supply the skin with a steady stream of nourishment, this non-comedogenic face wash is an effective yet non-irritating way to start off any skincare regimen. Best for normal to dry skin.
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2. Target Skin Concerns
Skin-brightening antioxidant serum
Skin Renewing Vitamin C Serum
With 10% Pure Vitamin C
Vitamin C is a potent antioxidant that helps defend against free radicals. When used consistently, a face serum with vitamin C can play a powerful role in your anti-aging skincare regimen by delivering skin-brightening benefits and improving the appearance of fine lines, dark spots, and uneven skin tone. CeraVe Skin Renewing Vitamin C Serum is formulated with 10% pure vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid) to help visibly brighten your complexion and support soft, radiant, and healthy-looking skin.
Our gentle, yet effective lightweight vitamin C serum with three essential ceramides also helps to restore your protective skin barrier, and includes moisturizing hyaluronic acid, and soothing vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) to help improve skin hydration. Plus, MVE technology continually releases moisturizing ingredients for all-day hydration. Suitable for all skin types—including sensitive skin—this antioxidant serum comes in protective packaging to help prevent oxidation and maintain product performance.
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3. Moisturize & Help Protect
Anti-aging moisturizer with retinol & SPF
Skin Renewing Day Cream
With Broad Spectrum SPF 30
An effective anti-aging skincare routine always requires proper sun protection. Using an SPF day cream in the morning (as directed with other sun protection measures) that also contains retinol helps protect your skin from damage, while improving the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, and rough texture for more radiant skin. Your day cream should be formulated with ceramides to replenish the skin’s natural barrier and help prevent moisture loss—and a non-comedogenic moisturizer that won’t clog pores.
CeraVe Skin Renewing Day Cream is a non-comedogenic, anti-aging moisturizer with SPF and encapsulated retinol that is gradually released into your skin, reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles without irritation. Our retinol day cream with Broad Spectrum SPF 30 also provides UVA and UVB protection to help prevent sun-induced signs of aging (when used as directed with other sun protection measures), plus hyaluronic acid and three essential ceramides that work together to lock in skin’s moisture and help restore your skin’s protective barrier. MVE technology encapsulates ceramides to ensure efficient delivery within the skin’s barrier and slow release over time—supporting your protective skin barrier, long after you’ve finished applying.
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1. Cleanse -
2. Target Skin Concerns -
3. Moisturize and Help Protect
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1. Cleanse
Hydrating cleanser for normal-to-dry skin
Hydrating Facial Cleanser
For Normal to Dry Skin
CeraVe Hydrating Facial Cleanser was designed to cleanse and refresh the skin without over-stripping it or leaving it feeling tight and dry. Featuring three essential ceramides to restore the skin's barrier, hyaluronic acid to hydrate the skin, and MVE Delivery Technology to supply the skin with a steady stream of nourishment, this non-comedogenic face wash is an effective yet non-irritating way to start off any skincare regimen. Best for normal to dry skin.
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2. Target Skin Concerns
Anti-aging retinol serum for fine lines
Skin Renewing Retinol Serum
WITH MVE DELIVERY TECHNOLOGY
Retinol is an essential ingredient in any anti-aging skincare routine. A retinol serum is an effective product for improving the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, skin texture, and radiance. When looking for a face serum to add to your skincare routine, look for ingredients like ceramides that help restore and protect your skin barrier. It may take some time for your skin to adapt to retinol, so plan to slowly work your way up to daily use to avoid skin irritation. To help your skin look and feel its best, look for a face serum formulated with hydrating and calming ingredients like hyaluronic acid and niacinamide.
CeraVe Skin Renewing Retinol Serum is a gentle, yet effective daily retinol serum that provides your skin with a variety of anti-aging benefits. Our retinol face serum is formulated with ingredients like hyaluronic acid for extra hydration, niacinamide to soothe, and three essential ceramides that work together to lock in moisture and help restore your skin’s protective barrier. It’s also formulated with MVE Technology that encapsulates ceramides to ensure efficient delivery within your skin’s barrier and slow release over time, supporting your protective skin barrier long after you’ve finished applying.
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3. Moisturize and Help Protect
Skin renewing night cream with peptides
Skin Renewing Night Cream
With MVE Deliver Technology
Nighttime is the skin’s chance to help renew itself, and a properly formulated night cream provides hydrating and rejuvenating benefits. We recommend looking for formulas designed with hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, and ceramides to hydrate, calm, and improve the skin barrier, like our CeraVe Skin Renewing Night Cream, which also features peptides to help improve the appearance of fatigued skin.
Suitable for all skin types, CeraVe Skin Renewing Night Cream features a complex of biomimetic peptides, hyaluronic acid, and three essential ceramides that work together to lock in skin’s moisture and help restore your skin’s protective barrier overnight. Our non-greasy, intensely moisturizing skin renewing night cream is designed to soften and renew the look of tired skin, and our patented MVE technology encapsulates ceramides to ensure efficient delivery within the skin’s barrier and slow release over time—supporting your protective skin barrier long after you’ve finished applying—so you can wake up looking rested and rejuvenated.
FAQ
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At what age should you start using anti-aging skincare products?
There’s no right or wrong age to begin using anti-aging skincare products. Reaping the benefits is possible at any age. Starting an anti-aging skincare routine is a personal choice. However, keep in mind that skin generally begins to show visible signs of aging in your 30s and 40s as it begins to lose elasticity, fullness, and moisture. Anti-aging products can help target many of these common concerns, such as dullness, fine lines, uneven skin tone, and dryness.
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What is the secret to a good anti-aging skincare routine?
Consistency and choosing the right products are both fundamental to an effective anti-aging skincare routine. Therefore, your anti-aging regimen should include products that are specially formulated for your skin type and concerns. Look for anti-aging products that are gentle, fragrance-free, and expertly developed with dermatologists. The ideal anti-aging routine should begin with a gentle face cleanser, followed by a non-comedogenic moisturizer and sunscreen (or a moisturizer with SPF 30 or higher). It should also include targeted treatments that focus on your primary concern, such as a retinol serum for fine lines or a vitamin C serum for brightening the skin tone. For help building your anti-aging regimen, visit your dermatologist. They can offer personalized anti-aging tips on how to keep skin looking young and suggest the best skincare for anti-aging.
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Are CeraVe products suitable for mature skin?
CeraVe offers a range of anti-aging skincare products to support the needs of mature skin. Our gentle, yet effective anti-aging products are fragrance-free and offer a variety of benefits for common aging concerns. These include fine lines, wrinkles, dullness, and under-eye circles. CeraVe’s anti-aging products feature hydrating, nourishing formulas and beneficial ingredients, such as ceramides to help maintain your skin’s protective barrier, retinol to help promote your skin’s natural exfoliation process, and hyaluronic acid for extra hydration.
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Is vitamin C a good anti-aging skincare ingredient?
A number of studies have shown that vitamin C can help improve the look of wrinkles. For example, one study reported that using vitamin C helped to lessen the appearance of wrinkles on the face and neck, while enhancing the skin’s texture and overall appearance.1 This potent antioxidant helps defend against free radicals, which can lead to dryness, rough surface texture, and signs of premature aging in the upper layers of the skin. It is found in antioxidant serums, eye creams, and facial moisturizers that can help address various aging concerns. When used consistently, vitamin C can play a powerful role in your anti-aging skincare regimen by delivering skin-brightening benefits and improving the appearance of fine lines, dark spots, and uneven skin tone.
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Who should use a retinol serum and why?
Retinol, which is a derivative of vitamin A, delivers many anti-aging properties when used as part of a consistent skincare routine. It has been shown to help improve skin tone and minimize visible fine lines and wrinkles, dark spots, and post-blemish marks. Because it helps to prevent the build-up of dead skin cells,2 retinol products can be beneficial for anyone looking to refine and smooth their complexion for fresher, younger-looking skin. It’s important to slowly work your way up to daily use when adding a retinol serum to your anti-aging regimen in order to avoid any irritation. Always apply a broad-spectrum sunscreen each morning to protect your skin from increased photosensitivity.
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Is hyaluronic acid or retinol better for mature skin?
Both hyaluronic acid and retinol can make excellent choices for any skincare routine aimed at supporting youthful-looking skin. Both of these anti-aging ingredients have unique benefits and uses. For example, you might apply a hyaluronic acid serum, like CeraVe Hydrating Hyaluronic Acid Serum, in the morning to help bind moisture to your skin’s surface—while smoothing it and providing up to 24 hours of hydration. Then, in the evening, you could opt for a retinol serum, such as CeraVe Resurfacing Retinol Serum, to help smooth your skin’s texture and brighten your skin’s appearance.
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References
- Pullar JM, Carr AC, Vissers MCM. “The Roles of Vitamin C in Skin Health.” Nutrients. 2017 Aug 12;9(8):866. doi: 10.3390/nu9080866. PMID: 28805671; PMCID: PMC5579659.
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