Use a prescription Tretinoin, not just an over-the-counter retinol, for the most powerful anti-aging effects.
The Power Drill vs. The Hobby Screwdriver
Imagine you need to drill into a solid concrete wall. You could use a small, battery-powered hobby screwdriver (over-the-counter retinol). With a lot of time and patience, it might make a small dent. Or, you could use a professional-grade, corded power drill (prescription Tretinoin). It is far more powerful and will get the job done efficiently and effectively. Over-the-counter retinols are great, but they first have to be converted by your skin to the active form. Tretinoin is already that pure, active form, getting to work immediately with maximum, scientifically-proven power.
Stop using your retinoid every night when you first start. Do build up slowly, starting with 1-2 times per week.
Don’t Run a Marathon on Day One
You wouldn’t decide to run a marathon and then attempt the full 26 miles on your very first day of training. You would injure yourself, become exhausted, and want to quit. You have to start with a short, one-mile jog a couple of times a week, allowing your muscles to adapt and build strength over time. A retinoid is a marathon for your skin. You must introduce it slowly, just once or twice a week, to let your skin build up tolerance. Jumping in too fast is a guaranteed recipe for a painful “injury” of redness and peeling.
Stop applying your retinoid to damp skin. Do apply it to completely dry skin to minimize irritation.
Don’t Add Water to the Fire
If a small grease fire erupts in a pan while you’re cooking, the worst thing you can do is pour water on it. The water causes the oil to splash and the fire to explode into a bigger, more dangerous blaze. Applying a retinoid to damp skin has a similar effect. The water dramatically increases the penetration rate of the retinoid, causing it to go deeper and faster than it’s supposed to. This “explosion” of activity is a primary cause of severe irritation, redness, and peeling. Always wait 20-30 minutes after washing for your skin to be bone-dry.
The #1 secret for preventing wrinkles that gurus don’t want you to know is wearing sunscreen every single day, without exception.
The Roof on Your House
Imagine spending a fortune on beautiful furniture, expensive paint, and high-tech appliances for your house. But you decide not to build a roof. All your expensive investments would be ruined by the sun and rain in a matter of months. Your anti-aging serums are that expensive furniture. Sunscreen is the roof. It is the single most important, non-negotiable element that protects everything else from the number one cause of aging: UV radiation. Without the roof, everything else you do on the inside is ultimately a waste of money.
I’m just going to say it: Most “anti-wrinkle” creams are just really good moisturizers that temporarily plump the skin.
The Raisin and the Grape
Imagine a dry, shriveled raisin. It’s covered in tiny wrinkles. If you soak it in a bowl of water, it plumps up and becomes a smooth, round grape again, and the wrinkles magically vanish. Many so-called “anti-wrinkle” creams work the same way. They are packed with hydrating ingredients that infuse the top layer of your skin with water, temporarily plumping up the cells. This makes fine, dehydration-induced lines look much less apparent. It’s a great temporary effect, but like the raisin, your skin will shrivel back up once the hydration is gone.
The reason your skin is red and flaky is because you’re using too much retinol; a pea-sized amount is all you need for your entire face.
A Drop of Concentrated Soap
When you’re washing a sink full of greasy dishes, you don’t need to squirt half a bottle of ultra-concentrated dish soap in there. A single, powerful drop is enough to create a sink full of suds to clean every dish. Retinoids are that ultra-concentrated soap. A small, pea-sized amount is specifically formulated to be the perfect, effective dose for your entire face. Using more doesn’t make it work better or faster; it just creates a “sink” full of irritation, redness, and peeling, while also wasting your product.
If you’re still only focusing on your face, you’re losing the anti-aging battle on your neck, chest, and hands.
The Perfectly Maintained Façade
Imagine a beautiful, historic building where the owner has spent a fortune to perfectly restore and maintain the front wall that faces the street. But they completely neglect the side walls, the back, and the porch railings, which are left to crack and peel. Your neck, chest, and hands are those other walls. They are exposed to the same amount of sunlight as your face. If you only protect the “façade,” the surrounding areas will inevitably show the damage first, revealing the truth of your anti-aging efforts.
The biggest lie you’ve been told is that you need to spend hundreds of dollars on an effective anti-aging routine.
The Generic vs. Brand-Name Pain Reliever
When you have a headache, you can go to the pharmacy and buy the heavily advertised brand-name pain reliever for $15, or the store’s generic version for $5. When you turn the boxes over, you see they have the exact same active ingredient in the exact same dosage. A core anti-aging routine is the same. An affordable, drugstore cleanser, moisturizer, and sunscreen, paired with a relatively inexpensive prescription for Tretinoin, will give you more scientifically-proven results than a shelf full of $300 “miracle” creams.
I wish I knew about the “retinoid sandwich” method (moisturizer, retinoid, moisturizer) when I first started using Tretinoin.
The Bubble Wrap for a Fragile Shipment
Imagine you are shipping a very delicate, expensive glass figurine. You wouldn’t just toss it in a box. You would create a protective sandwich. First, you’d put a layer of cushioning bubble wrap at the bottom. Then, you’d place the figurine. Finally, you’d put another layer of bubble wrap on top before sealing the box. The “retinoid sandwich” does the exact same thing. It creates a hydrating buffer that protects your skin barrier while still allowing the powerful active ingredient to be delivered safely and effectively.
99% of people make this one mistake with anti-aging: they start treating wrinkles instead of preventing them in their 20s.
Investing for Retirement
The single most powerful tool for a wealthy retirement is starting early. A small amount of money invested in your 20s has decades to grow and compound, resulting in a much larger nest egg than if you had invested a bigger amount in your 50s. Prevention in skincare is the same principle. Using sunscreen and antioxidants in your 20s is that smart, early investment. It is infinitely more effective and easier to prevent the damage from happening in the first place than it is to try and correct it 20 years later.
This one small habit of wearing sunglasses will change how you develop crow’s feet forever.
Don’t Keep Folding the Paper
Imagine you have a crisp, smooth piece of paper. If you repeatedly fold and unfold it in the exact same spot, a deep, permanent crease will form. Every time you squint in the bright sun, you are folding your skin at the corners of your eyes. Over thousands of repetitions, those folds become crow’s feet. Wearing sunglasses is the simplest way to stop making the fold. It keeps the “paper” of your skin smooth by relaxing your expression, preventing that crease from ever being etched in.
Use a Vitamin C serum in the morning, not just a hydrating serum, to fight free radical damage that causes aging.
The Bodyguard for Your Skin
Think of your skin as a celebrity who has to walk through a chaotic crowd of paparazzi (UV rays and pollution) every single day. A hydrating serum is like giving the celebrity a refreshing bottle of water. It’s nice, but it’s not protection. A Vitamin C serum is the skilled, professional bodyguard who walks ahead of the celebrity, actively neutralizing threats and stopping the paparazzi from causing damage. You need the bodyguard on duty during the day, which is when the attacks are actually happening.
Stop mixing your retinoid with other strong actives like glycolic acid on the same night.
Two Loud Bands on the Same Small Stage
Imagine you are at a concert. The first band is a heavy metal group (your glycolic acid). The second is a punk rock band (your retinoid). Both are powerful and effective. But if you put both bands on the same small stage and told them to play their full sets at the exact same time, the result would be a chaotic, clashing, painfully loud noise that would damage the speakers. That’s the irritation on your skin. These powerful acts need their own separate nights to perform.
Stop thinking you can’t use a retinoid if you have sensitive skin. Do try a gentler form like retinaldehyde or granactive retinoid.
The Training Wheels on a Bicycle
Prescription Tretinoin is like a professional racing bicycle—it’s fast and incredibly effective. But for someone who is just learning or is a bit nervous, it can be too wobbly and intense. Gentler over-the-counter retinoids, like retinaldehyde or granactive retinoid, are like that same great bicycle but with a set of training wheels attached. They allow you to get all the wonderful benefits of the ride, but in a much more stable, less intimidating, and irritation-free way.
The #1 hack for boosting collagen production is combining a retinoid at night with a Vitamin C serum in the morning.
The Day Shift and the Night Shift Construction Crew
Imagine you are building a skyscraper. During the day, you have a crew of workers (Vitamin C) whose job is to protect the construction site from vandals and bad weather (free radicals). Then, at night, a different, specialized crew (your retinoid) comes in. Their job is to do the actual construction, laying the bricks and building the powerful collagen foundation. By having a dedicated day shift for protection and a dedicated night shift for building, you create the most efficient, 24-hour construction cycle possible.
I’m just going to say it: The collagen in your skincare products is too large to penetrate your skin and does not build new collagen.
Trying to Push a Beach Ball Through a Keyhole
Imagine your skin is a solid wall with a few tiny keyholes. You want to get building materials inside. Ingredients like retinoids are like a key that fits perfectly through the keyhole. The collagen molecule in a topical cream is like a giant, inflated beach ball. You can press that beach ball against the wall all day long, but it is physically too massive to ever fit through the keyhole. It will just sit on the outside surface, which is why it’s a good moisturizer, but it’s not rebuilding the wall from within.
The reason your fine lines look worse in the afternoon is dehydration, not because they’ve magically deepened.
The Thirsty Office Plant
Imagine a little plant on your desk. It looks great in the morning after you’ve watered it. But by 3 PM, the dry, air-conditioned office air has sucked the moisture from its leaves, and it starts to look a little sad and wilted, with every little crease on its leaves showing. Your skin does the same thing. This gradual dehydration, called transepidermal water loss, makes your surface fine lines appear much more prominent. A quick sip of water (or a hydrating mist) instantly revives the plant.
If you’re still smoking, you’re losing the fight against premature aging faster than any serum can help you.
Trying to Fill a Bucket with a Hole in It
Using the best anti-aging serums while continuing to smoke is like trying to fill a bucket with a giant hole in the bottom. You can be pouring in the most expensive, high-quality water (your serums), but the smoking is constantly draining the bucket, breaking down your collagen, restricting blood flow, and creating free radicals at a rate that no topical product can possibly keep up with. You have to patch the hole before you can ever hope to fill the bucket.
The biggest lie you’ve been told is that there is a “miracle” ingredient that will erase all your wrinkles overnight.
The Magic Weight Loss Pill
We’ve all seen the ads for a magic pill that promises you can lose 30 pounds in a week without changing your diet or exercising. We know it’s a lie. Real, lasting change comes from a consistent, long-term approach. Anti-aging skincare is the same. There is no single “miracle” lotion or potion that will undo years of sun damage overnight. True, lasting improvement in your skin’s health comes from a consistent routine with proven ingredients, patience, and realistic expectations.
I wish I knew that sleeping on my back could help prevent sleep wrinkles on my face and chest.
The Ironed Shirt in the Hamper
Imagine you spend time carefully ironing a shirt until it is perfectly smooth. Then, you take that shirt, bunch it up into a ball, and stuff it at the bottom of a laundry hamper for eight hours. When you pull it out, it will be covered in deep, set-in creases. Sleeping on your side or stomach does the same thing. You are literally pressing and folding your skin against the pillow for hours, creating sleep wrinkles on your face and chest that can become permanent over time.
99% of people make this one mistake: applying their retinoid all the way up to their eyes, causing irritation.
The Danger Zone Around a Campfire
When you build a campfire, you know there is a small danger zone right around the flames where it’s too hot and sparks can fly. The skin directly around your eyes is the campfire’s danger zone. It is much thinner and more delicate than the rest of your face. Retinoids can “travel” slightly under the skin, so you should always leave a safe, quarter-inch buffer around your eyes. Applying it right up to the lash line is like putting your chair right in the fire pit—you are asking to get burned.
This one small action of applying your hand cream to the backs of your hands, not your palms, will target where aging shows most.
Polishing the Top of the Table
When you polish a wooden table, you focus your efforts on the top surface, which is the part that is visible and exposed to wear and tear. You don’t spend all your time polishing the underside of the table. The skin on the backs of your hands is the “top of the table”—it’s thin, delicate, and constantly exposed to the sun. The skin on your palms is thick and durable. Squeeze your cream onto the back of one hand and rub it in with the back of the other to deliver it where it’s needed most.
Use a peptide serum, not just a moisturizer, to help signal your skin to produce more collagen.
The Pep Talk for the Construction Crew
Imagine your skin’s collagen-producing cells are a crew of construction workers. As they get older, they get a bit slower and less motivated. A moisturizer is like the water delivery that keeps them hydrated. A peptide serum is like the foreman showing up on the site and giving the crew a specific, motivating pep talk. These little protein fragments act as messengers, sending signals to the workers that tell them to wake up and get back to the job of building a strong, firm foundation.
Stop expecting over-the-counter products to give you the same results as Botox or fillers.
Painting a Wall vs. Rebuilding It
Over-the-counter skincare is like giving a wall a fantastic, high-quality paint job. It can dramatically improve the surface texture, tone, and appearance of the wall. But it is still just paint. Medical procedures like Botox and fillers are like hiring a construction crew to actually knock down the wall and rebuild it. Botox relaxes the muscles behind the wall to smooth deep creases, and fillers add new structural support. You can’t expect a coat of paint to do a contractor’s job.
Stop using a retinoid if you are pregnant or trying to conceive. Do use a bakuchiol serum instead.
The Talented Understudy
Imagine a hit Broadway show. The main star (the retinoid) is incredibly talented and powerful, but for safety reasons, is not allowed to perform under certain conditions. Bakuchiol is the brilliant, reliable understudy. This plant-based actor can step into the main role and deliver a performance that is remarkably similar, hitting all the same key notes of improving skin texture and tone without any of the associated risks. It is the perfect, safe replacement for when the main star is unavailable.
The #1 secret for firmer skin that industry gurus don’t want you to know is consistent use of a microcurrent device.
A Workout for Your Face
You can eat a healthy diet, but if you want to have toned, firm muscles, you have to go to the gym and actually work them out. A microcurrent device is a gym for your facial muscles. It sends low-level electrical currents into your skin that stimulate the muscles underneath, giving them a “workout” that helps to lift, tone, and contour your face over time. Just like the gym, you won’t see results overnight, but with consistent use, it can create a noticeable improvement in firmness.
I’m just going to say it: “Preventative Botox” in your early 20s is often an unnecessary expense.
Putting a Cast on a Healthy Arm
Botox works by freezing muscles to prevent them from creasing the skin. Getting it done “preventatively” before you have any lines is like deciding to put a healthy, unbroken arm in a heavy plaster cast for six weeks, just in case you might injure it in the future. It’s an expensive, unnecessary intervention that restricts normal function for a problem that doesn’t exist yet. The best prevention in your 20s is not a needle; it is a bottle of sunscreen and a pair of sunglasses.
The reason the lines on your neck are so pronounced could be “tech neck” from constantly looking down at your phone.
The Accordion’s Bellows
Think of the bellows of an accordion. Every time the musician plays, the bellows are compressed, creating deep, horizontal folds. If you spend hours every day with your head tilted down, looking at your phone or laptop, you are treating the skin on your neck like that accordion. You are constantly compressing it and reinforcing those horizontal creases. Over time, these temporary folds can become permanently etched into your skin. Being mindful of your posture is a form of anti-aging.
If you’re still not wearing sunscreen, you are actively undoing any benefits from your expensive anti-aging serums.
Trying to Mop the Floor During a Mudslide
Imagine you are using the most advanced, expensive mop and cleaning solutions to try and make your floor sparkle. But at the same time, a torrent of mud is pouring in through an open window. All your hard work is being instantly undone. Your anti-aging serums are that expensive mop. The sun’s UV radiation is that relentless mudslide. If you don’t close the window by wearing sunscreen every single day, you are fighting a battle that you will never, ever win.
The biggest lie you’ve been told is that you need a separate “anti-aging” cleanser.
The Car Wash Before the Paint Job
The job of a cleanser is to be the car wash. It needs to effectively and gently remove all the dirt and grime from the surface without scratching the paint. That’s it. It is on your skin for less than a minute. The real “anti-aging” work is done by the high-performance wax and ceramic coating you apply after the wash (your serums and retinoids). Spending extra money on a fancy “anti-aging” car wash soap is a waste; a simple, gentle one prepares the surface perfectly.
I wish I knew to apply my skincare products all the way up to my hairline and down to my chest.
The Unfinished Paint Job
Imagine you’re painting a room, but you stop about an inch away from the ceiling, the baseboards, and the door frames. The job would look bizarre and unfinished. Your “canvas” for skincare doesn’t stop at your jawline. It extends all the way up to your hairline (where sun damage is common), down your neck, and across your chest. Stopping short creates that “unfinished” look over time, where your face looks great but is framed by skin that wasn’t included in the routine.
99% of people give up on their retinoid during the initial “purge” or retinization period.
The Messy Demolition Before the Beautiful Renovation
Imagine you’ve decided to renovate your old, dated kitchen. The first thing the construction crew does is demolish everything. There’s dust, noise, and chaos everywhere. For a few weeks, your kitchen looks much worse than it did before you started. If you panicked and fired the crew during this messy phase, you’d be left with a disaster. The retinoid “purge” is that messy demolition phase. It’s clearing out the underlying congestion before it can build your beautiful new kitchen (your clear, smooth skin).
This one small habit of eating a diet rich in antioxidants will support your skin’s fight against aging from the inside out.
Building a House with High-Quality Bricks
You can have the best construction crew in the world, but if you give them poor-quality, crumbling bricks, the final building will not be strong. Your topical skincare is the construction crew. The food you eat provides the actual bricks and mortar that your body uses to build and repair your skin. A diet rich in antioxidants from colorful fruits and vegetables provides the high-quality, durable materials your crew needs to build a strong, resilient, and beautiful structure from the inside.
Use a silk pillowcase, not a cotton one, to prevent sleep creases from becoming permanent wrinkles.
A Rough Paper Towel vs. a Smooth Piece of Glass
A traditional cotton pillowcase is like a slightly rough, absorbent paper towel. As you press your face against it all night, it creates friction and can pull and tug at your skin, creating creases. It also soaks up your valuable skincare products. A silk or satin pillowcase is like a perfectly smooth, non-absorbent piece of glass. Your face glides over it with minimal friction, and it doesn’t steal your night cream. It’s a simple switch that reduces one of the hidden causes of aging.
Stop applying your eye cream too close to your lash line, which can cause milia or irritation.
The Flooding Riverbank
Think of your eye as a river. The products you apply to the skin around it will naturally migrate or “flood” a small amount towards the riverbank as they warm up. If you apply the cream right up to the edge of your lash line, it’s guaranteed to seep into your eyes, causing irritation. It can also clog the tiny, delicate glands and pores right at the lash line, leading to little white bumps called milia. Apply it to the orbital bone, and it will flood just enough.
Stop thinking genetics are the only factor in aging. Sun exposure and lifestyle choices are more significant.
Two Identical Cars, Two Different Owners
Genetics is like the make and model of a car you are given. But how that car looks and performs 20 years later depends almost entirely on the owner. If one owner keeps their identical car in a garage, changes the oil, and drives carefully, it will remain in pristine condition. If the other owner leaves their car parked on the street in the sun, never services it, and drives recklessly, it will be a rusted wreck. Sun exposure and lifestyle are how you “drive” your skin.
The #1 hack for minimizing the appearance of forehead lines is a serum with Argireline, the “Botox in a bottle” peptide.
A Piece of Tape on a Wrinkled Piece of Paper
Imagine you have a piece of paper with a deep crease in it from being folded. If you put a small piece of clear tape over the crease and pull it taut, the paper will temporarily look smooth in that spot. Argireline, often called “Botox in a bottle,” works in a similar, temporary way. It’s a peptide that helps to intercept the signals between your nerves and muscles, telling them to relax a little. This can soften the look of dynamic wrinkles caused by expression, just like that piece of tape.
I’m just going to say it: You don’t need a 12-step routine for anti-aging; a cleanser, Vitamin C, moisturizer, retinoid, and sunscreen are the core five.
The All-Star Starting Lineup
You don’t need a team with 12 different players on the court at the same time to win a basketball game. You need a powerful, effective starting lineup of five players who work perfectly together. For anti-aging, your all-stars are: a gentle cleanser (the reliable point guard), Vitamin C (the daytime defender), a moisturizer (the versatile center), a retinoid (the nighttime superstar scorer), and sunscreen (the coach who directs the entire defense). That’s the championship team right there.
The reason you’re not seeing results from your retinol is because you’re using an ester form like retinyl palmitate, which is very weak.
The Toy Hammer
Imagine you need to hammer a nail into a sturdy piece of wood. The most powerful tool for the job is a professional-grade nail gun (prescription Tretinoin). A great alternative is a solid, heavy claw hammer (Retinol). Retinyl Palmitate, a common retinol ester, is a plastic, brightly-colored toy hammer from a child’s playset. While it is technically in the same family of tools, it is so weak and requires so many “conversion steps” in the skin that it is almost completely ineffective at actually driving the nail in.
If you’re still using harsh, alcohol-laden products, you’re dehydrating your skin and making fine lines more obvious.
The Evaporating Puddle Trick
Imagine you spill a little water on a wooden table. Now, imagine you pour a splash of rubbing alcohol on top of that puddle. For a brief moment, it looks like you’ve added more liquid, but then the alcohol evaporates with lightning speed, taking all the original water with it and leaving the wood looking even drier and emphasizing the grain. Alcohol-heavy products do the same thing. They give a quick-drying feel but are secretly stealing your skin’s moisture, making every fine line and bit of texture stand out.
The biggest lie you’ve been told is that you can “get rid” of wrinkles completely with products alone.
Un-Toasting a Piece of Bread
Once you put a slice of bread in the toaster and it turns brown, you can never truly turn it back into soft, white, un-toasted bread again. The process is irreversible. You can do things to make it look better, like covering it with butter or jam (using retinoids and moisturizers to improve its appearance), but you cannot fundamentally reverse the change that has occurred. Skincare can soften and reduce the appearance of wrinkles, but it cannot magically erase a line that has been etched into the skin.
I wish I knew that a good, hydrating moisturizer can do more for the appearance of fine lines than many so-called “wrinkle creams.”
Ironing a Wrinkled Shirt
Imagine you have a dry, wrinkled cotton shirt. You could rub a thick, waxy cream on it, and it might make the wrinkles look a little less obvious. But what is the most effective way to get rid of those wrinkles? You add water and heat—you iron it. The moisture plumps up the cotton fibers, and the wrinkles instantly vanish. A good, hydrating moisturizer does the same thing for your skin. It infuses your skin with water, plumping up the cells from the inside, which immediately smooths out the appearance of fine, dehydration-induced lines.
99% of people make this one mistake: not using a large enough pea-sized amount of retinoid for their neck and chest.
The Single Can of Paint for Three Rooms
You know that a pea-sized amount of retinoid is perfect for the “room” of your face. But then you try to take that same, single pea and use it to “paint” the equally large rooms of your neck and your chest. The product gets spread so incredibly thin that it becomes practically transparent, offering no real benefit. If you are going to treat these areas, they each need their own dedicated “can of paint”—or at least their own pea-sized amount—to be effective.
This one small action of drinking from a straw less often will help prevent fine lines around your mouth.
The Purse String Wrinkles
Imagine you have a small, soft leather pouch that closes with a drawstring. Every time you pull the string, the leather bunches up into a series of fine, vertical lines around the opening. The muscles around your mouth are that drawstring. Every time you purse your lips to sip from a straw, you are pulling that “drawstring” and creasing the skin. Over thousands of repetitions, those temporary bunches can become permanent vertical lines around your lips.
Use a red light therapy device, not just serums, to stimulate collagen production at a deeper level.
Waking Up the Workers in the Basement
Your topical serums are like a manager who can shout instructions from the first floor of a factory. The workers on that floor can hear them and get to work. But what about the workers down in the basement? They can’t hear the shouting. Red light therapy is like installing a special intercom system that can send a gentle, energizing signal all the way down to the deepest parts of the factory (the dermis). This signal “wakes up” the collagen-producing cells that your topical products could never reach.
Stop wasting money on “firming” body lotions. Do use a body lotion with retinol instead.
A Slogan vs. a Blueprint
Most “firming” body lotions are like a motivational poster in a factory that says “Work Harder!” It might provide a fleeting, surface-level boost. A body lotion with retinol is like giving the factory workers an actual, architectural blueprint for a stronger building. Retinol is a scientifically-proven ingredient that communicates with your cells and instructs them to increase their production of collagen. For real, structural improvement in firmness, your skin needs the blueprint, not just the slogan.
Stop storing your retinoids in a bright, warm bathroom. Do keep them in a cool, dark place to maintain stability.
A Photograph Left in the Sun
Think of your favorite, most vibrant color photograph. If you frame it and hang it in a dark hallway, the colors will stay rich and true for years. But what happens if you take that same photograph and leave it on your car’s dashboard in the bright sun for a few weeks? The light and heat will break down the pigments, and the image will become faded and ruined. Light and heat do the exact same thing to the sensitive retinoid molecule, breaking it down and rendering it useless.
The #1 secret for looking refreshed in the morning is a good night’s sleep, which is when your skin does most of its repairing.
The Overnight Road Crew
Imagine a busy highway. During the day, it’s under constant stress and assault from traffic. It’s in defense mode. The real repair work doesn’t happen during rush hour. It happens late at night, when the traffic is gone. An expert crew of construction workers comes out to fix the potholes, repave the surfaces, and rebuild the infrastructure. Your skin is that highway. Sleep is when that dedicated, overnight repair crew comes out to fix the damage from the day. Without it, the potholes just get deeper.
I’m just going to say it: At-home microneedling is dangerous and can cause more scarring and damage than it helps.
The Amateur Surgeon
At-home microneedling (or dermarolling) is like deciding you want the benefits of a medical procedure, so you go online, buy a cheap scalpel, and try to perform surgery on yourself in your bathroom. You are not in a sterile environment, the tool is not professional-grade, and you do not have the training to know how deep to go or what to do if something goes wrong. You are far more likely to cause infection, create permanent scars, and do more harm than good. Leave the surgery to the surgeons.
The reason the skin on your hands and chest looks older than your face is because you’ve neglected them in your routine.
The Forgotten Siblings
Imagine three siblings. The first child (your face) gets all the attention—the best food, the best education, the best clothes. The other two siblings (your hands and chest) are completely ignored. They are left outside in the sun and never given any of the nourishing “food” of your skincare. Is it any surprise that, 20 years later, the first child looks vibrant and healthy while the other two look weathered and neglected? They are all part of the same family and need the same care.
If you’re still not using an antioxidant serum, you’re leaving your skin unprotected from environmental aging factors.
The Unseen Rust
Sunscreen is the thick, heavy-duty paint on your car that protects it from the obvious damage of rain and hail. But what about the unseen, corrosive effects of salty air and pollution that cause the car to rust from the inside out? An antioxidant serum is the special, anti-rust primer you apply before the paint. It works on a molecular level to neutralize the invisible, corrosive “free radicals” from the environment that your sunscreen can’t fully block, preventing the slow, silent decay.
The biggest lie you’ve been told is that facial exercises will prevent wrinkles; they can actually cause more expression lines.
Bending a Credit Card Back and Forth
Wrinkles caused by expression are like the crease that forms when you repeatedly bend a credit card in the same spot. The more you bend it, the deeper and more permanent the line becomes. “Facial exercises” are the act of intentionally and repeatedly bending that credit card. Rather than preventing the line, you are actively accelerating its formation. The way to prevent these lines is to bend the card less, which is what Botox does by relaxing the muscles.
I wish I knew that consistency with a few proven ingredients is better than constantly chasing new anti-aging trends.
The Classic Blue Jeans vs. Fast Fashion
A solid anti-aging routine is like building a wardrobe with classic, high-quality staples: a perfect pair of blue jeans (sunscreen), a great white t-shirt (a retinoid), and a timeless leather jacket (Vitamin C). Chasing trendy new ingredients is like buying a new, brightly-colored fast-fashion item every week. It’s exciting for a moment, but these items quickly go out of style and fall apart. The timeless, proven classics are what will still be serving you well ten years from now.
99% of people make this one mistake: stopping their anti-aging routine on vacation.
Taking a Vacation from Brushing Your Teeth
When you go on a one-week vacation, do you stop brushing your teeth? Do you stop taking your prescribed medication? Of course not. You know that these are fundamental acts of health and hygiene that don’t stop just because your location has changed. The sun doesn’t go on vacation. The process of aging doesn’t go on vacation. Your routine, especially the core components of cleansing, moisturizing, and sun protection, is a non-negotiable part of your daily health, no matter where you are sleeping.
This one small habit of applying moisturizer to your neck in an upward motion will fight gravity over time.
Ironing a Shirt Upwards
When you are ironing a delicate piece of fabric, you typically glide the iron in a smooth, lifting motion. You wouldn’t just aggressively drag and pull it downwards, as that would stretch and distort the fibers. While applying your moisturizer upwards won’t magically reverse aging, it is a matter of good practice. It’s a kinder, gentler motion that works against the natural pull of gravity, and over a lifetime of applications, it prevents you from adding thousands of tiny, unnecessary downward tugs on your skin.
Use a product with growth factors, not just peptides, for advanced skin cell repair and regeneration.
The Foreman vs. The Architect
Peptides are like the foreman on a construction site. They are great messengers that can give the workers simple instructions like “work harder” or “build more.” Growth factors, however, are like the master architect. They don’t just give simple commands; they provide the detailed, complex blueprints and instructions for how to conduct high-level, sophisticated repairs and regeneration. For more advanced, targeted communication with your skin cells, you need to call in the architect.
Stop thinking you’re too young to start an anti-aging routine. Prevention starts in your 20s.
The Shade of a Tree You Planted Years Ago
The saying goes, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.” The anti-aging benefits you will enjoy in your 40s and 50s are the “shade” from the “tree” of the sunscreen and preventative habits you “planted” in your 20s. You cannot wait until you are hot and sunburned to decide you need a tree; by then, it’s too late to grow one. The work you do now is an investment in your future self.
Stop being afraid of facial oils. Do use one rich in antioxidants like rosehip oil to nourish aging skin.
Good Fats vs. Bad Fats
In nutrition, we know that not all fats are bad. Greasy trans fats from junk food are bad, but the healthy fats from avocados and olive oil are essential for our health. It’s the same with facial oils. Heavy, pore-clogging oils can be a problem, but elegant, nourishing oils rich in antioxidants and fatty acids are the “healthy fats” for your skin. As skin ages, it produces less of its own oil, so replenishing it with these “good fats” is essential for a healthy, glowing barrier.
The #1 hack for a temporary face lift is a stimulating facial massage or using a gua sha tool.
Waking Up a Sleepy Face
In the morning, your face can be puffy and stagnant from lying down all night. A facial massage or using a gua sha tool is like gently opening the curtains, turning on the lights, and making a little noise to wake up a sleepy person. The massage helps to drain the excess fluid (lymphatic drainage) that causes puffiness and stimulates blood circulation, bringing fresh oxygen and nutrients to the skin. This leads to a temporary but noticeable de-puffed, lifted, and more sculpted appearance.
I’m just going to say it: Most of the anti-aging claims on moisturizers are just about the hydration they provide.
The “Wrinkle-Release” Spray for Clothes
You can buy a spray that claims to have “wrinkle-release technology.” But when you look at the ingredients, it’s mostly just water. It works by dampening the fabric, allowing the fibers to relax and plump up, which makes the wrinkles less apparent. Most “anti-aging” moisturizers work the same way. The powerful-sounding “lift-peptides” are often just a sideshow. The main act is the hydration, which plumps up the skin and temporarily makes fine lines look much smoother.
The reason your skin looks dull is because cell turnover slows down with age; a retinoid or AHA can fix this.
The Sluggish Traffic on the Highway
When you’re young, your skin’s cell turnover is like a fast-moving, efficient highway. Old cars (dead cells) exit quickly, and new cars merge on seamlessly. As you age, that highway gets congested with traffic. The old cars linger in the slow lane, and the whole system becomes sluggish and dull. A retinoid or an AHA is the traffic controller who comes in and blows the whistle, speeding up the entire flow of traffic, getting the old cars off the road, and making way for the shiny new ones.
If you’re still using a drying, mattifying foundation on mature skin, you’re accentuating every fine line.
Trying to Paint on a Cracked, Dry Wall
Imagine you are trying to paint a wall that is dry and has a few small cracks. A thick, matte, chalky paint will not hide those cracks. It will sink into them, get flaky, and actually make every single imperfection stand out even more. That’s a mattifying foundation on mature skin. What that wall needs is a luminous, hydrating paint that will glide over the surface and reflect light. A dewy, hydrating foundation does the same for your skin, smoothing over lines instead of settling in them.
The biggest lie you’ve been told is that you need a special eye cream; for many, their facial moisturizer is fine.
The “Special” Spoon for Your Yogurt
Imagine a company tried to sell you a “special” spoon that was specifically designed for eating yogurt, and it cost five times as much as a regular spoon. You would know it’s a gimmick. For most people, a well-formulated, fragrance-free facial moisturizer is perfectly safe and effective to use around the eyes. Unless you have a very specific concern, like stubborn dark circles, or your regular moisturizer is irritating, you do not need to buy a separate, tiny, expensive pot of the same basic ingredients.
I wish I knew how much of a role stress plays in accelerating the aging process.
Running a Car’s Engine in the Red Zone
Chronic stress is like constantly driving your car with the engine’s RPMs in the red zone. The engine is screaming, overheating, and under an immense amount of strain. You can put the best oil in it and give it the best paint job, but if you are constantly red-lining the engine, the internal parts are going to wear out and break down much, much faster. Stress floods your body with the hormone cortisol, which breaks down collagen and leads to inflammation, causing your skin’s “engine” to age prematurely.
99% of people make this one mistake: not realizing their prescription retinoid is often cheaper than fancy over-the-counter options.
The Generic vs. The Designer Drug
When a new, life-saving drug comes out, the brand-name version is incredibly expensive. But once the patent expires, you can get a generic version with the exact same active ingredient for a fraction of the cost. In the world of retinoids, the roles are reversed. The fancy, designer, over-the-counter retinol serums are the expensive “brand-name” products. The generic, prescription Tretinoin, which is the more powerful and effective “drug,” can often be obtained for a much lower price with good insurance or through online pharmacies.
This one small action of buffering your retinoid with a layer of moisturizer first will significantly reduce irritation.
The Water in the Pot Before You Boil Pasta
When you make pasta, you don’t just throw the dry noodles into a hot, empty pot. That would scorch them. You first create a “buffer” of boiling water, which allows the pasta to cook evenly and gently. Applying a thin layer of moisturizer before your retinoid is like that water. It creates a gentle buffer that doesn’t stop the retinoid from “cooking,” but it protects your skin from the harsh, direct heat, leading to a much more pleasant and less irritating experience.
Use an at-home LED therapy mask, not just topical products, to address aging on a cellular level.
The Sunlight for a Solar Panel
Topical products are like washing and polishing the surface of a solar panel. It helps it function better. But LED light therapy is like the actual sunlight that penetrates the panel and charges the battery. Specific wavelengths of light can penetrate the skin to a depth that no cream can reach, where they are absorbed by your cells’ “batteries” (the mitochondria). This helps to stimulate the energy needed for processes like collagen production, addressing aging at its fundamental, cellular source.
Stop thinking you need to feel a product tingle for it to be working.
The Smoke Alarm Is Not a Kitchen Timer
Imagine you are baking a cake. Is the sound of the smoke alarm blaring in your kitchen a sign that the cake is perfectly cooked? Of course not. It’s a loud, urgent warning sign that something has gone wrong. That tingling or burning sensation from a product is your skin’s smoke alarm. It’s not a gentle “it’s working” chime. It’s a distress signal telling you that the formula is too harsh and your skin’s protective barrier is being compromised. Good skincare should be effective, not alarming.
Stop overlooking the power of niacinamide for improving skin elasticity and reducing fine lines.
The All-in-One Multitool
While Vitamin C and Retinoids are the famous superstars of anti-aging, Niacinamide is the incredibly versatile and reliable multitool that everyone should have in their pocket. It’s not just for oil control. It’s like a Swiss Army Knife for your skin: studies show it helps improve protein synthesis, which strengthens the skin’s elasticity; it boosts ceramide production to support the barrier; and it’s an antioxidant that helps to repair damage. It’s the ultimate supporting actor that makes the whole show better.
The #1 secret for maintaining youthful skin is a consistent morning and evening routine, no matter how tired you are.
Brushing Your Teeth Before Bed
No matter how exhausted you are, you still brush your teeth before you go to sleep. Why? Because you know that this simple, two-minute act of consistent, preventative maintenance is crucial for your long-term dental health. Your skincare routine should be viewed in the exact same way. It is not a luxury or a chore to be skipped when you’re tired. It is a fundamental, non-negotiable act of health and maintenance that pays massive dividends over a lifetime.
I’m just going to say it: The best anti-aging product is the sunscreen you’ll actually wear every day.
The World’s Best Gym Membership
You could have a membership to the most exclusive, high-tech, and effective gym in the entire world. But if you hate going there, and you only show up once a month, that membership is completely useless. A sunscreen that is technically superior but feels thick, greasy, and unpleasant on your skin is that gym membership. The “best” sunscreen is the one with a texture so elegant and a finish so beautiful that you genuinely look forward to putting it on every single morning. The one you use consistently is the one that works.
The reason your skin feels thinner as you age is due to collagen loss, which retinoids can help mitigate.
The Deflating Air Mattress
When you’re young, your skin is like a brand-new, fully inflated air mattress. It’s firm, plump, and bouncy. As you age, your body’s production of collagen—the “air” that keeps the mattress full—slows down. The mattress begins to slowly deflate, becoming softer, thinner, and more prone to creasing. A retinoid is like the person who comes in every night with an air pump and works to stimulate the production of new “air,” helping to re-inflate the mattress and keep it as firm as possible.
If you’re still waxing your face while using a retinoid, you’re at high risk for lifting and burning your skin.
Trying to Lift a Sticker Off Wet Paint
A retinoid works by speeding up your skin’s exfoliation process and weakening the “glue” that holds the top layer of cells together. This makes your skin more delicate. Waxing is essentially applying a super-strong sticker and ripping it off. Trying to do this on retinized skin is like trying to lift a piece of duct tape off a wall that has just been painted. You won’t just lift the tape; you’ll lift the entire top layer of wet paint with it, leaving a raw, painful, and damaged patch behind.
The biggest lie you’ve been told is that there’s a topical product that can replace a facelift.
Repainting a House vs. Fixing a Crumbling Foundation
An effective anti-aging routine with serums and creams is like giving an old house a fantastic, professional-grade paint job. It can dramatically improve the surface, making it look brighter, smoother, and more refreshed. But it cannot change the underlying structure of the house. A facelift is a surgical procedure that lifts and tightens the sagging muscles and foundational structures of the house. You can never expect a can of paint, no matter how expensive, to do the job of a team of construction contractors.
I wish I knew that the skin around the eyes is the thinnest and shows signs of aging first.
The Silk vs. The Denim
Imagine your skin is made of two different types of fabric. The skin on your cheeks is like a sturdy, resilient piece of denim. The skin around your eyes, however, is like an incredibly thin, delicate piece of silk. Which piece of fabric do you think will show signs of wear and tear, creasing, and fraying first? The silk, of course. This delicate area has very few oil glands and is constantly moving, making it the first place the “fabric” of your skin will begin to show its age.
99% of people using a retinoid make this one mistake: forgetting to also moisturize their skin properly, leading to a damaged barrier.
The Star Athlete Who Never Hydrates
Imagine a star athlete who trains incredibly hard every single day but refuses to drink water or eat nourishing food. Their performance will quickly suffer, and they will become prone to injury and burnout. A retinoid is that intense training for your skin. It pushes your cells to perform at their peak. But if you don’t provide the essential hydration and barrier support with a good moisturizer, your skin will become “injured”—dry, irritated, and unable to reap the benefits of the training.
This one small habit of incorporating fatty fish and colorful vegetables into your diet will support skin health from within.
Using Premium Fuel in a High-Performance Car
Your body is a high-performance vehicle. You can wash and wax the outside all you want, but if you fill the tank with low-quality, dirty fuel, the engine will never run smoothly. A diet rich in antioxidants from fruits and vegetables and healthy omega-3 fatty acids from fish is the premium, high-octane fuel for your engine. It provides the high-quality building blocks and anti-inflammatory components your body needs to build and maintain healthy, resilient, and glowing skin from the inside.
Use retinal (retinaldehyde), not retinol, for a stronger over-the-counter option that is less irritating than tretinoin.
The Automatic Transmission Car
Imagine your goal is to get the power of a professional race car (Tretinoin), which has a complex manual transmission. A regular retinol is like a basic car that needs several gear shifts (conversion steps in the skin) to get up to speed. Retinal (retinaldehyde) is like a high-performance sports car with a super-smooth, one-speed automatic transmission. It’s only one, quick “shift” away from being the race car, making it much more powerful and faster than retinol, but easier to handle for most people than the full manual race car.
Stop applying your anti-aging products in a rush. Do take the time to gently massage them in.
Tucking a Plant into the Soil
When you are planting a delicate seedling, you don’t just hastily throw it in a hole and walk away. You take a moment to gently press the soil around its roots, ensuring it is secure and has good contact with the nourishing earth. Taking an extra 30 seconds to gently massage your products into your skin is like tucking in that plant. The gentle massage boosts circulation, and the mindful application ensures the product is evenly distributed and has the best chance to be absorbed effectively.
Stop focusing only on wrinkles. Do address other signs of aging like hyperpigmentation and loss of volume.
The Three-Legged Stool of Aging
Imagine youthful skin is a sturdy, three-legged stool. The first leg is a smooth surface (no wrinkles). The second leg is an even color (no sun spots). The third leg is firm support (plumpness and volume). If you only focus on the wrinkle leg, you can still have a wobbly stool if the other two legs—color and volume—are weak. A truly effective anti-aging approach addresses all three legs of the stool to maintain the overall balance and structure of youthful skin.
The #1 hack for improving the appearance of “smoker’s lines” around the mouth is a combination of retinoids and hyaluronic acid fillers.
Repaving and Filling a Pothole
The vertical lines around the mouth are like deep potholes in a road. A retinoid is the road crew that comes in and works over time to resurface the entire road, making the texture smoother and stimulating new “asphalt” (collagen) to be laid down. But for the deepest potholes, you need a different solution. A hyaluronic acid filler, administered by a doctor, is the truck that comes and injects a specialized compound directly into the pothole, instantly filling it up and making it level with the rest of the road.
I’m just going to say it: A healthy lifestyle will do more for your skin’s aging process than any single cream.
A House with a Good Foundation
You can put the most expensive paint and fancy decorations on a house, but if the foundation is crumbling, the plumbing is leaky, and the wiring is faulty, it will never be a truly healthy or beautiful home. A healthy lifestyle—good sleep, a balanced diet, stress management, and no smoking—is the strong foundation, plumbing, and wiring of your skin. A great cream is the beautiful paint job. You need the foundation to be solid before the paint can ever look its best.
The reason you have prominent “11” lines between your brows is from frowning and squinting; Botox is the most effective solution here.
The Folded Piece of Cardboard
Take a piece of cardboard and fold it in half. Now open it. A crease remains. If you fold it in that exact same spot a thousand times, that crease will become a deep, permanent groove that you can’t smooth out. Frowning and squinting are the act of folding the “cardboard” of your forehead. Botox is the only thing that can act like a splint, temporarily stopping you from being able to make the fold, which allows the existing crease to soften and prevents it from getting deeper.
If you’re still using the same skincare you used in your 20s in your 40s, you’re not addressing your skin’s new needs.
Eating from the Kid’s Menu at Age 40
When you were in your 20s, your skin’s “metabolism” was high, and it produced plenty of collagen and oil. A simple, lightweight routine was enough. As you enter your 40s, your skin’s needs change, just like your nutritional needs. It requires richer, more complex “food” in the form of more potent actives, richer moisturizers, and ingredients that support its declining functions. Continuing to use your old routine is like trying to fuel your 40-year-old body with just a kid’s menu of chicken nuggets and fries.
The biggest lie you’ve been told is that you need different products for every single sign of aging.
The Master Key
Imagine you have a building with many different locked doors, each labeled with a problem: “Wrinkles,” “Sun Spots,” “Dullness,” “Large Pores.” You could buy a separate, individual key for every single door. Or, you could get a prescription for a retinoid. A retinoid is the master key. It is the single, scientifically-proven ingredient that can effectively “unlock” and improve almost all of those doors at once, simplifying your routine and saving you a huge amount of money.
I wish I knew to start using a retinoid on my chest and the backs of my hands in my 30s.
The Forgotten Furniture
Imagine you have a beautiful, antique wooden table (your face) that you meticulously polish and protect every single week. But you also have two matching chairs (your chest and hands) that you leave outside in the sun and rain, completely forgotten. After 20 years, the table will still look pristine, but the chairs will be faded, cracked, and weathered. It will be obvious they weren’t given the same care. Start polishing your “chairs” at the same time you polish your “table.”
99% of people make this one mistake: expecting their anti-aging routine to work in a month. It takes consistency over years.
Planting an Orchard
You don’t plant an apple seed and expect to be picking fruit a month later. You know it takes years of consistent sun, water, and care for that seed to grow into a strong, mature tree that bears fruit. Your anti-aging routine is that orchard. The real, significant results—the “fruit” of diminished wrinkles and improved skin quality—are the harvest you reap after years of consistent, daily “watering and sunlight” (your serums and sunscreen). It’s a long-term agricultural project, not a microwave meal.
This one small habit of getting 7-9 hours of sleep per night will dramatically affect your skin’s repair cycle.
Closing the Shop for Repairs
Imagine a busy shop that is open 24 hours a day. When would the maintenance crew ever have time to come in and properly clean the floors, restock the shelves, and repair broken equipment? They can’t. The shop will eventually fall into disrepair. Sleep is the time when your body finally “closes the shop.” This allows the dedicated repair crew to come in and do all the crucial maintenance, like repairing cellular damage and building new collagen, without being interrupted by the stresses of the day.
Use a product with coenzyme Q10, not just Vitamin C, for another powerful antioxidant to fight environmental damage.
A Two-Player Video Game
Fighting the free radical damage that causes aging is like playing a difficult video game. Vitamin C is your all-star, superstar main player. It’s incredibly powerful and can do most of the work on its own. But the game is much easier and more effective when you have a second player helping out. Coenzyme Q10 is that skilled second player. It’s another powerful antioxidant that works alongside Vitamin C, helping to fight off enemies and protect your cells, making your overall defense strategy much stronger.
Stop thinking that more is better. Using a retinoid every night might be too irritating and less effective than using it every other night.
A Rest Day at the Gym
If you are trying to build muscle, you know that lifting heavy weights every single day is counter-productive. Your muscles don’t grow during the workout; they grow during the rest days in between, when they have time to repair and rebuild themselves stronger. If you don’t take rest days, you’ll just end up with an injury. A retinoid is a workout for your skin. For many people, using it every other night provides that crucial “rest day” for their skin barrier to recover, leading to better results with less “injury.”
Stop ignoring your neck in your skincare routine. It’s one of the first places to show age.
The Tree Trunk
You can spend all your time caring for the beautiful leaves and branches of a tree, but if you ignore the health of the trunk, the whole tree will eventually show its age and weakness. The skin on your neck is the “trunk” that supports your face. It has fewer oil glands, is often left unprotected from the sun, and is constantly moving. It is just as important as the “leaves” and requires the exact same cleansing, moisturizing, and sun protection to keep the whole tree looking healthy.
The #1 secret for plumping skin is a serum with multiple weights of hyaluronic acid.
A Sponge Soaked at Every Level
A standard hyaluronic acid serum is like pouring water on the very top of a thick, dry sponge. It hydrates the surface well. But a serum with multiple molecular weights is much smarter. It has large molecules that sit on the surface, medium molecules that soak into the middle layers, and tiny molecules that can travel all the way to the bottom. This is like hydrating that sponge from the inside out and the outside in, at every single level, creating a much deeper, plumper, and more three-dimensional hydration.
I’m just going to say it: The anti-aging skincare market is full of exaggerated claims and fear-mongering.
The “Magic” Hair Growth Commercials
You’ve seen the commercials that promise a “miracle” spray will make a completely bald man grow a full, thick head of hair in two weeks. They use dramatic before-and-after photos and scary language about the “embarrassment” of hair loss. We know these claims are wildly exaggerated. The anti-aging market often uses the exact same tactics. It preys on the fear of aging and promises impossible, overnight results from a “magical” ingredient. The reality is always simpler: a few proven ingredients, used consistently over time.
The reason your skin looks crepey is due to a combination of sun damage and dehydration.
A Piece of Crumpled Silk
Imagine a beautiful, smooth piece of silk fabric. If you leave it out in the hot sun for years, the fibers will become weak and damaged. Then, if you let it get completely dried out and crumpled up, it will develop a fine, tissue-paper-like texture. That is crepey skin. It’s a two-part problem: the sun has damaged the underlying structure (the silk fibers of your collagen), and a lack of moisture has caused the surface to shrivel. You must address both the damage and the dehydration.
If you’re still not using a retinoid by age 30, you’re missing out on the gold standard of anti-aging.
Not Having a Hammer in Your Toolbox
Imagine you want to build a house, but you refuse to use a hammer. You can try to push nails in with a rock or the back of a screwdriver, and you might make some slow, clumsy progress. But you are intentionally ignoring the single most fundamental, effective, and essential tool for the job. For anti-aging, retinoids are that hammer. They are the undisputed, scientifically-proven gold standard for stimulating collagen and improving skin health. Not using one is a massive handicap.
The biggest lie you’ve been told is that expensive products are always better. A prescription for Tretinoin can cost less than a luxury retinol.
The Designer Label vs. The Master Craftsman
You can buy a simple t-shirt with a famous designer logo on it for $500. Or, you could go directly to a master craftsman and have a custom, perfectly tailored shirt made for a fraction of that price. The luxury over-the-counter retinol is that designer logo—you are paying for the brand, the marketing, and the fancy packaging. A prescription for generic Tretinoin is like going to the master craftsman. You are getting the most effective, powerful, and often much more affordable product, without paying for the hype.
I wish I knew that it’s never too late to start a good anti-aging routine.
Planting a Tree at Age 60
The saying goes, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.” You can’t go back in time and get the benefits of a tree you never planted. But if you plant one today, you can still enjoy its shade and beauty for all the years to come. It is the same with skincare. You can’t undo the past, but starting a great routine with sunscreen and a retinoid today can make a dramatic difference in your skin’s future health and appearance.
99% of people make this one mistake: not being patient enough to see the long-term benefits of their routine.
Watching a Pot of Water
You know the old saying: “a watched pot never boils.” If you put a pot of water on the stove and stare at it, desperately waiting for something to happen, the process feels agonizingly slow and you’ll be tempted to give up. The significant, structural changes from an anti-aging routine, like building new collagen, happen on a timescale of months and years, not days. You have to trust the process, stop watching the pot, and have faith that the heat is working.
This one small action of reducing your sugar intake will help prevent glycation, a process that hardens collagen and accelerates aging.
The Caramelized Onions of Your Skin
When you cook onions with sugar over a long period, they caramelize—they turn brown, sticky, and stiff. A similar process, called glycation, happens in your skin. Excess sugar molecules in your body can attach to your flexible, bouncy collagen and elastin fibers, causing them to become stiff and brittle, just like those onions. This “caramelization” process is a major contributor to wrinkles and loss of elasticity. Reducing sugar is like turning down the heat on the pan, keeping your collagen soft and flexible.
Use a combination of topical treatments and in-office procedures, not just one or the other, for the best anti-aging results.
A Healthy Diet and Going to the Gym
You can get great results from just eating a healthy diet. You can also get great results from just going to the gym. But to achieve the absolute best possible state of health and fitness, you must do both. They work together in perfect synergy. Your daily topical routine is that healthy diet—it provides the essential, consistent nourishment. In-office procedures, like lasers or microneedling, are the intense workout sessions that provide a powerful stimulus that you can’t replicate at home.