Since 2022, we’ve been asking celebrities to share their favorite products across beauty, travel, home and fitness for our series The Essentials. Last month, we curated a list of celebrity-approved winter beauty products, which included everything from sunscreen to hydrating moisturizers. This month, as part of our Guide to Age-Defying Beauty we’re turning the lens on all the skin care products that celebrities over 40 have told us they love using, from firming face masks to anti-aging serums.
“Sweet Magnolias” star JoAnna Garcia Swisher singled out the Shani Darden Retinol Reform Anti-Aging Serum as a must-have beauty product when we interviewed her in 2023. The serum uses a combination of encapsulated retinol and lactic acid to gently improve skin texture and even skin tone while firming the skin and improving the look of fine lines and wrinkles.
Among the beauty products loved by fashion designer Rachel Zoe is this firming face mask from 111Skin, which she uses to prep her skin before red carpets and other events. Described by Zoe as a “game changer,” the hydrogel mask is formulated with ingredients like centella asiatica, which plumps, and goji glycopeptides, which tighten, lift and reduce the appearance of fine lines.
When we interviewed actress and 4U by Tia founder Tia Mowry in 2023, the then-44-year-old actress told us that iS Clinical’s Pro-Heal Serum Advance+ is part of her nightly skin care routine. The reparative serum, which is rich in antioxidants, soothes and protects skin from environmental stressors while reducing the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines.
Fashion designer Jenna Lyons described herself as an avid exfoliator when we interviewed her in 2022. As she told us, “I’m getting old, so if I don’t exfoliate, my skin looks dull.” Lyon’s exfoliator of choice? This facial scrub from Beauty Pie that’s formulated with volcanic scrub spheres, shea butter and pineapple enzymes to gently resurface and brighten skin.
This brightening face serum from Neostrata uses ingredients like vitamin C, polyhydroxy acid, feverfew and green tea extract to reduce the look of fine lines and wrinkles, and address the signs of premature aging caused by the sun. Actress Jenna Dewan told us she uses this serum every morning before applying her makeup.
When we asked actress and YSE Beauty founder Molly Sims about her beauty essentials, these firming eye gels from Skyn Iceland were among her picks, with Sims describing them as a “can’t-live-without necessity.” Powered by Icelandic glacial water, arctic cranberry seed oil, peptides and coenzyme Q10, the patches depuff, firm and smooth fine lines in the sensitive under-eye area.