Why we’re swapping out anti-and-pro for authentic ageing

By Anthony Gonazalez, Global Head of Skincare Product Development at the Avon Innovation Centre

The conversation around ageing is changing. The inclusivity movement is growing and that means that for a while now, beauty brands and many media outlets are moving away from messaging focused on eradicating all signs of us getting older. A positive change since studies have reported that a large portion of consumers find that anti-ageing messaging isn’t realistic at best and mentally damaging at worst. After all, you can’t really anti-age but you can age better, in a way that you’re comfortable with.

Of course, as we move away from anti-ageing we have all considered pro-ageing instead, where we support rather than fight the ageing process and looking your true age is celebrated. Age acceptance is rising, and as an inclusive beauty brand we believe beauty can be found everywhere – there certainly isn’t only one standard of beauty in the world. However, for us, it’s not about being anti-ageing or pro-ageing, it’s recognising that everyone’s feelings are different and that neither extreme really allows us as consumers to be perfectly ourselves. That’s why, we’re embracing authentic ageing.

What is authentic ageing? It’s simply understanding that everyone’s attitude to skin ageing is different and they should be allowed to decide what is right for them, and their skin, and be confident in their choice. It’s about looking like you, not living up to anyone else’s ideals.

Consumers are telling us that they don’t want to see the ageing properties of products disappear – they may still want to reduce the look of their wrinkles or discolouration - but they want to make up their own mind about why they’re doing it. They’re shopping for a particular concern and that might be a manifestation of ageing but regardless, it’s with the lens of enhancing rather than covering up their natural beauty. They definitely don’t want to feel bad about getting older, because let’s face it, there’s no point – we can’t change it and there’s plenty of other things to worry about.

The common theme regardless of our viewpoint on ageing is that we all want healthy looking, strong and radiant skin. We’ve believed for a long time that skincare is about attitude, not age. These aspirational expectations of skin health and confidence are seemingly cross-generational.

That’s why our best-selling ANEW collection – we sell two ANEW products every second – is all about truly efficacious skincare for strong, radiant skin. We’ve reformulated our core creams to now include exclusive Protinol™ technology which boosts the two types of collagen needed for healthy skin. We’re using our science to give consumers their best skin. In fact, they’ll start seeing healthier-looking skin in just two days. Consumers are loving Protinol™ – it’s getting a stream 5* reviews so it’s definitely worth putting it to test. Will you?