The revival of seniors

Pascale Brousse

14 April 2014

At what age does one start using anti-aging creams in cosmetics? 20! At what age is one considered a senior in cosmetics? 60 or even 50! Yet the extension of life expectancy has led to radical sociological, technological and scientific breakthroughs. And among these major changes can be found the desire and possibility to live a brand new life after 60. Therefore how and when will the cosmetics industry get closer to the expectations of those who feel young in their bodies and minds despite their age, those who accept their wrinkles without giving up on their appearance and self-care?

Sexygenarians are getting their own place

Over the past few years – five to eight years depending on the country, Japan ahead – the cosmetics industry has launched specific products for the 60+, mainly to target aging. On the positive side, it means this age group does exist, and even presents a great potential! On the negative side, the related messages most often focus on exterminating wrinkles.

Of course, there are still men and women willing to do anything to appear physically younger, and the trend will go on because this generation refuses aging, and is used to active creams, scientific revolutions, and new devices. Besides, there are still products to be invented to finally solve particular issues: specific make-up which does not run into wrinkles (foundation, lipstick, pencils that resist against the perspiration of drooping eyelids…), lifting and ergonomic body products, etc.

However, which propositions can really meet the more global beauty / health expectations of individuals? Which services, in addition to creams? This is the challenge for the years to come, since it implies transcending existing codes, working on embellishment over time, and not exclusively standing “against” aging.

These three concomitant initiatives should already be hailed:
– Clarins “dared” launch their “Super Restorative Day” cream with the visual of a 47-year-old woman whose wrinkles on the eye contour area are visible;
– Vichy did the same with “Neovadiol Magistral Elixir” and their attractive slogan “Year after year, I feel more confident, radiant and happy (with myself)”,
– while L’Oréal shows three women of different ages, including Jane Fonda and Doutzen Kroes.

Young brand Jeanne M, which was founded by Emmanuelle Taulet, was the first to disrupt things when the “Helixir” range was launched in 2011, supporting the beauty of mature women while not making any false promises. Le Boudoir by Jeanne M, a new skincare and ritual range specifically developed for salons and spas, will be released in April. It will meet demands from 60+ women, a segment that remains almost untouched today. [1]

A solution with the global beauty approach

Women want the cosmetics industry to take into account their physical, mental, emotional, and even spiritual experience. They also wish that beyond the pleasure of applying a cream, it could actually meet their physiological and ergonomic needs with programmes: adapted nutritional advice, soft or “body/mind” gym practices. Some beauty coaching concepts have long been integrating a holistic or even psychological dimension (see Galya Ortega, Martine de Richeville, meditation practices). Even American women, who are such warriors when it comes to fight against aging, praise French women who accept their age, as can be seen with the success of Mireille Guiliano’s new book French Women Don’t Get Facelifts: the Secret of Aging with Style and Attitude in the USA.

Based on integrative medicine, the global beauty approach is the only one that can answer 50+ women’s beauty demands today by proposing both cutting edge scientific medicine, chromosomal nutrition solutions (see Vogue 11/13, a calibrated regime to extend telomeres in white corpuscles, and therefore possibly life expectancy), and relaxing solutions for the body and mind. Spas and thalassotherapy have been transforming their offers to target the 45+ (without saying it loud just yet) such as with Thalavie’s recent repositioning, the constant progress of Alliance Pornic, Carnac, etc.

Although it has been firmly established for long in the USA and in Asia, setting up integrative beauty / health places is pretty recent in Europe (except for La Prairie and Henri Chenot). That is how Sha Wellness Clinic (Spain) now enables to follow a healthy food programme, do sports or relaxing activities, undergo a surgical operation, and benefit from cutting edge medicine (nutri-genomics, etc.). The largest complex of this type will open in the Canaries in 2015, featuring a hotel and thalassotherapy school in addition to the Spa.

Conclusion: beauty and health will be much more closely linked in the years to come, whether it be for women who wish to keep fighting against physical aging up until they are 80, or for those who accept it more easily. Technology will enable to implement programmes for “predictive global cosmetic practices” taking into account physical, mental, and emotional needs, and will provide a solution to both sleeping disorders and weakened skins.

A growing number of seniors will represent a lively force and be more respected, admired and copied. They will become models of the value of time – in a society where it is missing: seniors’ faces as a memory card in the eyes of all, rather than standardized faces…

Footnotes

[1] The Jeanne M brand has just published the Manifeste pour la beauté libérée, a text to "Vivre pleinement et sereinement la beauté sexygénaire®" (www.jeanne-m.com), that is, be able to fully and serenely experience sexygenarian beauty.