8 Anti-Aging Skincare Rules to Follow in Your 30s

Best Anti-Aging Tips for 30s

In your 30s, wrinkles and fine lines practically dominate the way you approach skincare. For instance, I never thought I’d be jealous of other people’s collagen but here we are. So taking care of your skin or starting to care for your skin becomes a bit more about anti-aging and preventing wrinkles than basic stuff like cleansing and moisturizing.

People always tell me that I look younger than my age. And even though I think it’s mostly about my figure and demeanor, I do believe that some of the things I’ve done over the years, especially with skincare, have paid off. And that’s what you’ll find here. If you’re in your early, mid, or late 30s and unhappy about fine lines, wrinkles, or other signs of aging, I’ve got the best anti-aging tips for your 30s.

Basic science tells us that collagen is one of the most important proteins responsible for keeping our skin smooth and youthful. It also tells us that collagen production decreases with age. As a result, the skin loses elasticity and shows signs of aging in your 30s like crow’s feet, deeper wrinkles, and even dullness, and can even look saggy.

But some of the things that we do, knowingly or unknowingly, speed up collagen loss. That means there are things we can do to delay this, prevent this, or at least minimize this. Whether you’re dealing with fine lines around the eyes, wrinkles on the forehead, or smile lines becoming more prominent, we can still reduce the appearance of aging skin and prevent wrinkles in our 30s.

Keep reading for the best anti-aging tips for your 30s.

Anti-Aging Tips For Your 30s

1. Protect Your Skin with SPF

Things can easily get overwhelming when you pay attention to what other people are doing with their skincare routine. Some new acid, or some hotshot anti-aging serum; you might even experience FOMO. Well, don’t!

As much as I like to rave about those exciting new things, I know that one aspect of skincare does not change. And that’s sunscreen.

Anti-Aging Tips For Your 303 - Protect Your Skin With SPF
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Unprotected sun exposure remains one of the leading external causes of premature aging, which is sometimes referred to as photoaging. Nothing’s going to help your skin more than protecting it by using a good sunscreen.

Even if you don’t do anything else, keeping your skin guarded against UV rays is still the best way to prevent wrinkles in your 30s. Also, be more holistic and use sunglasses and a protective hat, especially during summer.

2. Establish a Skincare Routine and Be Consistent

As much as it’s about taking care of your skin, and hydrating it, skin care is also about self-care for women in their 30s. So establish a skincare routine for 30-something skin that suits your skin type and includes all the basics: cleanser, moisturizer, and SPF.

Trust me, proper skincare makes all the difference in the world. The least it can do is plump your skin and reduce the look of dehydration lines. And that alone is so satisfying because it gives you bouncy, smooth skin.

Maybe you’re a skin maximalist like me and enjoy several different skincare products. Maybe you’re following a minimalist skincare routine.

Either way, the trick is to be consistent with it. At the end of the day, using an anti-aging serum every now and then won’t get you far.

On the flip side, even a low-concentration antioxidant serum can give your skin a much-desired glow simply because you’re using it consistently and the results improve progressively. You can always add more steps or products to your routine to enhance your results.

But essentially, wash your face twice a day with a gentle cleanser, hydrate and moisturize your skin with a moisturizer suitable for your skin type, and apply SPF.

If you’re way past that, consider adding an anti-aging eye cream into your routine, exfoliating regularly to keep the skin smooth, trying face toners and essences to enhance radiance, and using an anti-aging serum.

3. Try Personalized Skincare

This is definitely a skincare upgrade for women in their 30s. When you’re buying skincare products to use in your 30s, the best you can do is find the one suitable for your skin type.

That’s pretty much it. That’s as “personal” as it gets. But much like a tailored outfit, personalized skincare made specifically for your unique skin will maximize your results for wrinkle-free skin.

Personalized skincare brands all have their way of mapping out your skin type, concerns, and needs. Some brands give you forms to fill out. Others utilize artificial intelligence.

They take a lot of things into account like your sleep cycle, stress levels, screen, and sun time to formulate products with ingredients best suited for your skin.

That way, you get the most bang for your buck because everything is customized and personalized for you and you only.

Plus, you also have the advantage of using products made by the same brand. Because they work best when used together as opposed to using different products from different brands.

So if you’re someone new to skincare, or you can’t be bothered with figuring out what suits your skin yourself, and you just want a set without a hustle, definitely try personalized skincare.

4. Consider Retinoids

While we’re at it, here’s some anti-aging skincare advice to keep in mind if you’re over the age of 30. As you leave your 20s behind, you gradually step into the realm of your 30s where anti-aging means heavy-duty ingredients and anti-aging products.

Peptides, epidermal growth factors, and of course, retinol. It’s the holy grail anti-ager for smoothing wrinkles, fading dark spots and hyperpigmentation, and mopping up sun damage.

Anti-Aging Tips For Your Thirties
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But retinol is only one type of retinoid, which is an umbrella term for vitamin A derivatives. And there are amazing retinol creams for your 30s that work perfectly well.

But if you feel like your over-the-counter retinol products don’t seem to do enough for your skin or you just want something even more effective, see your dermatologist.

And get yourself good old prescription retinoids such as tretinoin cream. It’s more potent than retinol and takes shorter to give you results.

5. Pay Attention to Your Pillow

In case you haven’t heard, there is a correlation between your sleeping position and facial wrinkles. When you sleep on your side, you accelerate the formation of sleep wrinkles and the deepening of existing wrinkles.

It usually results in one of the smile lines being more prominent than the other one. Obviously, whatever side you sleep on, that part is usually where the smile line and the crow’s feet are deeper.

The best sleeping position is to sleep on your back. But let’s face it, we rule that one out immediately because nobody likes to get hit in the face by their phone.

And that’s where anti-aging pillows come to the rescue. They give your face and your neck enough support to get a comfortable sleep. Plus, they have silk pillowcases that also prevent friction to a great degree.

With anti-aging pillows, your face doesn’t get smushed even when you’re sleeping on the side. Plus, we do need that comfortable beauty sleep in our 30s! If getting a special pillow sounds like a whole thing, don’t worry.

Just try to avoid sleeping on your face or your side as much as you can. From my experience and I think it’s related to my skin becoming less elastic, it takes hours for those sleep lines to disappear from my face!

6. Try Professional Treatments

Certain professional treatments can help you minimize the appearance of aging skin in your 30s. These can be in the form of monthly anti-aging facials. Other anti-aging treatments for your 30s are light chemical peels and lasers.

I’m all for these types of treatments and procedures. But here’s the thing, it’s a jungle out there! It’s incredibly important that you go for a certified dermatologist for these types of treatments.

There are hundreds of treatments and it can get confusing. For best results, a professional can help you decide which one is better for your unique skin.

7. Consider Injectables

Injectables refer to treatments like Botox and fillers. From what I’ve seen from my friends, and the people around me that they are either too intimidated by the whole thing or they’re too in it.

I have friends that don’t believe in anti-aging serums and I have friends in their early 30s who have tried several cosmetic surgeries. It makes you wonder if you can try injectables and not get caught up.

First things first, know that you do not have to do anything! I get regular Botox injections and have tried fillers. I age too! These are not shortcuts to preventing aging in your 30s.

With that being said, injectables, especially Botox are the quickest way to soften expression wrinkles. Do your research, and go for nothing less than a certified specialist.

Because I am a very animated person, I have prominent expression lines. And Botox has helped me be more confident and I can recommend it to anyone who is unhappy about wrinkles. Similarly, fillers can help you smooth out deep wrinkles especially if you’re in your late 30s.

8. Be Mindful of Repetitive Facial Expressions

And speaking of expression wrinkles, try to be more mindful of repetitive facial expressions. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, imagine watching TV while squinting and never having bothered to go for glasses.

Repetitive motions like that make those temporary lines around the eyes turn into permanent lines. Similarly, frowning can make lines around the mouth and vertical lines between the brows become more prominent over time. Try to make these unnecessary expressions less to avoid making wrinkles worse.

The Takeaway

Wrinkles are normal at 30. And we will get more of them as we get older and wiser. So remember to appreciate your skin including all those wrinkles and lines. Your skin looks so much better than it’ll look 10 years from now.

There’s no point in obsessively pointing out every single thing that you perceive to be wrong with your skin. I’m not trying to do a wordplay here but anti-aging, in essence, is about aging gracefully.

That means aging the way you’re supposed to and not prematurely. It’s also about being preventative and more proactive.

It’s never really about unrealistic expectations that are impossible to achieve. So focus more on things that are in your control such as taking good care of your skin.

Read Next: The Best Face Exfoliators To Use in Your 30s

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