MORE WRINKLY OF RICHMOND..... SHINY PEOPLE AND SLOW DRIVERS

I was at the Safety in Beauty launch yesterday at the W hotel in Leicester Square, a place I've never been to before.   The initiative of Antonia Mariconda who had a car crash at 22 and had reconstructive plastic surgery as a result of it told me it changed her life on many levels. She became fascinated by the aspiration for beauty and image and is now a beauty writer and author, who coaches people to as she puts it 'find safe ways to enhance their bodies'.    It's a pity the powers that be didn't listen to her before the PIP scandal.

Beauty is huge business and I admit I've only skimmed the surface of the industry, finding it tends to be skin deep and little else and I've had little to write about at spas other than fruit facials and flower exfoliations, or is that the other way round?  And I've always been sceptical of an industry that disempowers people under the guise of empowering them.  'You don't look good enough, we can make you look better' sort of thing.

But it was interesting talking to the experts at the events and how they were trying to make the industry safer, better regulated, with less use of jargon and more accessible - as in people would know what they are getting into when they decide to have an acid peel, botox, microdermabrasion, derma roller, and the sci fi sounding cryotherapy.   I think some of the problem is there is so much out there telling the public different things about what to do, how to do it, how much to spend and where to go.  It makes them confused and even more neurotic than they were before.   Spend £5 in Boots on a face cream and it's as good as £500 on something with gold and caviar in it - or is it?    Bottom line is people do not care, they are interested in one thing only - will it work - as in will it make me look good. Worst case scenario is not that it doesn't work, it's that it can actually make you look worse and potentially kill you.

Plus, something the fashion industry has slowly come around to, and the beauty industry I'm not sure has, is that younger isn't better.  As in you don't need to look younger to look better.  I know women who are more beautiful now than when they were younger, bit like the proverbial fine wine, some reach their peek in their twenties, but most do in their forties.   They know what they've got and know what to do with it.    Plus it's true if you feel good on the inside, it does project to the outside and you get a 'natural' glow. I know that with the exercise I've done over the years and especially now the yoga.  But there is nothing wrong with a little help - and as I'm determined to become less wrinkly over the next six months (I was the most wrinkled in the room of happy shiny people), I'm sharing the advice I got.  

Firstly nutrition.    Berries, sweet potato, beetroot, walnuts, flax seeds, avocados, salmon, chocolate (dark, high quality, shame), green tea and salmon are all anti-aging.   Eat the lot, a lot.

Next the 'treatments'.     I'm going to try out Derma roller which 'stimulates the skin to regenerate' allowing itself to repair 'safely and naturally'.    I'm going to be permeated it sounds like but I prefer the sou d of this to anything to do with 'acid'. I still remember Samantha from Sex and the  City and although I'm told that's extreme, I'm happier with the pin cushion.

Next, Slendertone facial toning.   They look like headphones but you put them on your cheeks and it tones and gets rid of saggy cheeks. I don't have saggy cheeks but I don't want saggy cheeks so I'm giving that a go. Sort of preventative medicine.  The toning equipment reminds me of the tens machine I wore when I was having contractions, but on the face.     Twenty mins a day for several weeks.   I've got it on now.   I'm squinting every few seconds, so hoping it doesn't give me a nervous tick.

So I bounced back from the launch, having chatted to Stella English (she who took on Alan Sugar and won), who didn't have any wrinkles despite the stress of the case, although she worked for Citigroup before appearing on The Apprentice, so I'm sure Mr Sugar was a teddy bear compared to that lot.   She arrived with model, ex Big Brother contestant Sophie Anderton.   Stunning and slim and shiny, she also didn't have a single line on her face.   She liked my coat.   I spoke to a lovely Colombian lady who told me her facials would do me the world of good (Diamond Blend) and another expert from AntiAgeing Savantess who studied my face intensely, touched the skin around my eyes and said she could help me although I hadn't asked for it.

So I bounced off last night prepared to anti age myself and stick vibrating pads to my cheeks and try out the creams that sounded just right, and woke up to deadlines and bills and having to drive my son to school behind the slowest driver in the world, followed by a car that must have been driven by the second slowest driver in the world.   Cortisol levels must have hit the roof - which is ageing.  Life tends to do that.  

So I'm typing this smothered in potions trying to get the bloody traffic and those shitty wrinkle inducing drivers out of my skin.   Dr Bragi Face and Body Salvation which sounded suitably dramatic and Karin Herzog's  Oxygen Hyalu lift 'wrinkle lifting cream' which sounded just what I need and something called 'Silver Body' which will allegedly make my body feel wonderful and oh so smooth and tone to the touch, although I'm more interested in the face at the moment.  I'm very slippery and shiny and am going to see if I look 'better'.  I don't care about younger, but 'better' will do me fine.