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There’s a lot of information out there about ageing – not all of it scientifically credible.

Below is a summary that explains what’s happening and gives you an idea of what to expect. But don’t despair! Next weeks’ blog tells you what you can do to protect and enhance your beauty from your 20s through to your 50s and beyond.

Your twenties

• Your skin is full of lots of lovely collagen, which keeps it supple and radiant.
• Plentiful subcutaneous fat (i.e. the fat below your skin) keeps you looking firm and youthful.
• Acne can become a problem, even if it wasn’t during your teens – this can be alleviated with the right products or changes to your diet.

Your thirties

• This is when broken capillaries can appear on and around your nose, and on your cheeks.
• Skin tone can become uneven and sun spots may appear.
• You may start noticing crow’s feet and vertical forehead lines between your eyes.
• Some women will experience hyperpigmentation, or darker patches on the face, as a result of sun exposure, or hormonal changes during pregnancy or from the contraceptive pill.
• You’ll see early signs of volume loss due to less collagen and hyaluronic acid, and due to the diminishing of subcutaneous fat.
• Your face might start to look more narrow and angular, and therefore older and more tired.

Your forties

• Your skin is likely to become drier, which results in more pronounced lines and wrinkles.
• You’ll lose even more subcutaneous fat – mostly from the mid-face, the temples and the front of the ears.
• You also lose fat from around the mouth, chin and jawline, resulting in greater facial narrowness and angularity.
• Your nose can start tipping downwards due to the upper lip retracting downwards.

Your fifties

• Thanks to the menopause and a steady decline in oestrogen, collagen loss ramps up and skin starts to sag and become drier.
• This is also when structural changes, i.e. changes to your facial bones, become noticeable:
• The openings around the eyes increase, causing eyes to become smaller and rounder. Also the 'tear troughs' become more noticeable.
• The nose further widens and loses support so that the tip droops further forward.
• The maxilla bone, which is the central bone of the mid-face, narrows and falls back and this causes the cheeks to loose support.
• The frontal bone, in the upper third of the face recedes, causing the forehead to flatten and eyebrows to eventually move up.

Check back next week for the latest insiders’ secrets on the best treatments and preventions to keep you looking your best throughout the decades.