With 2020 being a disruptive year full of ups and downs, it’s no surprise that the impact of lockdown and restricted living has greatly influenced how we feel about aspects of our lives and ourselves.
That’s why leading skincare brand, Rodan + Fields, decided to survey a diverse range of Australian women, in order to find out their current attitudes to skin and skincare.
Here are some of the highlights.
Reliance on skincare and regimens
According to Rodan + Fields’ research, the top three things women said they believe skincare can address include: Rough skin texture, fine lines and dullness. Additionally, over 60% said they wanted a range of skincare products that work together as a regime to complement each other.
Luckily, Rodan + Fields’ new REDEFINE Regimen, which is scientifically backed when it comes to anti-ageing, ticks all of these boxes.
“REDEFINE Regimen backed by our Multi-Step Science approach takes the guesswork out of selecting a skincare routine by providing a complex set of ingredients and technologies that work in a simple step-by-step way for the problem customised to you,” Rodan + Fields co-founder, Dr Kathy Fields, told BD. “Ingredients are purposefully combined, given the perfect vehicle to deliver their benefits, and applied in the right order to produce maximum effectiveness and results.”
Dr Katie Rodan also said, “Adding up all the steps that impact the skin over time, we identify the ingredients that allow us to address each one of these challenges. As you see, skin ageing is complicated. As dermatologists we know that you can’t fix aspects of the skin ageing process with one miracle molecule. Using a science-based approach, we create products that work together in a Regimen.”
‘Anti-ageing’ seen as empowering
According to the respondents, ‘anti-ageing’ is currently seen as an empowering term, not a negative one. 45% of women felt it was positive, while 85% said they didn't feel like ‘anti-ageing’ was a negative term and/or didn't feel negatively about it.
First signs of ageing
When it comes to the first signs of ageing, only 9% of women said they saw any visible signs of ageing before the age of 30. 26% first noticed them between the ages of 30 and 35, and 59% saw visible signs of ageing before turning 40. 61% revealed the first signs they noticed were fine lines, while 37% said their first signs were in the eye area.
All about the eyes
The survey also revealed that women are becoming less concerned and more accepting with age. 73% of women between 30-39 were concerned about lines around the eye, while only 69% of women between 40-49 had the same concerns. When women between 50-60 were asked, 63% of them said they were concerned about lines around the eyes.
Meanwhile, 93% believe it is very important to maintain a youthful appearance around the eye area. And when it comes to desired results from an eye cream, all ages wanted fine lines, wrinkles, or crow’s feet addressed. 30-49 were more focused on dark circles, whereas 50-60 were worried about sagging, loss of contour, as well as dark circles.
Preference for skincare over clinic/procedures
When combating the signs of ageing, women of all ages preferred taking matters into their own hands at home with the use of skincare products over in-clinic treatments.
“When it comes to your skin and your appearance, only natural beauty counts,” Dr Rodan said. “You can’t necessarily improve your complexion with procedures, like Botox, fillers or surgeries. When it comes to treating patients in my practice, I take a holistic approach. If I treat them with a procedure, I also include a program to improve their skin.
I have learnt over the years as a dermatologist, no one has perfect skin. At some point in our lives, we all have a skin issue that prevents us from feeling and looking our best. And to deal with these common skin concerns from ageing to acne, most women use foundation to hide and camouflage these problems. It is my belief and experience that using the right skincare program will help get your skin in such great shape that you don’t have to wear the mask of makeup.”
Biggest skincare concerns
Women aged 30-39 cited their number one concern being about skin hydration and inflammation, while women aged 40 plus unsurprisingly were most concerned about fine lines and wrinkles.
Ingredients matter
Most women said they were familiar with vitamin C (96%) and retinol (84%), followed by peptides and hyaluronic acid (both 69%). Newer ingredients such as bakuchiol were lower at 10%.
Reasons for not trying ingredients were the same across ages, but for younger consumers, feeling overwhelmed by the number of options on the market was the number one issue, whereas for women 40 and over, cost was the largest prohibitor.
As for Rodan + Fields, Dr Fields believes there “are so many fad and distracting ingredients available,” but they are “hunting serious science,” preferring to leverage those that have been tested, while seeing if they can either improve them or develop a new delivery system for them to work even better.
“We use our proprietary version of a retinoid, called retinal MD, that is stronger and more potent that commercially available retinoid products without causing irritation,” added Dr Rodan. “Also, among the tried and true, we developed our own blend of two different peptides.
We are also open to newer ingredients that have been proven to work. For example, we included bakuchiol which is a new ingredient for us. It’s a plant-derived alternative to retinoids with similar activity. We chose this because some people are allergic to retinoids or may be pregnant and advised by their doctor to avoid retinoids during pregnancy.”
