Is it time to ditch the term 'anti-ageing'?

This week, Allure – the US’s best-known beauty magazine – announced it was to stop using the expression anti-ageing. “Whether we know it or not, we’re subtly reinforcing the message that ageing is a condition we need to battle” explained Michelle Lee in her editor’s letter. “Changing the way we think about ageing starts with changing the way we talk about ageing”.

Anti-ageing has been a beauty byword since the 1980s, when it was dreamed up by an advertising exec to sell products to older women. It makes sense that this category would have its own term – the global skincare market has become a lucrative one expected to exceed $131bn by 2019 and the 50-plus consumer has a huge influence and spending power. While its use on actual products from RoC and Nivea was banned by the ASA around 10 years ago – because nothing can claim to stop the passage of time – it is still used on websites, in magazines, and in everyday parlance. And now there’s a backlash: an anti-anti-ageing movement of consumers and bloggers who are refusing to accept this insidious – and sexist – terminology. A movement that brands – and now publishers – are finding impossible to ignore.

Jane Cunningham, founder of the site britishbeautyblogger.com, stopped using the term anti-ageing long ago. When talking about products she would recommend for women over 50 she prefers to use the terms ‘age inclusive’ and ‘for older skin’ because “that’s just fact”. She regularly makes a stand against an industry that consistently champions youth by promoting a more inclusive approach. “Treating age as something that needs ‘curing’ is pointlessly demoralising for anyone over 30,” Cunningham points out, “I’d like to see brands celebrating beauty at all ages. Beauty is not one thing, it’s many things.”

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