A price you pay…

My skin is pretty good for a woman of my age.

I hate that phrase and all the others that begin or end with; ‘well at your age….’ ‘ when you get to your age…’ ‘as you get older…’ ‘after a certain age you can/can’t expect….’ but, yes, my skin is pretty good for an old tart.

Frenchie has good skin too. Lucky on the genes front. Our Mum, or the Duchess as Frenchie and I sometimes referred to her, had fabulous skin. The Duchess had an African granny or great granny, I can never remember, at least two lots of blonde, blue eyed granddads and a fair blue eyed father. The result was a black eyed, raven haired beauty who looked non specifically foreign or I like to think like a 1930’s jazz singer. Our mothers eyes were extraordinary, so dark you couldn’t see where the iris ended and the pupil began. When she died at the age of 93 she had fewer grey hairs than me and no more wrinkles than I had at the time. As my mother in law likes to say (she’s got a Caribbean father) ‘black don’t crack’. I’d like to think that I benefit a little from my mixed ancestry on the skin front. I’m certainly not as crinkley as my paternal relatives who are very fair. Dieting however can be hard on your skin……especially when you reach a certain age. Damn.

Some years ago I met a grand old cosmetic scientist, much like Helena Rubinstein or Estée Lauder, she took my face in her hands, ‘ooh, your lovely fat makes your skin so beautiful’ she said enthusiastically. For it’s true effect you should have read that with a strong, Eastern European accent. Now, I didn’t even think I was that big at the time so was a bit discombobulated by the reference to my fat. I was aware however that there was a compliment hidden in her words….somewhere.

It’s definitely true that fat fills out the wrinkles and I imagine that I may be more lined soon, I don’t think that it has started to show yet. I’m hoping the youthful spring in my step released by my weight loss will counteract the ageing effects of the wrinkles.

I’m such an optimist……x