Best Natural Skin Products to Use in Your 40s

In your 40s, skincare is all about hydration, repair and replenishment. This is the decade when the cumulative effects of exposure to toxins, called free-radical damage, can catch up with skin in the form of blotchy, red or ruddy complexions. As more collagen and moisture is lost, cell turnover is slowed and deep lines become more prominent. This is where products like peels, exfoliants and retinols come in, all now available in natural forms.

Remember too, that skin repairs itself as you sleep, so aim for seven to eight hours a night. Also, start using a richer cream with antioxidants as well as a an emollient eye cream with ingredients like caffeine and licorice root.

The Best Natural Skin Products In Your 40s Should: Include Wrinkle Repair and Collagen Boosters

CLEANSER

• Suki Moisture-Rich Cleansing Lotion ($26.95) is an antioxidant-rich hydrating wash that’s great at any age, but is especially wonderful for dry and mature skin. In addition to removing impurities, it preserves skin’s natural moisture balance, fights free radicals, restores radiance and minimizes pore size.
• Skinfinite Purify Facial Cleanser ($30 in the shop) is packed with hydroxyl acids as well as yogurt to fade hyperpigmentation and sun damage, and I love that there is the antioxidant raspberry. I found this cleanser to be effective and surprisingly gentle – that is, until my husband made off with it.  
• M.A.D Mega Rich Antioxidant Cleansing Gel ($32) with antioxidants tea, cranberry, seaweed and maritime pine makes for wrinkle prevention and cure.
• Stemulation Gentle Gel Cleanser's ($35) large size allows for it to become a great body wash as well).
• La Vie Celeste Exfoliating Mother of Pearl Cleanser ($40 in the shop) has a creamy clay base for brightening and clarifying the complexion.
• Arcona White Tea Purifying Cleanser is perfect for oilier skins ($42).

TONER

Toners perform an important balancing act between controlling excess oil, refining pores and providing anti-aging nourishment.

• 100% Pure Jasmine Green Tea Tonique ($19) shows that a hydrating toner is not an oxymoron, fitting the bill perfectly in addition to some antioxidants.
• La Vie Celeste Restorative Illuminating Toner's ($35 in the shop) main ingredient is aloe, closely followed by vitamin B. The very useful addition of horse chestnut is helpful for broken veins.

MOISTURIZER

• Suki Facial Lift Ultimate Firming Cream ($164.95 in the shop) is a comprehensive formula with a powerful combination of antioxidants, time-released vitamin C glucoside, resveratrol and hyaluronic acid to help rebuild collagen, even out skin tone and restore dry skin.
• Prana Reflect Antioxidant Skin Cream SPF 45 ($39 in the shop) is a day cream loaded with SPF, antioxidants and moisturizers, while remaining a simple enough formula to layer over a serum and under foundation.
• Your Best Face Boost ($65 in the shop) works well with even the most problematic skin, hydrating, blemish controlling, and providing free-radical scavengers.
• La Vie Celeste Day and Night Restorative Face Cream ($65 in the shop) is a flexible day/night cream with an Extra Rich Face Cream ($75 in the shop) counterpart for those with more parched skin.
• Prana Restore Nightly Moisturizer ($68) revitalizes dull, dehydrated skin with soy, ubinquinone, grape seed oil, alpha lipoic, lactic and glycolic acids to help repair sun damage and repair fine lines.
• Stemulation Rescue Repair Hand and Body Treatment Creme ($96) is great for neck and décolleté once you start start to notice that your swan-like neck isn’t all it used to be. It restores and renews areas troubled with age spots, extreme dryness, loose skin and calluses. 
• Your Best Face Private Reserve ($75 in the shop) is an oil-based serum. While some people are put off by oils, fearing that they will be, well, oily, a good oil sinks right in and will not clog the pores. They are much purer than creams and deliver their actives more efficiently. 

SERUM

It is in your 40s that serums come into their own. They can be divided into the Big 3 for brightening, sun damage or wrinkles. Many people have heard that what they need is retinol (a vitamin A). I don’t entirely agree with that and think they can be all too easily overdone.

• Arcona Vitamin A Complex ($68), however, is a a good place to start if you are in the market for a retinol This all-natural formula has brightening arbutin and a couple of very good free-radical scavengers.
• La Vie Celeste Éclairage Restorative Serum ($98.50 in the shop) is the newest brightening and sun damage star. A couple of my other favorite ingredients are here as well, the free radical blockers milk thistle and ferulic acid. 
• Kenneth Mark MD Antioxidant Hydrating Cream ($120 in the shop) is one of the few serums to feature antioxidant astaxanthin. One study claims it is 6,000 times more effective than vitamin C.
• E’shee Clinical Esthetic Vitalizing C Serum ($119 in the shop) proves that vitamin C is nothing to sneer at, however. Along with liposome vitamin C, this serum gives us copper PCA and antioxidants mulberry and ginkgo biloba.
• Skinfinite Peptide Repair Serum ($69 in the shop) packs a powerful peptide punch, along with many of the cutting-edge antioxidants and growth factors found in more expensive products.
• Michael Todd Knu Anti-Aging Face Lift Serum ($150) is for when wrinkles have morphed from fine lines and are beginning to look stubborn. The two essentials for your arsenal are epidermal growth factors (wrinkle repair) and Matrixyl 3000 (collagen booster). This supercharged serum includes both of these, skin brighteners, and, wait for it, snail slime.

EXFOLIANT AND BRIGHTENER

For a helping hand a couple of times a week, masks and peels are great rejuvenators.

• PureCeuticals Multi-Enzyme Pumpkin Peel ($44) would provide a milder experience with a gentle two percent concentration.
• Arcona The Solution Pads ($45 in the shop) conveniently comes with pre-soaked pads with a four percent glycolic solution. 

EYE CREAM

Your eyes are the first to betray your age. That’s not a bad thing as those laughter lines are a testament to your good humor and grace under fire, but they are starting to hang around after you stop smiling.

• Lumavera Anti-Aging Eye Cream ($80 in the shop) is a serious eye cream with plant cell technology and peptides; however, those who are already noticing crepey lids and under eyes might want to go for the heavier guns of Your Best Face Correct ($150 in the shop), a best seller with potent antioxidants.
• Retrospect Flash Firm Eye Gel ($70) is cooling, refreshing and a must-have for puffy eyes with its roller ball applicator delivering a keratin-based eye gel. 
• Osmotics Eye Surgery Under Eye Rejuvenator ($68 in the shop) can give a firmness and suppleness to under eyes that will give your entire face a pick-me-up.
• AQ Skin Solutions Eye Serum ($99 in the shop) contains the growth factors TGF-Beta, GM-CSF and PDGF. Matrixyl 3000 is here too plus special actives for depuffing and dark under eye circles.

Best Natural Skin Products for Any Age: 
Best Natural Skin Products to Use in Your 60s and Up
Best Natural Skin Products to Use in Your 50s
Best Natural Skin Products to Use in Your 30s
Best Natural Skin Products to Use in Your 20s