Look in the mirror, but not at your face. Look down. Look at your neck. Look at your décolleté. How does it look?
If you’re like most women, you’ve been diligent about your skin care, but you stopped at your chin. That’s okay, it happened to a lot of us. The problem is there are some wrinkly decolletes and saggy necks holding up some beautiful faces, and unfortunately, giving away your age. It happened to me. I remember several years back when one of my supervisors got a face lift. After surgery, she became hypersensitive (and somewhat hypercritical) of everyone’s appearance. One day, she casually mentioned that I had the neck of a 50-year old. I was 35. I went home and studied my neck in the mirror for hours. She was right. I forgot about my neck.
One morning "The View" was on my television (not a program that I watch, but on this particular day, I’m glad I did). Vanessa Williams was a guest that day. I think she’s incredibly beautiful and quite talented, so I sat to watch the interview. Having been in the industry forever, the first thing I always notice is makeup and hair, and hers is always particularly good. But then I saw that holding up her gorgeous head was the neck of an old woman and I heard myself gasp. I wasn’t the only one that forgot. Someone as smart and beautiful as Vanessa Williams forgot too. Suddenly, I wasn't alone.
From that day forward, I made it my personal mission to tell everyone, "skin care shouldn’t stop at your chin." My goal is to rid the world of wrinkly cleavage and sagging necks. You think I’m kidding, but I’m not.
Here's what I've done since that day I was told I had the neck of a 50-year old: I slather my face, neck and decollete with an anti-aging serum. Right now, I'm using Striking Multi-Peptide Serum. I moisturize like crazy (I'm currently using a combination of Neova Creme de la Copper and Striking Restorative Moisture Creme) and I always use an SPF 30 (I'm a big Banana Boat fan) when I'm out in the sun. Over the last nine years, I've worked hard to repair my neck and prevent damage to my decollete (especially important since my breast augmenation in 2006) and it's paid off. If you're one of the women who forgot, the good news is that it’s not too late. Expand your skin care regime past your chin and you'll be happy with the results, I promise.
For those of you who need a little extra help, there are good procedures for your neck such as laser, thermage, thread lift and neck lift procedures. And for the decollete, filler injections can produce some dramatic results. I saw an injection procedure on an episode of The Doctors and was so impressed with the immediate and significant results that I posted the video on my facebook page. I'm sure my facebook friends that I used with work during my brief stint as product development manager at a direct sales company were laughing hysterically...I relentlessly preached about saggy neck and wrinkly cleavage the entire two years I was there.
The bottom line is this: we spend a lot of money on skin care, makeup and hair care, and we spend our precious time making sure that our heads look good. If you want to enhance your results, remember your neck and decollete. I promise you, it's worth it.
You're looking at my neck now, aren't you?