People Don't Believe My Mom Is 75—Here Are 11 Anti-Aging Serums She Uses

Ten years ago, my family experienced a huge scare when my then 65-year-old mom was rushed to the ER in order to receive emergency cardioversion—aka a medical paddle used to restart her heart. The day before the trip to the emergency room, we'd been traveling, and my mom (who has since discovered she has an extreme sensitivity to sugar) had a pumpkin spice latte and an almond-filled French pastry for breakfast and then later on after dinner a small vanilla ice cream cone. As she explains, it was enough sugar (at least for her) to send her heart into atrial fibrillation, or an uneven heart rhythm.

"As scary as the experience was, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise," she tells me. "I banished heavy sugar doses from my diet and noticed that my skin started looking better. Soon after this, I forced myself to watch a program on PBS I'd recorded called The Age Fix, hosted by plastic surgeon Anthony Youn (and later read his book by the same name). I'd resisted watching the show because I knew it wouldn't be my personal choice to go the route of plastic surgery when it came to age prevention, but as a makeup artist who specializes in helping women over 50, I felt like there could be some helpful information."

best-anti-aging-serums-280115-1558663695666-main

(Image credit: @erin_jahns)

As my mom told me over the phone, Youn connected the dots for her when he said the most important thing we can do for our skin is to eat a clean, healthy diet, and sugar basically equals wrinkles. So as my mom began to reduce her sugar intake and make healthier choices when it came to meals and snacking, her skin started looking better and better, and she became more interested in what else she could do to help some age-related redness, dark spots, fine lines, and not-so-fine lines that were becoming ever harder to miss when she looked in the mirror each morning. (Her words, not mine!)

"Frankly, I'm also embarrassed to admit I'd never done much besides a morning facial cleanse in the shower, some moisturizer under my makeup, and an evening cleanse," she laughs. "But as I started checking into skin-enhancing serums and products that might benefit my skin, I realized that to get the best results from these products, I needed to make sure these formulations could penetrate deeply into my skin. I purchased a Facial Cleansing Brush ($119) which, according to research, can get your skin six times cleaner than a normal cleansing routine, and I began to add a few other exfoliating skincare products into my regimen as well."

But it wasn't until my mom began introducing various anti-aging serums into her skincare routine that she says she truly began to notice a difference in the appearance of her skin. "I also switched to a natural moisturizer—Essentiel by Adele Moisture ($39) is pure heaven—which has made my routine a bit cleaner and has been a game-changer in terms of my skin's hydration levels, especially since we spend our winters in the Arizona desert."

So are you curious to know the specifics of my mom's anti-aging skincare routine and her favorite serums? Keep scrolling! Ahead, she's sharing the best anti-aging serums and formulas that have actually made a difference in the way her skin looks and feels.

The Serums

The Extras

Next Up: For Brighter, Firmer Skin, Make Sure Your Body Lotion Has This Ingredient

This article was originally published at an earlier date and has been updated.

Beauty Director

Erin has been writing a mix of beauty and wellness content for Who What Wear for over four years. Prior to that, she spent two and half years writing for Byrdie. She now calls Santa Monica home but grew up in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and studied writing, rhetoric, and communication at University of Wisconsin, La Crosse. She studied abroad in Galway, Ireland, and spent a summer in L.A. interning with the Byrdie and Who What Wear family. After graduating from UW, she spent one year in San Francisco, where she worked as a writer for Pottery Barn Kids and PBteen before moving down to L.A. to begin her career as a beauty editor. She considers her day-to-day beauty aesthetic very low-maintenance and relies on staples like clear brow serum (from Kimiko!), Lawless's Lip Plumping Mask in Cherry Vanilla, and an eyelash curler. For special occasions or days when she's taking more meetings or has an event, she'll wear anything and everything from Charlotte Tilbury (the foundations are game-changing), some shimmer on her lids (Stila and Róen do it best), and a few coats of the best mascara-type product on earth, Surratt's Noir Lash Tint.