Best Face Cleansers for Every Mature Skin Concern

Time is a tricky thing. While we are definitely grateful for the wisdom that age and experience afford us, it’s hard to nurture the same appreciation for the other things that come with the passing years:  wrinkles, age spots and dull and sagging skin. Still, the changes in your skin is all part of the natural aging process. But while laugh lines and crow’s feet are inevitable, you can slow the process down and continue on with your quest to age gracefully. How? By arming yourself with a skin care regimen fitted with products that address the unique needs and concerns of mature skin—starting with the most important step in your routine: cleansing.

How Aging Affects Your Skin

As you grow older, your skin goes through a number of changes. All of a sudden, the products you swore by in your 20s are no longer as effective as you remembered them to be. You may also find that your skin has started to develop certain problems that you’ve never had in the past—like dryness or adult acne. This is because the building blocks of healthy skin—the proteins collagen and elastin—start to break down as you age, resulting in dullness, loss of firmness and fine lines and creases.

Shedding dead skin cells also doesn’t occur as often or as quickly when you have mature skin, and this often causes your skin to look rough and lifeless. The loss of key proteins also leads to the thinning of your dermal layers, making it more prone to tearing and bruising.

Menopause also plays a role. Not only does this joyful time (we’re kidding—menopause is anything but) open up a world of hot flashes, mood swings and slower metabolism, the rapid decline in hormones also takes a toll on your skin, often leading to breakouts, dryness and even facial hair. And if you’ve been taking sun protection for granted, you’ll find that the effects of UV damage become more pronounced as you mature.

“More concerning than the decreased collagen and elastin production is the fact that chronic sun damage throughout our life has a cumulative effect of destroying the collagen and elastin that make up the connective tissue of our skin,” says board-certified dermatologist Hal Weitzbuch, MD, MS, FAAD. “Older patients, especially those who haven’t protected [their skin] from ultraviolet radiation well, usually have very thin skin on sun-exposed areas and frequently complain of how easily they bruise,” he adds.

How to Care for Mature Skin

It’s important to recognize and address the changing needs of mature skin, says beauty chemist and skin care expert David Pollock. “The increasing signs of aging—including wrinkles, larger pores and the appearance of age spots—create different skin care needs,” he says.

When fine-tuning your skin care regimen, making cleansing a priority is key. After all, your anti-aging moisturizers and serums can only do the job they promise if they have a clean canvas to penetrate and seep into. Further, it’s important to pick a cleanser that not only rids your skin of debris and other surface impurities but also contains ingredients—such as vitamins, antioxidants and retinoids—that help address the common concerns of mature skin.

But don’t over-cleanse and hoard all the anti-aging cleansers you can get your hands on, either, says Dr. Weitzbuch. “In general, our face should be cleansed twice daily, our hands as often as needed and our bodies daily. It’s important to remember that very strong and irritating cleansers used too often can hurt the skin. Simpler and softer is usually the best,” he explains.

Ready to cleanse your way to more radiant and youthful-looking skin? We’re here to help! To get you started, here are our top picks for the best face cleanser for the most common concerns of mature skin!