What Anti-Ageing Really Means

A hero marketing term for beauty brands and a puzzling phrase for consumers, here’s what you need to know about the seemingly convoluted concept of anti-ageing know your age

- Guan Tan

Let’s be honest. The beauty industry is downright contradictory. Shopping for anti-ageing skincare products is a prime example. While some brands claim that ladies ought to embark on anti-ageing regimes as early as possible, other beauty professionals may advise to start only after thirty.

The bewilderment goes on — some brands tout that moisture is the key to youthful skin while others say it’s all about antioxidants, collagen, or skin elasticity. And of course, there are those who claim that antiageing is all of the above, and more. From the foods you eat to the water you drink and the number of hours you spend sleeping, it seems like everything under the sun (one of the main “villians” in this conversation) has a part to play in what has come to be a very loose and meaningless concept: anti-ageing.

Surely that can’t be all that the beauty industry has to offer. What are the real causes of skin ageing? What happens to the skin as it ages? What should a good anti-ageing cosmetic product do?

In pursuit of answers, I found myself in Tokyo. The Japanese are usually referenced when it comes to all things anti-ageing (according to Guinness World Records, the oldest living human being right now is Kane Tanaka, a 116-year-old Japanese woman from Fukuoka). On the medical front, the Japanese Society of Anti-Ageing Medicine currently has 8,280 doctors on its register, up from a mere 20 members in 2001.

On a crisp Saturday morning, I met up with Ken Inomata, a professor of dermatology from Cosme Decorte, a premium range of anti-ageing products produced by the Japanese skincare giant, Kose. And Inomata heads up the anti-ageing research for the brand.