No matter your age, you’re probably already using a product or two that’s designed to minimize the visible signs of aging like wrinkles or dark spots. But, you may not know when anti-aging measures should become a priority in your skincare regimen, or what options are out there for a vegan anti-aging skincare routine that’s good for you and good for the planet.
Let’s talk about when you should start using anti-aging skincare products, then highlight some of the best vegan anti-aging skincare options that can support the skin barrier and help minimize the signs of aging all while staying sustainable.
At What Age Should I Start Using Anti-Aging Products?
The general consensus is to start taking care of your skin as early as you can, but for most of us, we don’t start really caring for our skin until we start seeing the effects of aging start to pop up.
If you’re searching for the answer to this question, the answer really is “now.” If you have concerns about visible signs of aging, now is a good time to dive into a vegan anti-aging skincare routine.
Your outer skin layer thins as you age and the amount of pigment-containing cells you have decreases. This leads to paler, thinner skin, which makes blood vessels under the skin more visible, causing telltale signs of aging like dark undereye circles.
Your skin’s oil production also slowly decreases as you age, leading to dryer skin, while your skin’s stores of key molecules such as Hyaluronic Acid (HA) and Collagen begin to deplete as early as your twenties. This loss of structure, hydration, and elasticity is heavily part of what causes fine lines and wrinkles to begin to develop.
The amount of care you give your skin can make a big difference for how quickly these shifts become big enough to be noticeable. Protecting your skin as best you can starting as young as you can from environmental factors like sun exposure and air pollution, as well as lifestyle factors like smoking and drinking, can help your skin age more gracefully.
The big benefit of adding anti-aging measures to your skincare routine as soon as possible is keeping your skin looking younger and brighter by providing nutrients that nourish your skin before it really needs that extra support. Your skin cells may retain their vigor a bit longer than they would otherwise — think of it like doing a little extra work to get ahead so you’re not struggling to play catch-up later on.
How Can I Get Started With Vegan Anti-Aging Skincare?
Start including products with vegan anti-aging ingredients into your routine. Be aware of how protecting your skin now will better serve you in the future. Prioritize the kinds of products and ingredients that are scientifically-backed as the most beneficial and effective to meet the goals of your personal wellness journey.
Easy, right? Don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it in no time.
Below, we’ll offer two vegan anti-aging skincare sets that serve as an easy place to start for beginners. If you’re looking for a little more, we’ll also walk you through a detailed anti-aging skincare routine that will leave your skin sustainably nourished.
The Best Vegan Anti-Aging Skincare Sets To Help You Get Started
With all of the above in mind, our first recommendation for easy, vegan, anti-aging skincare is our Hyaluronic Hydration Heaven Set, which includes our Chebula Extreme Cream, Resurrection Radiance Eye Cream, and our Moisture Lock Glossy Lip Balm.
As your skin’s natural stores of HA deplete, you can easily re-hydrate and renew with the Hyaluronic Acid in our Chebula Extreme Cream. An optimal concentration of low and high weighted HA molecules means optimal absorption exactly as your skin needs it.
But beyond just replacing what your skin is losing, you can nourish your skin with powerful plant actives that can work with your skin barrier and microbiome to help get that youthful-looking glow back.
Besides HA, our Chebula Extreme Cream utilizes Chebula fruit extract, which is one of the most biocompatible, hydrating, anti-aging antioxidant botanicals you can give your skin.
Our Chebula Extreme Cream utilizes Chebula, Acerola Cherry, and Wild Pansies to fight five signs of aging, including dullness, fine lines and wrinkles, dark spots, uneven skin tone, and roughness. By deeply nourishing, moisturizing, and supporting your skin barrier, our Chebula Extreme Cream leaves your skin feeling smooth, soft, dewy, and supple.
The other powerhouse is in this set is our Resurrection Radiance Eye Cream, named for the rejuvenating Resurrection Plant extract that leads this formula’s ability to reduce the appearance of dark circles, fine lines, and wrinkles.
If you’re looking for the last anti-aging eye cream you’ll ever need, you’ve found it.
- 100% of women tested showed a significant improvement in the hydration around the eye area after 24 hours post application*
- 100% of women tested showed a significant improvement in fine lines and wrinkles around the eye area after 6 weeks of use*
- 112% increase in hydration around the eye area after 6 weeks of continued use*
- 94% of women tested showed a significant reduction in puffiness around the eye area after 6 weeks of use*
*Based on an independent scientific clinical blind study on 31 people over 6 weeks.
Our Hydrating Anti-Aging Routine is our second recommendation for a convenient way to get the anti-aging regimen you want in a sustainable, plant-based, environmentally-thoughtful package. It includes our Nourishing Cleanser, Chebula Active Serum, Renew Pure Radiance Oil, and our Vitamin C Booster.
Our Nourishing Cleanser uses Green Tea and Aloe Vera to help cleanse, nourish, and soothe so your skin feels clean, soft, and refreshed for the rest of your routine.
Follow cleansing with our Chebula Active Serum, which is formulated with the powerful Chebula extract we mentioned above, along with Hyaluronic Acid for hydration, Aloe Vera for soothing, and Elderberry, Ginger, and Echinacea to deliver extra antioxidant potency to reveal glowing skin.
For an extra dose of antioxidant benefit, add one to two shakes of our Vitamin C Booster to our Chebula Serum during application. Topical Vitamin C is known for its brightening capabilities, and our booster’s powder formula ensures you get the most potent dose of Vitamin C with minimal degradation, opposite to the notorious instability of liquid Vitamin C formulas.
Finally, use our Renew Pure Radiance Oil to help top off your routine with deep hydration and nourishing seed oils that target signs of aging with a naturally rich composition of omega fatty acids, antioxidants, and skin-supporting vitamins.
Step-by-Step Vegan Anti-Aging Skincare Routine
For the most part, this vegan skincare routine will look pretty familiar. Your skincare routine will generally have two parts — a morning routine and a nighttime routine — though with how gentle yet effective vegan ingredients can be, you’ll actually have the freedom to use some products in both routines if you want to!
Step 1. Cleanser
Even if breakouts are a top skincare concern, it’s time to get away from harsh cleansers full of synthetic ingredients and fillers. They do little more than strip your skin of its moisture. Keeping your skin hydrated is key when it comes to keeping it looking more youthful.
Vegan cleansing balms are a great option for making sure you remove all makeup, sunscreen, dirt and impurities from your skin without drying it out.
Our Ginger Turmeric Cleansing Balm replaces harsh surfactants like sulfates with natural, biocompatible, makeup-melting Yucca Extract.
Instead of irritating synthetic ingredients like artificial fragrance and silicone, our Cleansing Balm combines skin-soothing Turmeric and Ginger Root Oil to be gentle enough for sensitive skin, yet highly effective on your favorite mascara.
Our Clear Nourishing Cleanser features Green Tea and White Tea for antioxidants, Black Willow Bark Extract to exfoliate, and Helichrysum to soothe irritated skin. Our Clear Nourishing Cleanser works to clean and balance your skin without causing dryness.
You can also opt for our Renew Nourishing Cleanser for brightening, hydrating, and soothing benefits thanks to Aloe Vera, Green Tea Seed Oil, and Green and White Tea.
Step 2. Serums & Boosters
Our favorite serum is our hydrating Chebula Active Serum mentioned above, and we do recommend adding in our Vitamin C Booster if you’re looking for a little extra oomph — we even created our Glowy Super Duo since it’s such an effective pair!
We love this serum because of it’s highlight ingredient: Chebula. Chebula is a cascading antioxidant, so rather than being depleted once it fights off a free radical, this cascading antioxidant takes on a new form and gets right back to fighting off the next free radical. It’s the antioxidant that keeps on giving!
Free radicals can be major contributors to visible signs of aging, so antioxidants are key in keeping your complexion glowing. The Chebula in our Chebula Active Serum alone is so effective that in clinical trials, 100% of women saw softer and smoother skin after just one week, and 97% of women saw a reduction in the look of fine lines and wrinkles after just four weeks.*Based on a six-week single blind comparative study of 30 women aged 35-65 with twice daily use.
After your serum, break open one of our vegan Phyto-Retinol Vitamin A Booster capsules.
As you massage this nourishing booster into your face and neck, your skin will store and then naturally convert plant-derived Provitamin A Carotenoids into potent, biocompatible retinoic acid, which can offer the same skin benefits as Synthetic Retinol, without any of the sensitizing side effects.
Best of all, Phyto-Retinol can be used day or night (or both!). The antioxidants in Carrot Root Extract and the fatty acids and vitamin E in Buriti Fruit Oil play well with others, and will never cause sun sensitivity like Synthetic Retinol does.
Our Phyto-Retinol Vitamin A Booster is an effective, plant-derived, vegan-friendly skincare powerhouse that’s better for your skin and the environment.
Step 3. Moisturizer
We love Chebula, which is why our Chebula Extreme Cream is our recommendation for both a day or night cream moisturizer, and as an added bonus, it’s packed with cascading antioxidants that, as you learned above, can pull double-duty against five signs of aging.
Chebula Extreme Cream delivers extreme hydration, extreme antioxidant benefits, and extreme skin barrier support — without any of the pore-clogging waxes used in other moisturizers.
This cream moisturizer formula dives deep into your skin to help nourish and strengthen it without risking irritation and breakouts caused by harsh synthetic products.
Chebula Extreme Cream is clinically proven to deliver extreme moisturization — 100% of women said their skin looked and felt smoother, softer, more glowy, and hydrated after just 28 days.*Based on a 4 week clinical and consumer third party study on 32 people.
If you prefer a moisturizing face oil, our Renew Pure Radiance Oil (also included in one of the sets above) has been dubbed “the ultimate no-makeup skincare.”
All of our Pure Radiance Oils are rich in Omega-3 Fatty Acids thanks to nutrient-rich and antioxidant-packed fruit seed oils including Chia Seed, Kiwi Seed, Passion Seed, Papaya Seed, Watermelon Seed, and Raspberry Seed.
No synthetic, overpowering artificial fragrance here either. Renew Pure Radiance Oil is naturally scented with Jasmine, Neroli, and Rose.
Why Vegan Skincare?
Aging gracefully is a beautiful thing. But, for those who want to minimize the signs of aging while also minimizing their impact on the planet, vegan skincare is the clear way forward.
Vegan skincare products do not contain any ingredients that come from animals or animal byproducts. This includes fairly common ingredients in “natural” beauty products like honey, collagen, and beeswax.
Not only that, but high-quality vegan beauty brands often by default offer more nutrient-rich extracts and oils derived from plants and fruits. These plant-derived ingredients tend to be richer in vitamins, minerals, and most importantly, anti-aging antioxidants.
Incorporating antioxidants into your skincare routine can deliver a powerful anti-aging effect because antioxidants help defend you against environmental stressors like UV rays, cigarette smoke, and other polluting toxins that can contribute to premature aging.
Vegan diet or not, there are a lot of compelling reasons to look into transitioning into vegan skin care:
- Vegan skincare skips harsh chemicals and uses plant-based ingredients instead, it is better for sensitive skin.
- Companies that prioritize making vegan products are more likely to adhere to a cruelty-free ethos.
- Vegan companies are also more likely to value sustainably packaging their products in environmentally-friendly ways.
While these things are not required for a product to be considered vegan, they often go hand-in-hand. Finding vegan skincare can be challenging, though, because sometimes vegan beauty products can still hide things like animal testing — vegan and cruelty-free aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive, and advertising can be deceptive.
Look for Leaping Bunny and PETA certifications for cruelty-free status, as well as the MADE SAFE® seal, which certifies that the products are made without 6,500 toxic chemicals known to harm human and environmental health.
We’ve made it easy — every formula you’ll find here at True Botanicals checks all of the above.
Plus, our skincare line is not only suited to your vegan lifestyle, but it’s scientifically-backed, so you never have to sacrifice results in your pursuit of powerful plant actives.
In Conclusion
You’re never too young to take a proactive role in your skincare. We’re here to help you feel good in your skin at any age with thoughtfully crafted formulas and nature-approved ingredients.
You can learn more about our commitment to sustainable ingredients here, or if you’re looking for a little more help getting started with vegan anti-aging skincare, you can take our Skincare Quiz here.
Sources:
Hyaluronic Acid: A Key Molecule in Skin Aging | Dermato Endocrinology