Cleaning out a bathroom drawer, I found a sample of Sisley L’Integral Anti-Age cream for “jour et suit” or day and night. As I stared at the words “Anti-Age”, I realized the fallacy and need for a new paradigm. We are supposed to age, to change and transition from one phase to the next, never looking the same. A baby becomes a toddler, a toddler an adolescent and an adolescent an adult. A toddler cannot regain the skin and appearance of a baby, nor an adolescent or adult; etc. There’s an expiration date on our bodies preceded by waning physicality; the growth cycle of birth and death for all. I love my fresh flowers. However, over a week’s period, there are the various stages between budding and withering. Then, to flower heaven.
Why be anti? Why resist and get stuck in negative twisting of what is inevitable by the cosmetic industry? So much of wellbeing is about embracing what is, moving with it and, ultimately letting go. Besides, let’s shatter the illusion that any cream, serum or elixir will remove the lines, the sagging, and retard aging. If anything, I’m convinced that the zillion products laden with fragrances and chemicals actually insult and injure skin. The focus needs to be on supporting the health of the skin no matter what age with clean products and good nutrition, for starters.
Certainly marketing this French product as “L’Integral” is amusing - integrated, complete, essential or fundamental.