When it comes to aging, there’s a key word that’s tossed around like a rag doll: “gracefully.” Age quietly with poise and dignity–sucking up the injustice of formerly smooth skin that unravels night-by-night, year-by-year until suddenly you’re left facing a stranger in the mirror. Be a skincare saint! That’s just the way it goes! Nobody likes a whiner!

Well, I refuse to go gently into that good night. What do you mean I can’t look 25 for the next 10 years, Mother Nature? Challenge accepted!

I get a lot of questions about skincare: what product will work best for X condition? Is Y line better than Z? The truth of the matter: it often doesn’t matter what you’re using…so long as you’re using something. The basics are thus:

- Cleanse well

- Exfoliate regularly

- Wear broad-spectrum sunscreen. (And then wear more. And then reapply it. And then cocoon yourself in it.)

- Moisturize for your skin-type

Ta-da!

Like many a good skincare aficionado, I used to be a retinol obsessive, but the more I learn about it, the more I suspect that it might thin the skin beyond what I’d like, and so I’m saving it for special occasions to allow its fine-line erasing powers to remain potent. (Yes, you can have too much of a good thing!)

My latest skincare love is Clarins, specifically their line designed for 30+ skin at the first signs of aging: Clarins Multi-Active Day Early Wrinkle Correction Cream-Gel and Clarins Multi-Active Night Youth Recovery Cream. (I hope whoever came up with those genius marketing names got a hefty Christmas bonus.) Like all Clarins products, they smell wonderful and you feel glamorized using them and displaying on your vanity: a frou-frou concern, but it’s there, nonetheless. More importantly, however, both creams are uber-moisturizing without being oily in the slightest–no breakouts!–and after I apply them, my skin feels soft, looks taut, and seems quenched and happy.

Happy skin? Well, if I can’t look 25 for the rest of my life, that’s the next best thing!

Clarins Multi-Active Day Early Wrinkle Correction Cream Gel, $55, clarins.com
Clarins Multi-Active Night Youth Recovery Cream, $58, clarins.com

Photo credit: Doug Ross Photography (dougrossphotography.com)

Congratulations to Janet G., winner of last week’s Pur~lisse giveaway! Janet, you’ll get an Ageless and Beautiful Jet Set Starter Kit, which is full of several best-selling Pur~lisse goodies. Thank you to everybody who entered, and if you have sensitive skin, don’t forget to check out Pur~lisse at purlisse.com!

Update: 2 other winners, as well! Congrats to Kimmy H. and Beth F. – you’ve also won!

Calling fans of Arcona skincare a cult doesn’t even begin to cover it – celebrities and beauty editors alike are absolutely obsessed with the brand. Magic White Ice is their most famous and popular product, although I must confess that my personal favorite Arcona product is the Reozone 40 sunscreen, which I’ve been having a renewed love affair with recently! (It’s awesome because it has broad-spectrum sunscreen, plus antioxidants, plus is tinted – it covers all your anti-aging bases and makes skin look healthy in a way that the usual tinted moisturizers don’t.)

Still, I also love Magic White Ice, which is a super light hydrating gel that moisturizes oily skin without clogging pores, plus includes a cornucopia of anti-aging ingredients: hydrating white cranberry complex and hyaluronic acid, antioxidant beta-carotene and vitamins B-5, C and E, and clarifying grapefruit complex.

Until now, Magic White Ice has only been available in a 30 ml, but Arcona is now debuting a 50 ml bottle, and it will be available exclusively at Nordstrom and Nordstrom.com during their Anniversary Sale from July 15th – 31st. (It’ll cost $47 at Nordies, then roll out to Arcona.com and Beauty.com starting August 1st for $58.)

The amazingness that is the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale is too overwhelming for me to blog about right now. You might have noticed that I’ve been a little less active recently, and that’s because I’ve had a lot going on behind the scenes (all good, praise baby Jee!). I always have the best of intentions, thinking, “Ooh, I’m going to blog about that!” and writing things on various blogging to-do lists…but time has a way of escaping me. So, before I forget to cover the Nordies sale, I’ll just redirect you to Product Girl’s blog, where she has a highly comprehensive listing of the goodies that will await you beginning July 15th. Enjoy!

Taking silly pre-Botox photos of myself in Dr. Jessica Wu's office

Longtime Jolie readers know that I’m honest about my love for Botox. I completely get that it’s not for everybody…but it’s definitely for me.

People get weird and judge-y when it comes to cosmetic enhancements, and I must admit that I sometimes feel a little confused about why. Nobody wants to look like Joan Rivers (well, except for Joan Rivers, apparently), but even in the case of celebrities who are often name-checked as being frozen–your Nicole Kidmans and Renée Zellwegers–you have to try to look like that. A little Botox will no more make you look like a wax mummy than a highlight or ten will turn you into a Gwen Stefani-style peroxide blonde. As with so many things in life, it’s all about moderation.

But Jolie! (one might say). We should all accept aging gracefully! We must love ourselves as we are! Botox (and the like) are just society’s way of telling women they’re not good enough!

Somebody take this camera away from me!

Eh. I’m over that argument. I, like most women I know, shave my armpits, groom my down-there, wear contacts, highlight my dishwater brown hair, use (and LOVE) makeup, and wear high-heels. (That last one is new for me!)  None of that is natural, but it certainly all makes me look–and, as a result, feel–better.

Apologies to Sheryl Crow, but if it makes you happy, it can’t be that bad.

Here’s what Botox does do for me: it gets rid of the increasingly deep frown-line between my eyebrows. My mom had it, and I’ve had it myself since I was about 20 because I frown in my sleep. Most people, however, can’t see my deep frown line. Porque? Because I get Botox!

I don’t care about looking “younger.” I just want to look my personal best (and not like I’ve had anything “done”), and Botox does exactly that. It doesn’t make me feel bad or shameful or like I’m clinging to my youth. It simply makes my frown lines look much less pronounced and my face look fresher and happier, and for that, I am very grateful.

Phew! Sorry for the semi-rant – I’m just a big believer in “to each her own,” and I currently have 92 “You get Botox and so you suck!” comments going on an old video I made…which now has over half a million views and is the 6th most popular Botox video on YouTube. (So, clearly, there are a lot of people out there in YouTube land searching for Botox videos…because they don’t want Botox and simply want to make fun of somebody who does? Or perhaps thou doth protest too much…)

Anyhow, at an Aveeno event in February, I ran into celebrity dermatologist Dr. Jessica Wu, author of the great book Feed Your Face. I was due for a Botox touch-up, so I scheduled a visit for this past Friday and also interviewed Dr. Wu about common Botox misconceptions while there. Enjoy!

PS: Most celebrities in Hollywood do, indeed, get Botox. I respect the ones who don’t lie about it.

Contributing Editor Gloria Yang writes:

Insomnia gets the best of me at times, which always results in me watching awful late night commercials. Last night, a little gem promoting “Eye Magic” came up, and it had bursting at my seams from laughing so hard.

What got me laughing that hard was how they make this “Eye Magic” tape seem like it’s a brand new revolutionary product that they’re selling at the low low price of $19.99. Guess what? It’s not new at all and it only costs $5 at any Asian cosmetics retailer.

Asian women has been using the same exact product for ages on both side of the Pacific Ocean. It’s not just for adults either. Growing up, tons of girls starting from middle school would use this to give them a “fold” above their eyes to create that “double eyelid.” Sure, there is a huge debate over how some Asian girls want to look more Caucasian – but we’re not here to talk about that.

Rather, I find it interesting how a product that’s been around in one market for ages suddenly finds a new market by simply retooling their marketing strategy. No longer is this used to create the look of bigger eyes, it’s to create an instant eye lift! It’s to remove droopy eyelids in 60 seconds without surgery! It apparently has tons of testimonials from people who love the result, so Eye Magic might be doing something right.

It makes me wonder – what other products from other countries have been recently retooled and repackaged for the American market?