Seven things that make skin look older than it is
Some of what reads as aged skin is time passing. A surprising amount of it is not, and the parts that are not are the parts worth knowing about, because they are the ones that answer to something you can actually do.
Sun, and it is not a close contest
Compare the skin on the inside of your upper arm with the skin on the back of your hand. Same person, same number of birthdays, and they do not look the same age. That gap is sun, and in New Zealand it opens faster than almost anywhere. Everything else on this list is a detail next to it.
Cleansers that leave your face squeaking
That squeak is the sound of a stripped surface, not a clean one. Skin that has been stripped looks dull and feels tight within the hour, and the usual response is to put more product on top of it. The change that works is a gentler cleanser, not a better cream over a harsher one.
Exfoliating like it is a competition
Taking the top off repeatedly does not reveal fresher skin underneath. It leaves the surface irritated, reddened and rough, which is the exact complaint the scrub was bought to fix. Occasional is fine. Twice a week forever is how people end up with skin that looks older than when they started.
Dry indoor air, most of the year
Heat pumps and wood burners pull the moisture out of a room, and skin sitting in that air all evening looks flat by bedtime. A lot of what gets read as ageing over a New Zealand winter is skin that has been quietly dried out since May, and it looks noticeably different again by November.
Sleeping badly
Short sleep shows in skin before it shows anywhere else. Flatter, duller, and it reads as tired, which is most of what people mean when they say somebody looks older than they did last year. It is free, it is unglamorous, and it beats anything in a bottle.
Skin that is simply short of water
This is the most fixable one on the list. Skin holding water looks fuller, feels softer and catches light evenly, and fine lines sit in a fuller surface so they look softer too. Let it dry out and all of that goes the other way. Humectants like glycerin and hyaluronic acid are the ordinary tools for it, they work while you keep using them, and they stop when you stop.
Starting, stopping, and starting something else
Six weeks of one routine beats six months of switching. Nothing here shows up on a face that changes products every fortnight, and most people who believe nothing works have never actually run the experiment. Pick something short enough that you will still be doing it in spring.