Posting a candid close-up is one thing when it’s on your own Instagram, the daylight is just right and you can decide whether it’s that sort of skin day or not. But when there’s no airbrushing, a mega-magnifying zoom on every wrinkle, oh, and a mandatory ‘after’ photo in a month’s time with the same brutally revealing conditions? That has to make any celebrity pause for a moment before signing on the dotted line.
‘Yeah, it was quite exposing,’ admits Rachel Stevens, chatting exclusively to GH about her candid close-up. ‘And I’m so used to shoots where it’s a lot of full makeup, lighting, hair and all the glam stuff. But I also think it’s a great opportunity to do something really real.’
To be fair, Rachel has a headstart on most of us in the real beauty stakes, being blessed with the sort of bone structure that holds up to time. However, the S Club star tells us she’s noticing a few changes in the mirror, partly from a busy life jugging motherhood and her career, and partly from the hormonal changes she’d expect from being 47.
'Is it a perimenopause thing? Oh my God, massively!’ she laughs. ‘In my 40s, I think there’s so much – environmental stresses, obviously ageing, hormones, all sorts of things. Ageing is a funny one, isn’t it? It’s about finding that balance, because we all want to age gracefully. But yes, I am noticing more of the fine lines. I get a bit of pigmentation and also redness, which I’m told you get from having fine skin as you get older. I felt I could do with some help with things such as skin tone, moisture and radiance.’
While she’s hardly hit a midlife skin crisis, Rachel says she’s frequently bamboozled by the sheer volume of skincare products out there for this life stage. ‘As your skin changes with ageing and hormones, there’s so much noise around that it's hard to know what’s the best thing to do,’ she says. ‘I’ll go on Instagram and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I want to try that… and this… and that.’
Her skincare experiment has, she thinks, been a helpful way to turn down the chatter, stop overusing products and resist the impulse to flit from one thing to the next. Her task was to dedicate a month to testing Eucerin’s new Hyaluron-Filler Epigenetic Serum, the result of 15 years of research into reactivating skin’s own ‘youth genes’.
The booming sphere of skin epigenetics – essentially, tackling the visible signs of ageing at a DNA level – has generally come with a three-figure price tag to reflect the cutting-edge science. However, Eucerin’s offering is one of the first accessible offerings in this area, being currently available for under £33 on Amazon.
It’s also backed by clinical trials that trumpet ‘99% firmer skin and 98% reduced wrinkles’ from flipping on skin’s youth genes. Which is reassuring if you’re signing up for a zoomed-in before and after.
‘Oh my god, yeah, definitely! I just love to share the love on anything that works,’ says Rachel. And yes, it has. ‘More even skin tone was the first thing I noticed. That was in about three weeks and that spurred me on. I think it’s also really helped with radiance, and fine lines and wrinkles, that bit around my eyes.’
‘Normally, I’ll try products for a little bit, and then I’ll try something new, so to stick to this for four weeks and be consistent is really important. I can say it’s what’s made such a difference to my skin. It’s been really brilliant for me and I can’t recommend it enough. I’m still using it and I’m definitely going to carry on.’
Being able to slot it into a streamlined skincare regime has been another big plus, she adds. ‘It’s so good not to pile on so many different things. This covers all the bases – skin tone, radiance, lines – then there’s just moisturiser and SPF and I’m done. It’s targeting what you want as you age. That’s a real win.’
