Some thoughts to use as a guide to your beauty treatments.

1. Am I absolutely sure about my own attitude to my looks?

Beauty care is optional; the amount of time, thought and money you spend, or don't spend, on your looks is entirely up to you. "I refuse to fuss about my appearance, simply can't be bothered; I'd rather be liked for what I am." Fine, fighting words that there's no harm whatever in uttering - as long as you're sure that you genuinely and wholeheartedly mean them. Horrible confidence-crushers if you merely think you mean them, then discover that you don't.

2. Do I eagerly grab every new camouflage item on the market?

Still with me? Marvelous: I wasn't sure you cared. Next thing is to see that caring actually gets you somewhere. It's not much good having makeup lessons, or spending dollars on a supercharged night cream, if you're known to non-intimates as "The girl with the teeth" or "The one with dark roots."

Hardly anyone's perfect; we've all got a few basic faults - some of which we may have had for so long that we've simply stopped seeing them. The important thing is to get down to the dull, dreary, even expensive business of putting them right (and/or keeping them right) before we start adding frills. It's never too late, for example, to improve crooked or sticking-out teeth - though you do need an interested and persevering dentist. Did you know that discoloured or heavily filled front teeth that actually show can be disguised by being capped? Worth a try.

3. Have I got my priorities right?

Figure-concealing dresses, "extra-coverage" skin makeup and hair-hiding headscarves are good ego-props to make use of while you deal with the basic problem; frightful traps for those unwary enough to think concealment can stand in for cure. Overweight ladies in tent-like dresses look vastly different, if you'll forgive the pun, from slim ladies in tent dresses; heavy makeup often makes spotty or open-pored skin look worse, especially when it starts to get shiny.

And if you cover up shapeless, shineless hair all day it's going to look even drearier in the evening.

4. How long have I worn my hair like this?

If it's more than a year, it's probably too long - the time, not your hair.

Even if a change makes a few people say they liked it better the old way - at least they're aware of you and at least, if they happen to be right and you manage to work out why they're right, you've learned something new about your own looks. And there's always the chance (a far better one than you might expect) that "I could never wear that" might give way to joyful cries of "Good heavens - I look great."

5. Is my skin really clean?

Quite possibly not, if you wear makeup and don't take it off with cream or lotion specially formulated for the job. Soap and water removes skin secretions efficiently, but it's no match for medium-to-heavy makeup. Same goes for the thin, clear type of cleansing lotion that's good for de-greasing spotty skins; these products are best used after taking off makeup. No need to pay the earth, though.

Not wearing makeup (or anyway, a daytime moisturizer) is no way to dodge the skin-cleansing issue unless you live somewhere that's totally free from dust, smoke and grime. Once these things are allowed to settle on your unprotected skin, they're reluctant to leave it.

Best settle for a thin, protective layer of something - like makeup - that's meant to come off easily, taking the dust and grime with it.

If you're a restless sleeper, your skin may start the day grubbier than you think; grinding your face into a pillow-slip that's had nearly a week in which to pick up dust, sebum and possibly traces of lacquer or tint from your hair is not recommended. Two pillows give you four clean surfaces; might be worth making sure you use each of them in turn.

6. Is my everyday makeup routine quick and efficient?

It's possible to get too automated; literally to stop using your mirror except as a guide to the whereabouts of your eyelids or your cheekbones. Once that happens, several slippery paths are waiting for you to slide down them.

You could simply get stuck in a rut and look boring. You could grow careless and uncritical; fail to notice blobbed mascara or imperfectly blended shadow or blusher. Or a quick, bold approach could degenerate into a brash one, simply too much of everything.

7. Am I spending my money sensibly?

Not if you've got a drawerful of half-used impulse-buy cosmetics and insist that only expensive, big-name treatment creams suit your sensitive skin - yet think you can't afford to have a good haircut regularly, to buy a decent hair-dryer and a soft, long-handled eye makeup brush; or to skip stodgy canteen food in favour of meat, fish or cheese and plenty of fresh fruit.

Makeup fashions do alter, but very often it's the way you put it on, rather than what you put on that needs changing. Less shadow, more mascara: subtler blusher, brighter lipstick (i.e, back to the old blot-and-reapply technique); that's the way it often goes. Best value in moisturizers lies in the middle range.

Good foundations, even though quality and purity are reliable from all the well-known names, are less easy to make and market cheaply; you may need to shop around.

8. Have my eating/drinking/smoking habits changed during the last couple of years?

Good marks if you've decided that you've got a weight problem and taken it in hand. Top marks if you've handled it the long-term, sensible way, by training yourself to avoid sweet, fatty foods or too many high-calorie drinks (alcoholic or too sweet) that push your daily calorie intake into the gradual-weight-gain zone. Half-marks if you've yo-yo'd - alternately gained weight, crash-dieted and lost it again. Quite apart from the havoc that this can play with your skin, this kind of dieting gets harder as you get older.

No figure problems? Great - as long as you're sure that you won't have them later. Which you might if your honest answer to this question is "Well - yes. Since I married/got this high-powered job/got my social life into orbit."

It's now, not in five years time, that you need to get a grip on the risk of steady weight gain.

9. How much exercise did my mind get during the last year?

This isn't an invitation to useless self-reproach or ghastly self-righteousness. It's a simple reminder that what starts off as mental laziness often ends up as depression; a miserable and unattractive state. See the red light if you can't be bothered to watch a serious television program, give classical music or serious theatre a try, sign on for and stick with the evening classes that you're always postponing; read some books and newspapers that get you thinking actively instead of passively accepting entertainment.

If you duck out of every kind of mental exercise you may well - even if you are a sweet, gentle, soothing girl to come home to - turn sweetly, gently, imperceptibly into a non-person. Or even a bore.

No one wants you to set yourself up as an aggressive intellectual. But the difference between a lively, positive, well exercised mind and a passive, lazy one comes over at every level. And it certainly shows in your looks.

And PS (because I'm only allowed 10 questions): So do the effects of really regular physical exercise. Like walking.

10. How will I look at 45?

Great, probably, if you feel reasonably happy about your answers to the previous nine questions.

The only major snag about growing old is the one we invent for ourselves - fear of looking and seeming older. Let this get a grip and you'll risk clinging to girlish items, like very long, dead straight hair, exaggerated "fun" fashions or, worst of all, young, cute mannerisms, all of which underline very heavily the fact that you're living in a Past that's been gone for some time. Anyone who's refused to get lazy, kept her skin and her figure well, discovered the kind of clothes and hairstyle that, with concessions to current fashions and the need for some changes, suit her best, has got it made.

But if you really want an honest-to-God Beauty Tip that's going to fool people into thinking in 20 years time that you actually are 35 here it is. Cream your neck and your hands every day. Yes, of course it's a bore. And it could be just a beauty-writers' cliche, passed down from one generation of us to the next, without actually being closely examined by any of us. But it isn't. It works.

References:

https://www.lifetips.top/beauty/how-to-be-pretty/
https://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ByAudience/ForWomen/ucm118491.htm