Why is the beauty of mature women still so underrepresented in mainstream beauty?
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Finally! Mature women are starting to take the place they deserve! We know that beauty does not have, well, no longer has an age. Yet, as soon as we cross the symbolic threshold of fifty, we almost entirely disappear from traditional beauty campaigns. In a sector obsessed with youthful glow, smooth skin, and “Instagrammable” faces, mature women are often rendered invisible. But changes are happening. Slowly. Driven by figures like Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu or Helen Mirren, so-called “senior” beauty is finally starting to carve out a space. Why did we have to wait so long?
An industry addicted to youth… and old clichés
For decades, mainstream beauty has clung to a fantasy: that of eternal youth. It seems that only smooth skin, invisible pores, and plump cheeks were allowed in advertisements. The result? A world of images where women gently disappear from the radar as soon as they hit fifty. Rendered invisible, minimized, diluted. As if aging were a fashion faux pas.
And yet, the supreme paradox: it is precisely these women – confident, demanding, experienced – who today hold the most solid purchasing power in the sector. But who are we talking to when 90% of campaigns are aimed at photoshopped thirty-somethings? Certainly not to them.
Beauty has long been thought of as a battle against time. A silent war fought with promises of anti-aging and miracle serums. What if we changed the narrative? What if we stopped seeing wrinkles as flaws to correct, and instead viewed them as a chapter of a story we wear proudly on our skin?
Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, the elegance of an unapologetic glow
On screen, she captures the light. Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu doesn’t need any gimmicks to shine – her presence is enough. In Emily in Paris, she embodies Sylvie, a powerful woman with impeccable hair, sharp sarcasm, and a regal posture. At just 62 years old, she is more in demand than ever: a career taking off, looks analyzed by the press, and above all, a brand new role – that of ambassador for L’Oréal Paris’s Age Perfect Collagen Expert campaign, starting June 9.
And if she fascinates so much, it’s perhaps because she doesn’t try to play young. No filters, no pretenses. She ages, yes, and so what? Like everyone else. She does it with style, personality, and a freedom that resonates more than a gloss on TikTok.
Philippine is a bit of the ideal counter-model of frozen beauty: she moves, she lives, she owns it. Her wrinkles? She talks about them with humor. Her age? She makes it a strength. Her skin? She shows it without freaking out. In short, she inspires us not to “slow down time,” but to not care so much – and to move forward, feeling good in our shoes, feeling good in our skin.
Aging is not a bug, it’s an upgrade!
If the beauty of mature women still disturbs some, it’s perhaps because it escapes the classic codes: it has nothing to prove, it doesn’t apologize for existing, and above all, it refuses to be put on hold. Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu shows that one can age with flair, humor, and brilliance – without needing to resort to retouching.
What we now expect from the industry is not a “diversity” campaign every five years with three gray hairs in the background of an ad. It’s a real reinvention. One where wrinkles are seen as stories, not as flaws to erase. One where aging doesn’t rhyme with disappearing.
Because spoiler alert: mature women are here, they buy, they decide – and they are tired of being treated as if they were outdated. It might be time to adjust the mirror.
Cover image: Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu ©L’Oréal
