From fillers to creams, there are many treatments that promise to help prevent wrinkles around the mouth.
Many older women now regret their youthful smoking habit because so-called barcode lines appear above their upper lip after years of frowning.
And while Gen Z may have turned their backs on smoking, drinking, and other bad behaviors, there’s another habit they’ve picked up that’s apparently causing their own lip problems: cups with built-in straws.
Last year’s revolutionary (and somewhat baffling) trend was the Stanley Cup, a combination of a thermos-style thermos and a kid’s sippy cup. Celebrities and TikTok-crazed 20-somethings embraced the cup and others liked it in droves, raving about the fact that it “keeps you hydrated.”
The straw bends sideways and has a hole at the top. Like playing a flute backwards, you loosely wrap your lips around it while sucking on it.
It also keeps drinks hot and cold, which is obviously revolutionary. The sexy thing is walking with it while you drink through the straw.
Now, to avoid the straw-induced disaster in the form of what cosmetic doctors call “perioral lines” (and make a quick buck), someone managed to convince Generation Z, who, according to one study, consume more skin care products the skin than all other generations, who need to invest in an ‘anti-wrinkle straw’ to keep their pout ‘always youthful’.
Said straw, which can be bought in multi-packs on Amazon from various brands starting at £5 for four, bends sideways and has a hole at the top. Like playing a flute, you loosely wrap your lips around it as you suck on it. The idea is that it dispenses with the need to pucker your mouth too much around a small tube.
Videos tagged as ‘anti-wrinkle straw’ have had more than 600 million views on TikTok as enthusiastic drinkers, mostly young, go into ecstasy watching it. A twenty-something influencer, with his typical lack of euphemism, proclaims it “possibly the best anti-aging invention ever created.” So are they right?
Ladies, I am all for taking care of your health and your skin to significantly slow down the aging process. I haven’t sunbathed for 30 years, I never go to bed without a clean face, I have a complex skincare regimen and I’m committed to exercising and eating five a day. But a wrinkle-free straw is not something I will accept.
‘What’s next: anti-wrinkle cigarettes?’ says cosmetic doctor and skincare expert Dr. Wassim Taktouk when I explain the straw. —What abject nonsense.
‘Yes, a lifetime of pursing your lips will eventually cause lines to form, as will 40 years of talking, laughing and expressing yourself. Making weird duck lips instead of fully pursed lips on the rare occasions you use a straw won’t really slow this process down.
Anti-wrinkle straws cost from £5 for four on shopping websites such as Amazon, but skincare experts say claims they can prevent wrinkles are dubious.
The appearance of wrinkles, he adds, is mainly due to the loss of collagen and cellular destruction due to sun damage, a poor nutritional diet and bad habits such as smoking (more from inhaling poison than from persistent puckering) and drinking.
Using a daily moisturizer with high SPF (I like No7 Future Renew Damage Protection Defense Shield SPF50, £24.95) is what will prevent wrinkles in this generation, she says.
She recommends SkinCeuticals CE Ferulic High Potency Triple Antioxidant Treatment, £165, as it’s been shown to neutralize harmful pollutants and potentially a skin-replenishing retinol for those approaching 30 (try Elizabeth Arden Retinol + HPR Ceramide Rapid Skin Renewing Water Cream, £60). ).
“Those are the building blocks of great skin that will make a difference in how you age,” she says. “Buying into fads won’t do it.”
So, that’s something you can eliminate from your beauty shopping list, no matter your age.