In the line of beauty

THERE’S a downside to living in a house that only has a mirror in a dimly lit room: you think you’re ageing well.

A little denial can be healthy.

Then you go on your holidays to a place that has a well-lit mirror and you suddenly look 10 years older.

I’m not great with reality. Neither is the beauty industry. It’s the one place where the denial-junkie can get a fix. Enter the quick-fix solution — wrinkle filler.

If you’re a fan of natural beauty products, then the wrinkle filler is not for you — it’s packed with chemicals.

There’s no organic gentleness here — these babies are designed to do a specific job. But they are temporary measures. The product that fixes wrinkles hasn’t been created yet, but the wrinkle filler gives the impression you don’t have any — until you wash your face.

The wrinkle filler does what it says on the label: fills in your wrinkles.

Not completely, but they blur facial lines, and in the harsh summer sunlight that’s good enough for me. Some fillers claim that they diminish wrinkles over time, but I find this hard to believe. What I have found is that they tone down my wrinkles and don’t make them look as deep.

Kiehl’s wrinkle filler, €35, is my once-a-day face. It has a heftily impressive title, too: double-strength deep wrinkle filler. Most fillers use silicones to pretend you don’t have wrinkles; Kiehl’s use hyaluronic ‘filling spheres’.

Impressive. Kiehl’s say the natural hyaluronic acids plump and smooth wrinkles over time, but in the long-term I don’t think my wrinkles are going anywhere soon.

I have sensitive skin yet didn’t have a reaction to the Kiehl’s product. But if you are concerned about sensitivity, then check out Avene’s eluage gel, €33, for deep wrinkles and furrows.

Designed to stimulate hyaluronic acid, collagen and elastin fibres within the skin, it has a good, gluey texture (that sounds worse than it is), and sinks into your furrows well.

One I’m particularly fond of is Clarins’s wrinkle filler smooth-line correcting concentrate, €26, because its putty-like texture makes me feel like it’s really doing something.

It comes in a very handy, portable pen and is less of a skincare product and more of a pure filler, so I like to use it on deeper, more pronounced wrinkles.

Of course, the filler isn’t the only product on the shelves that claims to instantly improve wrinkles.

A good one for a special occasion (weddings and such) is the instant face-lift, which sounds more impressive than it is.

While these products are not going to take years off your face, they do slightly tighten the skin, which makes them good for a day-out.

Try Estee Lauder’s resilience-lift instant action treatment, €55.

I don’t think these products are great for dry-skinned types, so if you’re after an instant boost, then look to products such as Clarins’s beauty flash balm, €35 or MAC’s strobe fluid, €20.50.