A warm welcome, if you please, for My Mum. She has just turned 60 and has the skin of a baby, and so I have roped her into sharing some of her secrets. She’ll be appearing on here every month and providing us with top tips and possibly some anecdotal material. Like me, My Mum has a tendency to ramble on and go ‘off piste’ so I’m looking forward to seeing what she comes up with. She once phoned me very early on a Sunday to inform me that she had “accidentally sliced a toad with the garden spade and he’s probably not going to survive”; so please expect the unexpected.

The idea is that My Mum Says will cover anti-ageing products and products for more mature skin, so please do forward these posts on to friends and relatives (your own Mums!) who are looking out for unbiased and thorough product information.

Anyway, I’ll shut up now. She’s up there in her photo, all primed and ready to speak into her microphone; so without further ado, please put your hands together for…My Mum!

“I am Ruth’s mother and just recently I have ‘come of age’. I didn’t expect ever to reach 60 but I have and all in one piece, so I am over the moon! I promised to write a section every month for Ruth’s website so here I am. Unfortunately I tend to delete photographs if I don’t appear how I want to look; people taking photos just never seem to get me quite right and so I can’t include an image. [I’ve done it for you, Mum!] I have noticed over the years that those passport photos I had taken at 50 (which I remember having to have several bashes at!) now look OK;  but at the time, they were a shock to one’s expectations. However, I digress so here goes:

I have always believed strongly in skin-care and can remember trying to make my own remedies for teenage spots in days of yore. My Mum used to always ask for Oil of Ulay for birthday presents. In those days it was just on the market, was a lovely mimosa smelling pink lotion and came in a proper bottle. My first skincare product was from Avon and was called Peaches and came in a little ceramic container which was shaped and painted like a basket of peaches and smelt divine. A great deal of my memories are olfactory and anything that smell of my Mum’s powder compact ( I think it was Max Factor, called Powder Puff and had a bee on as a logo?) are winners with me.

I had a Saturday job in Timothy Whites and witnessed its transition into the Boots we know and love.  I just adored Ponds cold cream and its white jar, the peachy colour, and above all its smell! In those days new make up arrivals and fashions were: Polyblonde hair dye with a sachet of ‘blue rinse’ to take away the brassy tones, so your Mum wouldn’t suspect a thing, leaving trails of bleach and blue dye over towels, Tweenytwink light perms and Toddilox,which professed to give your hair Shirley Temple curls and Max Factor pan-stick, which we put all over our faces and lips (they had three shades only), to be topped by Peppermint pink lipstick which made your lips burn because it was actually peppermint? Eyes had to be as black as coal with loads of liner and mascara and I recollect a friend’s Dad telling me to scrub my face – I was 11.

Skin-care began with Johnson’s everything, developing into Oil of Ulay (never ever can bring myself to buy it now as soon as it changed its name and came out of the bottles), then Clinique and other expensive concoctions as my wage packet increased and there were less clarinet and piano and ballet etc etc lessons to pay for. I have never ever left the house or gone to bed without cleaning properly and applying moisturiser so these companies have held my thrall for well over 40 odd years. Think of all that dosh! Wow! Must get a mirror and see if it was worth it!?

I must tell you about another little obsession of mine: drinking a glass of warm water in the morning, or lately peppermint tea, and about two litres of plain water throughout the day. I do have good skin but so did my Mum! Could it be that old, old Oil of Ulay recipe? Who knows?

I am going to tell you about the latest moisturisers I have been trying out on my aged neck and my mid-life menopausal skin. I have had some brilliant advice from a lovely lady, Camilla, at Clinique. I am indebted to her. However, I have been on this computer for ages and my hips are ‘set’ so you will have to wait until next time.  Maybe you could sort of reply ( I have no idea how you do that by the way and I don’t know whether Ruth will allow me to put this on her website? She’s really bossy!) but do what you have to do and tell me whether it is worthwhile and then I can take photos of the products and tell you the secrets of my success!

Ruth’s Mum xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx”