The day I turned 29 I threw out everything in my wardrobe that was chocolate brown or cut soberly to the knee. Investing in a pair of black leather go-go boots, I proceeded to wear emerald green eyeliner, tousled Bardot-style hair, a bodysuit and hipster cords. It didn’t take a shrink to tell me I was desperately fighting the fact that I would soon be 30. Eight years later on my 37th birthday, out came the eyeliner, the big hair, the high-heeled boots and the slippery little dress. Guess who’s fighting 40?

Armed with a jar of Crème de la Mer and a new petal-pink MAC lipstick called Lovelorn, I expect to pout and shimmy my way around the problem. Vogue might coax me to wear a sensible bone-colored trench coat, some beige linen cargo pants and a fluffy little hairdo that softens my laugh lines like Meg Ryan. Harper’s Bazaar might weigh in favoring a conservative, classic little suit and Botox, but I’m not ready for all that. In fact, I will never be ready for earth-colored eye shadow, discreet cosmetic surgery or pebble-colored Armani, and I am sure millions of women at this precipice they call “middle youth” feel the same.

The canyon that exists between Juicy Couture sweats and elastic-waist chinos leaves us all stuck between a rock and bad look. If style is a department store, then there’s a floor missing between teen fashion on one, career woman on two and Grandma’s knitted things on three. It is assumed that 40-somethings are either running the boardroom in a sexless tailored suit or ruling a tribe of kids in jeans and sweats—without much joy in between. Given the gap, many women feel obliged to either ape a much younger style or conform to that weirdly sexless category known as “smart casuals”: boat-necked cashmere sweaters, knee-length A-line linen skirts and brushed-cotton pastel pea coats. Ugh.

“Classics” can easily be an excuse for camouflage. Necklines slowly creep up, hems slip down and perfectly fit figures start to obscure themselves in discreet layers. “Mom” clothes are supposed to be sporty and spill-proof but who said you can’t cook a casserole with a pinch of cleavage? Nigella Lawson does it beautifully. The idea of age-appropriate style is due for a fashion backlash because it is a popular notion that conceals a lie: that women get less sexy as they age and that they should defer sensuality to the young. But I’m not ready to move over just yet. Are you?

Sure, all of us make bargains with maturity. A pink angora sweater looks odd with crow’s feet. But other than the obvious physical changes, aging is a matter of style as well as gravitational pull. Anne Bancroft was only 36 when she played Mrs. Robinson, the ultimate older woman in The Graduate. Yet her hair-sprayed chignon, heavy black eyeliner and severe tailoring made her look prematurely hardened. Looking older is not the natural result of being older. At 28, Grace Kelly was famous for her handbag but not for those frumpy bouclé suits and chunky low heels. Even Princess Rania of Jordan looks chic beyond her years, and so did Jackie-O in her Camelot era. Elegance makes everyone look 40—even Madonna. Perhaps even she came to realize that there’s a time to dress for dinner and wear pearls and heels that don’t feel borrowed.

Dressing like a lady is one of the pleasures of being a grown-up and not a girl. It is also an art. European women understand this but they stretch the conventions so they never look starchy. If glamour is the consolation prize for lost collagen, they work it. Reveling in outrageous perfumes and trailing Missoni scarves, the French and the Italians wear womanhood like a badge of honor. Fruity, full-blown and a bit nonchalant, they’ll team a black tuxedo jacket with jeans, high heels and a studded Sonia Rykiel bag. These women, sporting bracelets they found in India, a beret from the flea market or a single diamond earring, look deliberately ripe…experienced…
wonderful.

Just look at Florida-native Lauren Hutton hopping on her motorbike in silk parachute pants. Or Jane Birkin, all crinkly eyes and tangled long mane ordering another café au lait at Cafe Flore. Witness Susan Sarandon saucy in yet another corset dress and the thought of freezing your face into a static mask of youth just fades. The stars that do less to their faces do so much more as role models: They are fluid and scarred, tanned and defiant—alive. Nipped, tucked and dieted into size-two Dolce and Gabbana, the women who violently cheat their age look attractive but anxious, like custodians vigilantly trapped inside a museum of their own beauty.

Beauty after 40 does takes work, but it shouldn’t feel like a job. I delegate the moisture, elasticity and protection of my almost-40 face to a lot of bottled water and a handful of jars and potions: MD Skincare Maximum Moisture Treatment by night, Nuxe Phytochoc Lift Emulsion by day, Clarins Special Eye Contour Balm 24/7 and Molton Brown Liplift Formula lipstick on days when my lips look set to disappear altogether. Beyond this kit, I’ve found other ways to keep the bloom blossoming: Galumphing around in the snow gulping down fresh air, singing aloud, laughing hysterically, eating herring with ice-cold riesling and making love in the afternoon are also crucial beauty aids rarely listed for “older skin”.

There is no doubt that workouts, a good colorist and an even better bra make good sense, but a passionate personal style is even more important. At 55 my mother has just bought six yards of forest-green fake fur and cut velvet to make an opera coat. At 57 my girlfriend Wendy is trawling the markets of Shanghai for the perfect black silk cheongsam jacket. At 65-plus Helene is wearing a forest of art deco bangles while she paints. These women are not sitting around grieving the loss of a bikini belly, and this summer neither shall I. Forty is no longer a milestone at the start of a style Sahara. Right now I am marching towards it with a mixture of defiance and curiosity: three-inch Cuban heels, DVF wrap dress, five-pound hand weights and all!

10 fashion moments only a 40-year-old can get right:

1. Wearing Yves Saint Laurent’s Opium to breakfast

2. Stealing her husband’s shirts, ties or even his pants if she needs to

3. Teaming a Chanel jacket with jeans

4. Tying a Hermés scarf around the handle of her handbag

5. A real-deal, full-length ballgown

6. Diamonds at brunch and a seriously fake cocktail ring

7. Camellias on a lapel

8. A dress shirt and a black-leather pencil skirt

9. A classic Chanel handbag

10. Red lipstick with red high heels

Spring-break breakdown

Two white thighs tumble out of a pair of control-top hose under the neon lights of the fitting room. Without the help of Lycra you are a full two sizes larger. The world is going to hell in handbasket and now, so has your derriere. The summer-bikini diet is not working. On top of it all, spring break is luring you to exotic climes on package deals that promise cut-rate sunshine.

But what do you wear when your dreams are in Acapulco and your body is still taking a snow day? How do you compete with the college brats cavorting in their cut-offs, crocheted bikini tops and twig-shaped society girls with Palm Beach winter tans? One flimsy little pareo is not going to save you from beach shame, and neither will a gallon of sunless-tanning lotion. What you need in order to step into the spotlight of a blinding sun are accessories to dazzle and distract as well as shapes that conceal and flatter. Most women expect themselves to look fantabulous after five days of Hawaiian Tropic and lapping waves, but why wait? The illusion of instant breeziness can be concocted long before you clear customs and fling your cell phone into the sea.

Beach-bum beauty: Invest in a day-spa orgy before you go away. Slough off the drudgery of a long winter and start the relaxation process rolling. If you splurge on an exfoliating facial, a pedicure, a manicure and a big glossy sun-kissed head of highlights, even the cheapest knock-off sunglasses and drawstring linen pants will look luxe. Take aftercare products on your trip such as footbalm for heels and a lightly-moisturizing treatment for the tips of your hair (Redken’s Undone is great) and use this downtime to keep pampering.

Pack holiday make-up that is much lighter than your usual office look—and a touch sexier. A bronzing powder, sheer nude or flesh-pink lipstick, blue or deep emerald mascara (black is so bland) and a tinted sunscreen are all you really need. If you are a bronzing virgin or look strangely gilded in the orange tones of most self-tan cosmetics, find a porcelain pale rosy blusher and apply it with a really big blush brush to your shoulders, nose, cheeks and décolleté. Faking the flush of a day in the sun is so much better than a real roasting. Last but not least, switch perfumes. A splash of the sweet, citrus-scented Calypso Homme by Christiane Calle will make you feel like you are in St. John even if you only make it as far as Tennessee.

Flatter your faults

For the coolest cover-up, just look at Drew Barrymore in the closing shots Charlie’s Angels. There she is, cavorting in a sheer cotton caftan that falls off one shoulder and floats ambiguously around her form. When she jumps into the surf the shift becomes a sensual mermaid sheath clinging and concealing at the same time and all but eclipsing Cameron Diaz’s perfect rear end. Instead of cowering from the cellulite police under a beach umbrella, think ahead and spend real time choosing clever beach outfits.

In Italy, the fashionistas take Victorian nightgowns and hand dye them for the summer. You could do the same with a vintage men’s tuxedo shirt. Dip it in pale lilac and team it with a big straw hat and a few silver bracelets. Or wear a sheer floral silk slip and a tiny

white camisole. Layered lingerie takes the trauma out of slinking down to the water’s edge. Who says you have to wear baggy cotton shorts and message T-shirts to power walk the sand? I’d much rather do it in a tie-dyed djellaba cut to knee length, or a black one piece maillot and a bias-cut tango skirt. Sports clothes lack spice!

Never theme-dress

Hawaiian shirts in Hawaii, yachting shoes on yachts, white ruffles in the Caribbean and hot-pink cheesecloth in Mexico scream tourist—or even worse, retirement village group travel. Think about it: A boat-necked striped T-shirt doesn’t help you sail a boat, and blinding white trousers and billowing starchy white shirts are more evocative of the Love Boat than Kate Hepburn on the African Queen. Ditch contrived looks and clothes that look like they came straight from the department store. Look for cream and ivory instead of white whites. Look for relaxed fabrics like crushed silk, linen/cotton blends and Tencel instead of cotton Lycra and seersucker. Break your sandals in for a good three weeks before wearing them. Put your straw hat in the spin cycle. Wear a Javanese sarong, and a linen waistcoat instead of a shell top and Bermuda shorts. In fact, avoid any item of spring/resort clothing that reminds you of a golf course, a bridge party or happy hour in Boca Raton.

Cheat your hips

Retro trends for spring give winter chub quite a lot of grace. Exploit the return of the ’70s A-line halter dress (my favorite is by Marimekko at Anthropologie), the brightly patterned gathered skirt and the pastel cashmere cardigan (a great upper-arm concealer). Distract from wayward hips and thick midriffs by teaming a crisp white linen blazer over a skinny striped T-shirt and a silk combat skirt. Yes! I said combat skirt, not pants. At last some genius has come up with a flattering alternative to the trouser of the millennium. Because, as we all know, combat pants, no matter how elegantly made, only look flattering on Avril Levigne.

Elevate your assets

Ignore the return to ballet flats and dead-flat pointed pumps—they make winter legs look like tree stumps. Spring dresses and capri pants need lift, and pale legs need to extend their line. The most comfortable heel is not the sling-back kitten heel of last spring, but rather a wedge, a solid stacked heel or a platform espadrille. Worn with a floaty handkerchief skirt, some pinstriped pants or even jeans and a vintage-style blouse, a little heel helps you strut instead of waddle. Beware of showing too much heel and toe too early in the season! Save the urge to wear wafer-thin sandals, naked strappy heels and the vixenish mule till high summer. Spring is the season of the lady-like shoe.

Five final golden rules:

1. Be bold, to a point: Brave a bold print, but only on a skirt and only to the knee. Or make an impact with a bold handkerchief silk scarf worn as a choker.

2. Temper pastels with neutrals for added chic: Combine pale pink with caramel, aqua blue with wheat-colored straw, lemon yellow with chocolate-brown leather.

3. Update old favorites: Find a nice floppy hat that looks like you’ve owned it for years and pin a silk flower to the very edge of the brim.

4. Don’t join the club: Avoid suits, starched shirts, bright nautical stripes (except on handbags) huge polka dots and gingham. Country club styles look best on girls under seven and over 70.

5. Unveil your inner dancer: Wear a crumpled silk ballerina skirt to just above the ankle and a cashmere ballerina wrap with platform sandals and a few bracelets. Gypsies know how to slink from season to season.

This year, resolve to get your chic together

As the clock chimes midnight on December 31st, a million women or more across the country will resolve to give up smoking or lose 10 pounds. Some will swear to renew their yoga memberships. Others will resolve to find a better relationship or a different job.

But how many will vow to stop wearing low rider jeans for good? Not nearly enough.

New Year’s Chic resolutions may not be commonplace, but they are just as critical to personal growth. Years come, years go, and we wear the same haircut, the same coral blush, the same kitten heel sling backs, no matter that their styles have moved on to fashion’s past. Stars have stylists to tell them when to retire the ice blue eyeliner or the side part, but we have only ourselves.

So, this year, embrace your own fashion-forward self! Open a baby bottle of Moet, plop down in your favorite armchair and write up your New Year’s Chic resolutions. The immediate upshot will be a tidier bathroom: goodbye metallic nail polish, purple glimmer shadow and that gooey hair gel you never used.

The following list of chic resolutions is based on critical but fair reflections upon a lifetime of personal habits calcified from sloth, sentimentality and rose-colored dressing room mirrors.

Resolution No. 1: Dress the shape I have, rather than the body I want

Pants don’t suit me. Unless they are made of Lycra and cut by Yves Saint Laurent, they make me look like the Smurf of Willendorf. Accepting 37.5-inch hips and a bottom that looks like two melons on the run has taken 37 years. I give. No more Capri pants, hipsters or stretch cords. Let Liz Hurley live on V8 and Vodka tonics. I will wear nothing but A-line skirts. Amen.

Resolution No. 2: Get thee to a makeup artist

Failing to improve my face with the eyeliner skills I learned at age 13, I will now seek professional help in the cosmetics hall at Henri Bendel. I am ready to admit that any skill at oil crayon drawing does not help contour a human face. All those cosmetic brushes exist for a reason, and I will happily “blend” flattering neutral shades without laughing out loud.

Resolution No. 3: Do not wear push-up bras 24/7

Addiction to underwire is a common trait among recovering rock chicks. I will invest in an array of cotton comfort bras in shades other than black and fire engine red.

Resolution No. 4: Drink more water

The simplest beauty rule in the book is to hydrate from within. I will carry a 2-liter bottle of water like a cherished newborn at all times. (This promise doubles as weight training.)

Resolution No. 5: Break habits of past decades

Among the fashions I will forget are: flares, boob tubes, fringe, and glitter from the 70s; 80s bobs, pale pink lip gloss, ruched leather; and 90s fashions that persist despite a new century, including all black, skinny eyebrows, spike heels, poker straight hair.

Resolution No. 6: Dress from books instead of mags

This year my best fashion inspirations will come from novels: the gloves worn by Emma Bovary, the red velvet handbag carried by Anna Karenina, the fresh flowers worn by Frida Kahlo in her illustrated diary. Fiction filters its way into fashion — just look at the vintage clothes that influence big name designers — but this year I intend to be a step ahead of them. A little straw hat a la Henry James’s lovely Daisy Miller will be the first item on my spring list.

Resolution No. 7: Retire beloved ’signature’ looks

My love affair with 1940s print dresses must end. Come 2003 I will look less like Lisa Bonet in “Angel Heart” and more like Joan Crawford in “Mildred Pierce.” Certain vintage items (satin house coats, lacy aprons, gray flannel suits) can look more matronly than hip. (This often occurs when you approach the age of the original wearer.)

Resolution No. 8: Wear more white

Women save white for summer. What a waste! Chanel wore white lacy collars and cuffs in all seasons and circumstances. And how they softened her savage little face. Gwyneth Paltrow wears a white raincoat about Manhattan as if the streets were made of strawberry nougat and white gold. Lauren Hutton is forever sporting a man’s starched tux shirt. What a fresh alternative after years of wearing black. I shall go out and find a little white dress, stick a lace collar over my black one and dip everything in vanilla. Everything, that is, except my shoes. White shoes are for children and nurses.

Resolution No. 9: Wear something outrageous

As the clock strikes 12, I will request all eyes on my satin ruffle-bedecked cleavage. Holding court in a magenta corset, this could be the last party for my kept waistline, the last time I give a thought to suffering for fashion. Alas, this year, let nature and pasta have their way with my maternal metabolism. I can always go back to Resolution No. 1.

There is no such thing as morally neutral fashion, the writer Martin Amis once quipped, and anyone who works in an office knows what he means.

Success dressing in many ways is style under pressure, that delicate balance between personal flair and professional clout.

I honed my own professional dress code from many messy encounters with laddered stockings, low-cut blouses and one very strange canary-yellow linen suit bought in 1987.

My manifesto for office fashion now is simplification. Deep down, we all know which clothes make us feel strong and baby pink angora sweaters are not on that list.

Know the code

Every office has an unspoken uniform. At Vogue, it’s Monolo Blahnik. At Harper’s Bazaar, Jimmy Choo, and in a less fashionista environment, there are still subliminal sartorial laws.

Secretaries in mini skirts and company directors in suits happen for a reason. The mini skirt conveys the freedom of a job with low responsibility and even lower mobility. Unless you are Erin Brockovich, a push-up bra does not equal a pay raise or the ability to change the world.

To dress within the code of your office without feeling like a conformist drone means tweaking your personal style. At the office where I work,(an almost all-female publishing house) pencil skirts, pumps and little twin sets are the norm. Like wearing a school uniform, such deliberately egalitarian style levels out great wealth, great beauty or a great pair of legs.

Having none of the above, I wear basic little sweaters and kilts in winter and a little less skin in summer with great relief. Dressing modestly sends
out the message that you are at work to get the job done not to strut and preen. Puritan work ethic? Certainly, but a lot can be done in between a little white shirt and some navy blue shoes.

Get serious

The more intellectual or powerful your work environment, the more fashion fripperies are frowned upon. Perfectly dreary but true. Chanel understood this principle and designed for women with work ethic accordingly. “Be a caterpillar by day and a butterfly by night,”‘ she chided, wearing her invisibly elegant little suits everyday.

Office chic shares that sense of focus. It is clothing that looks good but doesn’t get in the way of what you have to do and what you have to say. If you need an eccentric expression siphon it into intense little accessories: a bright red handbag with a little black dress; silver Mary Janes with a navy blue pin-striped suit; Italian stockings under a perfectly sober shift. In a somber environment, a little spice goes a long way.

Be consistent

I once had a boss who would double take at least once a week and ask me my name. Dressed in disco-glitter eye shadow one day and starchy suit the next, I had a tendency to disappear inside my clothes, inviting people to ask, “Who’s the new girl?” The eclectic work wardrobe might help you love Mondays, but it is downright disorienting to fuddy-duddy senior management. Unless you are a fashion stylist (who style-surf for a living), try to anchor yourself into a stable image: the most capable looking version of  you.

Own one great suit

A suit you love is like armor. You slip it on and immediately feel ready for a bank manager, nasty memo or aggressive cold call session on a Monday
morning.

Buy a suit that is not too tight across the bosom or the hip. One with fabric that gives and doesn’t crease after a whole day of sitting and one that can travel across seasons. When you buy the suit also snap up two blouses and a sweater that match, stretching one outfit into three. If you are allergic to formality, buy a gorgeous floral pin and stick it to your lapel. Natty dressing can still have whims.

Dress three pay rises ahead

Dressing a few tiers above your station is not pretentious, it’s sensible. The only way bosses can imagine you in a more powerful position is to
visualize you there. Give them a helping hand by looking sleek. Interns do this all the time, looking as if they are on salary even if they are wearing a very well ironed shirt from the Gap sale rack. Smart girls.

Time Travel

If contemporary work style leaves you cold why not pilfer from other eras? Hollywood always went to work in style. Think of Faye Dunaway’s slick

little blouses in “Network” Try a silk tie and a waist coat ala “Annie Hall,”, or steal a great pair of pants taken straight from Katherine Hepburns closet in “Woman of the Year.”

The standard convention of a skirt stuck at mid-calf and a little silk shell under a navy blue jacket with gold buttons reminds me of TV anchor women and air hostesses. If you don’t actually perform those duties why dress that way?

Shop on weekends

Schlumping into the shops on a Thursday night to recreate a new work identity is a big mistake. Exhaustion is apt to make you buy a ghastly Laura Bush pant suit or a long beige knit dress. Try instead to shop for work clothes with the same pleasure you’d give to lingerie or shoe shopping on a sprightly Sunday afternoon. Carry magazine pages if you have to and take a friend you trust.

Get groomed for the top

Hair. Nails. Shoes. Check for these along with your keys as you dash out  the door. It’s a little grooming mantra that I have yet to really master but works beautifully in businesses where people actually have to look at you. Grooming is more important than expensive clothes, it shows respect and makes you feel pulled together even if you are imploding. I always type faster after a manicure.

Encapsulate your style

I didn’t believe in capsule dressing until I went on a 15-city book tour. After that I started buying pantyhose by the dozen and sweaters in pairs.

My ultimate basic work wardrobe is built on this:

1. Three black skirts (of course). One to the knee (which double as a suit skirt), one for fat days and one for evening (because last minute opera tickets cannot be refused).
2. Three crush-proof white blouses.
3. One great black jacket.
4. Four cashmere sweaters, three cotton. (packs small, travels across seasons).
5. One great sturdy handbag with a satellite for evening stashed inside.
6. One print dress (vintage or otherwise).
7. One pair of Capri pants.
8. Ballet flats/boots/low heeled pumps.

Building your wardrobe from black doesn’t mean wearing all black. You can go hog wild accessorizing.  Color is the ultimate mood lifter at work and a great way to make basically sensible dress feel sexy. I love hot pink on Mondays for energy and pale blue on Fridays for pretending to be calm. Your black skirts don’t have to feel predictable either. Try them long in a suede maxi, sensuous in a silk wrap or artsy in a an unusual fabric like chunk corduroy.

Winter is a good season for reading novels, roasting chestnuts and dehydrating your skin. Strip down in front of the roaring fire at the ski chalet of your dreams and you may find shins that are scaly, elbows that are flaky and the baby wrinkles around your eyes have become ravines. Ouch! Wind burn, central heating, and cold, dry air have the power to strip a girl of her natural oils as well as her sense of humor. Dehydration makes us look pasty or ashen and downright uncomfortable in our skin, clothes chafe and even hair looks ragged and dry. To arm against the ravages of the season you need to treat your whole system from within and from without. One expensive cream and a beanie worn low is not going to do it ! Tender care will. Here’s how:

1. Soak not
Long hot showers strip your skin of natural oils, can break capillaries and leave you with painful dry zones along the arms, hips and shins (where the water pressure hits hardest). Try to bathe instead in slightly more tepid water and the second you leave the shower oil yourself up with a non-perfumed body lotion. Moisture needs to be locked into the skin while pores are open. If you have a bath, sprinkle it with natural oils but don’t soak too long. If you really must marinate (to clear the mind) dunk your feet instead in an infusion of rose petals and rose oil (Weleda is the best, find it in health food stores).

2. Face the frost
Moisturizer can afford to be a little heavier in winter, especially when going outdoors. One with a built in sunscreen and gentle natural ingredients and avoid those that contain TEA (triethanolamine) a harsh ammonia derivative. Moisturizers that are made of beeswax sweet almond oil, shea butter, collagen or vegetable squalene are preferable to the cheaper alternatives that contain mineral oil and petroleum. These ingredients tend to clog the pores. For an excellent break down on the world’s best moisturizers refer to page 36 of Rona Berg’s fabulous book “Beauty”, Workman Publishing ($19.95). She also includes excellent recipes for home-made face masks.

3. Shed your skin
Sloughing off a layer of dry dead skin cells readies the skin to receive more moisture, it also helps circulation. Use a massage mitt in the tub and a light face scrub (Decleor is excellent) once a fortnight.

4. Eat oily
Unsaturated fats help the body absorb protein. If you have an urge to splatter a salad in virgin olive oil or devour a whole can of sardines go for it. There is a reason arctic people eat oily fish, they need it and in winter so do you!

5. Pucker pretty
Olive oil, sesame oil and even good old vitamin E (cracked open and rubbed onto the lips) are excellent balms for a dry kisser. Commercial lip balms that contain shea butter keep lips soft and conditioned.

6. Move about
Nutrients come to the skin when your circulation is pumping. It also lifts winter blues to exercise. How easy it is to forget the body when wrapped in a comforter, sucking on a chocolate bar.

7. Rug up
Gloves look sexy and protect the thinnest driest skin on the body, your hands. Never feel foolish dressed like a snowman in winter. I have plenty of broken capillaries to remind me of the days I went hatless in the snow.

8. Get touched up
Massage with natural oils is a sensual way to moisturize and get circulation pumping. The body needs to be touched. Skin tends to glow when the energy of human hands has graced it.

9. Mist and spritz
Spraying your face with Evian or rose water does not serve to radically moisten it but it definitely eases the tightness that comes with sitting in a heated room. Eye creams, lip balm (non petroleum-based, please) hand creams and a purse size spritzer should go everywhere with you in winter.

10. Go herbal
Red wine, coffee, hot chocolate and strong brewed tea can become obsessive comforts in winter, especially if a period is due or work is unbearable. Sadly these are the bevvies that seriously dry out your system. Try to be moderate with alcohol (taking three to four alcohol free days a week) and dilute your latte with extra milk. Experiment with herbal teas and don’t leave the office until a two liter bottle of spring water is empty. Avoiding alcohol and caffeine will also boost your immune system and fend off a flu.

11. Sleep in
Lack of sleep depletes the body’s store of vitamin B, the stuff that keeps hair glossy, skin supple and nails from snapping in two. Sleep is also a natural stress buster, giving skin a chance to bloom again. Night is a good time to give hands and feet beauty treatments, slathering on a body cream and then slipping into some squishy socks or little gloves. Single girls rejoice, you are free to be moisture monsters in sweet privacy! To keep hydrating while you sleep be sure and drink plenty of water before bedtime and to install a humidifier in stuffy or over heated boudoirs. If you happen to wake up to stare at the moon for no reason…DRINK!

12. Worship the moon
Dehydration doesn’t actually age the skin, only the sun can do that. Even weedy winter sun can burn the skin causing the dreaded “visible signs of aging” that come with UV damage. To fight back, wear a tinted moisturizer with a slightly lower SBF than in summer, say 8 to 15, and be sure to wear it every day. Measure the strength of your protection for the length of time you decide to spend out. Sun damage is gradual but the results are permanent. The day you start wearing sun screen is the day your skin gets a second chance, no matter what age you are.