Why Gwyneth Paltrow’s “Real Skin” Snap Is An Age Positive Power Move

In an era in which injectables and plastic surgery have become the rule—rather than the exception —it’s refreshing to see someone proudly showcasing their real skin. When that someone is Gwyneth Paltrow, the impact is even more significant.

Fresh off the back of the launch of her new fashion line, Gwyn, at New York Fashion Week, Paltrow shared a series of Instagram posts, including one in particular that caught our attention. At 52, she appears with visible skin texture, expression lines and the natural folds that start to appear as we get older. She looks luminous and healthy, but not impossibly smooth or immobile. The absence of an overly “frozen” look is almost what makes her look so beautiful—she looks vibrant, fresh and undeniably human, rather than ageless.

That those in the public eye must look flawless—whether they’re 20 or 80—has long been an unspoken rule. Paltrow challenges this simply by offering us a glimpse of what a real woman, a beautiful one, looks like without a relentless cycle of Botox appointments. While it is of course every woman’s right to choose what she does with her face, when we are inundated with images of 50- and 60-something celebrities whose skin appears poreless, line-free and impossibly “snatched,” it can warp our perception of what’s normal. Anything short of that ideal begins to feel like a failure, which is perhaps one reason why we’re seeing a rise in aesthetic procedures, like blepharoplasty and deep-plane face lifts.

Paltrow hasn’t sworn off skin treatments entirely. She’s spoken openly about her love-hate relationship with Xeomin, a Botox alternative, sharing that her experiences with it have been both successful and not-so-successful. Instead, she often champions a gentler, more holistic approach: facial massage, lymphatic drainage, and exercises that work the facial muscles to encourage lift and plumpness. She is also known for taking an inside-out approach to caring for herself through regular saunas, cold plunges, exercise, and hydration.

She has also been candid about the double standards women are subjected to when it comes to the aging process. “As women, we want to be healthy, we want to be aging—this idea that we’re supposed to be frozen in time is so weird,” she previously told Vogue. “It’s handsome to go grey [as a man], but for women, it’s like, ‘What do you plan to do about your wrinkles and your ageing skin?’” For Paltrow, the point is choice: “Every woman should do it how they want to do it.”