Why is the beauty of mature women so underrepresented in mainstream beauty?
This publication is also available in: 
Français 
English (UK) 
Deutsch 
Italiano 
Español
Finally! Mature women are beginning to take the place they deserve! We know that beauty does not, well, no longer has an age. Yet, as soon as one crosses the symbolic threshold of fifty, they almost entirely disappear from traditional beauty campaigns. In an industry obsessed with youthful glow, smooth skin, and “Instagrammable” faces, mature women are often rendered invisible. But things are changing. Slowly. Led by figures like Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu or Helen Mirren, so-called “senior” beauty is finally carving out a space. Why did we have to wait so long?
An industry addicted to youth… and old clichés
For decades, mainstream beauty has clung to a fantasy: that of eternal youth. It seems that only smooth skin, invisible pores, and plump cheeks had a place in advertisements. The result? A world of images where women slowly disappear from the radar once they cross fifty. Rendered invisible, minimized, diluted. As if aging were a faux pas.
And yet, in a supreme paradox: it is precisely these women – confident, demanding, experienced – who today hold the most solid purchasing power in the sector. But who are we talking to when 90% of campaigns are aimed at photoshopped thirty-somethings? Certainly not to them.
Beauty has long been viewed as a battle against time. A silent war waged with promises of anti-aging and miracle serums. What if we changed the narrative? What if we stopped seeing wrinkles as a flaw to correct, and instead looked at them as a chapter of a story we proudly carry on our skin?
Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, the elegance of an unapologetic glow
On screen, she captures the light. Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu does not need any artifice to shine – her presence is enough. In Emily in Paris, she embodies Sylvie, a powerful woman with impeccable styling, sharp sarcasm, and a royal bearing. At just 62 years old, she is more in demand than ever: a career that is taking off, looks analyzed by the press, and above all, a brand new role – that of ambassador for L’Oréal Paris’s Age Perfect Collagen Expert campaign, starting June 9.
And if she fascinates so much, it may be because she does not try to play the young girl. No filters, no pretenses. She is aging, yes, and so what? Like everyone else. She does it with style, personality, and a freedom that pops more than a gloss on TikTok.
Philippine is a bit of the ideal counter-model to frozen beauty: she moves, she lives, she owns it. Her wrinkles? She talks about them with humor. Her age? She makes it a strength. Her skin? She shows it without freaking out. In short, she makes you want not to “slow down time,” but to not care a little – and to move forward, comfortable in your shoes, comfortable in your skin.
Aging is not a bug, it’s an upgrade!
If the beauty of mature women still bothers some, it may be because it escapes classical codes: it has nothing to prove, it does not apologize for existing, and above all, it refuses to be put on hold. Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu shows that one can age with panache, humor, and brilliance – without needing to go through the retouching stage.
What we now expect from the industry is not a “diversity” campaign every five years with three gray hairs in the background of an ad. It’s a real reinvention. One where wrinkles are seen as stories, not as flaws to erase. One where aging does not rhyme with disappearing.
Because spoiler alert: mature women are here, they buy, they decide – and they are tired of being treated as if they were expired. It may be time to adjust the mirror.
Cover image: Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu ©L’Oréal
