Fresher is the new younger

Staying youthful is old news - we should live with our wrinkles. Instead of ironed-taut, flawlessly smooth skin, there is a new template for the cosmetics industry; rather than looking a decade younger, women want to look refreshed.

When women want to look relaxed, even-toned, healthy and happy - you know that the hitherto wrinkle-obsessed anti-ageing industry is undergoing a major transformation.

"Taking care of one's skin is a long-term investment" is a statement the youth are taking seriously. More and more women do not want to end up with a Botox face with fillers or a mask-like skin. They want a "well-cared for" look and they understand prevention is better than cure. We have an upcoming generation of responsible individuals who have a greater respect for the sun, diet, exercise and healthy lifestyles.

They acknowledge the role of the professional beauty therapist with the realisation that prescriptive products are better than buying products that may or may not "do the trick" to fix a problem.

According to Dr Jean-Louis Sebagh, a UK Botox doctor, our obsession with wrinkle-free skin is over: "It's very much about age maintenance today, and not anti-ageing. We are now using Botox and filler with restraint."

Though this might not yet have clicked in Hollywood - where many celebrities of both sexes succumb to the puffy-faced, stretched-skin, zombie look - most women who have tried Botox or filler would welcome a non-invasive alternative, according to a recent survey by The Cosmetic Surgery Guide.

"It's a natural evolution and a backlash to the windblown facelifts of the past that left a 40-something looking older and 'surprised'. Now there are many roads to choose from on the anti-ageing road map," said David Colbert, MD, founder and head physician at New York Dermatology Group.

Soon bathroom shelves will not be lined with tightening, plumping, wrinkle-dissolving serums and creams. Whether to have Botox is no longer the dilemma creasing furrowed brows. Products are now far more scientific and prescriptive, with active ingredients that improve skin tone and texture.

Fine lines caused by external elements, not natural wrinkles, can be eradicated, making skins softer, healthier and in better condition.

In a comprehensive piece of research in 2006, Procter & Gamble concluded that it isn't wrinkles that make us appear older - it's our skin tone and texture.

"Take a look back through the history books and you'll see we've been slow to catch on. Looking younger was never about wrinkles," said plastic surgeon and president of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons, Rajiv Grover.

"Five hundred years ago when teaching young artists how to portray a subject's age, Leonardo da Vinci explained that wrinkles should come relatively low on his pyramid, under complexion and volume. In the same way that a human eye perceives age, for Da Vinci it was about creating an impression of youth, something the small detail of wrinkles would actually have little bearing on."

Today, finally, something has resonated with the consumer: women know now that it is a fresh, radiant version of ourselves that makes us appear more alluring, not how many lines we have on our faces.

• Bramwell, who owns The Mask in Johannesburg, is a CIDESCO (The International Link to the World of Beauty and Spa Therapy) gold medallist and its honorary president, and Young is the beauty editor of The Daily Telegraph