Women's Wellness Insider
6 reasons your skincare stopped working — and why it happened so fast
Your skin lost about 30% of its collagen in five years. Nothing on your shelf was built to reach that layer.
Last week I looked in the mirror and literally screamed, 'Who is that?'
Most women going through menopause end up with a drawer full of products that didn't work.
A vitamin C serum used twice. Two retinols, one of which made her cheeks peel. A moisturiser the woman at the counter said was the one. Three separate hyaluronic acids, because every time something stopped working she assumed she needed more hydration.
On average it's about a dozen products over two years, and several hundred dollars — sometimes thousands.
She kept buying because she thought she was picking the wrong products.
The products weren't the problem. What changed was her skin.
Almost nobody is told that. Only 31.3% of OB/GYN residency programmes in the US teach any menopause curriculum at all, and of the ones that do, 71% run two lectures a year or fewer.
It doesn't reach her doctor. Which means it doesn't reach the beauty counter. Which means it doesn't reach her.
Here are the six reasons.
Reason 1
Estrogen controls how much collagen your skin makes
Collagen is the layer of support underneath your skin. It holds your face up and lets it spring back into place.
Most women know estrogen controls periods and hot flashes. It also controls how much collagen your skin produces, how thick that layer of support stays, and how much water your skin holds.
So when estrogen drops at menopause, collagen production drops with it.
Reason 2
You lose about 30% of your collagen in the first five years
Around 30% of the collagen in your skin is gone within five years of menopause. After that it keeps going, at roughly 2% a year for the next couple of decades.
Thirty percent in five years is the fastest your skin will ever lose collagen. It's faster than your thirties were and faster than your seventies will be.
That's why it doesn't feel like ageing. Ageing is slow. This wasn't.
I mourn the vibrant woman I was once, every day.
The loss builds up over years. But you don't see it until enough of it is gone.
Your skin keeps its shape while the support underneath it thins out. You can lose a lot of collagen and still look the same in the mirror. Then you pass the point where there isn't enough left to hold everything up, and the change appears all at once — even though it took years to get there.
Reason 3
Collagen sits below the surface. Almost nothing you put on top gets down there.
Collagen sits below the surface of your skin, in a deeper layer called the dermis.
Almost everything sold for skin works on the surface. It hydrates it, smooths it, protects it. Those are real jobs and good products do them well.
None of them get down to the dermis. That's true of the $12 moisturiser and the $180 serum.
There's a physical reason for it. Molecule size is measured in daltons, where a bigger number means a bigger molecule. Anything much over 500 daltons can't get through your skin.
Collagen is around 300,000 daltons.
So collagen you put on your face doesn't go anywhere. It sits on top until you wash it off. That's true of collagen creams, collagen serums, collagen masks, marine collagen and hydrolysed collagen, at every price. Changing the formula doesn't change the size of the molecule.
Hyaluronic acid is different. It's small enough to get in, and it works — it pulls water into the surface and your skin looks fuller while it's there. But hydration wears off. It makes your face look better for a few hours. It doesn't rebuild anything underneath.
Your routine didn't break. Your skin changed underneath it, and your routine was never designed to go that deep.
Reason 4
Retinol works by irritating your skin on purpose — and your skin got worse at handling it
Collagen doesn't only hold your face up. It's most of what your skin is made of.
So when you lose 30% of it, your skin physically changes. It gets thinner. The barrier that keeps moisture in and irritants out gets weaker. It reacts to things it never used to react to.
That matters for retinol, because of how retinol works.
Retinol makes your skin shed and rebuild itself faster than it normally would. The peeling and the redness are that process happening.
But now you're asking thinner, weaker skin to take the same push that thick, well-supported skin used to absorb without complaining.
The peeling was so bad that even water burned my skin.
If retinol started stinging in your late forties after fifteen years of using it comfortably, you weren't using it wrong. It's the same ingredient on different skin.
Reason 5
Your body makes the thing that tells skin to build collagen — and you're making less of it
Your skin doesn't produce collagen on its own. Something has to signal it to.
One of the things that does this is a small copper peptide called GHK-Cu. Your body makes it. It was found in human blood in 1973, and it signals your skin to produce collagen.
It doesn't put collagen into your skin. It tells your skin to make its own.
And unlike collagen, it's small enough to get in. GHK-Cu is about 340 daltons, well under the 500-dalton limit.
Your body also makes less of it as you get older. Levels in your blood drop by around 60% between the ages of 20 and 60.
So two things happen at the same time in your forties. Your skin needs to replace collagen faster than it ever has, and the thing that tells it to do that is at its lowest point.
Reason 6
Everything in that drawer was made for skin that still produces collagen
Every serum, cream and treatment you bought was developed and tested on skin that was still making collagen normally.
For thirty years, that was your skin. It's why your routine worked for thirty years.
Those products aren't bad. They do exactly what they were designed to do, on the skin they were designed for. Your skin doesn't do that anymore.
As soon as I don't wear makeup I ALWAYS get asked if I'm sick. I don't want to go outside anymore.
So what does reach that layer?
Hydration adds water to the surface. Retinol speeds up shedding. Moisturiser protects the barrier. All three do their jobs.
None of them tell your skin to make collagen.
That's the one thing menopause took, and it's the one thing nothing on your shelf does.
You can't put collagen into your skin. But you can give your skin the thing that tells it to make its own.
The serum built for menopausal collagen loss
Lanarie Native Facial Serum
Copper Tripeptide-1 (GHK-Cu) · 30ml
- Small enough to get in. GHK-Cu is around 340 daltons, so it reaches the layer where your collagen is. Collagen creams can't.
- It tells your skin to make collagen. That's the instruction your body stopped sending — not a faster shedding cycle like retinol.
- No retinol and no exfoliating acids. Nothing in it to irritate thinner skin, and no acids to break the copper peptide down while the bottle sits on your shelf.
- Made for skin after menopause. Not a general formula adapted to it.
- Goes on under everything you already use. Hyaluronic acid and glycerin handle hydration. Nothing in your routine has to change.
★★★★★ 4.7 · 720 reviews
Check availability →90-day money-back guarantee, even on an empty bottle.
What changes, and when
GHK-Cu doesn't sting, peel or purge. There's nothing to feel while it's working, and that's the main reason women stop using it before it's had time to do anything.
A way to check without waiting
If you wear foundation, check how it sits at three in the afternoon. Women using copper peptides mention this before anything else — it stops sinking into the lines around your mouth.
If you don't wear foundation, pay attention to the first thirty seconds after you wash your face. That tight, pulled feeling is usually the first thing to ease off.
What women using it say
Retinol always made my skin red and tight, so I was nervous to try anything new. This did not sting. It did not peel.
★★★★★ Denise C.
Most serums either sit on top of my face or make my foundation soak them up. This one sinks in fast. My makeup goes on smoother now, especially around my cheeks and mouth.
★★★★★ Gina P.
I was mostly hoping for less dryness, but after a few weeks my face just looked more rested. Less dull. Like I had finally slept well for once.
★★★★★ Karen M.
Menopause took about 30% of your skin's collagen in five years — faster than any other point in your life.
That collagen sits below the surface of your skin. Almost nothing you put on top of it gets down there, which is why your routine stopped working.
GHK-Cu is the molecule that tells your skin to build collagen. Your body makes it, and it makes less of it every year.
Lanarie is 50mg of pure GHK-Cu per bottle, made for skin after menopause. It goes on under everything you already use.
You didn't do anything wrong. Your skin changed.
Check availability →90-day money-back guarantee, even on an empty bottle. No return shipping.
References
- The Menopause Society. Survey of US OB/GYN residency program directors, 2023. 31.3% of responding programs reported any menopause curriculum; of those with a curriculum, 71% ran two or fewer lectures per year.
- Brincat M, Kabalan S, Studd JW, et al. A study of the decrease of skin collagen content, skin thickness, and bone mass in the postmenopausal woman. Obstetrics & Gynecology 1987;70(6):840–845.
- Brincat MP, Baron YM, Galea R. Estrogens and the skin. Climacteric 2005;8(2):110–123.
- Bos JD, Meinardi MMHM. The 500 Dalton rule for the skin penetration of chemical compounds and drugs. Experimental Dermatology 2000;9(3):165–169.
- Mukherjee S, Date A, Patravale V, et al. Retinoids in the treatment of skin aging. Clinical Interventions in Aging 2006;1(4):327–348.
- Pickart L, Thaler MM. Tripeptide in human serum which prolongs survival of normal liver cells and stimulates growth in neoplastic liver. Nature New Biology 1973;243(124):85–87.
- Pickart L, Vasquez-Soltero JM, Margolina A. GHK peptide as a natural modulator of multiple cellular pathways in skin regeneration. BioMed Research International 2015;2015:648108.
- Pickart L, Margolina A. The potential of GHK as an anti-aging peptide. Plasma GHK averages approximately 200 ng/mL at age 20, declining to approximately 80 ng/mL by age 60.
This page is an advertisement. It is not a news article, a consumer report, or an independent product review. It was produced and paid for by Lanarie, which sells the product described above. Other products and ingredient categories are described here for comparison only.
Research described on this page relates to the ingredient GHK-Cu and is not a study of Lanarie Native Facial Serum. Ingredient research does not establish that any cosmetic product produces a particular result.
Customer reviews are individual experiences and are not a guarantee that you will get the same result. Results vary and depend on skin type, routine, and consistency of use.
This page is for general information and is not medical advice. If your skin or your menopause symptoms are affecting you, speak to a doctor or dermatologist.
Lanarie Native Facial Serum contains Copper Tripeptide-1 (GHK-Cu), sodium hyaluronate, glycerin, hydroxyethyl cellulose, gardenia florida fruit extract and lavandula angustifolia flower extract. No retinol, no exfoliating acids, no added fragrance.
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