Smoking is the worst thing you can do with your mouth. The 12m smokers in the UK know this. But that doesn’t stop a quarter of the female population from lighting up in the belief that smoking keeps them from eating, calms the nerves and raises the body’s ability to burn calories. But it seems that smokers, especially as they age, must follow the spicy French beauty adage that translates, almost literally, thus: “After a certain age, a woman has to choose between her face and her ass.”

The damage smoking does to facial skin is startling. According to Dr Nicholas Lowe, a dermatologist at London’s Cranley Clinic, smoking reduces the skin’s blood supply and damages its ability to produce elastin and collagen, which keep skin smooth and firm.

“Smoker’s face” was added to the medical lexicon by Dr Douglas Model, of Eastbourne, in 1985, as shorthand for the collective damage smoking does to one’s appearance. “Until then, we weren’t certain what damage smoking did,” says Lowe. “Then there was a report by the BMA, where they had taken photographs of smokers and nonsmokers, and you could actually identify with a high accuracy which ones were smokers. The smokers had decreased collagen, lines around the mouth and eyes, decreased blood supply to the skin — the whole whammy, really.”

Dr Daniel Sister, anti-ageing specialist at the Radical Beauty Clinic, agrees: “Skin ages faster when you smoke. All other things being equal, a smoker will look older than a nonsmoker.” According to Dr Daniel Maes, vice-president of research and development at Estée Lauder, smoker’s face is a gradual evolution. “It is a thing that starts to appear because of the damage from smoke itself, where the smoke is getting into contact with the skin. It is discolouration, change of skin luminosity. Skin looks grey and lines form around the eyes and mouth — for obvious reasons.”

Smoker’s face aside, many women smokers who won’t or can’t give up smoking still strive to look as beautiful, or more so, than their non-puffing counterparts. Even if the best beauty advice is to kick the weed, there are things smokers can do to offset some of the ravages of tobacco and nicotine. Sister suggests a routine that includes topical and internal treatments. He advocates, in some cases, tablets of the hormone dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). Used topically, DHEA can improve collagen production in the skin, making it look younger and healthier. However, the use of this hormone is still hotly debated because similar hormones have causal connections to breast cancer. He also advises taking vitamin E and essential fatty-acid supplements, as well as a special herbal detox that is often used in chemotherapy recovery. According to skin needs, Sister also recommends Actiderm creams. These topical applications contain a variety of ingredients, including vitamin C and hyaluronic acid, which binds water to the skin. For real problem skin, there is also Vitaface, a cocktail of anti-ageing minerals and vitamins injected into the face.

Sometimes, noninvasive treatments, such as microdermabrasion or lasers, can improve smokers’ skin. Lowe opts for topical retinoids — either Retin-A itself or tazarotene cream or gel. “Correct levels of an enzyme called 6-metalloprotease are extremely important for maintaining the production of collagen and elastin in the skin,” he says. “Smokers suffer a reduction in the efficiency of that enzyme, and Retin-A actually improves this.”

If you would rather spend your money on cigarettes than seeing a dermatologist, there is a good range of over-the-counter products with topical vitamin C and antioxidant ingredients. Activate (from £14.95; 01827 317757, www.beautybyhive.com) is a cream specifically designed for smokers; it offsets the effects of nicotine on the skin. Estée Lauder DayWear Plus (£26, from department stores) is specially formulated to guard the skin against smoking and pollution. DDF’s Environment Protection Serum C3 (£75, from Harvey Nichols; 020 7235 5000) contains three forms of vitamin C. In 1991, Shiseido’s scientists were the first to combine vitamins E and C with phosphate and potassium into a stable compound, hence Shiseido’s Bio-Performance Advanced Super Revitalizer Cream (£53; 020 7630 1515).

Most creams geared to smokers’ skin — Perricone’s Vit C Ester, SkinCeuticals and Cellex-C, among others — are cosmeceuticals featuring varieties of topical vitamin C. These should be paired with the best and first habit that smokers and nonsmokers alike should adopt: daily use of broad-spectrum sunscreen with UVA/UVB filters, such as those featured in Elizabeth Arden’s First Defense Advanced Anti-oxidant Lotion and Cream SPF 15 (£30, Boots) or the less expensive L’Oréal Visible Results Daily Skin Perfecting Moisturiser with SPF 15 (£10.99, from Boots).

Anyone who is serious about beauty should stop smoking immediately, no matter what. But if you’re finding it hard to give up, this sort of attention can give your skin a fighting chance.

Cranley Centre: 020 7499 3223.
Radical Beauty Clinic: 020 7487 3220