Photo: Robert Trachtenberg

Most of the time when I meet new people and they hear that I'm a beauty editor, they'll listen to my considered defenses of the president, or my musings about a recent movie I've seen, while they pretend to be interested, drumming their fingers impatiently on the table, waiting for the moment when they can break in with a question.

"So what's the best thing to use on my face?" "Does La Mer really work?" "How can I get glowing skin?" That's what they really want to know. They want advice. But recently I met a woman, who, when I told her that I'm a beauty editor, started giving me advice. "You really need to start wearing foundation every day," she said. "Pack it on; it'll keep your skin moisturized all day long." "Apply lots of moisturizer before you apply your retinoid in the evening," she told me. "Then apply lots of  the retinoid on top of that. It works better that way." (Dermatologists uniformly recommend a pea-size amount.)

This woman's passion about her beauty regimen interested me for a couple of reasons. She is smart, and we agreed (passionately) about many other things--favorite actresses (Rosalind Russell), movies (All About Eve), politics (left). Maybe more importantly, she had astonishingly flawless skin--creamy, poreless, completely unlined. Though she didn't reveal her age, I know she's in her mid-fifties. So whatever she was doing for her skin worked very well for her.

There seem to be two types of women in the beauty arena: Those who know exactly what works for them and are passionate about it and those who think they have no clue, that there's a secret (or many secrets) they're sadly unaware of.

Which one are you? If you have a regimen that you think is world-class, what is it? And if you don't, what exactly do you want to know?

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