Follow these beauty best practices to look fresher and younger in the new year

Confession: The first thing I register when clapping eyes on an acquaintance is well, the creases and crinkles on her face. Yes, I’m judgey like that. #SorryNotSorry!

The point is, anti-ageing isn’t for ancients. Age-delaying serums and salves can serve as preventative poultices if you use ‘em early enough. Don’t wait until you’re a decrepit dowager to start.

Squeamish about splashing out on stuff that’ll set you back a couple of grand? No sweat. Try these thrifty tricks to tauter skin in no time at all, and happy new year!

Illustration: Sharmaine Khor.

Want more? Indulge in a little makeup magic and get your festive face on with this step-by-step tutorial that’s super sparkly and surprisingly easy to execute, and check out these morning-after hacks to freshen your fatigued face and look as if you’ve enjoyed a solid eight hours of sleep. Get your daily dose of beauty at www.herworldplus.com/beauty.

Chew on this hard truth: The pursing of your lips when you’re sipping a from a straw will cause premature aging (read: wrinkles). If all of this is leaving a bad taste in your mouth, know that all’s not lost. The key to ironing out the kinks in your kisses? Switch to good ol’ fashioned mugs, and make a conscious effort to stop sulking and smirking. (My personal beauty regimen involves not smiling or moving my face unless absolutely necessary.) Bottomline: Sipping sucks!

I’m obsessed with the ultra-addictive sensation of delicate droplets from a good spray like Skin Inc’s incredibly invigorating Pure Serum-Mist, $98. This canister has truly become an extension of my arm – you need only ask my long-suffering colleagues how often I take to puncturing the deadly silence of the office with my spritzing to know this to be true!

Stuffed with soothing mineral-rich onsen water and amped up with antioxidant actives, redness-reducing ceramide and licorice, this moisture magnet is the perfect pick-me-up for shrivelled skin – and we all know how matronly the “parched prune” look can be.

Some pointers: Whenever you use a facial mist, always spritz from a literal arm’s length away, and be sure to dab off the excess with soft cotton pads after a few minutes; this prevents the evaporation process from wicking precious water off the top layer of your skin. Follow these best practices and you can you can practically douse yourself in a spray without fear of disrupting your face paint.

Try this fantastic “face-ercise” to massage away facial bulges and bloatedness. All you need to do is clench your (clean!) fists and press the knuckles against your face, starting from the chin and moving up to your cheeks in a gliding motion.

Final flourish? Sweep outwards from your nose to iron out the kinks of your laugh lines, then press under your eyes for speedy de-puffing. Oh yeah, quick note if you’re a tad self-conscious: You can easily go through the motions in the privacy of your office restroom.

Think you’ve got yourself covered? Think again. There’s a good reason why sunscreen isn’t marketed as “sun-proof”: There’s no such thing. No elixir on earth can ever hope to block out a full 100 percent of the sun’s rays – hence fashion!

The coolest solution to “saving face” and looking fab is to whip out your hottest hat and sexiest sunnies – the latter being especially crucial to curtailing the crow’s feet that may form from squinting in the sun. Select sunglasses that wrap around your face – the bigger, the better.

If you’re leery of lasers, an at-home skin-softening lotion is the perfect midway point between milder everyday scrubs and well, mysteriously long lunch breaks at your derm doctor’s office.

Gun for gentle products with acne-alleviating and brightening botanicals – try Orbis’ fantastic new Clear Cut Lotion, $25, which helps to loosen up the “glue” holding together dead skin and debris. Sweep on with a cotton pad and with any luck, your skin should be feeling supremely soft, pleasingly plump and pore-free.

Right, then. Bookmark this story and try out these beauty best practices today – and in no time at all, your skin ought to regain some of its firm fishball-like bounciness. Good luck fighting the good fight against gravity in the year ahead!