Hooray for the happy news that Dame Helen Mirren is the new face of L’Oreal!

At 69 years old, she says “I am not gorgeous, I never was, but I was always OK-looking and I’m keen to stay that way.”  This article in the Guardian describes her as “genuine, intelligent and glamorous, with looks that seem only to improve with the passing of time” and celebrates with a round-up of some of the other over-50s who are promoting cosmetics companies: Julianne Moore and Jane Fonda have worked with L’Oreal, Charlotte Rampling and Tilda Swinton with Nars, Susan Sarandon with Revlon, and Jessica Lange with Marc Jacobs.

Dame Helen isn’t a classic beauty but women like her make being older aspirational.  Not long ago even the world’s most beautiful women found themselves becoming invisible at 40.  Maybe, just maybe, the tide is finally turning.