Meet the new ‘It Girls’ in their 40s and 50s with VERY youthful looks and much younger men… and the anti-ageing advice they swear by: ANGELA MOLLARD

Not so long ago, when a woman looked in the mirror and felt in need of a little anti-ageing advice, she’d turn to the French. 

No-one had better skin or a foxier figure than a Parisian mid-lifer, after all. Lapping up every detail of the French 50-something’s beauty regime, British women in particular have traditionally regarded their stylish counterparts across the Channel with envy and admiration.

But could the anti-ageing crown at last be changing hands… and to a rather unlikely nation?

The latest ‘It Girl’ in Sydney, isn’t a 25-year-old social media influencer, nor a Married At First Sight reality TV star, but a 50-year-old museum finance analyst called Maria Sprem. She’s constantly top of the guest list for new restaurant and bar openings and features in the society pages – often because of the younger men she’s been spotted with.

A Kendall Jenner lookalike (but two decades her senior), Sprem is the poster girl for a new cohort of Aussie women who are very visibly defying the passing of the years – and the hot year-round sun.

You won’t know their names individually, but collectively they are having a ‘moment’. Women such as 50-year-old Jackie ‘O’ Henderson, Aussie TV and radio presenter and single mother-of-one, who counts Gwyneth Paltrow among her business contacts and looks like a woman at least 20 years younger. Or actress and TV host Sonia Kruger, who presents Australia’s version of Strictly Come Dancing and turns 60 this year – but appears no older than 40.

Likewise, cancer survivor, entrepreneur and star of The Real Housewives of Sydney, Sally Obermeder, 51, becomes more youthful looking by the day. As does news anchor Angela Cox, who’s in her late 40s and surfs at Bondi Beach most mornings before helming the nightly bulletin.

Then there are a host of women in the public eye in their 40s who equally fascinate with their first-flush-of-youth appearance: former Home and Away star Sharni Vinson, 41; Melbourne WAG and mother of four Bec Judd, 42; Melbourne TV and radio host and single mother-of-three Carrie Bickmore, 44; and former Miss Australia, model and single mother-of-one Laura Csortan, 48, who arguably looks even better than in her beauty pageant days.

So how has a country better known for its beer and BBQ culture than its beauty industry become such an inspiration for older women?

It’s no coincidence that the rise of the hot Aussie mid-lifer comes at a time when women increasingly prize lithe, toned physiques into their 50s and beyond. It’s much easier to acquire and maintain the Davina McCall body in a sporty, outdoor culture, of course. And as Maria says, when more skin is on show, there’s more pressure not to let yourself go.

Salads, fish, fresh fruit and gallons of hydrating water keep women in shape because there’s no hiding in a shapeless winter coat. In the more tropical regions, most don’t even own one.

Maria ‘loathes the gym’, but often takes an hour-long walk to work at the Powerhouse Museum where she works and does it again on the way home. ‘I slept over at a friend’s house near the beach recently and when we got up to see the sunrise at Bondi Beach, there were so many women exercising and swimming.’

Where British mums look forward to early evening ‘wine o’clock’, in Australia you’re more likely to find women in their 40s and 50s swimming in the sea after work or taking on a gruelling group-training challenge.

Hot right now is Bondi’s Body by Berner, which offers Pilates, yoga, meditation and breathwork in a chic designer studio.

Like the French, the new Aussie mid-lifer is rarely under-groomed. ‘I put on the same make-up when to go to the corner shop as I do for a night at a hot new bar,’ laughs Maria.

But it’s not all discipline and hard work.

‘I’d say it’s 60 per cent attitude and 40 per cent effort. I love tequila and I often sleep in my make-up. I don’t move in my sleep so sometimes it looks even better when I’ve slept in it.’

It’s no surprise that she has Botox twice a year and though she loves to sunbathe – she calls herself a ‘tanorexic’ – is always religious about protecting her face. ‘I’ve worked hard to get rid of age spots,’ she says, singing the praises of Blemish + Age Defence Serum by SkinCeuticals.

And here lies the real paradox of the Aussie super-agers. In 2017, a study in the Australasian Journal of Dermatology found that Australian women tended to age faster than women in other countries, with ‘more severe facial lines and higher rates of facial change’. The obvious reason was the sun – the No.1 factor in an aged appearance and, in a cloudless southern-hemisphere climate, impossible to avoid.

Yet it’s precisely these sorts of studies that have now encouraged Australians to take skin protection more seriously than ever. While she loves tanning her body, Maria wears La Roche-Posay Anthelios Pigment Correct SPF 50 on her face every day, topping up throughout the day with Anessa SPF50 spray.

A few years ago she noticed age spots and pigmentation developing, but says she’s managed to get rid of the damage with consistent use of SkinCeuticals’ Blemish + Age Defence.

The women in the vanguard of the country’s de-aging revolution are serious about beauty regimes in general. Maria hasn’t hit menopause yet but keeps her skin glowing with another SkinCeuticals product, P-TIOX wrinkle-modulating peptide serum. She uses an eye cream and hyaluronic acid serum from the brand Immortal Skin. Though she’s not keen on fillers and her full lips are all her own, she does give the illusion of having thicker hair with clip-in hair pieces. Eyelash extensions and acrylic nails are also part of her regular grooming routine.

As for fake tanning products, she’s tried them all. Bali Body, Tanologist and The Quick Flick’s Quick Glow are her favourites.

The outdoor lifestyle means it’s easier to stay trim, but you do have to work at it. Maria is a fan of intermittent fasting, though knows others who microdose on Ozempic, and doesn’t eat between 10pm and midday when she has a bowl of high-fibre oats. In the afternoon she’ll have a fruit and a nut bar, and dinner is always a big salad made with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, carrot, edamame and brown rice topped with chicken or prawns cooked in her air fryer.

‘I don’t have big meals and I rarely eat pasta, but I’m always nibbling on something.’ As for supplements, she’s taken two 500mg chewable vitamin C tablets for the last five years to improve her immunity and skin health. As she says: ‘It acts as a powerful anti-oxidant that can help combat free radicals, stimulate collagen production, reduce hyperpigmentation, protect against sun damage and promote greater radiance.’

She’s also a fan of the kitchen disco, and regularly dances with two kilo weights in each hand to her favourite Cher songs.

But it’s not just her lifestyle that keeps her young. Her life stage feels youthful too. Single and child-free, she has a social life as busy and vibrant as it was in her 20s. Meeting new people and dating new men are major anti-ageing tactics, she thinks. In fact: ‘The older I’m becoming the younger the men are getting.’

Her last long relationship was with a man 13 years her junior, and, while holidaying in Paris last year, she had a fling with a 22-year-old. ‘I’m always honest about my age but he didn’t believe I was 50, so I had to show him my ID. His jaw hit the floor.’

Apart from the obvious benefits, she enjoys the energy of younger men and feels she’s more in tune with them.

‘I’m not interested in older men because I don’t want to be controlled. Younger men have less baggage and they’re more fun. Being with younger men keeps me young.’

It hasn’t always been this way, however. One of eight children born to Croatian parents who moved to Australia before she was born, Maria is not short on life experience.

‘I got married at 20 to a man who was very controlling, and we divorced when I was 23,’ she reveals. ‘Then I married again at 30. I always wanted children and thought I’d be like my mum and be the housewife at home.

‘We were trying to have a family but at 35 we found out that he couldn’t have children and that ruined our marriage because he didn’t deal with it very well.’

At 36, she went through a mid-life crisis of sorts. Distressed by the thought of being childless and with little ambition at work, she went travelling for six months with her younger sister Natalija. As she was saying goodbye to friends with children, many told her they were envious.

‘It was such a sobering moment when I realised that everyone wants what they haven’t got. I realised I was going to be OK without children and that I needed to be grateful for what I did have. That’s when I started enjoying life.’

It’s a lesson and an attitude that keeps you young, she says – but it was the loss of her older sister two years ago that crystallised her view that life is for living, not disappointments or regrets. ‘Ljubica’s life was the polar opposite of mine. She was married for 30 years and had two beautiful boys but passed away just six months after she turned 50.

‘I’m now at the point in my life that she never got to live, and I really do feel like I’m honouring her and making the most out of my life. I’ve stopped being in bad relationships and I’m happily single because I’d rather be on my own than with someone who’s not helping me be the best I can be.

‘Younger women come up to me and say they can’t believe that I’m 50 and it gives them hope. You don’t have to feel scared about getting older because if you set your mind to it and you want to achieve something, you can do it.’

Her younger sister Natalija now lives in Paris, and Maria admits to learning much from the French attitude and the confidence of Frenchwomen.

‘They don’t care what people think of them – they’re just happy in themselves.’

These days, freedom, happiness and kindness are her motivators.

‘I love that quote, ‘If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely’. It’s so true. It doesn’t matter how attractive you are on the outside, if you’re not a nice person, that attractiveness will fade very quickly.’