AGING New book offers tips on beauty for boomers

Some of the advice serves as a reminder of things you may already have heard.
By VANESSA WINANS
SCRIPPS HOWARD
As the final baby boomers face 40 (and the first approach 60), author Diane Irons has a new book just for them: "Age-Defying Beauty Secrets" (Sourcebooks, $14.95).
The book follows the Irons formula: tips on all aspects of beauty from hair care to skin to style, with some celebrity dish thrown in to keep it lively. It opens with some good advice we wish more women would heed:
"You'll learn that what worked at 20 won't succeed at 40. Things you did years ago are now not only unnecessary but outdated," she writes. "You cannot hairspray the years away. It's time to move out of the time warp."
The book's theme, by and large, is caring for yourself. While one must make concessions to time, one doesn't have to throw in the towel. Attitude plays such a big role in this that Irons devotes the entire first chapter to it. You may have heard most of the advice before, but reminders aren't necessarily bad. In the day-to-day grind, it's easy to lose sight of the small things that make a big difference: Saying "when I was younger" rather than "when I was young" is just one example.
Celebrity advice
You may glean a tip or two from the chapter on celebrity beauty secrets, but mostly it's pure entertainment to learn what everyone swears by. Susan Sarandon washes her face with milk. Diane Sawyer used green tea to help her drop 25 pounds. Jerry Hall grows her own vegetables to make sure her family and she don't ingest any pesticides. Angelina Jolie snacks on Cheerios. Cheryl Tiegs always wears sun block. And so on.
Irons offers a counterpoint to the celebrity secrets in a later chapter, "Real Life" devoted to quotations from ordinary women on various topics. This is easily the most compelling material in the book. Our favorite: "I started exercising to strengthen my immune system. I'm 78 years old, and I've been able to triple my strength, according to my doctor. I feel wonderful!"
And that, we're pretty sure, is the point.