I tried Cher's anti-aging morning routine – the 'ice trick' seemed weird but now makes sense, and I have a new obsession | The Sun

BEFORE her Twitter feed went viral or her rumored engagement sparked gossip, Cher was already considered an icon of style, song, and the silver screen.

I set out to learn if the star's secret to decades of success – and perfect looks – might lie in her deceptively simple morning routine.

At 76, Cher is proudly dating a man 40 years her junior, but it's hard to spot the age discrepancy at a glance.

That's because Cher is even more gorgeous now than when she established her pop stardom in the 1960s.

Luckily, she hasn't engaged in the gatekeeping many stars do – maybe because she knows Cher-ing is caring.

Cher was happy to open up about her beauty practices to Vogue UK, and I was even happier to try out her three-step morning routine for myself.

Once I learned what was involved, though, I grew skeptical.

According to Cher, she keeps things very simple.

Okay! I thought. "Simple" usually means something different for celebrities, but I bet I can do it!

Then, she described the primary components of her routine: drinking water first thing in the morning, icing her face, and exercising to her own workout tapes.

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I re-read the article, trying to figure out what I missed. Cher uses an eyelash curler (duh!), Cher loves MAC eyeshadow (double duh).

But…no laborious ten-step moisturizing routine? No bizarre protein smoothies? Not even any witchcraft?

Hmm.

When something seems too good to be true, it usually is, and Cher's morning routine seemed much simpler than it had any right to be.

Which meant maybe it was simple enough for me.

I decided to get right into it, and tried living like Cher for a few days.

That meant waking up in the morning and starting my day not with a giant serving of coffee, but a tall glass of water.

Apparently, Cher drinks plenty of water first thing in the morning because she's too busy to drink it throughout the day.

I have no problems with hydration – I live my life like a fat hamster, burrowing and sedentary with a water jug twice my size at the ready.

But in the morning, I usually don't drink or eat anything until I've been up for a while.

Even then, I reach for coffee first, to give me strength to carry my 40-ounce Stanley mug back to my desk.

Cher didn't specify how much water she drinks in the morning, but I decided to start with a full liter.

It was much more than I'd usually guzzle that early in the day, but it wasn't enough to make me fear water toxemia.

Did I feel like a glowy angel? No (well, no more than normal).

My skin wasn't unusually dewy or bouncy, but I was definitely getting a cardiovascular benefit: this trick had me hurrying to the bathroom early and often.

Moving on to Cher's second secret, I was eager to try one of her skincare-centric tricks.

Cher told Vogue that she actually lifted this hack from another icon, Joan Crawford.

On the set of Mommy Dearest, Crawford would splash her face with freezing water from a large bowl of ice.

But Cher, like me, is only willing to go so far for beauty.

"I find that too jolting, so I take a washcloth, submerge it, wring it out and then put it on my face," she told the outlet.

Once again, the striking simplicity of this hack left me uneasy. Just…water? Not blood or rare milk or concentrated retinol but ice cubes?

Cher's adaptation of the hack was cold, but perfectly comfortable.

After leaving the washcloth on my face for around five minutes, I pulled it away, leaving my nose a little red and my cheeks flushed pink.

As the color faded away, so did the tightness in my skin, leaving it feeling plumped and clean.

There didn't seem to be a cumulative benefit, though.

Each morning I woke up with my same old tired face, regardless of how frequently I iced it.

Finally, I got to dig into Cher's workout practices, the other vital part of her routine.

According to the star herself, Cher has some variation in her workouts.

She loves going to the gym with her girlfriends, an idea I was quick to dismiss based on prior experience.

I've tried going to the gym or to group fitness classes with my friends and hated it.

Now, "we will never ever work out together" is a primary clause in all my friendship contracts.

There was a far more interesting detail to this part of Cher's life, anyway.

In a casual, offhand sort of way, Cher told Vogue that she works out to her own videos. A-HA!

My mom taught aerobics for years, so I know the benefits of a good step class or a high-BPM jazz combo.

Of course, I was also the type of child who refused to participate in the "Mommy and Me" exercise classes her own mother taught.

Since many people consider Cher a mother figure, I figured working out to her 1990s videos was the closest I'd come to a do-over on my youthful insolence.

After some pleasant Google searching and much internal debate, I decided on Cher's Hot Dance, the 1992 art film that masquerades as a mere workout VHS.

Of course, I couldn't work out in the Aerie leggings and sleeveless sweatshirt that constitute my normal "fitness" gear.

To live like Cher, I put on bejeweled fishnet tights, a silver bodysuit, a second strappy black bodysuit, glitter eyeshadow, blush, lipstick, and lots of hairspray.

Then, I was ready to work out.

Even for a lazy oaf like me (see hamster analogy several paragraphs above), Cher's hot dance wasn't too strenuous.

It's a perfect morning workout, fun and silly, focused more on pleasure and expression than hitting complicated steps.

There's an awful lot of chanting – too much for me to engage with before work – but the moves themselves aren't too complicated.

A couple of bizarre things factored in, besides the sheer wardrobes of everyone in the class.

First of all, Cher's Hot Dance does not include Cher's music.

Instead, you can expect to move and shake to classic hits of the sixties and seventies, reworked into groovy, jammy extended-play versions.

The "cool down" song seems especially long. Like…really long. And sensual.

For the most part, Cher's Hot Dance did not require me to do a lot of work using my core or pelvic floor muscles.

So why are there so many hip thrusts in the cool-down dance, which lasts five whole minutes and is set to the song Tell Me Something Good?

After a few days of exercising along with Cher, I couldn't answer that question.

But I did have enough fun that I surprised myself, and bookmarked some more Cher workout videos to do on my own time.

Yes, that's right: Cher's workout videos are so enjoyable, I considered exercising voluntarily.

After doing Cher's Hot Dance just once, the other tips made perfect sense, too.

You do need to drink a liter of water every morning if you're going to dance along to Cher's workout tapes on a consistent basis.

And if you start your day with Hot Dance, you better have an icy washcloth handy to cool your face down before logging on to a Google Hangout meeting.

Do I still think Cher is a magic being of some kind, perhaps a kindly, immortal vampire, or a witch from Rhode Island?

Yes. Of course I do! None of these tactics could possibly imbue me with Cher's levels of radiance, no matter how diligent I am.

But I'm probably going to stick with these steps anyway, because I thoroughly enjoyed the experiment.

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Even if I can't turn back time with Cher's hacks, I can have fun living like her.

Maybe I'll even break my own rules and invite some friends over for a workout – or see if I can interest my mother in makeup "mommy and me" exercise.

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