Women are becoming more comfortable about ageing than ever before – with only one in five admitting having lied about their age, according to new research.

So says recent research from beauty company Lancôme, who spoke to 1.000 women for the study.

Nearly two-thirds of women now say that they are happily embracing their looks more and more as they age – suggesting society as a whole is becoming less ‘youth-obsessed’.

The research also found that 30 was revealed to be the optimum age at which women felt their most confident in the way they looked. Women also stated that 29 was the age that they were most happy with the way their skin looked.

While youth was still prized, with a third of 1,000 women who took part in the research said they felt their most confident between the ages of 18 and 25, nearly half said they loved being 26 to 40.

When asked about how they feel about their real age, 43 per cent of women said they felt justified in shaving a few years off it because they genuinely felt younger than their birth certificates showed them to be.

The research also reveals that women continue to believe that there is a social stigma associated with ageing as 47 per cent of women state that it still exists and three in four women (77 per cent) believing current perceptions associated with ageing are the same - or in some cases even worse - as they were a decade ago.

Interestingly, nearly a third of women (28 per cent) admitted to having added years onto their age at some point in their life – to fit in with an older crowd, attract compliments for how good they looked and to be seen as more experienced at work.

Typically, when it came to fibbing about how old they are, 15 per cent said they cheated by a couple of years, one in five (22 per cent)  took off three years, and a third, (32 per cent) had knocked five years off the total. Sixteen per cent said they had taken a decade off.

Reasons given for this behaviour included: staying the right side of a milestone decade; fitting in with younger friends or partner; online dating and to be taken more seriously in the workplace.

Women who described themselves as mothers typically took more years off their age – five compared to three years for non-mums – and were more likely to have knocked years off than those without children (57 per cent compared to 42 per cent).

The research also asked women which celebrity they most admired for ageing gracefully. Top of the poll was the formidable Helen Mirren, aged 69, followed by actresses Judi Dench and Julia Roberts: 

Top ten celebrities who are ageing gracefully

1.      Helen Mirren, 69

2.      Judi Dench, 80

3.      Julia Roberts, 48

4.      Joanna Lumley, 69

5.      Emma Thompson, 56

6.      Twiggy, 65

7.      Kate Winslet, 39

8.      Penelope Cruz, 40

9.      Jennifer Saunders, 56

10.  Elizabeth Hurley , 49