WONDERLAND • The Ultimate Wonder Woman Site

	Lynda Carter shares her stay-young secrets

	Whether you're 25 and want to keep that youthful glow, or 55 and wishing you could erase a few years, you'll want to try the strategies that work for this Wonder Woman!

	It’s been 16 years since Lynda Carter last donned her body-hugging costume in TVs Wonder Woman, vet this afternoon, sitting in the living room of her Washington, D.C., home, the almost 45-year-old former Miss USA (her birthday is next month) looks remarkably unchanged by time.

	What's her secret to looking so young? "You mean how am I keeping myself preserved?" Lynda laughs. "Well, exercise, eating right, taking time for myself." But like most busy- moms, Lynda says that life with her husband, attorney Robert Altman, and their kids Jamie, eight, and Jessica, five, leaves little room for elaborate beauty and fitness routines.

	"Throughout my life, I've run the gamut of exercise programs and gone from working out two and a half hours a day to now, when I don't really have time for that;' she says. "Besides, as long as I look pretty fit, I'm going to do what makes me feel good and what's good for me."

HOW LYNDA KEEPS THAT GLOW

"Your face is what you put forth to the world, so I probably take care of my face more than any other part of my body" Lynda says.

But she shares the credit for her great complexion. "God bless my mother," she says. "She was way ahead of her time. My brother, sister and I grew up in Arizona and my mother would go ballistic if we went out in the sun to bake. She said we'd end up looking like leather handbags-and this was before staying out of the sun was fashionable."

Lynda also learned the importance of skin care when she began performing while still in her teens. "I started singing at the age of seventeen, and I'd always cleanse all that stage makeup off and moisturize."

Today, Lynda occasionally treats herself to a salon facial and sees her dermatologist for micropeels that remove dead skin cells. But her favorite skin treatment is "my mothers old recipe-egg whites. And that's a fabulous, at-home, zero-cost facial," Lynda says.

WHAT LYNDA'S DOING RIGHT

"I can't stress enough how smart Lynda is in staying out of the sun," says Manhattan dermatologist Neal Schultz, M.D. "This is the most important thing anyone can do to keep skin young-looking and healthy."

"Micropeels are helpful in anti-aging, because they get rid of dead skin cells," says Dr. Schultz.

Los Angeles skin-care specialist Louise Bianco adds. "Anything that can exfoliate skin accelerates formation of new cells, keeping skin fresher and younger. Also as egg whites dry, they tighten the skin, improving circulation and texture."

"This is essential, particularly at night when skin repairs itself." says Bianco. "If pores are clogged with dirt, repair efforts a hindered."

Makeup artist Jefferson Wilson of Christiane Salon in Washington, D.C., has worked with Lynda and agrees with her less-more approach (see Lynda's age-defying makeup, facing page): "Heavy powder can age you," he says, noting that Lynda prefers a dewy, powder-free finish.

"If you use powder, be careful when applying it in creases because it tends to grab there and look heavy," he says. "To stop shine, try a light dusting of translucent powder on the T-zone-nose and forehead."

HOW LYNDA STAYS SLIM

At 5 feet, 9 inches, Lynda keeps her weight at 130 pounds. But she says, "I'm not one of those people who can just eat anything."

To accommodate her craving for salty treats, she snacks on apples, grapefruit and water-melon sprinkled with a little salt. "And I love big salads and fish." Lynda admits that early in her career, she dieted constantly and took little enjoyment in her meals. "Now I want to live a real life and have pleasure in it," she says, "And eating is a big part of that."

HOW LYNDA STAYS FIT

Like her down-to-earth skin care, Lynda's fitness routine involves ordinary activities. "I like to do exercise that is easy and fun. I would rather Rollerblade than be on a treadmill; I would rather ski than ride a stationary bike. I like to hike and run just because I ant to, not because I feel I have to," she says.

Lynda admits to a problem area: "If I gain weight, I put it on in the saddlebag area, so even though I hate exercises like squats and lunges, I do them."

LYNDA'S SUPER-SIMPLE AGE-DEFYING MAKEUP

• Lynda always wears concealer to lighten the dark circles under her eyes, "which are hereditary," she explains. "Otherwise, my makeup routine runs from zero to twenty minutes. Zero is just lipstick and moisturizer. Twenty minutes would be for the full `I'm-going-to-a-ball' makeup, and then I still don't wear foundation. I just work more on my eyes by outlining them with a dark eye shadow. But my basic makeup for day is a little under-eye concealer, gel rouge, mascara and lipstick."

• Lynda covers under-eye circles with a concealer a shade or two lighter than her skin tone. (She prefers to use moisturizer on her face rather than a foundation.) When applying concealer, Lynda blends it carefully with her pinkie or ring finger to avoid tugging at the delicate skin around her eyes.

• "For blush, I use Bonne Bell gel rouge," says Lynda. "It's inexpensive, completely transparent and gives you color that looks like you just finished working out." She also applies a little bronzer of blush on her collarbone to balance the blush she puts on her face. Lynda avoids powder, which can settle into fine lines and make them more pronounced.

• "My lips are not big and gouty," says Lynda, "so I outline them and put on deep red lipstick." Lynda's trick to keep lips defined all day: after you outline lips with liner, color in your lips with the pencil and blend it with your fingertips.

• Lynda uses neutral earth tones for her eyes. Says celebrity makeup artist Jefferson Wilson. "Blue shadow with blue eyes or green shadow with green eyes just detracts from the eye color. But brown is a neutral color that anyone can use, even with brown eyes. There are so many different browns- auburn, taupe, ash-so experiment with these for contouring eyes."

• "Whenever I'm making my children scrambled eggs and there's egg white left in the shell. I put it on. I crack it with a big smile after it dries. When breakfast is done, I wash it off:' Lynda learned this trick from her mother. "And my mother looks fabulous!" she says.

• Lynda curls her eyelashes to cut back on the need for heavy coats of mascara that can clump or smear. And she's loyal to her favorite mascara-"that of pink-and-green tube, Maybelline."