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| Healthy Skin For Northerners |
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by Bonny Remple |
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Microdermabrasion. At-home chemical peel. Alpha hydroxy cream. Retinol. Collagen. Anti-wrinkle serum. Eyelid lift serum. Freeze cream. Anti-aging cream.
These are just some of the products found in the skincare section of drug stores and department stores.
Until a few years ago, I was oblivious to the advances in skincare. Busy with young children, I used nothing but whatever cold cream or moisturizing cream was at hand.
I was aware of the “laugh” lines around my eyes. They’d been there forever. No big deal, I thought. Then, one day after spending too much time in the sun, I noticed the other lines. These slashed diagonally downward from the outer corners of my eyes.
'Gotta do something about those, I decided. So I cruised the skincare section of the local stores and chose a heavy duty moisturizing cream by a well-known cosmetic company. |
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| Bonny's daughter Waverly tries St Ives Mineral Clay Masque. She liked it.
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I wasn’t happy with the results. Those pesky lines were still there, same as always. And the more I looked at them, the more I noticed other subtle changes in my face. There were fine lines, some wrinkles on my forehead, and a few areas where the skin was slightly discoloured.
Rather than making another trip to the store, I decided to do a little research first. It was nothing complex. I just picked up a few fashion magazines and read their product reports.
The first time I shopped, I’d purchased moisturizing creams by Olay and L’Oreal. This time, I tried a different product line, RoC, with better results. In all fairness, however, the cream that I switched to contained Retinol, which is supposed to be effective in diminishing fine lines and wrinkles.
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| At-home treatments - Thermal Lift from Olay and a peel kit from L'Oreal feel nice but do they help?
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Not long afterward, I had the chance to spend a few days in Prince George and went to the cosmetic section of one of the larger stores. While there, I struck up a conversation with a woman who had tried more products than I’d ever heard of. She’d even tried some of the more invasive proceedures available, such as injectable fillers -- the type some actresses use to enhance lips.
I came home with a shopping bag of products and even more free samples. While at my friend’s house one afternoon, I shared the story with her. She’d just celebrated a birthday and had noticed some of the changes I had -- a few wrinkles, a few discoloured spots, and for her, a kind of dullness of her skin.
When she asked why my skin looked brighter, I said that it might have been exfoliation, which removes dead skin cells. It sounds complicated but all I used was a facial scrub. I’d tried both the Olay thermal scrub, which I liked, but also tried the St. Ives Firm and Renew Scrub, which was less than half the price of the Olay product and seemed to work well, too.
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