Friday, October 07, 2005

Counter Girl Story 2- There is no such thing as "Anti-Wrinkle Cream"

But we still spend millions on them. The people who claim that there are magical creams out there are usually the companies selling them. As far as I have ever been able to determine, the only real "anti-wrinkle" cream is sunblock!

Let's take a look at some of this hype-

Direct from the Estee Lauder web site:

"Perfectionist [CP+] with poly-collagen peptides.
Day 1: Instantly, the length, depth and number of lines and wrinkles look reduced up to 36%"

What the hell does this mean? How do you reduce the look of something by 36%? What measure is a "look?" How can appearance be measured in percentages? Can you say that Joe is 50% more attractive than Jim? To whom?
And lets remember that "up to" is not an "average." It means that 36% was the best. If there's a physics class with 200 students and one student gets a 92 on a test, while most others get a 46, it would be misleading to use the 92 as a standard for how well the class did.

The rest of the site is pretty much the same. In "school" they tell us to memorize these percentages (it's called "clinical proof"). Of course, they don't emphasize the "up to" part. Nor do they explain the measuring stick of appearance. But the beauty advisors have to buy it even more than you do. It we don't believe it, we won't try to sell it to you. I don't and I won't.

I've told this to many women, and anyone out there reading this should know: There's nothing wrong with wrinkles. Honestly, you want to look better? Just relax and smile. Stop fighting it so much! We did an exercise in "school" where we had to write down how many cosmetics products we used that morning before coming. We were told to include shampoo, soap, everything. I came up with seven. The average was 22. The highest was 46! If each of those products was from a counter, where the average price of a product is $20 (above wrinkle cream is $55/ounce), we're talkin' an average of $440 per person! Use it if you want to, but don't use it because you feel you have to. I mean, you could spend your money on cigarettes instead (totally kidding).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wait till you get some wrinkles. You may feel a little different about them. Old is beautiful, but sometimes it just feels old.

sea dot said...

True enough. Though I never understood, while dealing with what was at times pretty severe acne, why young skin was desireable either. My point was more that the cosmetics industry preys on our insecurities, when what we need is a little more boosting of confidence, particularly as women. I've never understood why we feel that men get sexy with age- that wrinkles "give character" to the face, but women are so often made to feel differently. Old may feel old, but that gives no company the right to lie to us and make us spend $200 on stuff that doesn't work!
I have major stretch marks from going through puberty. They are so deep that I've had doctors ask me if I got pregnant as a teen! I almost fell into the trap of strivectin, "stretch mark creams," etc. Then I just gave up fretting about them (and I used to model nude for art classes, so it's not like no one saw them). I kind of like them now. They are a map of my becoming a woman.