Sunday, December 14, 2008

Bullseye Beauty


This isn't going to land me in the beauty consultants' hall of fame any time soon, I realize. But I have to announce that I'm over it, fed up, done. "With what?" you ask. With spending exorbitant sums of money on high-priced skincare lines that do not work for me. I suppose it could be the stress of hoping my new investment will pay off that wreaks havoc on my skin. But whatever it is, the more I spend, and believe me, I even splurged J. Lo-style on one particularly remorseful occasion, the worse it works out for me. And then, to add insult to injury, after the product fails to deliver, I find myself unable to part with it because of the guilt and because the packaging is probably what I fell in love with in the first place. The result being I still have several offenders taking up precious room on the shelves of my medicine cabinet, reminding me daily of their broken promises.

So this past weekend, in honor of my new pact, I went back to basics with this tried and true old standby and with Target's Oil of Olay Regenerist knock-off line. I actually tried these generic lotions and serums in a fit of frugality once before and really liked the results. But I couldn't shake the feeling that surely I could be doing something more for my skin. No, it turns out, several more hundred dollars later, I couldn't.

And now, after only a couple of nights of using my practical new purchases, I'm already noticing a glow emanating from my face that wasn't there before. The glow of #1's praise for my thriftiness? Maybe. The glow of having no pressure to search frantically for miracle results that will never come to fruition? Could be. Or perhaps it's the glow of my new products' cheap plastic containers reflecting off my skin? Whatever the source of the new glow may be (could it be the cheapo products?!?!), I just refuse to try to "fix" what isn't broken and break the bank in the process ever again. Talk to me again in a month I suppose, but for now, let it glow, let it glow, let it glow.

4 comments:

Krista said...

i too go back to cetaphil after every big skin product splurge that goes wrong. thanks for reminding me as i am dangerously close to a splurge - i have convinced myself i need a serum of some sort.

Alice Q. Foodie said...

The ONLY things I have liked that are expensive are 2 of the Bliss "Youth As We Know It" products - the serum and the eye cream, and the Skinceuticals moisture serum the facialist recommended at Bliss - can't remember the name right now, it's kind of hard to find (these are the things I wrote a guest post about on Jora's blog a while ago.) Other than that? I loove Oil of Olay Sensitive Skin Cream (though I think they may have discontinued it - I haven't been able to find it lately) and wash my face every night with good old Clean and Clear scrub.

Heidi said...

Alice: I remember your guest post and had meant to stop by Sephora to pick up the Bliss items. Thank you so much for reminding me! OK, I guess I'm still willing to try anything. :)

Krista: Maybe the Bliss and Skinceuticals serums are worth a try?

jora said...

First, this post made me laugh out loud. A belly laugh at that. Second, I LOVE Cetaphil. Third, I keep hearing about Skinceuticals and I might just fall off the wagon one more time to splurge on that line. I am assuming it is $$$.