A Wrinkle in Time

It's about to happen. The thing I've been dreading for some time now, but inevitably, I knew whose day would come.

I'm down-grading my moisturizer.

For YEARS now I have been worshipping at the alter of Estee Lauder. I have faithfully slathered Estee's bag-reducing eye cream under my eyes ever since I first discovered the joys of wrinkle-reducing minimalist creme way back in my Maui days. As a result, here I am, pushing 50 (okay, not for another 3 years, but you know I'm trying to make a point here) and I have fewer wrinkles then some woman 3/4 of my age.

Last year I gave up my morning dose of pore minimizer. When I last went to the Estee Lauder counter and unable to afford to buy both pore minimizer and moisturizer I asked what the difference was. Given that I've been wearing both pore minimizer and moisturizer for about 11 years now, you'd think I would have asked that question sooner, but, whatever, better late then never.

So, the difference? Well, the pore minimizer is a treatment while the moisturizer is, well, a moisturizer. You can see why I had to give one up? If the drone behind the counter who gets paid to know all the intricacies of their various products cannot adequately define the difference between a pore minimizer and moisturizer, she shouldn't be surprised that I chose to drop the treatment whose benefits she could not define. By the way, 8 months without using my pore minimizer and guess what? My pores look exactly the same.

So, about the moisturizer. I've come to the point in my life where consumption of expensive products just for their brand relevance is no longer a good enough reason for me to pay $120 for a little cup of creamy moisturizer when, for about $25 I could buy something that would provide the same experience.

So here I am. Ready to take the plunge.

I'll let you know if Oil of Olay will keep my youthful glow and wrinkles at bay. If it doesn't, then bring on the pore minimizer, creme de mer and eye bag cream because by then, we could be talking face-lift