I have to admit that my skincare regimen has never been over-the-top.  It generally doesn’t involve more than cleanser and a moisturizer formulated for oily skin if I’m actually going out in public and have to apply makeup.  I’m fortunate not to have any wrinkles or even anything I would really call “fine lines” yet, not bad for pushing 50, but I don’t know if I should blame that on the stellar genes I inherited from my mother who always literally looked decades younger than she was, the fact that I’ve never had a “dry skin” day in my life, or the fact that my skin has not seen the light of day, much less the sun, for a good thirty years.  Or maybe it’s just preserved with good red Italian wine, that’s always a possibility.

This is not to say that I don’t have issues.  I do have issues, especially since I’ve always had very oily skin and because I’m half Irish (the other half is Finnish, and I didn’t inherit one iota of that beautiful, suntan-able Scandinavian skin). I have enlarged pores and my skin is definitely beginning to show the signs of the relentless sun I subjected it to for the first 20 years of my life, until I saw what skin cancer would do to a person and decided to put a precautionary end to my beach years.  My skin is extremely fair, and what used to be freckles are more like, ummmm… bigger freckles, and in more places.  Hate that.  So, what to do?

Now, when it comes to cosmetics and the like, I am the biggest skeptic you have ever met.  Until just the last decade or so, I had reason to be… the stuff you bought in the department store for $50 really was exactly the same as the stuff you could buy from L’Orêal for $10, just with prettier packaging and bigger marketing budgets.  But as science has begun to make its way into the cosmetic industry that has begun to change, and so has my mind, at least a little bit.  That’s not to say that the most expensive product is always the best product mind you, but what’s in these products matters a lot more than it used to.  For instance, I have to admit that I am a big-time mineral makeup convert, and I’ve wasted enough money to know that all brands are definitely not alike.

So, being the skeptic that I am and being my father’s daughter (he was a physicist, and lived and breathed science), I decided if I was going to approach a new skincare regimen to hopefully make my skin more uniform in color, I was going to make Dad proud and do it as scientifically as I could, and that meant research.  Now, finding reputable studies conducted by scientists who are completely independent from any interested parties is pretty tough (I prefer that my scientists aren’t paid by Proctor & Gamble, thankyouverymuch), and finding the time in respect to my impossible work schedule to research anything to a level that would make Dad happy is absolutely impossible; however, I came away feeling I found enough reasonable and scientifically-based information to be satisfied that I’ve put more than enough work into this project for the money I possibly stand to lose, and did find what seems to be the strongest skincare ingredient contender to date.

Glucosamine.  Apparently glucosamine is the shit.  N-acetyl glucosamine to be exact, especially when used in conjunction with niacinamide (a B vitamin).

Now that I had my science, I wanted my humans.  I asked friends, I read reviews, I searched the web.  I finally decided that Olay Definity is going to be my guinea pig… or I am going to be its guinea pig, as the case may be.

My plan is to give it six weeks, and I will of course blog about my results.  If I don’t see considerable improvement at the end of my six weeks, I’m going back to cleanser, the occasional mositurizer, and good clean living .

Here’s what I bought:

• Olay Definity 14 Day Skin Rehabilitation 3 Phase Treatment
• Olay Definity Pore Redefining Scrub
• Olay Definity Illuminating Cream Facial Cleanser
• Olay Definity Correcting Lotion Protection With SPF 15 (for those long walks to the mailbox)
• Olay Definity Night Anti Spot Treatment

I used the 14 Day Skin Rehabilitation 3 Phase Treatment for the first time tonight, after a good scrub with my current cleanser (I don’t have my Olay cleansers yet, but they are on their way and I’ll switch to those as soon as they are delivered by the “trusty” USPS, hopefully tomorrow).  I plan to just use the 3 Phase Treatment and Olay cleansers for the first 14 days, and then bring in the supporting troops.

My initial thoughts are that the stuff, though delicate, smells really good.  My skin is very soft and silky, and most importantly NOT greasy.  They give you more than enough in a one-application tube to do your face, so I applied it to the back of my hands and lower arms as well, which are in much worse shape as far as sun damage goes than my face, in fact they are deplorable (in my opinion).  Besides, I know the back of my hands like, well… the back of my hands.

I’d be very interested in hearing your comments if anyone has tried the Olay Definity line, or any other glucosamine-enhanced skincare product.  And if you want to play along with me, you will find the Olay Definity skincare line in your local pharmacy, or you can find Olay Definity at Amazon for considerably less money.  Love that!  Take that CVS!

If you want to read about the effects of glucosamine on sun-damaged skin in an article short enough that it won’t make you go blind with medical jargon, check out the synopsis of the study performed by Alexa Kimball, M.D., the Director of the Clinical Unit for Research Studies in Skin (CURTIS) at the Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s Hospitals, Harvard Medical School, you’ll find it at the British Journal of Dermatology.

Filed under: Style, Angst