The Seven Signs of Aging? (Oil of Olay in general)

Member Name: lamorna

Product:	Oil of Olay in general
Date:	15/08/01 (212 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: I lied, Could be what colour hair I wanted, No High Street Stores

Disadvantages: I lied, Wasted an afternoon, The magnifying mirror

I’ve just done something quite extraordinary, a first for me, with impressive results! And I’m going to tell you about it. I shouldn’t have been doing this all afternoon. I have an assignment to complete for my Open University Course and my lovely daughter and the boys are coming to stay for a week on Saturday, and I should be shopping, dusting, planning menus, doing my roots and trying to tidy my computing attic which is piled high with paper, cups, ashtrays, the ivy growing through the eaves and an invasion of Crickets rubbing their thighs together and making ‘chirpy-chirpy-cheep-cheep’ noises!

Instead I’ve been on a visit to the Oil of Olay website, which has been very rewarding, enlightening, fascinating and a great deal of fun. The result for me is, there are no more intimidating confrontations, with formidable, impossibly well groomed, ultra- sleek women on the Beauty Counters of Department Stores, beauty consultants complete with polly-filla, scaffolding, perma-tans and condescending glances at my less than perfectly plucked eyebrows and the obvious signs that I haven’t been sticking to any beauty routine, except copious amounts of dry white wine and computer glare in my attic at the top of my cottage!

The result is no more going into Boots the chemist, and having to buy a box of tissues I don’t really want, to clean up the backs of my hands, and all the way up my arms, which become covered with foundation, eye shadow and lipstick samples, smeared on to see if the shade suits me! No more! Those days are over. I have my own expert, personal beauty advisor, online at olay.com.

I’ll tell you about my own experience and impressions of olay.com as I go, and I’ll write this while I’m actually discovering the delights of online beauty shopping, compared it to High Street shopping, with the problems of parking, the crowds, stress and pulsating feet. I’ll then go on t
o the basic information about the whole site in general, as I’m so thrilled and I need to share this with you while I’m still on the boil. Oh it is exciting! I’ve got so many windows open, I don’t know what to click first.

There are headings along the top of this light and airy introductory Olay homepage, but for this particular experiment I selected ‘Product Advisor’ and I’m full of anticipation.

I was asked to tick one of the three boxes enquiring what I wanted to know more about, namely ‘Skin Care, Body Care or Cosmetics’ I wanted cosmetics, and a new page opened at once asking me to bullet my ‘Skin Type’, you know, dry, oily, average kinda thing. Then another new page with ‘Skin Tone’ to bullet, another with the query ‘Yellow’ or Red’ and instructing me how to determine this phenomena. I thought I was sort of dingy, but we are yellow or red. Well, I’m not yellow, so red it had to be. Then eye colour, then hair colour, then the piece the resistance, a page opened with an analysis, devoted entirely to my own personal cosmetic needs, and did they ever get it right? More to the point, it said to me that I’ve been getting it right too, as they were all the shades I already use, that is after many years of trial and error and numerous disastrous make-up mistakes, and I know these shades they selected suit me perfectly.

There’s much more to this personal cosmetic page than that though. The eight cosmetic items, selected for me individually, were represented by a clickeable photograph of the product. When clicked the item is enlarged with a sample colour patch next to it, and a small text window applied to that product, with terrifically useful information. These are ‘Product’ ‘Ingredients’ ‘Beauty Tips’ ‘Full Colour Range’.

Much more useful information than I’d ha
ve got from a tired, hard working cosmetic salesperson, who had to shop in their lunchtime, faced a horrendous rail journey home, had a row with their partner and perhaps thinking that if they saw one more jaded complexioned female demanding to be told how they could transform themselves using a jar of foundation into a Jennifer Lopez look-a-like, they would top themselves.

The Cosmetic Items selected were :

· Total Effects Foundation, which I already use and love, and in Fair Beige as well, and I’m on my third time with it.

· Olay Colour Blusher in Soft Mauve. I usually go for a more bronze shade, but I trust Olay and my personal advisor, so I shall change to this.

· Olay Colour Moist Lipstick in Rosewood. Yes, so very me.

· Olay Eye Shadow Duo in Petal and Blossom. Beginning to sound a bit girlie here, but the shades are great.

· Black Beauty Mascara. Yes!

· Nail Polish in Twilight. Yes again!

· Lip Pencil in Burgundy! So dead right! Spooky!

· Eyeliner pencil! Mmmm? Well if I did use an eyeliner it would be Espresso.

I could view the full colour range if I wasn’t too convinced about the experts choice, and select another to replace it, but I was more than happy to stick with the specialist selection and trusted their wisdom.

I was able to register with Olay and they save the recommended Olay products to my database, and then I went back to the Homepage to investigate further.

~~Digital Beauty Analysis~~

Yes, it’s here at olay.com! Online diagnosis to determine certain skin conditions. Whatever next? But I’ve done it, having let pure daylight into my attic, which is virtually unheard of, to examine my skin texture, pores, wrinkles, age spots and blotches and other unmentionable, less than perfect facial conditions in order to tick one of the five appropriate skin samples at each stage. At one point they suggested using a ma
gnifying glass for closer examination, but I am not a masochist! A magnifying glass and pure daylight at my age? What do they think I am? Mad?


Once I submitted my selected skin afflictions, Olay calculated the results, giving me some great advice and tips, also telling me my skin was excellent (Well, it is easy to lie to a computer isn’t it?) and then offering a choice of suitable Olay products. By this stage I was very depressed at having looked at myself in such a cruel light, and had to go downstairs and open a bottle of cold Muscadet to take away the edge of gloom and despair I felt drifting over me. It is hard to face the truth.

~~News and Samples~~

This category speaks for itself, with latest product announcements, plus more advice on skin care, daily facials.

~~Beauty Moments~~

‘Beauty Moments’ are simple ways to improve your day to day life or tempting ideas that are a bit out of the ordinary. You choose a Beauty Moment that fits your mood.’ I got one sample beauty moment, so it’s worth registering with Olay to get the full range of personal Beauty Moments, specially designed for you. Registering was the usual several pages of questions such as what beauty products have you used in the last week, how many times and what brand, but worth it for the free samples, news letter and competition.

~~Dermatologists Corner~~

Here you can meet the dermatologists, read their articles, ask questions and find a dermatologist in your own area from a list provided by Olay.

There is a very clearly laid out site map for easy navigation, the usual Terms and Conditions, Privacy, Guarantee, Find a Store, Tell a Friend, Contact Us: ‘Us’ being Proctor and Gambol: Testimonials, News Articles, Send an e-card. Altogether, a very cool, smooth and efficiently designed website, easy on the eye and most satisfyingly, very fast to nip from page to page.

Did
I say ‘Nip?’ My thought processes are going from ‘Nip’ to ‘Nip and Tuck’ because after my intense close scrutiny of my skin pores, blotches and other flaws, I am now going on the web to research a plastic surgeon as I’m wondering just how much Olay can actually do for me.

An announcement on the website said that Olay is dropping all other ranges of its make-up merchandise, and concentrating solely on the Total Effects range of age defying cosmetics and body skin care products, which has its own separate website linked from Olay. All Total Effects skin care products are guaranteed to reduce the seven signs of aging!

The seven signs of aging eh? Is this the Seven Ages of Man with a feminine twist? I’m going to dim the lights, replace all the bulbs with 20watt peach glow, light a few candles and finish the Muscadet, making sure Morty has a few as well, so he can see me in a rosy glow. I’m going to bin the magnifying glass too.

http://www.olay.com

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