I have crappy skin. It’s partially my fault, and partially the fault of my ancestry, but there you have it. Once a creamy skinned child with a sprinkling of freckles, I burned and burned and burned in the Southern California sun…once I even had blisters all over my back and shoulders. Do you remember what “sunscreen” was like in the 70’s? It was Coppertone mayonnaise. I wasn’t even trying to tan back then…in fact Kristy Swanson was in my 5th grade class and ridiculed me in front of all of our friends, “Nice TAN, Lisa.” (I never like that Kristy.) I was a pink girl with white stripes most of my childhood. Then in Jr. High we moved to New Mexico, where I got my first set of blisters on my face from skiing. I never had acne, but I had blisters that made me look like the Swamp Thing.

In 9th grade, we moved back to Mission Viejo, where I was determined to re-claim my California girl identity, and began laying out at lunch, after school, and on weekends. Going to the beach every weekend if possible, and wearing smaller and smaller bathing suits. My mother told me that the sun ages you. She said people think it will never happen to them….and voila! One day your face looks like a leather road map that has been crumpled in your pocket, smoothed out, and smeared with make-up.

I’m 36….and I think I look older. It doesn’t help that my olive skinned husband is three years younger than me…(but at least he’s going grey so I won’t look too much like his grandmother!) And I have been a skin care FREAK ever since I turned 24 and saw the first signs of sun damage. (I can’t say ‘24’ and ‘aging’ in the same sentence. I’ll gag.)

I started with Clinique in high school, then went to Mary Kay in my early 20’s and eventually even sold it for a while because I was so happy with the results. I was 24, of course I was happy with the results! As I progressed in career and paycheck size, I moved to Lancôme and stayed a loyal customer for years thinking that somehow hemorrhaging money would save my skin. After spending over $100 on a 1.5 oz. jar of Absolue and not seeing ANY difference, I began a quest. I have tried lots and lots of different products. Some products that were stupid expensive , and some that were all organic and mailed to my home on a schedule. Honestly, after hanging out too long in the singles bars of skin care, I think I found it….and it’s CHEAP.
I was grocery shopping about a month ago, cruising past the cosmetics and thinking I needed some moisturizer to tide me over until I could find a new system, and I saw a display for a new skincare line by Garnier Nutritioniste . The pretty spring green display caught my eye. “Ooooh, pretty!” I took a look, and saw that I could buy the Anti-Wrinkle cleanser baby-wipe looking things, the Anti-Wrinkle Firming Night Cream, the Anti-Wrinkle firming Day serum with SPF15, and the Regeneration mico-polish scrub for about the same price as one SMALL bottle of Lancôme cleanser. I threw all the pretty green bottles that my cart would carry to the register, and I love it, love it, love it.

Yes, I’m a skin-care ho. But I’m telling you, if cost is an issue and you actually want to see your crappy, sun-damaged skin improve….you may want to give it a try. If you don’t have crappy, sun-damaged skin, well then….now I don't like you OR Kristi Swanson.