Olay Total Effects: a Personal Review

Olay Total Effects line is for the purpose of fighting seven signs of aging. It promises to minimize the appearance of fine lines (the operative word there being "fine"), nourish your skin to give it a radiant glow, enhance tone to even skin color and fade the appearance of age spots. It also promises to exfoliate for smooth skin, minimize the appearance of pores, prevent damage to skin surface and hydrate for smoother, firm skin. But does it?

Olay Total Effects offers all the above in one product, but isn't that what we expect out of a product that can cost around $25? I have been a pretty loyal user of Olay products over my life and that certainly stems from watching my mother use Olay products all my life, but is all the hype really true? Well, I have been fairly pleased with all the Olay products I have used religiously, but it's only been more recently that I have needed a product that claims to do what Olay Total Effects claims.

This facial moisturizer contains Vitamin E, Vitamin B3 and Pro-Vitamin B5, the last one being what is more commercially pushed as the ingredient that makes the difference. The problem is that Vitamin B5 is really just a moisturizer with an added benefit of fighting acne. This is not a miracle vitamin just because that added Pro before it. It is only what it is.

Other ingredients contained in this moisturizer fall into a category of silicones and parabens. For example, you can buy a bottle of glycerin at any drug store and make your own moisturizer. Parabens are a preservative used is moisturizers. Additionally, some of the ingredients that list are actually just a duplicate of what they already listed, such as Panthenol which is the Pro-Vitamin B5 and Niacinamide is actually the Vitamin B3. That is just an example of the fact that even though it appears there is a lot of ingredients in this product, they seem to be just duplicating them in different forms. See the ingredient list below so you can check out all the ingredients and make your own call. You can visit Olay's website and view each a description of each ingredient at http://www.olay.com/products/analyzer and to make sure you are not allergic to any of its ingredients which are Water, Glycerin, Isohexadecane, Niacinamide, Dimethicone, Isopropyl Isosteartate, Polyacrylamide, Zinc Oxide, Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate, Camellia Oleifera Leaf Extract, Sorbitan Stearate, Cetyl Alcohol, Sucrose Polycottonseedate, C13-14 Isoparaffin, Panthenol, Tocopheryl Acetate, Stearyl Alcohol, Titanium Dioxide, Dimethiconol, Benzyl Alcohol, Ethyplparaben, Laureth-7, Fragrance, Propylparaben, Disodium EDTA, PEG-100 Stearate, Stearic Acid, Sodium Hydroxide, Methylparaben, Oleth 3-Phosphate, Ammonium Polyacrylate, Yellow No. 5, Red No. 40, Vitamin B3, Pro-Vitamin B5, Vitamin E.

Overall, I find the product does what it says. It is not an overnight miracle cream, but if you take good care of your skin and actually moisturize on a daily basis with the Olay Total Effects product, then you will certainly see some difference in your skin tone and since it also contains zinc oxide, you will experience less damaging outbreaks of acne. Also keep in mind that this product does not claim to reduce deep wrinkles, so don't expect it to take away the crow's feet and laugh lines if they are more prominent. If you begin using this product early in life, you will definitely benefit later on, but if you wait until you have the deep lines, this product will not reverse the signs of aging you may already have. I can tell you that you will have some improvement of an even tone to your skin and elasticity, but there are many products out there that can do the same thing for a lot less money. However, I personally have always liked the way Olay products make my skin feel and Olay Total Effects have made my skin a little tighter and brighter.