Pond's Age Miracle?
Obviously men do not use skin care products as much as women do-- dare I say almost none, taking into account the more than 4 billion male people in the world. That being said, my skin is quite atrocious. So much so that when I dared myself into using Pond's Age Miracle to put my money where my mouth (or in this case fingers) is, I took pictures but decided not to post them so that little children will not be traumatized if they happen to chance on this blog. So I have here an objective report on my week-long experiment. I think it's warranted given the hype surrounding it on commercials.
Pond's Age Miracle costs about P400 ($9) for a 30mL pump bottle. The ingredients are as follows: Water, Dimethicone crosspolymer/ Cyclopentasiloxane, Ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate, Glycerin, Caprylyl Methicone, PEG-10 Dimethicone/ Disteardimonium hectorite/ Cyclopentasiloxane, Isomerized Linoleic Acid, Caprylic/ Capric Triglycerides, Zinc Oxide/ Triethoxycaprylylsilane, Fragrance, Tetradibutyl Pentaerithrityl Hydroxyhydrocinnamate, Stearic acid, cholesterol, Mica/ Titanium Dioxide, Tocopheryl Acetate, Bisabolol, BHT, DMDM Hydantoin/ Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate, Linoleic acid, Borago officinalis Seed Oil, Disodium EDTA, Retinyl Palmitate, Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate, Butylene Glycol/ Carbomer/ Polysorbate 20/ Palmitoyl Oligopeptide/ Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-7, Coriandrum sativum seed oil.
As far as I can tell with my regular Joe college Chemistry, the mix consists of various moisturizers, vitamin A, C, and E (potent antioxidants), sunblock (it says here SPF 15), and peptidoglycans. The literature boasts many benefits, which we'll go through:
1. Helps visibly reduce fine lines and wrinkles - I'm inclined to think that with Retinyl palmitate in the ingredients, this should happen. However, after the short time of 1 week I've yet to see any improvement in this area (in short: there's no change). In the long term, the mix of sunscreen and antioxidants should retard wrinkle formation.
2. Strong and firm young skin - I'm not sure how they test skin strength. Do they slap you around? My face did feel firmer, for all it's worth. In my mind, when the polymers are dried out in the atmosphere, their grip on your skin and to each other tightens.
3. Helps visibly reduce age spots - I'm 25. I don't think I have age spots, but I do have a bit of sun damage from before and a bunch of acne scars. Since the summer I've done my best to avoid the sun further. In the span of 1 week, no change. There's no even-ing of my complexion at all. They are all still there, taunting me. This was the most disappointing aspect of this trial. Still, using sunscreen that comes with it should prevent further damage and give your skin time to heal your old scars, but is SPF 15 enough in this country? (Maybe for the common office worker it is.)
4. Supple, moisturized skin - I have to confess, I didn't actually feel any different until a friend of mine who had been using it told me her skin felt softer. I guess she is right. Also, I noticed that the early-evening oil slick my face usually turns into was not so prominent, so that's a good point.
5. Radiantly glowing skin - eh? No change. As usual sunscreen does help but my face is still just a light tan. There are no whitening ingredients from that mix as far as I can tell, but I'm not obsessed about being cyanotic.
6. Visibly smoothened skin - No, at least not visibly.
7. Finer skin with visibly small pores - I will say that my skin felt finer, but looking at the pictures there's no difference in pore size, not that mine were humongous.
So what's the verdict? First of all, it's probably better for your skin than nothing. At first I thought I might be getting an allergic reaction but it turned out to be from something else. I have visible skin reactions quite easily but probably didn't have one from this, not that you shouldn't test it on a small patch of skin first and take it easy. It does have fragrance and some natural plant products after all; it may not be safe for all. The best part about it is that late in the day my face feels fresher and not like I dipped it in my desserts.
The problem with the advertisements is that it can be easily misconstrued as proof that it will fulfill all of its skin-renewing properties in 7 days when it only fulfilled about half its promises in that amount of time. Time will tell if it does indeed hold up, but as a guy I won't be spending P400 (though you do use very little) every 3-4 months for a facial product I'm not sure is the best for me and uses up time that I was pretty content with before spending sleeping. Also, the women in those advertisements have probably already been blessed with drum-tight skin and have been using products like Clinique for years. I mean, the editor of a the beauty section of a magazine? God, was she a horror before using this product?
