I was approached this afternoon to do a 2-day free sample of Arbonne skincare products. This company seems to be in the typical Tupperware/Avon/Mary Kay family of businesses - sales parties, sales reps/consultants who get their cut/discounts, etc. I'm a little wary of the company itself after reading a few reviews and articles online, plus the prices are astronomical relative to our tiny budget. But I thought, hey it's a free sample, why the hell not.
This blog, by the way, isn't part of the trial itself. It just occurred to me while I was starting my trial that it would be an interesting blog post, plus it's been a couple weeks since I've blogged. My bad.
Let me point out that "my daily skincare routine" is, at best, a slight misrepresentation. As in, I don't always clean my face every single day. So, uh, don't ever look too closely at my face. It's mostly because I honestly can't be arsed. When I first began to take care of my skin properly (in college), I used the traditional three-step process: cleanser, toner, moisturiser. Over time I've used such brands as Clean & Clear, Dove, Avon and Aveda, but these days I'm Team Oil of Olay. I love their affordability, their universal availability (basically they were the first brand I saw and recognised when I moved to the States), and their efficiency. I have combination skin (dry patches, mild oiliness at times, but generally pretty good) and it has never gone berserk on me. These days I just use a cleanser (usually a gentle exfoliating cleanser because I feel it does a more thorough job - and actually at the moment I'm using a Nivea Visage that I bought in Australia - Team Oil of Olay FAIL) and the basic $6 Oil of Olay cream. Toner is an extra step that I can't be arsed dealing with (or paying for - even though it's like $2, that could buy me a coffee and a doughnut at The World's Best Coffee Shop.)
So to this free sample trial. Not two steps, not three steps, but FIVE steps in this thing. I'm sampling the RE9 Advanced range, touted for increased skin firmness, texture refinement and reduction in the appearance of fine lines. It's basically an anti-ageing thing (the person who gave me the free sample claims that women in their late 20s are really getting into this kind of stuff. I'm 26. I sit firmly in the mid-20s camp, and already feel old enough, so that did not really make me feel very happy).
We start with the Smoothing Facial Cleanser. Once I figure out how to use the dang stuff (whaddya know, it's just like every other cleanser I've used!), it actually feels and smells pretty good. Lemony. Despite its lack of exfoliant (I'm kinda anal about exfoliant), it feels like it's cleaning really deep.
The Toner is next (which was applied with toilet paper, due to lack of cotton swabs - w00t!), which I haven't used in a long time. Being in one of those little ketchup-y style sample packs, it was hard to get enough toner on the "Cotton Swab" to do what I would think is a sufficient job, but I do okay.
Step 3 is something referred to as Intensive Renewal Serum. I know, I'm just as terrified as you are. It's applied like a lotion I guess, and it really does feel amazing. While I'm applying this, Aaron comes into the bathroom and we're having a general end-of-the-day chat about stuff and I have to interrupt myself to rave about how awesome my face is feeling already.
Next we come to Corrective Eye Creme. See, my eyes need correction, but on the inside. Fun Fact: Susan got contacts again and is in the process of getting used to them again. I think I've deduced I have horrible dry eyes because after 4 hours I feel like I'm under water and I can't see a dag blasted thing. Anyhoo, so needless to say this is the first time I've used an eye cream (or an eye creme, for that matter). Thinking back to TV commercials, I dot it under my eyes (along the giant purple bags - hooray for toddlers) and gently massage it in, possibly giving my sinuses more of a massage than reducing crow's feet or whatever this is meant to do. But again I have to admit, I'm enjoying how smooth my face is feeling. Even the eyes, and they're notorious for being pathologically lumpy.
Last but not least, we have Night Repair Creme. Apparently my face is its own worst enemy, who waits until the cover of night to attack and generally undo everything I've just spent the past 10 minutes doing. So we have to build up our defenses. This creme feels a little thicker than the others, but it's still feeling awesome.
And finally I'm done. Right now, it's been a good twenty minutes since I finished, and I keep touching my face to make sure it still feels awesome. Check. It sure does. Even my lotion-and-creme-applying fingers feel amazing. I still have another day or two for this trial so we'll see if I a) keep it up, b) fall hard in love with it, and c) decide it's worth taking 10 minutes at the beginning and end of every day to repeat this process.
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