According to one of my favorite life advisors of all time, Mr. Dale Carnegie, a person is never to tell others they are doing something wrong.  Maybe that is the case, but when the improvement of skin care is on the line, I say a woman has to get her priorities straight.

Here’s the deal:  Most people apply skin care products by applying them to their cheeks first, then rubbing in circular motions outward.  However, the majority of sun damage becomes visible on the center of the face — most particularly the nose, lower forehead, and cheeks — as one ages.  With that said, you’d be doing yourself a favor to rub moisturizer on your cheeks, then inward towards your nose, and then towards your forehead, chin, and lastly the outer portions of your cheeks.

One last note:  Avoid uneven application altogether by applying a small dot of moisturizer on your nose, forehead, chin, and on each cheek, to ensure even application!

I was surprised when I discovered that I too was guilty of doing this.  But it makes sense that the center of the face receives the most UV light and therefore ages the fastest – and would therefore benefit from more beneficial ingredient-concentrated moisturizer application!  :-)

Photo credits:
Girl sitting reading book looking surprised.

Originally uploaded by vinyl_word

You have to hand it to Unilever, the makers of Vaseline:  not only have they been able to keep the original petrolatum jelly formula on the market since 1872 (that’s 138 years, in case you’re counting), but they’ve also been able to keep their products fresh, most notably being amongst the first drugstore body lotions to add SPF, and now with their innovative Stratys-3™ technology.

Like most skin care “technologies,” Stratys-3™ technology comes down nothing more than a clever meld of ingredients.  Unlike many of its so-called innovative predecessors, however, Stratys-3™ is actually revolutionary, consisting primarily of glycerol quat (GQ) and hydroxyethyl urea (HEU) that hydrate the skin down to the deepest part of the stratum corneum.  According to the official website, GQ is a humectant, a quaternized glycerol derivative that is able to bind more than 4 times the water than glycerol alone.  Furthermore, GQ is not very lipophilic, so that it does not bind to the upper membranes like many other ingredients.  Combined with the fact that HEU is able to penetrate through to the stratum basale (the deepest portion of the uppermost layer of skin, the stratum corneum), Vaseline Sheer Infusion is truly revolutionary, as most lotions stay within the first two layers of skin.

The clinical data support the idea that Vaseline Sheer Infusion delivers superior hydration to deeper layers of the skin as well.  In the most convincing Unilever-affiliated study, 168 subjects were split into 12 different groups, each with a different leading body lotion applied by a trained clinician on a 2-square-centimeter surface of the subjects’ legs.  Another trained clinician measured the skin hydration levels with a 2ooEX Skin Hydrometer, and the results were astounding:  Vaseline Sheer Infusion resulted in a score of 1150; the next leading body lotion was a mere 800, with the lowest-scoring leading formula falling in at a meager score of ~180.

Although, I must admit, the studies have all been in-house (very professionally conducted, but still, all associated in some way with the founding company), I am still a fan of Vaseline Sheer Infusion.  Furthermore, some organic skin care fans may give this one a thumbs down, particularly because it contains parabens that many do not want on their skin, much less penetrating down to deeper portions of their stratum corneum.  Granted, these are the last two ingredients on the list, suggesting (with my best guess) concentrations of less than 0.05%, but still, I too would feel even more comfortable using Vaseline Sheer Infusion if they would take out the parabens altogether.

With that said, I have been using Vaseline Sheer Infusion, and I love the way that it makes my skin feel – very hydrated and actually plump, as though being filled up from the inside out.  (Crazy-sounding, I know, but when you’ve tried as many products as I have, this is actually a noticeable difference.  Either that or all the video demonstrations went to my head…)  I also love the way that the Vaseline Sheer Infusion Botanical Blend smells, so much that I even passed up the ultra-beneficial vitamin E extra in the Vitamin Burst version.  (What can I say, I’m a scientist in my head but still a girl in my heart…at the end of the day, I just want my boyfriend to think I smell pretty!)

Bottom line:  This product line truly is revolutionary, and I love it.  My only suggestion to Unilever: take out the parabens if you can, and I guarantee your sales will soar even higher amongst the well-informed, skin care-savvy crowd.  Product rating:  8.5/10. Unique formulation or new technology: 3/3.  High concentration of proven effective ingredients: 2.5/3.  Value for the money: 3/3.  Sunscreen: 0/1.

P.S. – When choosing a formula, Botanical Blend smells incredible to me, Vitamin Burst is the most skin-beneficial [with antioxidant vitamin E], and I’m not really sure why Mineral Renewal even exists, except maybe to provide a third option.  Happy shopping!  :-)