A Second Youth — New Reformulated Olay Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Cream and New Olay Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Eye & Lash Duo

There’s a time in your life when people start qualifying their sentences — even their compliments —to include the oh-so-unsavory phrase “for your age,” uttering such oddly phrased compliments as “You look good for your age!”Admittedly,  I’ve always prided myself on looking young. Back when I was in my late 20s and still a smoker (a habit I thankfully kicked), I was regularly carded when buying cigarettes and, while  I moaned and groaned, I secretly loved that vendors assumed I was some rebellious  teenybopper. Needless to say,  it was a strange and slightly unsettling  feeling when I started talking about my 8-year-old son and no one in the room would gasp in shock, raise an eyebrow while inquiring about my age, or convey any sense of dismay whatsoever. At that point, I realized, “Uh-oh, I may actually be starting to look my age.” Even worse, I realized I now belonged to an age bracket that many no longer considered desirable. Yes, men may be going on and on about how “thirty is the new twenty” but women aren’t quite as enthused when  it’s necessary to check an entirely different age box. And, while I’ve never seen my age as something to be concealed (I’m turning 34 this May), I’ll admit to feeling confused and disconcerted once I realized that, during conversations with friends, we were all bringing up “old people stuff” like physical aches and pains, fertility concerns (one friend has explored the possibility of freezing her eggs), and all types of gloom-and-doom scenarios that never entered our minds as wide-eyed, eager, impulsive twenty-somethings. Time, as it turns out, does indeed fly. And, with this realization has come a renewed dedication to preserving my skin’s vitality and elasticity since, after all, I’m not letting fickle Lady Time get the last laugh here!

I’ve always taken preventative measures to ensure that my skin remains supple and smooth but I’m now on a real mission. Now, there are a gazillion anti-aging creams on the market and, while many high-end brands offer some astounding products, you don’t necessarily have to spend a bundle to fight wrinkles, keep skin tone vibrant, and prevent sagging skin. In the past, I’ve raved about the Olay Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Cream, but Olay recently improved the cream’s formula, making it an even better product overall. The new-and-improved Olay Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Cream ($25 ar mass food and drug retailers) is meant to revitalize and hydrate skin in order to make it more receptive to anti-aging ingredients.  See, Olay’s team of researchers discovered that, just like we become more fatigued as we age (try pulling an all-nighter at 37!), our skin also becomes a bit more lethargic and so that, even if you spread on a ton of wrinkle-fighting creams, their ingredients may never fully penetrate the top layers of skin. Furthermore, researches found that hydrating skin so as to maintain optimum moisture levels will boost the skin’s bioenergy production, allowing it, in turn, to get the most out of the collagen- and elastin-boosting ingredients in anti-aging creams and serums. Taking heed of these discoveries, then, Olay decided to reformulate its Olay Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Cream, relying on an Advanced Amino Peptide Complex with Skin Energizing Technology and a Hydra-Firming Complex, which incorporate two new ingredients: Olivem and Lys’lastine. 

The Advanced Amino Peptide Complex with Skin Energizing Technology aims to make skin more responsive to anti-aging ingredients, accelerating cellular turnover and delivering deep hydration. The technology relies on ingredients like: Pal-KTTKS, a fragment of a collagen molecule that’s linked to a lipid molecule and which penetrates the stratum corneum in order to decrease the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles; niacnamide, also known vitamin B3, which contains two enzymes (NADH and NADPH) that accelerate cellular energy and lipid production, thereby strengthen the skin’s moisture barrier and making it better able to protect itself from pollutants and free radicals; and Olivem, an oil-soluble lipid derived from olive olive oil that works as a top-notch moisturizer and emulsifier, making skin smoother and more radiant.

The Hydra-Firming Complex, meanwhile, contains the humectants glycerin and hyaluronic acid (both of which were also critical components in the original cream), but it now also incorporates Lys’lastine, an extract of dill seeds that has been purported to improve skin hydration and elasticity.

Another plus: the new formulation is fragrance-free, making it a much more suitable choice for women with sensitive skin.

I’ve been trying the new Olay Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Cream for several weeks and have been incredibly impressed with the results. It is, of course, a heavier cream that’s best suited for use in the evening, right before bed, but it’s also not so heavy as to make your skin feel greasy or balmy — in fact, it’s surprising just how easily the skin absorbs it. Best of all, when you wake up in the morning, you can notice small differences — tiny blemishes, for instance, may appear smaller, redness may have ebbed a bit, and the overall texture of your skin may be more supple and even. The changes become more visible with continued use, of course, so that within two weeks, you should start seeing more significant changes in terms of the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles and the vitality of your skin’s appearance.

And it doesn’t end there! Olay has also introduced a brand new product to its Regenerist line: the Olay Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Eye & Lash Duo ($24.99 at mass food and drug retailers). This two-in-one product includes an eye cream that relies on the same Skin Energizing Technology and Hydra-Firming Complex intregral to the Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Cream, again with the addition of the Olivem and Lys’lastine ingredients mentioned above, and a lash serum packaged inside a mascara-like tube with a spiral brush so that you can comb the clear serum onto lashes, depositing the glycerin in the formula so as to hydrate and potentially even increase the volume of lash hairs.

My experiences with the Olay Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Eye & Lash Duo have been mixed — on the one hand, I think the eye cream is pretty spectacular. I haven’t seen a vast improvement in terms of the appearance of dark circles under my eyes but, when it comes to those fine lines starting to creep up at the corners of my eyes, I can definitely detect some changes (mainly, that they’re less noticeable). Also, I love that you can apply the cream around the eye but also atop the eye lid since, as we all know, many eye creams are not meant to be applied to eyelids, which can be a serious shortcoming since our lids, too, become wrinkled and droopy with age. My only disappointment, then, comes from the lash serum as I can’t say I’ve noticed any change in the appearance of my lashes since I began using this product. Also, at times I can see a bit of clear gunky residue on my lashes as the serum dries out, which is definitely not sexy — I mean, looking at your honey and batting your eyelashes when they’re covered with some suspicious flaky goo pretty much defeats the whole purpose of the operation. Still, the eye cream is a great buy for the price so, even if you only buy this product for that, you won’t be disappointed.