Olay, Olay, Olay, Olay, Feelin' Hot, Hot, Hot!

This is a sponsored review from BlogHer and OLAY.

I’m not a beauty blogger per se, but longtime readers know I’m fully committed to keeping myself looking at least moderately presentable most of the time. Like, remember when I turned myself orange in an attempt to seduce Jeff with my “natural” golden tan? Or that Hannibal Lecter mask from La Mer that prompted Jeff to give himself a porn ‘stache? I should get extra points for the full-time job that is taming my natural unibrow, not to mention the considerable artistic skills required to camouflage my exciting new adult acne and spider veins. But no one, save for the overly blunt Korean ladies at my local nail salon, who inform me that I really should wax my upper lip, seems to be keeping score.

Anyway.

I don’t have a lot of time to--as Jeff so lovingly puts it--“paint my face” in the mornings, seeing as I generally hit the snooze button at least twenty times in order to let the pillow lines really settle into my cheeks. So when Olay offered to send me its Total Effects Line and Dark Circle Minimizing Brush (visit the official site), which promises to simultaneously tighten and plump my peepers, lighten my cobwebby under-eye area, and deliver 7 anti-aging benefits in all of the five seconds it takes to apply, I jumped at the chance.

Because I am nothing if not super-scientific, I am presenting my findings in the format of a high school lab report. Ahem.

Introduction:
Here are my crow’s feet and under-eye bag in their natural state:

Bloodshot eyes included at no extra charge!

I once got into a bar without ID just by smiling for the bouncer. TRUE STORY.

The purpose of my experiment is to determine whether Olay’s Total Effects Line and Dark Circle Minimizing Brush will help to ensure that this never happens again.

Materials:
1 Olay Total Effects Line and Dark Circle Minimizing Brush
1 Bathroom mirror
1 Middle Finger (N.B. for application purposes, not for bird-flipping)
1 Nikon SLR camera, for documentation purposes

Method:
Each morning and evening for a week, after washing my face and applying moisturizer, I clicked the Olay TELADCMB (sorry, could not continue to type that out) to release a pea-sized pearl of product that I gently applied to my under-eye circles and lines using the middle finger of my right hand. Then I stared at myself for awhile, examining my pores and contemplating the ramifications of finding a gray eyebrow hair.

Discussion and Conclusion:
I am between eye creams, so it felt incredibly luxurious to use the Olay TELADCMB. After a few weeks, I did notice a small improvement in the condition of my skin in the ocular (fancy word for eye!) area, and my bags seemed less pronounced:

Natural light: nature's Photoshop!

The drawback, for me, was the color. The Olay TELADCMB formula is a bronze-y beige--the better to blend away imperfections with, my dear--but on my Edward Cullen complexion, unless blended well, it kind of looked like my eyes went to Miami without the rest of my head.

Still, that was easy enough to correct, and I’m glad to know that my blogging-abused eyes are getting a little R&R from 7 anti-aging benefits. Plus, it’s fast and extremely easy to use, a virtue in any beauty product.

Okay, now’s the fun part: You tell me how you simplify your beauty routine when you’re tired or strapped for time, and you could win a $100 Spa Finder gift card! (Visit the BlogHer roundup page for other chances to win).

Rules:
No duplicate comments. The sweepstakes runs from 4/14 (today) through 5/14.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry. (Visit the official rules)

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older.
Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail within a few days of the end of the sweepstakes.
You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.
The Official Rules are available here.