Olay Total Effects Wake Up Wonder

I suffer with my skin, with it going really dry particularly in winter months, and then also breaking out in spots regularly. I have discovered in recent years that the best moisturisers for me come from the olay range as they moisturise my dry skin without causing me to instantly break out in a new crop of spots.

I ran out of my complete care, and as I had not desire to take a trip into town just to buy some moisturiser, I decided to see what they had in my local medium sized tesco. They didn't have my complete care version, so I decided I would try this total effects moisturiser, after all, now I'm in my 30s, my skin is sometimes a little dull if not yet wrinkly, so I thought I would see if this one was worth swapping to and would prove to be beneficial to my skin.

I find the price tag to be mid range on olay products. Not so high it puts you off, but not so cheap it is in the pocket money range. I paid somewhere around £8 for it, and it is currently available in Boots for £6.99. This is for 30ml of the product which comes in a pump dispenser plastic bottle which has a plastic lid so you can transport it without losing some of your product.

I like the product. It is easy to get out of the bottle. I find that a couple of pumps on the dispenser gives me enough product to treat my whole face. It is a white cream, medium consistency. It is not really heavy, but it is dense enough to not slide off my fingers when applying the product.

The product smells really fresh to me. Slightly minty as it has a mint extract in it, and perhaps a little floral as well, but only a really mild smell which you can only smell when your nose is right up next to the product rather than a smell that is overpowering. I find that as I apply it, my skin feels a little tingly in a pleasant way. It does wake me up a little, but not as much as a slug of coffee does.

I haven't really felt that my skin looks majorly different, but then again, it wasn't looking 'old' to start with. I have been lucky to not have any lines showing when my skin is hydrated. The product claims to help with seven signs of ageing.

1) Line minimisation.
Well, yes, it has helped here as if I use no product at all, I do have some that start to appear near the top of my nose. Any moisturiser would minimise this though.

2) Hydration
Yes, it does make my skin look nice and plump, but again, no more than my other olay moisturiser.

3) firming
Couldn't really say as my skin is not really saggy to comment on any improvement. The mint must do something though.

4) Dullness
I would say yes for this one, my skin isn't dull, but I think this is helped more by my dermologica exfoliater I've been using. If you have dull skin, any exfoliator will benefit it more than a moisturiser, though this is nice to use afterwards.

5) Exfoliation
Personally, I don't think any moisturiser can promise this, as you need a decent product as you get older and your skin needs more persuasion for the dead skin cells to shed rather than leave rough patches on your face. I need a product with rough grains in it from my experience over the last 15 years, so I would say no for me to this one.

6) Pore appearance.
This is meant to minimise the appearance of your pores. I do get a fair amount of blackheads. They are a little better using this cream. I guess the mint has a tightening effect on the pores which perhaps stops them getting as blocked. I've never suffered with really large looking empty pores, so I'm not sure if it would work well on that sort of skin problem, but for someone with a milder problem, it should help.

7) Antioxidant action
I can see a few things in there known to be beneficial to skin, like citric acid which would provide vitamin C, so it must have anti-oxidants in there to be able to make this claim.

My overall impression of this cream is it is very nice, it soothes my skin and is a decent moisturiser. It is a little towards pricey for only getting 30ml for £7-8, but it lasts a while as it is easy to spread a small amount across your skin.

I have a couple of little niggles with it. I can't see anywhere that it has any sun protection in it. This was stated quite clearly on my last bottle of olay complete care that it was included at factor 15, and to be honest, I expect any day moisturiser these days to have this in. I might be wrong here, but I think if it was in there, they would be broadcasting the fact by putting it on the bottle. We get told to wear sunscreen on a daily basis to prevent ageing, so for me, I won't want to repurchase this as my day moisturiser. I know I could wear sunscreen on top, but I am a busy mum, I don't have time to slap sunscreen on for the school run, so I expect my moisturiser to help me out a bit. I also found in winter when my skin was at its driest that I needed to reapply part way through the day as I had some dry spots showing through again. It has been fine when the weather has been a bit warmer though.

I also found once that the top part of the bottle (the black dispenser) just came off. I suppose this is a good thing as it means you can get every last bit out the bottle with your fingers, but at the time when I was in a rush it was messy and inconvenient. It did just pop back on, and didn't come off again, but it was a little annoying.

I like it, but I can't see it being something I repurchase unless I find out differently about it containing sun protection. I might try instead the day moisturiser in the range, as that definitely does have SPF in it. It's one thing having antioxidants to treat free radicals, but it is even better to remove some of the risk of free radicals forming.