If you haven’t noticed yet, I am a skeptic/realist when it comes to the expectations I have for skin care products and procedures. I sort of expect a product or treatment to not do what it claims it will do, and in the rare instance it lives up to its hype, I get excited. The reason I am a skeptic is because I haven’t used many products, or had many treatments, that do what they claim to do.

I have yet to discover a miracle wrinkle potion that comes in a jar, and accept that even the greatest product still has some limitations. If you read my Anti-Aging Skin Care Checklist, you’ll see I do believe in a comprehensive, systemic approach to battling wrinkles and aging, and I believe in prevention.

Products and treatments that I have found that actually work well, and do what they claim to do, include Zinc-Oxide based sunscreens (for preventing age spots, wrinkles, and loss of collagen and elastin), Botox (for highly reducing visible muscle-created lines), and Retinoids (for evening out skin tone, skin texture, and helping to eliminate acne). I believe in a combination of products to successfully cure acne and I have found some moisturizers and facial scrubs that visibly improve the look of my skin, even though the results aren’t permanent.

Despite being a skeptic, I am still somewhat of an optimist, and still get excited to try new products. I obviously don’t want to miss out on something that could be fabulous, and it’s fun to try new products to see how they compare to my current favorites. The main problem is that I don’t have the money to try new products. Currently I’ve been relying on the testers at Sephora, and on the rare occasion I buy a new product, I spend a lot of time researching it first.

Since starting my blog, I’ve suddenly had companies contact me to see if I want to test their products. At first I thought this was the greatest thing ever, until I remembered I don’t love most products, so the chances are slim I will like the products these companies are sending me. I want to remain honest and give my honest review, but on the other hand, I don’t want to hurt the companies by writing unfavorable reviews of their products. Currently I only accept a product I “think” I will like, and if I end up not liking it at all, I generally won’t mention it on my blog. A lot of times, though, I get curious when companies make fanciful claims, so even if I think I won’t like a product, I get tempted to try it anyway. My main objective is to keep my blog truthful, so I’m not going to lie and say I like a product when I don’t, and I won’t be swayed into thinking a product is better than it really is just because I got it for free. But at the end of the day, my reviews are only my opinion, so just because I don’t like something doesn’t mean other people won’t like it. And I have only tried a small percentage of the thousands of beauty products on the market, so I am sure there are lots of great products out there waiting to be discovered!