what a pleasure to check out this board! i am usually chatting about health problems...let's talk skin care!!!!! every three years or so i get the notion to buy into lancome or estee lauder or some other costly skin care regime...and i am always left wondering "why did i do that?", because i don't see any smashingly wonderful difference........i am beginning to think that buying L'Oreal in the grocery store really IS an okay way to go. anybody else find themselves answering the siren call of expensive stuff only to realize that there isn't any big hoopla? by the way, this last time, when i was suckered into spending $90
(yes, NINETY)on a lancome moisturizer, i alternated between thinking it was time for professional mental help and waiting to see just how spectacular i would look after a month!!!! i mean it's all nice stuff, but $90.00 for a daytime moisturizer? for that money i should be able to at least expect to wake up with perfect skin. hasn't happened!!!!! by the way, i am going to celebrate my 50th birthday on july 3.....so i am REALLY feeling like i have to "get serious" about my skin care!!!! i know there are, um, a FEW other things in the world that are more important.......but.........

Funny thing is L'Oreal OWNS Lancome. But Lancome does make great moisturizers. My only advice is pay attention to ingredients. You want to stay away from known comenogenic materials. Lanolin for example is a good culprit. It is sheep sebum. (Sheep oil excreted from their wool). Use what works for you and spend what you can afford.

I'm only 24 but have had a lifetime of skin problems. I am allergic to everything (including Ivory soap, if you'll believe it). But, like you, I have found that the most inexpensive stuff if better than the costly stuff. The only soap I can use is a cheap glycerin soap that I have to go home to Canada to buy and for a moisterizer I use Oil of Olay. I think that you don't need to base your skin care regimen on how expensive something is or how it's supposed to be...just how well it works for you.

Ivory soap is not at all good for the skin on the face. It has a PH level of 11 which happens to be the same PH level on Comet cleaner!

I don't know where Ivory soap came from(and I would not use that soap on any part of my body...just to get my 2 cents in), but anyhoo, I don't think spending money at those department store counters is worth breaking your check book over. Those products don't generally do what they claim. I've been a cosmetician and done all the different training available from skin care to make up to hair color, so learned alot over the years. Find what works for you and stick with it. Those little 'gift with purchases' can be a calling, but I'd avoid that part of the store when you are shopping.

good advice stephbabie! i'll circle around the cosmetics counters from now on!

I don't like the way Ivory soap smells.

I've found that sometimes cheaper is better. The best moisturizers i've used are all plain old Suave lotions that you get at the drug store. I have problem skin, because it's so incredibally dry and it flakes, my favorite moisturizer is the Suave with cocoa butter for severe dry skin. Another thing that I've found works really well but is a little more pricey is 'Body Butter' from The Body Shop, it's super moisture rich.