Product placement: Neutrogena Rapid Wrinkle Repair Night Moisturizer

I finally did it.

I finally hit the end of a product bottle!

It is funny how I consider this to be a real achievement. But the reality is that it's a real sign for me that I'm finally putting a real dent in the product hoard that is my make-up collection, which is a real goal of mine for this year. And I will gladly take small accomplishments here.

The Neutrogena Rapid Wrinkle Repair moisturizer was first purchased in 2013. And the funny story behind why I own this bottle is that it's all Oprah's fault.

Yes... Oprah.

Back then I was on some kind of newsletter mailing list of hers and one day, out popped an article about the benefits of retinol or retinoid in face creams and how it's more or less a miracle ingredient for people who want smooth, bright, healthy skins.

As someone that was dealing with dry, flaky skin in my life, I bought the sale hook, line and sinker. I went out to a drugstore - or in my case, a Target that I happened to be bouncing by - and picked up one of the first products that said it had retinol in it. Which was this one.

INGREDIENTS 

INGREDIENTS: (from the website) Water, Pentaerythrityl Tetraethylhexanoate, Dimethicone, Glycerin, PPG-15 Stearyl Ether, Stearyl Alcohol, Cetearyl Alcohol, Butylene Glycol, Trisiloxane, Ceteareth-20, Isohexadecane, Dimethicone Crosspolymer, Caprylyl Glycol, Phenoxyethanol, Ammonium Acryloyldimethyltaurate/VP Copolymer, C13-14 Isoparaffin, Polyethylene, Fragrance, Polyacrylamide, Chlorphenesin, PTFE, Myrtus Communis Leaf Extract, Disodium EDTA, Sodium Hyaluronate, BHT, Retinol, Polysorbate 20, Laureth-7, Ascorbic Acid, Sodium Hydroxide


So first a disclaimer: I don't know the exact ingredients of my version of this moisturizer because I didn't keep the box it came in for three years, and the bottle didn't disclose it's contents. So the ingredients above are from its current iteration found on the website.

But can I just say, little disappointed to see not one, but TWO alcohols so high up on the list. Also tough to see the ingredient that sold this product to me - retinol - listed behind "fragrance," which is product-speak for a "secret" combination of smells that you may or may not be allergic to if you're not careful. I mean, after learning a bit more about retinol (which I'll go into further detail later), I'm kind of thankful that retinol is actually lower on the whole comparative list. But fragrance should not need to be that high on the list either.

PACKAGING, APPLICATION & USE

INSTRUCTIONS: Apply evenly to cleansed face and neck. Turn pump to closed position when not in use. Important: You may experience mild redness, a warm, tingling sensation or flaking (skin exfoliation). These are normal, temporary indications that the formula is working. If effects persist or cause discomfort, limit use to once every other night until your skin adjust, then revert to nightly use

So literally months after I discovered and starting using retinol, I ran across an article on refinery29 that more or less stated using retinol products every night is horrible overkill for your skin and you should limit uses to two to three days a week. At least, it scared me enough to cut back my uses to once a week for awhile, although towards the end, which was from mid-January onward this year, I upped it back to about every other night or every two nights.

Either worked for me, but due to my haphazard use, mileage may vary on if this product was right or worked for you.

I'm also not much of a fan of the 'turn pump to closed position' design of bottle. Mostly because I often forgot to turn it closed and never paid much attention to it being in the closed or open position unless I was using it. Which meant I usually left it open. And I had this bottle for three years. So this may or may not have compromised the formula, but I never really noticed honestly if it did or didn't.

The moisturizer was a pretty thick opaque white cream when pumped from the bottle, which was fine because it was a night cream so some heaviness was to be expected, even desired. One to two pumps was generally enough for me, and applied smoothly and absorbed pretty evenly. For the most part, I used it alone before bed, although towards the end of it's life, from about mid-January, I applied it after a number of face products, but before my night cream from the same manufacturer.

As it turned out, the "important" part of the instructions were necessary for me. While I never really experienced flaking or 'redness,' the active ingredients always produced a reaction that left my face feeling warmer than it would otherwise normally be when I woke up after using this product. However, it did not feel detrimental to my skin so I don't think it was me having an adverse reaction in any way. Perhaps, that's just how the product worked?

With that said, did it work? I couldn't tell you because frankly, I never had a wrinkle problem before or now. Mostly because I'm a little on the young side still and me being Asian is it's own natural deterrent at the moment so I don't have too many proofs if that helps it. As for brightening my skin tone, outside of the warm cheeks in the morning, I didn't notice any real changes there, although I would say that my skin did feel smoother on those days, so maybe it did work out well enough. And perhaps the fault is mine given how haphazardly I used it overall.

Would I buy this again? Honestly, when I ran out, I really strongly considered buying a new bottle of it. I liked the way it warmed my face in the morning and I liked how it made my skin feel. Even if it didn't correct my dark spots, I still liked the product on a whole.

But in the end, I didn't, even though as it turned out, I needed a replacement bottle of moisturizing lotion for the nighttime skincare routine that I started up in January. Mostly because I ended up wanting to try new products in the place of this one for my nighttime routine, and curiosity of other options won out. So now with a different product in rotation, I have no room. It'd just end up not being used on my shelf, which goes against the whole point of me making use of these things.


But it is a product that I would buy again. It's very affordable at around $24 CDN at most drug stores and is half the price of the moisturizer I selected to replace it which is a huge plus long-term. It also sat well with my skin and while I didn't have any problems for it to work on, I liked its formula and application, despite how high fragrance sits in its ingredients list.