Damage, Controlled III: The Skin Strikes Back

Didja know this? The process of creating new cells and pushing old ones to the surface of your skin takes about 28 days.

And that's for relatively young skin - for more mature skin, the regeneration cycle is more like two full months.

First off, no wonder docs and derms always recommend trying a product for at least a month before throwing in the towel.

And secondly....ain't it the truth! I'm Week 3 into my test-drive of Philosophy's Help Me retinol cream and I'm starting to feel like my face is molting. But..uh, in a good way.

As I confes- er, mentioned last week, I didn't do such a hot job following package directions, instead mentally modifying the, "Follow application with your favorite moisturizer" to "...but only if you really feel like it, Jenny. Maybe you'd just rather go watch reruns of 'The Nanny.'"

Yes, I'm lazy, and because I'm lazy, I've got a light bit of peeling going on around my nose. But in a way, it's almost better I'm a flop at directions because hey, my momma didn't raise no peeler....and yet here I am with flaky little confirmation tickets from my skin telling me, "28 days? Pshaw! We can beat that."