"YOU HAVE TO PUCKER YOUR LIPS LIKE DIS"

There are all kinds of beauty products that promise great results....and of course they usually target those of us who are starting to see signs of aging....those little lines and creases that were not there before. Of course...we panic and want to hide, cover, disguise, and minimize them. We hang on any promise from a product that states a difference in "ten days or less". We can do anything for ten days right?

The creams and emollients and gels that promise elasticity and filled in lines really confuse you. If your skin is all stretched out....would you want more elasticity? I would want my sagging cheeks to be able to be more bouncy and stretchy for sure. What about the ones that promise to diminish the age spots that sometimes appear? Well....for a normal person that has a spot here and there, this might be great. For someone with freckles....the reduction leaves a vampire like appearance....a blank sort of skin appearance.....

I saved the best to last. Julia Roberts and other notable actresses all of a sudden appeared in the press with larger, pout-ee, and full lips. These ladies went through painful injections to get those lips and seriously, I wonder sometimes if some of that even looks good. I am shopping and looking for a nice lip gel that would add some shine and dimension to my lips. There it was. A tube of shiny lip gloss in a beautiful tube. Not just any gloss but this gloss "increases" your lips and makes them appear fuller in 60 seconds. What might this gloss contain to do this? I catch myself in a mirror in the cosmetic department and discover that the little lines they are talking about are on my lips. I could never get lip injections....heck I can't even get the nerve for a flu shot. I decided I would buy it and try it.

Now let me set the stage. I am on the road and had stopped in the drug store for some ibuprofen. I encountered the gloss on my way to one of my stores for a visit. I get back in the car with my ibuprofen and my lovely tube of plumping lip gloss. I turn the car on and decide to try it. I open it and run the smooth little brush over my top and bottom lip. I look and think, OK color. I see no difference. I drive out of the parking lot and am on my way. I keep looking in the mirror and see no change. I thought to myself that once again, I fell for empty promises of quick fix beauty enhancements. I licked my lips and thought, "eow"...not tasty. About two minutes later...my lips start tingling...and I mean....it isn't comfortable....I check the mirror and indeed, my lips are getting bigger. I think to myself...wow....though painful....it is working. Then it happens. Remember I mentioned that I had "licked my lips?" That's right...my tongue started tingling...and I start panicking. What if my tongue swells to a lovely bigger size and chokes me to death? I am driving faster now.....and anyone looking in my car would have thought..."what a vain woman" for I had my face stuck in my mirror watching everything "plump".

The good news is that....it only lasted a short period of time. I now am reluctantly happy with the size of my own lips (and tongue) and have decided that Chap Stick isn't so bad!

I will leave the "plumping" to Julia and accept my little lined lips.