time flies.

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED! THANKS TO ALL WHO ENTERED!

scene: foggy bathroom, post-shower. shannon, hair wrapped in a towel, wipes down the misted over mirror and goes to begin her daily toilette.
suddenly our heroine gets a glimpse of her reflection—shock, dismay. the years are showing. the too-many-bad-sunburns are taking their toll on her fair skin.
but wait! all is not lost! her 20’s a mere memory, she is still in her beginning 30’s—there is still time to prevent more damage! still time to…uh, slow time.
quickly she slides open her drawer of beauty products and…

ugh. it’s a sad sad state of affairs. a mishmash of store brand firming masks and eye creams mixed with deoderants and baby shampoo, rarely used makeup and unfortunately still used acne medication. (and we’ll just ignore those self-tanners, mmmkay?)
like so many other things my beauty routine has also fallen prey to The Mommy Syndrome. you know the one—where you’re too tired/stressed/frazzled/poor to give full attention to something? especially something for YOU? so you do it halfway or not at all?
yup. i see you nodding in agreement. you’re with me.
so this is why, when i was contacted by a rep for rodan + fields, i was all over it. the bulk of that mess of a drawer emptied in favor of this:

one little package containing four products:

a simple anti-age skin care regimen developed by the same two women dermatologists who developed proactiv. they offer four different regimens: REVERSE, ANTI-AGE, BLEMISH, and SOOTHE. i chose to try the ANTI-AGE one…because, well…i’m not getting any younger.
okay, here it is. i’ll admit it: i was skeptical. i tend to be fairly cynical about, well, everything. so the first thing i did when i got the products was take my camera out in the sunlight and take 4 bazillion photos of my face, sans any products at all. and now i’m going to share them with you.
presenting ME, in all my natural glory:

these photos are all straight out of the camera. i didn’t do a thing—not even a basic levels adjustment (muusst…noottt..photoshop…arrrgghhhh!!)
this is how much i love you guys. i took these photos, and now i’m sharing them.
okay i’ll be the first to admit that i don’t have the world’s worst skin. but it’s not great. one of my biggest concerns is that area between my eyebrows and my forehead.
hey—i’ve got five kids. i spend a lot of time doing things like this:

but i figured i’d try it—nothing wagered, nothing lost.
this is the 100% total, unvarnished, un-paid-for truth—i COULDN’T BELIEVE the difference. 2 weeks in i had to go back and look at the date on these photos, because i couldn’t believe it had only been 2 weeks of using the products.
you apply the daily cleansing mask both morning and night and allow it to dry for 2 minutes before rinsing. the first few times i used it it felt tingly. not a totally awful sensation, but not my favorite. now it doesn’t bother me.

you follow that up with the pore minimizing toner, and then one of the lotions—one for day and one for night.
my skin felt softer and smoother and healthier. i actually—for real—had multiple people, out of the blue (both strangers and friends), tell me how young i looked. even my husband noticed—and you ladies know how amazing that is.
here’s some more honesty for you—i almost, almost didn’t really want this stuff to work. because the one flaw i can find in rodan + fields products is their price. the system is not cheap. but the results speak for themselves.
not until this morning when i was taking my “after” photos did i realize just exactly how well. i guess i’ve gotten used to my “new” skin, because i actually was nervous that the photos wouldn’t show much difference. i figured i could explain how different my skin FEELS, and how hard that is to capture in photos. but i don’t think i need to.
again, these are straight out of the camera shots. i did my morning cleanse routine and went outside for photos. i’m wearing lip gloss and last night’s mascara.

okay, fine. i did put a little bit of eyebrow pencil on. dude—i have BLONDE eyebrows. as in—virtually invisible. that’s just weird. but other than that it’s just me and R + F. 
let’s do a side by side, shall we?


less red and splotchy, more smooth and glowy. amirite? i swear to you—these photos were both taken right outside my back door, using only sunlight. same camera, held arm’s length away. (my freckles are darker because they always get darker in the summer and we’ve been to the beach a couple times since i started using the products. tra-la-la, the joys of red hair.)
thank you rodan + fields and sage for letting me try your products! you’ve made a believer of me!
now what about you? well my r + f rep—sage bowman—has generously offered a giveaway to one of my readers. you can win one EYE CREAM and one MICRO-DERMABRASION.


i’m kind of seriously jelly of you guys right now, cause i really want to try the eye cream.
TO ENTER: + just leave me a comment. tell me something, anything. tell me about your beauty regimen (or lack thereof). tell me about the time you smeared egg yolks all over your face to minimize your pores and you stunk the house up. tell me the beauty routine old wives tales your great grandma told you. + one entry per person.
+ i’d love it if you were follower of googiemomma, but it’s not required.
+ i’d also love it if you would go check out rodan + fields website.
+ please leave your email address in the comments if it’s not easily located.
+ giveaway open until 9/30/2010, 12:00 am EST. winner will be chosen at random and notified by email. winner has 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.

note: i was provided with products for review. i was not paid, and all opinions are my own. trust me—i have plenty of my own opinions. i don’t need anyone else’s.