A few weeks ago I had a really cool experience that I wanted to share with you. In the spirit of transparency, I want to note that this is the first in a series of sponsored posts with Olay, but this particular one is more about how the Good Housekeeping team tests all of the products that they write about in the magazine and make the cut (or don’t!) for their infamous “Seal of Approval”.

They test vacuums to refrigerators to beauty products and pretty much everything in between. It’s actually super fascinating, and I was shocked by how much thought and science went into it. I know that a lot of consumers turn to them as a trusted guide, but I had no idea just how precise their testing is.

Before I get into that process, I want to outline what my partnership with Olay looks like as a heads up for you guys. I’m going to be testing out one of their reengineered Micro Sculpting Cream for the next month or so, and sharing my honest results over that time. Considering I’m turning 32 in a few weeks, I think it’s about time I started using an anti-aging product!

Two weeks ago I visited the Good Housekeeping labs where they test all of the products for the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. I saw dirty dishes being cleaned by multiple dish soaps, carpets being vacuumed by dozens of vacuums, and seemingly hundreds of lipsticks being tested for texture and wear.

They think of everything during these experiments. For example, when they test vacuums on carpets, they control the humidity in the room so that it’s the same for every single test. For beauty products, they apply them to test subjects using a syringe so that each subject gets the exact same amount of each product being tested, and doesn’t know what is what.

So, how did Olay’s reengineered Micro Sculpting Cream hold up to all of this? Better than anyone could have expected. Dr. Birnur Aral, Director of Health, Beauty, and Environmental Sciences Laboratory at the Good Housekeeping Institute taught us about how they did blind tests against top prestige anti-aging creams on the market and how it beat them out in more ways than one:

• Three hours after application, it moisturized 400% better than a cream nearly 18 times its price (you know the one…) and beat all other products tested.
• It increased moisture by 50% on average over a 24-hour period.
• In blind comparisons (mentioned above), the testers preferred it 80% of the time over expensive creams, reporting that it felt “rich” without being heavy.
• In only four weeks, it improved the texture of testers’ skin by 10%.

To get some of these results, they used special machines that measure things like elasticity, hydration, and texture of skin. It was pretty cool to see all of the work that goes into it, and it made me excited to check it out because I really feel like I need to tighten up.

In my next post, I’ll go into what is in this product that makes it so effective, and will review my first few weeks using it. Will I get the same results as the lab? We’ll have to wait and see! Stay tuned…

Thank you to Olay for sponsoring this post. All opinions, as always, are 100% my own.