In pursuit of youthful good looks, Americans spend more than $800 million a year on anti-wrinkle creams. To find out of that is money well spent, Consumer Reports ShopSmart tested several to see if they make fine lines and wrinkles disappear. The results were less than spectacular.
Getting rid of wrinkles is something photographer Cathy Pinsky does all the time. Only she does it with computer software.
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"I'll use Photoshop to minimize the wrinkles, take out some of the crow's feet and my clients are thrilled," she said.
In real life, however, you can't click away the wrinkles.
Consumer Reports ShopSmart tested seven products priced between $8 and $80. The creams included big names like L'Oreal and Lancome, as well as Equate from Walmart and the CVS store brand.
"We used an outside lab and a total of 79 people. The test took 12 weeks. The people applied two different creams in the morning, one on each side of their face," said ShopSmart's Jody Rohlena.
Sensory panelists examined more than 600 before and after photos to see if there was any change.
"All of the products smelled pretty good and they didn't leave much of a tacky residue behind, but they didn't make that much of a difference," Rohlena said.
Only one cream, Garnier Nutritioniste Ultra-Lift, did a litter better than the others. But, it only helped about half of the people in the test. And, as the before and after pictures showed, the results were not very dramatic.
"The thing with wrinkles, once you get them, they're very hard to get rid of, so the best thing you can do is prevent them in the first place," Rohlena said.
That means staying out of the sun as much as possible, using hats and sunscreen and drinking plenty of water.