I’m not a woman who would ever consider having botulism toxins injected under my skin.  I let my hair go gray in the last 10 years.  I think I am reasonably vain, but not crazy weird about it.  I know everybody ages. I'm not afraid to show it.

I have noticed, however, that my hands have started to look really old.  For years I worked as a housekeeper, which meant washing my hands over and over again.  It never, ever occurred to me to sunscreen my hands.  I’ve gotten self-conscious of them after seeing them in a couple of photographs where they looked really wrinkled.  The veins stick out.  The skin has gotten to be a strange, mottled color, too red and too yellow. My hands look older than the rest of my body.

A solution found me in a roundabout way. I joined Klout a couple of months ago to see how much influence my blogs had on the social media web.  (My thoughts on Klout at here:  http://redroom.com/member/loren-rhoads/blog/figuring-out-my-klout).
One of the side benefits to registering with Klout is that they offer “perks” that you can receive if your Klout score is high enough, which is to say, you can influence enough people.  The perks range from business cards to webinars to concert tickets and iced tea samples.  It’s all very strange.  I suppose the variety is either indicative of the people who will pay to have “social media influencers” pimping their products and/or a reflection of what people who sign up for Klout are interested in.  I’m not sure.

One of the perks for which I was eligible was a sample of Neutrogena’s Rapid Wrinkle Repair serum.  I blog about cemeteries and writing, so I suspect the offer comes because somehow they figured out I am in their target age group.  All the same, I said sure, send me your sample.  I promise I will be honest about it.

Over the last two weeks, I’ve tried out Neutrogena’s wrinkle reducer on my hands, if not on my face.  I think it helped some, but it certainly hasn’t made the radical difference I hoped for.  The wrinkles seem less noticeable.  The redness in my knuckles has faded and my skin is a healthier color overall. Maybe there is something to this retinol business.

My primary issue with the stuff is that it has a very strong smell.  It’s an overwhelming, unpleasantly perfumey smell.  In addition, I don’t like that it’s so sheer that I need to wear a lotion over it or my skin feels dry.  I wonder if the second lotion dilutes the magic of the first.

I might be swayed to buy myself more Rapid Wrinkle Repair, once the sample runs out, but that’s dependent on the price.  There’s only so much I’m willing to pay for snake oil.  If I'd seen a vast improvement, I might be willing to shell out more.  I admit that I might have let the damage get too bad to be repaired by a non-prescription lotion.

Getting my first perk been an interesting experience, although I'm not sure anyone got out of it what they expected.

Klout recommends I use this disclosure: I was given a free sample because I'm a Klout influencer. I am under no obligation to receive the sample or talk about this company. I get no additional benefits for talking about the product or company. Now you know.