But first, let’s take a brief look at a bit of background information:

Normally, by the end of our twenties, we can see “them” in the mirror – little lines around our eyes and on our forehead. They may cause concern to some, but wrinkles aren’t the only sign that our skin is ageing and requires more care – and Olay’s experts have identified the seven key indicators that our skin is getting older.

Luckily, Olay Total Effects Sensitive helps fight seven signs of ageing, ensuring that…

• 1… fine lines and wrinkles appear reduced.
• 2… skin texture looks smoother.
• 3… skin appears more even-toned.
• 4… pores appear reduced.
• 6… a moisture balance is maintained
• 7… skin’s surface glows.

Alongside all of that, the moisturiser also helps protect against UVA/UVB rays, one of the main causes of premature skin ageing.

So the question is:

After using Olay Total Effects Sensitive Moisturiser for an extended period of time, what changes in your skin tone, feel, and texture have you experienced so far? Do your friends agree?

I’m looking forward to reading your replies!

Also, why not use the insider information from the project handbook to explain what is great about the sensitive moisturiser, and then ask them to take a second or two to fill in a research sheet so that their opinions can be presented to the brand at the end of our project.

Our aim on each Savvy Circle project is to collect as much information and as many opinions and comments as is possible. Let’s work together to astound the brand with our feedback!

Click the picture to send in results about Olay Total Effects from family and friends

Don’t forget to input the answers online so that your feedback can reach the brand. Click here to do just that!

Tip: If you happen to be running low on research sheets simply photocopy a few so that you don’t run out.

@all: How far have you managed to spread the word with your market research sheets… to friends, family, work colleagues, strangers? What were their impressions?

The experts at Olay help us understand exactly what the new Olay Total Effects can do for us, and why that step in our make-up routine is such a significant one…

Moisture is critical in maintaining the skin’s protective barrier layer and making skin look younger and healthier. Unfortunately, as we age, skin doesn’t hold water as well as it used to – it tends to get drier more easily. This, combined with a weakened skin protection barrier and lessened elasticity, makes fine lines and wrinkles appear, since dry skin is more apt to crease.

By using the right products, though, we can help our skin regain and keep that lost moisture. Moisturised skin not only looks plumper and softer – it’s also more capable of resisting the forces which age us.

Thanks to Savvy Circle member joey3 for the above picture!

An anti-ageing skincare routine should also include the daily use of a cream with an SPF, since it’s critical to protect skin against the sun’s harmful UV rays, even in winter. Additionally, we should drink enough water to help ensure that our skin stays hydrated from the inside, and get enough sleep to look and feel refreshed.

Fruits and vegetables are a great way to get antioxidants naturally, but anti-ageing products can help combat free radicals, as well as trapping moisture where it can do the most good.

It isn’t possible to stop time, but with the right routine and combination of products, we can age gracefully. If properly cared for, skin can protect us from the elements while looking lovely, and it can do it all our lives – moisturising (i.e. maintaining skin’s protective barrier) is a large part of that care.

@all – What changes in your skin’s moisture levels have you noticed since the beginning of our trial of Olay Total Effects? How well does the product improve the look and feel of your skin?

That’s why we’re really glad that Savvy Circle member EJ70 decided to send in a conversation report to let us know her husband has also been trying out the moisturiser!

Thank you to Savvy Circle members Maybee (left) and EJ70 (right) for their photos!

And it’s not just the two men shown above, either, as we realised upon reading numerous other comments sent in from our fellow Savvy Circle members…

[...] my husband has just confessed that he’s been using my sample in the mornings – he said I should have hidden it if it was only meant for me to use! Seems the men don’t mind using moisturiser if someone else buys it. Savvy Circle member rusversa

[...] Spoke with my husband showing him the samples etc he was keen to see what Olay does and has taken a sample to try himself which is new as he normally wouldn’t touch a ‘girly’ face cream. Savvy Circle member em02pinky

[...] put some on my husbands face because he said his skin was dry he said his skin felt much better he is impressed! Savvy Circle member poppysmum

Very interesting! Thanks to Savvy Circle members Maybee, EJ70, rusversa, em02pinky and poppysmum for their fab photos and reports.

@all: Have you found your other half showing an interest in your Olay Total Effects Sensitive samples? Do let us know by adding a comment below!

Savvy Circle member sue123321 and her daughter show off their starter kit together.

Niacinamid (Vitamin B3)
UV rays, climate-controlled environments and artificial heating are the main causes of skin’s winter dryness. Luckily, this is where the water-soluble vitamin Niacinamide (Vitamin B3) comes in: it makes skin more resilient and able to trap moisture. Niacinamide speeds up skin’s regenerative processes, strengthens its resistance to UV rays, and noticeably reduces fine lines and wrinkles. Skin becomes smoother and tighter.

Vitamin B3 can be found in meat, potatoes and oats, as well as in Olay Total Effects!

Vitamin E
Vitamin E is also known as the “beauty vitamin” – it helps prevent against the moisture loss caused by ageing and environmental factors. It keeps pores looking refined and our complexions looking smooth. Moreover, its other nickname is the “radical catcher”: it can trap free radicals, the pesky little molecules believed to be involved in the ageing process. In short, Vitamin E is an antioxidant which improves the water-trapping ability of the top layer of our skin.

Olay Total Effects contains the stable form of Vitamin E, the tocopheryl acetate. In nature, it occurs in all plant-based oils as well as in nuts, seeds and sprouts.

Pro-Vitamin B5
The water-soluble Pro-Vitamin B5 sinks deep into the surface of the skin. It helps strengthen skin’s barrier function and its abilities to conserve moisture.

Pro-Vitamin B5 is found in whole-grain products, eggs, nuts, rice, fruit, vegetables, and milk. Olay Total Effects contains it in its synthetic form, Panthenol.

@all: Will knowing the functions of the vitamins contained in Olay Total Effects help you spread the word, or will you decide to simply let the cream’s effectiveness speak for itself? Let us know below!

Some of our team members, I am sure, may not have had the chance to get creative as their samples were speedily snapped up by curious colleagues. Others, though, have found the time to get creative and think of new ways to spark the interest of their friends and family. Introducing Savvy Circle members Dee25 and Spinnaker2, below…

Thanks to Savvy Circle members Dee25 (left) and Spinnaker2 (right) for these pics!

While Dee25 says one of her friends, after receiving her little kit, “loves the fact that it doesn’t leave her skin greasy”, Spinnaker2 provided some constructive criticism on our starter kit. Would love to hear whether or not you agree, as we’re always looking for ways to improve and make our Savvy Circle projects better!

I decided to prepare the samples/forms/coupons for handing out to the mothers in the playground. BUT what a pity! [...] The box that arrived for me was well packaged, and everything was neatly fitted into it. But in order for me to give out the ‘mini packs’ I had to rip out the forms (looks messy); tear out the coupons and use a bag to put them together with the samples. If I had been designing this project, I would have put 10 little Olay paper bags in every pack, all ready to be filled and handed out. Savvy Circle member Spinnaker2

Thanks so much for your feedback and ideas!

@all: How did you hand out your samples? Was it a simple case of just passing the mini Olay samples out with a market research sheet, or did you get creative too and prepare mini sample packs like our fellow members above?

After all, I am certain that the majority of people here would love to find out whether or not their opinions and impressions of the product correlate to our fellow Savvy Circle members’ opinions.

We started off our survey by asking the following question:

What is your general impression of Olay's Total Effects Sensitive Moisturiser?

Another question we posed was as follows:

Did you already know about Olay's Total Effects Sensitive Moisturiser before this project?

One final thing I’d like to share was the final question that invited respondents to add any other comments they had about the product/project so far – find an interesting selection here!

Thanks so much for choosing me… my skin feels so much better, I don’t feel so ashamed when I go out. Will definitely be using the coupons in the future. This is the first one I’ve done and it has been very simple and easy to take part in.

I feel the project is very well thought out and allows us the chance to get family and friends on board to try out a very impressive product.

This is my first project & I’ve found it so easy to carry out. The website is so user friendly & helpful. I enjoy reading other testers comments – feels like I’m part of one big happy group. Also, the survey is just about the right length.

A fantastic way to experience new products plus something to chat about at the weekly coffee morning.

@all: Thanks to all of those who have taken part in our survey. If you haven’t – and you’re in the project team – there is still a day left to do so; just go to the member’s area and you’ll find the link. Or alternatively, click here. I hope you find the results as interesting as we do!

After all, who is better placed to provide valuable – and more important, honest – feedback to women looking for a new moisturiser? The best and easiest way to get the word out there to the masses is by writing an online review on a website such as Amazon or Boots. Our reviews and feedback will allow others to then make up their own minds about whether or not Olay’s Total Effects Sensitive Moisturiser is the right one for them!

Click the picture above to go to Boots.com and review Olay’s Sensitive Moisturiser

You can also head to the official Olay page on Facebook to leave your comments there; why not “like” the page to let others know you are a product tester for the brand? Use the opportunity to also trade beauty and skincare tips with the thousands of other women who visit it regularly!

So: Have you written a review yet? If not, take a moment or two to visit one of the links below to write a quick review:

Amazon.co.uk
Boots.com

@all: Let’s try to generate as many online reviews as we can so that we can help others make their own minds up about the product. Here’s to a great start to the week!

Whether you opened up your starter kit in the office or at home I am sure most of us have now had the opportunity to start trying out the new Total Effects Sensitive Moisturiser and spreading the word to others.

Savvy Circle member moncac took her kit to work to help spread the word about Olay’s Total Effects Sensitive Moisturiser, while another of our project team, Savvy Circle member lynnette, took her samples and coupons on a night out with the girls:

Ladies trying out their samples of Olay Total Effects Sensitive Moisturiser

I took my kit to work today, to handle some samples out, take some pictures and spread the word about my first experience with Olay. We are mainly a female team at work, so it was so easy to talk about new product and everybody seemed so excited just like me. I gave some samples away together with vouchers and all the girls tested the product straight away. I received positive feedback from all of them. […] Savvy Circle member moncac

I was having drinks last night with the girls […] when I arrived I told them about the product and gave out the free samples, the money off vouchers and the feedback sheets. […] they liked the cream and we all had a try with it. […] Savvy Circle member lynnette

Let us know who you’ve been talking to about our project and your new Olay Total Effects Sensitive Moisturiser by leaving a comment below!

In the early 1950’s, Olay’s story began in the South African home laboratory of Graham Wulff. He saw how frustrated his wife Dinah was with the beauty creams available at the time; we all know how important it is to moisturise, but the products available to Dinah were thick, waxy, greasy creams which came in containers that looked like shoe-polish tins.

Luckily, being a chemist, he was able to work together with his wife to create and test a new product for her skin. This new beauty cream would, according to Wulff, “penetrate rapidly, be compatible with the skin, remain stable, restore and hold moisture, while protecting the skin… and leaving a supple, matte finish”. They were successful, and Dinah was delighted with the results. The product they’d made wasn’t only feminine and light – it had a distinct pink shade and a unique fragrance.

The Wulffs had created a beautiful product, and now they wanted to find a way to market it to other women. So they selected account executive Jack Adams Lowe, who would partner in business with the Wulffs for the rest of his life. Lowe developed Olay’s name, which referenced lanolin, a key ingredient, and its packaging – an unconventional heavy glass bottle. Nowhere on the bottle did it say what the product actually did; advertising focussed on Olay being a “beauty secret” or “the secret of a younger looking you”. It didn’t matter… within five years the product was wildly successful among South African women.


These ladies look happy with their Olay samples and money off coupons…

In 1959, Wulff and his partners expanded their business to market Olay around the world, altering its name for different countries. The product was originally known as Oil of Ulay in the UK and Ireland, Oil of Ulan in Australia, and Oil of Olaz in France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Germany. That wasn’t the end of the product’s name changes, though – “Oil” was taken out in 2000, because although the product originally contained certain topical oils, the formula has evolved and is now light.

Through it all, though, Olay has been a brand created to reflect the needs of women – the women of yesterday, the women of today, and the women of years to come.

@all – What’s your first memory of the Olay brand? Do you have any recollections of your mother or grandmothers spreading the word about Olay?

One of the reasons is all to do with playing our part: The Olay team would like to use this opportunity to find out our valued opinions of their new Total Effects Sensitive Moisturiser, and so equipped 8,000 of us with a starter kit packed with a full-sized sample, lots of mini samples and a generous booklet of money-off coupons.

We’ve already received thousands of fantastic conversation reports, and the more reports we can generate, the better!

Our contact at Olay, Cat, is there to answer all of our questions, while Olay as a brand would like to receive as much feedback as possible about the topic of skincare and their new product.

The main way to send feedback is via a conversation report: When our eight weeks are up, we’d love to be able to let the Olay team know how people we talked to about their new moisturiser reacted and how the samples and coupons we were able to hand out went down.

Conversation reports can be:

• Short and snappy, for example sending a link to a blog post or forum entry we have made.
• A bit longer and more detailed, with detailed feedback, praise, criticism, individual test results, photos or videos from our fellow testers.