Age maintenance skin care system by Cindy Crawford and Dr. Jean-Louis Sebagh

This review focuses on the Maintenance 2 Night Fluid, the more important of the system’s components.

Key ingredients:

Cucumis Melo (cantaloupe), “a patented melon extract.”

Total Ingredients:

Water (Aqua), Isononyl Isononanoate, Prunus Amygdalus Duicis (Sweet Almond) Oil, Polymethyl Methacrylate, Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Ascorbyl Methylsilanol Pectinate, Sorbitan Oleate, Poylsorbate 80, Dicaprylyl Maleate, Dimethicone, Soluble Collagen, Cucumis Melo (Melon) Fruit Extract, Saccharomyces / Zinc Ferment, Elaeis Guineensis (Palm) Oil, Hydrogentated Palm Oil, Tocopherol, Cholesterol, Decarboxy Carnosine HCL, Magnesium Ascrobyl Phosphate, Butylene Glycol, Retinyl Palmitate, Lecithin, Sodium Polyacrylate, Mineral Oil, C13-14 Isoparaffin, Polysorbate 85, Polyacrylamide, Palmitoyl Proline, Magnesium Palmitoyl Glutamate, Sodium Palmitoyl Sarcosinate, Alcohol Denat., Glycerin, Magnesiu, Aluminum Silicate, Tocotrienols, Citric Acid, Disodium EDTA, Phenoxyethanol, Chlorphenesin, Mthylparaben, Bensoic Acid, Dehydroacetic Acid, Propylparaben, Fragrance (Parfum), Benzyl Benzoate, Benzyl Salicylate, Citronellol, Limonene, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, Geraniol, Hexyl Cinnamal, Butylphenyl Methylpropional, Linalool.

What the website says:

“When you sleep, your skin has important ‘repair’ work to do. Maintenance 2 is specially formulated to benefit the skin overnight. Our 11 key ingredients help rejuvenate damaged skin to improve skin’s firmness and diminish the visible signs of aging. Skin will appear softer and healthier-looking overnight. You’ll wake up looking revitalized and refreshed. Note: Maintenance 2 is a unique type of night cream, but don’t let the light texture fool you. It’s delivering intensive moisture and nutrients to the skin.”

What the Diva says:

This really was one of those “I am so skeptical” purchases. First, the infomercial touted the exotic properties of a cantaloupe grown in France that seemed to age less quickly than other cantaloupes. My initial reaction was, “so what?” A melon’s DNA is formulated to help the melon stay young and won’t really do much for a human being. However, fruit extracts being what they are, there’s always a hint of truth in the statement that they can improve the quality of skin because any citrus will aid in exfoliation…in their natural form. Rub a 50% water/50% lemon juice concoction on your skin and you’ll instantly be smoother.

The fact that this exceptional melon extract is #11 in this product’s list of 51 ingredients indicates that it’s less about the “cucumis melo” and more about the sweet almond oil. Of the 11 key ingredients – a fact bullet-pointed on their website – the melon extract is dead last. I’m not sure if it’s going to do something to preserve my face or to preserve the other ten additives.

Nevertheless, the trial offer was appealing and I do this sort of investigating so I got on the phone and ordered the system. After using it for 30 days I actually purchased the full-sized kit (about $70) to keep it around a little longer. This is the first time I’ve been stymied by a skin care product; it seemed to be working as advertised but was it really better than anything else?

It took a little longer than most products but I finally have my answer: after 60 days of use on my combination skin, the only thing I can say for certain is it’s an easy system to use. Cleanser, day moisturizer, night moisturizer, eye cream, weekly masque. You can purchase some added difficulty if you wish (toner, décolleté cream, revitalizing serum) but they’re not necessary. My skin looks fresh and appealing because it’s thoroughly cleansed and moisturized but I do not see any extraordinary new firmness or evenness of tone. My pores don’t look any smaller than they would with any other system. It’s soft, though, and that has little to do with the melon extract…if it was missing from the ingredient list I would still have soft skin because oil does that – and this product has a bunch of almond oil in it.

There are some women who swear by this stuff (and certainly one has to sit up and take notice if Valerie Bertinelli raves about it). There are some women who claim it does nothing for them. Once again, it’s all about the marketing. You’re not going to look 20 years younger if you start using this product at 45; you’re not going to look like Cindy Crawford at 40 unless you resort to invasive procedures like botox, collagen, or plastic surgery. But if all you expect is a simple, effective, and reasonably priced skin care system, this could work for you. Meaningful Beauty© will work for me until I move on to my next investigation. As for you, be sure you’re not allergic to any of the ingredients before trying it – but don’t be afraid to try it, is all I’m saying.

Pros:

1. 30-day money back guarantee on their trial-sized kit is $30 plus S/H, a good price for the basic kit (think travel-sized bottles).
2. Instantly hydrated and smoothed my skin, more so after using the Masque.
3. Delivered on its promise that “skin will appear softer…overnight.”
4. It’s a very solid skin care system.

Cons:

1. Cindy Crawford has had beauty enhancements by her own admission (botox injections, collagen replacement therapy, etc.); it brings into question exactly how this system has kept her looking 20 years younger as claimed by the infomercials.
2. That melon…ain’t all that.