I’ve gone through a zillion bottles of who knows what—switching from expensive, hormone-disrupting toxic products to the cheaper, earth-friendly schtuff—all depending on whether I think I’m looking like a Sharpei at that particular moment. (To clarify, when I’m in a panic, I’ll lean on the bad chemical-laden concoctions because I have this unsubstantiated belief that they tend to do a better job than Mother Nature.) Oh, the shame, I know.

Anyway, here’s what I got for you. After I googled my heart away and read excellent reviews from different retail and beauty sites, I recently decided to go green again with derma e’s Vitamin A (Retinyl Palmitate) Wrinkle Treatment Moisturizing Gel. I didn’t think I had much to lose since I purchased it for a ridiculous $9 bucks on a retail site and like helloo, the bottle is 8 oz.

I immediately liked the fact that the gel was water-based. It’s absorbed quickly into the skin, meaning you can layer other products over it without it rubbing off, and has a very subtle refreshing scent. After a week or so, I noticed that my skin was incredibly soft and smooth, particularly the skin around my eyes. As for those dang laugh lines, they’re still a work in progress, but I’m convinced the gel has kept them at bay.

Although I’ve been slathering the Vitamin A Wrinkle Treatment on for several weeks now with solid results, my love for layering products caught up to me, and so just a couple weeks ago, I went back on the hunt for a peptides product to complement it. Total coinkeedink, but I discovered another highly rated product by derma e—Peptides Plus Wrinkle Reverse Serum ($26).

Since peptides are a necessary component for plumping the skin, layering this product—which also has the benefits of Vitamin C, Green Tea, and Pycnogenol to boot—with the Vitamin A Gel might be the right combo I need to get my latent collagen to show me some mercy. I’ll get back to you in the near future to let you know if this duo is magic.

And by the by, this review-in-progress is totally from me and me alone—I don’t get paid by companies to endorse their products on my blog.

As most of you probably already know, the FDA doesn’t invest its time regulating personal care products because it doesn’t believe they pose an immediate health risk. In other words, a slow, insidious poisoning of our bodies by the daily onslaught of man-made toxic chemicals hidden away in our body lotions, shampoos, cosmetics, perfumes, and deodorants is permissible.

If we had labels that scored the level of toxicity of our personal care products, my guess is that it’d prompt many of us to make healthier, greener choices and change our buying habits. Jolly good, right? For us, yes. For your collagen-plumping lip gloss company, not so much. Although some beauty companies have responded to consumers’ concerns, the vast majority of the billion-dollar industry has been seemingly reluctant to change, as doing so would require a massive overhaul of its formulations for less harmful ingredients–and lots of moolah coming out of its pocket. Sadly and infuriatingly, in this day and age the bottom line and the status quo muddy the progress towards greater consumer knowledge, choice, and most importantly, health. Sick, isn’t it?

On the bright side, I think the controversy is here to stay until there’s widespread accountability and regulation. Reputable sites like The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and the Environmental Working Group’s cosmetic database are really spreading the word that we don’t want to be guinea pigs to what some critics claim are innocuous ingredients. Hey, I’m all about testings things out but never at the expense of my health.