And one of the things I need to REALLY COVER UP every day of my life are my HUGE, ATTENTION-GRABBING eye bags. Don’t ask me how they got big. They just ARE. I’m going to go defensive and tell you, no, I do not have sleeping problems. But ONE DAY, during my teenage years, MY EYE BAGS decided to take the center stage.
Name it, I’ve tried it! Those juicy cucumber slices never landed on the salad plate. My eyes devoured them like a hungry cannibal night after night. And when my mom gave me a hearty scolding for stealing them from the vegetable compartment, I resorted to refrigerating spoons and pressing them on my eye bags, holding on for dear life.
Until my mom brought home this really curious little green thing.
I didn’t know what to make of it. A fashionable flash light? My mom was pointing the thing in front of my face but there was no light. A toy? But I was already far beyond my teens! It was slender and yellow-green and in a few moments, it became the answer to my prayers, errr…let’s not be overly dramatic. And in a few moments, it was going to roll my eye insecurity away.
Garnier Light Brightening Eye Roll-On
It was love at first (eye bag) sight!
Not only was it free (my mom’s French friend gave it to her; Garnier is from France), it was the first time I’ve ever encountered such a product! I don’t remember the exact year, but I got to use the Garnier Roll-on long before KC Concepcion’s Garnier ad and before the roll-on was available in the Philippines.
So when I was holding the roll-on, I really felt like I was one of its few first customers. And really, it was such a unique product. Before Garnier roll-on, I haven’t heard of eye-brightening products (of course there were already pricey eye bag removal creams back in 2004, but they cost a fortune).
It felt like an innovation, combining the cucumber method and cold spoons in one thing. But upon inspection of the box (it’s always fun to look at the catchy descriptions), here’s what it said:
New Garnier Eye Roll-on enriched with caffeine
Our first-ever roll-on to hydrate, cool & refresh tired-looking eyes.
Enriched with Caffeine, the roll-on is a handbag must-have, great for on-the-go women. The cooling moisturiser contains Caffeine and Pro-vitamin B5 for a bright eyed look!
Caffeine? Why not? Okay, I was a bit disappointed that it didn’t contain any cucumber essence or extract. After all, it was yellow green.
Eye Deodorant?
Who’s ever heard of a beauty product that was a roll-on like a deodorant? I thought it was really cute.
If you haven’t tried the roll-on, it’s a metal thing that you roll on your eye bags. It’s cooling and soothing. I also read from the beauty product manual that the roll-on massages the eye bags, hydrating them to get rid of the puffy, tired look.
Whether it worked or not, I just liked the roll-on for simply refreshing my eyes. After using my laptop or reading a book before I go to bed, using Garnier roll-on relieved that tight, stretched and stressed feeling in my eyes that I always get. I wore glasses since forever until I got an eye operation last year. So, yeah, my eyes were always strained, and Garnier roll-on was the perfect friend to soothe the aches away.
A Trendy, Little Thing
If the product was like a drab tube or a spray or a typical circular container, I don’t think I would have continued using and buying the product until now.
I just like how the roll-on looks. It’s slender and curvy and looks like a gadget. It’s shiny yellow-green with a metallic circle on top and its edge. It’s modern and trendy, something you can display on your night table and still manage to look like a decor of some sort, or it could fit in one of the pockets of your designer bag, and let it poke out a little bit – it would look good anyway. You can sit inside an MRT train and use the roll-on without feeling embarrassed. The other passengers would notice, but hell yeah, it would look good! Let them watch and be curious.
The Garnier roll-on is two things: it’s a beauty product and an accessory at the same time. What girl wouldn’t want one?
In the age of simple, slim minimalist I-pods and Mac Books, Garnier roll-on is just about perfect.
The product is not only a thing, not only a product. It’s a statement. It’s saying something to the potential buyer, to the consumer and to the onlooker. Unlike other beauty products you’d throw away after the bottle or tube is empty, Garnier roll-on is something you would want to stay.
Underneath the Roll
Garnier is actually the mass marketing product line of L’Oreal. This means Garnier is relatively and significantly cheaper than L’Oreal main products.
Garnier was created after L’Oreal faced accusations and widespread rumors of animal-testing their products. Garnier was then marketed as an all-natural brand, using green tea and citrus essences. And instead of banking on hard-sell, beauty product-altering, going-under-the-knife beauty, they emphasized natural beauty. From the website, here’s Garnier’s Beauty philosophy:
Our Vision of Beauty
For Garnier, beauty is within us all. Everyone possesses its own natural beauty and everyone has the power to make that beauty shine through. Garnier appeals to that type of woman who is self confident and yet seeks to improve her appearance. By taking care of herself, she reveals her inner beauty and other people are drawn to her. For Garnier, the aim of beauty is happiness and feeling at ease with others.
It’s about taking care.
Garnier is L’Oreal's environmental, socially responsible brand, with emphasis on TAKING CARE OF: 1.) others (community), 2.) environment (hence, the green color of their products) and 3.) most importantly, yourself.
Garnier is L’Oreal done right.
Their celebrity endorsers are wise choices, like Sarah Jessica-Parker, who is both Actress and Producer, Zhang ZiYi, an award-winning actress from China, known for her role in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and locally, our KC Concepcion, an actress, singer and U.N. ambassador, who is otherwise known as the Megastar’s beloved daughter.
These are all celebrities who have got both natural beauty and brains.
Every Object Tells a Story
Why do I like Garnier Light Eye-Brightening Roll-on? Here are the factors that make sense to me.
1. Ingenuity
It’s new, unique, innovative, creative -- it’s never been done before. It threw out those home remedies and instead, came out hip, fresh and modern. No chopping, no refrigerating anymore. It’s all here – in one slim, shiny thing.
It’s both ingenuous and valuable since it solved one of the problems that’s never been addressed before. And in this day and age of internet, eyes are often stressed and tired. Why not brighten everyone’s eyes? Women’s eyes for that matter.
2. Form
I remember what my Film Professor said. What’s a good storyline and plot without good form? He was saying a good story wouldn’t work if the storytelling through the imagery and direction wasn’t the perfect fit. The same goes for a beauty product.
It has to be slim, like those girls in magazines. It has to be hip and trendy to keep up with the modern times. It’s beautiful, yet smart. No pink flowers and glitters. Just a shape, a color, a small logo - all a product needs to be unforgettable. The simpler, the better. The less shown, the more said. Just like the Nike brand.
3. Statement
It should not only do something for the user (which is to soothe the eyes), but also has to SAY SOMETHING about the user.
For a Garnier consumer, it’s being confident, but being concerned about one’s appearance. She’s not too shallow or frivolous, but just the right kind of girl who balances being smart, beautiful and being trendy.
And people who see this girl in the MRT using the roll-on on her eye bags would turn curious and say, “What is that?”, “I’ve got to have one of those.” Or “I’ve got to be like her.” And so the mass production goes…
(this is Garnier's latest online campaign via Facebook, a reality contest where they partnered with GMA 7)Garnier Roll-on is not trying-hard, hungry for attention. It’s such a simple thing. It’s compact, small and green. No other beauty product has dared to come up with GREEN. Garnier did, reiterating its stand about natural beauty and environmental awareness.
4. Extra Value
People like something with extra value. It makes them feel like their purchase is worth it, that they got something for free, even though they didn’t. An i-pod does not only have music, but also has games. A pair of jeans or a jacket is reversible. A dress can either be a tube dress or a skirt.
For Garnier roll-on, it’s both a beauty product and a décor/accessory.
As what Henry Ford said, every object tells a story. Often times, we don’t know it does. We just buy and use an object and feel it’s quite obvious and normal to be buying and using this.
We are not aware of how a product communicates to the user. As in the case of my love at first (eye bag) sight, I now know why I have never stopped using it since the day my mother brought it home. What attracted me to the product and vice versa. And I’m pretty sure, time will pass, a new product will arrive and I’ll probably throw all my six roll-ons for A THING that hasn’t been thought of and created yet.
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