American Women Dish on Their Views on Aging, Beauty and What They'd Do for Themselves If They Had an Extra Day in the Year

SKILLMAN, N.J., Feb. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Sixty-five percent of American women confess to skimping on beauty: these time crunched ladies spend 30 minutes or less on their beauty rituals each day. However, more than three in five women admit they wish they had an extra day in the year to spend on themselves, and one third declare they would spend more than 30 minutes on beauty or grooming rituals with this extra day.

Just in time for Leap Year, the findings from a recent survey commissioned by AVEENO(R) POSITIVELY AGELESS(TM) Lifting & Firming are released. The AVEENO(R) Extra Day study, conducted by Opinion Research Corporation, surveyed more than 1,000 American women about their views on aging, individual beauty, and what exactly they would do if they had an extra day in the year to do what they please.

Age Might Be More than Just a Number

Whether American women's days are becoming increasingly jam-packed, or they just don't feel like they can or should take the time to indulge themselves, it is apparent that the older a woman gets, the less amount of time she spends on beautifying herself. The AVEENO(R) Extra Day survey revealed that after 45, women claim to spend less than half an hour on beauty in increasing numbers. Interestingly, women aged 45 and older are also increasingly likely to say that they feel "less beautiful" with the ticking of the clock.

Women are spending less time on beauty, at the same time their confidence is waning. "These survey results have confirmed how important it is in this day and age for an anti-aging products to work harder, and last longer," says Alissa Hsu Lynch, Group Product Director of AVEENO(R). "The new AVEENO(R) POSITIVELY AGELESS(TM) Lifting & Firming line delivers clinically proven anti-aging results and requires little extra time out of a woman's day. In fact, the POSITIVELY AGELESS(TM) Lifting & Firming Night Cream in the line features an ACTIVE NATURALS(R) formula comprised of the Natural Shiitake Complex and a special Wheat Protein to fight lines and wrinkles while lifting, firming and strengthening skin elasticity during sleep, leaving more time in the day for women to focus on what really matters."

An "Extra Day for Me" Proves Popular

Maybe it's because they don't necessarily have enough time to spend on themselves, but American women are eager for an extra day of beauty. In the spirit of this year's Leap Year, AVEENO(R) also set out to find out if women wished for an extra day for themselves, and if given one, what they would do. While three in five women wished they'd had an extra day, not surprisingly, moms were the most likely group to wish for an extra day in the year to spend on themselves, with a whopping 73 percent saying "yes, please."

    Additional survey highlights include:
    -- An extra day proved popular with the majority women who admitted
       spending less than 30 minutes on their own beauty a day.
    -- More than two thirds of women between 35 and 44, and seven in ten women
       45 to 54 confessed to wishing they had an extra day every year to spend
       on themselves.
    -- In fact, women between the ages of 35 and 44 were actually second most
       likely to say they would spend more than 30 minutes of an extra day on
       beauty (they were the second largest group to report they spent less
       than 30 minutes a day beautifying behind the 65 and older group),
       behind only women in the 18 to 24 age group.
    -- Interestingly enough, women between the ages of 45 and 55 were just as
       likely to admit they would spend more than three hours of an extra day
       on beauty or grooming rituals as the beauty indulgent 18 to 24 age
       group.

"Beauty Sleep" Isn't Just a Saying

AVEENO(R) also took a look at women's perceptions on "beauty sleep." Given an extra day in the year, nearly half of all women (44 percent) claim they would indulge in extra sleep or pampering rituals in the comfort of their own home. And almost half of women (45 percent) between the ages of 35 and 44 would choose to pamper themselves at home if they had an extra day in the year, with a full 48 percent choosing extra beauty rest, making sleep a slightly more popular activity than a traditional beautifying day at home. While nearly 30 percent admit they hadn't a clue that their skin undergoes a renewal process while resting, the 44 percent that owned up to choosing sleep if they had an extra day in the year are clearly on the right track.

Beauty and Aging: Feelings and Habits

In addition to women's perceptions on aging and what they would do with an extra day, the AVEENO(R) Extra Day survey also looked into how women feel as they get older, what their aging concerns are, and how they fight the signs of aging. Highlights include:

    -- Nearly three in five women (59 percent) say that the effects of aging
       have some level of importance in their lives with nearly a quarter
       saying it's very important to them.
    -- While health is understandably the primary aging concern for women,
       skin is the second largest aging concern ahead of weight gain and grey
       hair.
    -- Sagging or loss of firmness is the greatest skin aging concern of women
       55 and older, followed directly by wrinkles.  For all women younger
       than 55, wrinkles tops the list of their greatest skin aging concerns.
    -- Women between the ages of 18 and 24 are more likely to confess that
       they spend more than 30 minutes a day on their beauty routine, while
       women aged 65 and older are most likely to say they spend 30 minutes or
       less a day.
    -- More than a third of women believe that the sun affects skin the most,
       making it the most recognized barrier to skin health.  However there is
       a difference in the amount of women who actually wear sunscreen daily;
       only 45 percent of women say they wear SPF daily to fight or correct
       the signs of aging.
    -- Almost half of women between the ages of 35 to 44 say they use
       anti-aging skincare products to fight the signs of aging, while over 50
       percent of women between the ages of 45 to 64 say they use anti-aging
       skincare products to fight or correct the signs of aging.

For further information, regional statistics and complete survey results from the AVEENO(R) Extra Day survey, or to learn more about the new AVEENO(R) POSITIVELY AGELESS(TM) Lifting & Firming line of products, please visit www.positivelyageless.com or contact Marcela Bequillard or Erin Wolf at Rpr Marketing Communications at 212-317-1462.

About AVEENO(R):

AVEENO(R), one of the brands of the Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products Company, is the leader in ACTIVE NATURALS(R) technology, including Oatmeal, Soy, Shiitake Mushrooms and Feverfew. Recommended by dermatologists and pediatricians for over 60 years, the brand is committed to developing breakthrough product formulations with new and existing natural ingredients that are clinically proven to deliver real skincare benefits. The AVEENO(R) line includes skincare products for face, body, baby and sun protection. For more information about the AVEENO(R) brand and its product offerings, visit: www.aveeno.com.

About The AVEENO(R) Extra Day Survey:

This survey was conducted via phone by Opinion Research Corporation on behalf of AVEENO(R) between January 24 and January 28, 2008 among 1,021 U.S. women 18 years of age or older. Completed interviews are weighted by four variables: age, sex, geographic region, and race, to ensure reliable and accurate representation of the total population, 18 years of age and older. The raw data are weighted by a custom designed program which automatically develops a weighting factor for each respondent. Each respondent is assigned a single weight derived from the relationship between the actual proportion of the population with its specific combination of age, sex, geographic characteristics and race and the proportion in our CARAVAN sample that week.