You know you're getting old when...there is no punch line here folks, it's more of a fill in the blank. For me, the biggest indicator that I'm more of a late-summer chicken these days is the fact that my eyelids seem to be caving in on themselves. Seriously.

A year or two ago I started noticing that every time I applied mascara, I'd end up with some smudged on my top lid. At first, I thought I was just being careless with my application, then, I realized that it was because my upper lid was sagging and interfering with the wand. Lovely.

That's when I started wearing those cotton headbands. You know, the ones that sort of pull your hair and your forehead back? (They really do seem to impart a mini-lift effect.) That's also when I happened upon an article in some women's magazine that extolled the virtues of Benefit ooh la lift, $22. The piece claimed that, when artfully applied, the "highlighter" would really work to fake an eyelift.

Since I had nothing to lose -- there's no way I'm going under the knife for something so vain (well, not yet anyway) -- I ran right out to Sephora and picked up a tube.

The instructions seemed simple enough, simply dab a few dots of the "light reflecting" highlighter wherever you think your eyes need brightening and blend. Luckily, I've never had to contend with dark under eye circles, so I can't speak to its efficacy at covering them, but I can say that the oh-so-subtle pink shimmer of this cream in a tube really does help make my upper eye look more open!

Add to that happy result the fact that it felt smooth and silky as it went on and lasted the whole day and I had a new bff in the makeup department.

Now, I'm not saying that I look all bright-eyed and ingenue-y all the time because of a little highlighter, I'm just saying that it takes less than a minute to apply and really does make a difference. Not too many things you can say that about, right?

Have any must-have favorites you'd like to divulge? C'mon, your secret's safe with us.