The big companies pump huge amounts of money into researching their products and the cost of all this lab work is passed on to the customer. But there are always exceptions and some very good creams (although not marketed as `anti-wrinkle') are from Neal's Yard. Their Frankincense Nourishing Cream, pounds 8.50, contains frankincense and myrrh, two ingredients renowned for their age-defying properties. The Vitamin E and Avocado Cream, pounds 8.50, is also lovely and nourishing; try the Rose Facial Oil, pounds 9.50, on particularly dry patches prone to lines. Superdrug, which regular readers will know I rate highly, do anti-wrinkle creams too, but I found them to be just like good moisturisers and not high-performance enough.On the subject of oils, Elizabeth Arden's Ceramide Advanced Time Complex capsules, pounds 43.50, are pods of oily stuff fantastic for travelling, as you can count out exactly how much you need. Aveda's Night Nutrients, pounds 35, is another oily, rather than creamy, substance which immediately sinks in to soothe dry skin. Clarins' Extra Firming Night Cream, pounds 38, recently came out top in a reader poll (quite rightly) and promptly sold out.

It works by helping soften and soothe the skin with ingredients of ylang ylang and cedar. The corresponding day cream, pounds 36, (one must have 24-hour support), is packed full of `light-activated' ingredients such as hops, sage and red algae, which aid the skin's supply of vitamin D, increasing firmness. Isn't it ironic that vitamin D production is stimulated by the sun, yet the sun is the biggest cause of wrinkles? One of God's little jokes. Which does beg the question: why don't more day anti-wrinkle creams contain a sun screen? Guerlain does one, the ridiculously long-named Anti-Age 12 Mois Time Responsive Care SPF8, pounds 29.50. If your problem is more saggy chops than lines, try Clarins Contouring Facial Lift, pounds 28. Holly and dark algae help drainage to avoid puffiness, and garcinol (a plant extract) and caffeine stimulates the elimination of excess fats. Single lines can be treated with Shiseido's Wrinkle Control Smoothing Concentrate, pounds 70: a tiny drop can be smoothed over laugh lines or on the teeny ones you get on your upper lip if you draw too deeply on fags.

Which you shouldn't be doing anyway, because you know it deprives your skin of oxygen - which causes nasty wrinkles in the first place Drink however, especially champagne, is fantastic for skin. After one or two glasses, your skin will be devoid of all wrinkles: blemishes and lines will have fuzzed into a peachy perfection. Just remember to throw a chiffon scarf over the mirror for the morning.Stockist enquiries: Aveda: 0171 410 1600; Clarins: 0171 629 2979; Elizabeth Arden: 0171 574 2700; Guerlain: 0181 998 9423; Neal's Yard: 0161 831 7875, mail order: 0171 498 1686; Sisley: 0171 730 1234: Shiseido: 0171 630 1515.. ON FRIDAY night, we had our weekly "film show": a video.

We're allowed to choose the video, the only proviso being that it can't contain scenes of drinking, sex, gambling, violence, shopping, relationship addiction, eating or - if it exists yet on screen - compulsive helping Try this sometime in your local video shop. The Incredible Journey looms large, as does Free Willie, though both are in the danger zone, thanks to their portrayed sympathy towards compulsive helping. As it happened, Cynthia arrived at the clinic on Thursday night. She is a pretty 35-year old from Bradford, admitted for heroin and sex addiction. She was all over the place and the usual good people, or compulsive helpers as we must now call them, instantly looked after her.

One, Marjorie, once helped someone so compulsively that she landed in hospital with a life- threatening asthma attack. But after much jostling for position, it was Nathan, our 16-year-old gambling addict, compulsive liar and nouveau over-eater, who got closest to Cynthia. We should have been suspicious: Nathan is never any help at all, let alone compulsive.I can't remember what film we chose, so it was probably Carousel The chairs in the sitting room were lined up in rows The sofa at the back contained Cynthia and Nathan. The lights went out.It was after the film was over, when we smokers were "enjoying" a cigarette break in the biting cold outside, that Nathan revealed: "I shagged Cynthia during the film."You have to know Nathan to understand properly the dilemma this put us in He's the most unlikely back row shagger imaginable. He's very large, prefers sweets to sex - at any rate, with another person - slobbers a lot and is intensely irritating. On the other hand, Cynthia is a sex addict.If addiction were scientifically provable, shagging Nathan on a sofa in a sock-smelly room while watching Carousel would probably constitute the acid test Cynthia fiercely denied it.So. Did we believe Nathan, a compulsive liar, that they did shag, or Cynthia, a sex addict, that they didn't? Opinion seethed back and forth.