Do you get what you pay for when you buy a jar of moisturizer? This is an old-age question. The question is even more complex today because many moisturizers claim to do more than simply moisturize. From sunblocking to peeling dead skin, today's moisturizers come with bells and whistles that a simple-minded drug store lotion can't emulate. Sisley's Emulsion Ecologique costs $160, while an equivalent amount of Lubriderm costs less than $5 and both will relieve dry skin. So will cooking oil, but who wants to smell like food? Price is certainly closely tied to the aesthetics of a moisturizer's packaging, fragrance and marketing message. Who's to say that the effect they produce on our psyche isn't as important as their formulation? On the upside, products that fail to produce any results over time eventually face from cosmetics counters. One last factor is personal preferences for particular textures and fragrances. Given comparable performance levels, there's no qualtitative measure that can explain why one brand is preferred over another.