Friday Tidbits: CC cream & observations

With Chanel's CC Cream

It's Friday and "round up" time when I can freely write very disconnected points and not worry about making everything flow together cohesively.  Ah, what a relief that is for those of "us" with CFIDS/ME/CFS and/or fibomyalgia.  Organizing our thoughts is not exactly our strong suit.  (At least it isn't for me.)

I'm a bit all over the map today, but it's a brief post (and you believe me?), so I think we can handle that. What do you say?  Yes?  Well, then we're on!

Before: No CC cream...

• Not too long ago I wrote that the newest "miracle" cosmetic on the market was coming out soon, that of the CC cream (for earlier post).  "CC cream" stands for "Color Corrective Cream" among other names for the CC part of this new incredible product the beauty world is holding its collective breathe for.  It seems that BB creams are being declared passé and that we now have CC creams to look forward to.  

I was able to order Chanel's CC cream from Amazon but until it came in I had no idea that they were sending it to me from from one of the Asian countries, South Korea, I believe.  Wow!  We really are a global economy! Hubs had to pick it up at the post office and sign off for it so it became a rather big deal.  Unfortunately, I've not had much of a chance to try it out, as I've been too sick, but I have it in mind to experiment to my heart's content as soon as I'm feeling a bit better.  

I did, however, try it out on my hand when it came in, as well as today, and lo and behold, I realized that it would look wonderful on my 30-plus inches of the pretty "unpleasant" scarring from the compartment syndrome surgery of last year.  The Chanel CC cream covered the scars better than I could ever have imagined.  It also blended in with my skin nicely, better than any of the other creams specifically made for hiding scars.  Of course, it may very well be that I'm simply not very skilled at hiding scars and the ease of the CC cream was enough for me.  But it took the redness away and felt very nice on the skin as well.  I promise a review will be coming up soon: if I can just keep from losing more body parts or stop being reinfected with the flu that keeps coming back, incessantly, since last year!  I can only imagine how great it'll look on the face if it can do such a great job on my hand.  (Note: I'm not the most talented in the photography department - especially with "self-photography" sans tripod and using my iPad and iPhone - but my hand really looks so much better after application of the CC cream. I also chose not to use the more graphic - ugly - photos of the before shots, afraid of grossing people out!)

After the CC Cream...

After the CC Cream...

• Ah, a transition where I didn't expect to find one!  (It's the little things that make me so happy!) Speaking of losing body parts (OK...that sounds truly awful) but I received a call from my GP's office a couple of days ago asking me to call them back about some test results.  This wasn't a good sign as I've never had the office call me about any test results in the approximately 20 years I've been seeing my GP.  I did manage to throw it, the message that is, to the back of my mind. By the time I got hubs to call for me (I really, really hate to talk on the phone, "hate" being code for "it's too hard to handle") I'd totally forgotten I had a "problem."  Ah!  The beauty of such little memory!

At any rate, my GP wanted to schedule me for a breast biopsy for the lumps they saw during the mammogram and ultrasound I had taken a couple of weeks ago.  However, hubby and I thought that a discussion needs to be had before I schedule myself for any biopsy.  The lumps, I'd been told by the radiologists, are calcification lumps formed from previous surgery and I thought that everyone was on the same page with no biopsy needed.  Evidently I was wrong and the radiologist supposedly recommended a biopsy in his official report.  So, now we have another round of doctors to see and talk to.  Oh joy!  (NOT!)  How many more things need to go wrong with me?  (Boo hoo!)  I think we need a scorecard just about now of all the things that I've been through in the past 12 months, health-wise.  It's getting to be an embarrassment!   But honestly, I've sort of given into all and find it just too funny at this point - though by tomorrow, who knows where my head will be? I mean, who has such really cruddy luck?  

• And finally, a funny thought occurred to me today.  I happened to think about my ongoing battle with the pores on my face.  (Don't you just love my priorities: CC creams, breast biopsies all in the same breathe?)  Somehow my mind rounded about to the "magic" of twitter, the community of spoonies and the beauty of the supportive blogs out there.  Then the two thoughts collided. (Remember, my brain is where NO one in my family ever wants to get into!)  

You see, a few years ago, I was on a successful roll with washing my face twice each day and absolutely religious about using some sort of treatments to battle my pores twice a day as well.  For most, this wouldn't be much of a hurtle, but for me it was practically a miracle.  So, about a month into the whole routine, I thought I'd seen real improvement in the state of my pores.  Son #1 happened to be passing by and I called him over and said, "do you think my pores are looking better?"  LOL!  I mean what was I thinking when I asked my son for his opinion?  Why didn't I just ask someone's gardener?  

Well, honest son said, "ah...," inspecting my face VERY carefully.  This is the kid who can go out to sea in his line of work and spend hours and hours in the water looking for a she crab for his experiments.  Have you every tried to look for a female crab and not a male one?  It takes a lot of time, patience and hard work. Somehow my fibro-addled brain thought that if he could look for and find female crabs, he'd be an expert at noticing my pores.  "Well, mom," he said, turning me to a better light and inspecting me as if I were under a microscope.  After a good examination, he said, "Nope, the same," and walked off.  And consequently, I stopped all of the hard work on my face for a few years, completely crest-fallen. 

My point?  We on twitter and our blogs are not like my son when it comes to pores and pep talks of "keep on trucking!"  How wonderful that we have people who really give us pep talks when needed and support when we think that everything's just a bit too hard.  

And that's it for the week.  I hope everyone has a great weekend and as always I hope everyone's doing their very best, only better.  Ciao and paka.  

CC Creams: the Newest Kid on the Block

Well, bless my soul!  I couldn't believe it when I read that there is a "new kid" on the cosmetics' block, with ten new additional ones becoming available in the next week or so - or so rumor by the beauty industry has it.  What caught my attention is the name: get this, it's a CC cream,  after the name "Color Correction Cream," "Color Control Cream," or as Chanel calls it, a "Complete Correction Cream"!  (Well, La di da!)  Already the cosmetics world is having fun with all the puns about CC creams vs BB creams.  It sounds as if these CC cream will be telling the BB creams  (Blemish Balm creams, among other "names") to move over or to even just disappear.  Gosh!  Why do I suddenly feel as if I'm in the midst of a school yard brawl or a bad episode of "Sesame Street"?

I first wrote a review on BB creams here  in March and then in April (link) because they just seemed like such a great pairing with the person who has CFIDS/ME/CFS and fibromyalgia or anyone with illnesses who might experience skin problems.  Honestly, sometimes I feel as if all you need to do is look at us cross-eyed and our skin breaks out with strange rashes and/or hives.  At any rate, I tried out at least six or seven of them and kept coming back to the original one I'd liked.  Since the problems I (as well as others) encountered seemed to stem from the silicone and either how much was in the BB cream or how it was formulated, in September I wrote yet another review on one BB cream without silicone, see the Omorovitzsa link here.   And yes, the experimentation was as time-consuming as it sounds.

However,  I'm even more ecstatic about the promise of the CC Cream - fool that I am?  We'll see: I very well could be!   On the other hand, just think of all the steps "we" can save if we start using the CC cream - thus using up fewer "health credits" or "spoons."  If it proves to be as effective as it claims to be, it may end up - like the BB cream - taking the place of moisturizer, SPF, color and whichever treatments (as in plural) you feel you need, such as:

• help with those pesky wrinkles
• anti-aging properties (including green and white tea, of course, with the Asian products)
• treating hyper-pigmentation
• claims of being light-weight despite better coverage
• higher broad-spectrum SPFs (up to SPF 35 PA++)
• will work to brighen skin

My personal favorite BB cream became the Dr. Jart+ and has remained so, after having unpleasant reactions to quite a few others I tried - with hubby always asking, "are you experimenting with that crud again?" as I, in turn, deny all connection to any experimentation - "what, who, me?" 

So why in the world would companies now spend money on delivering us a new cream, that of the CC?  Hopefully, it won't be because of the same sort of reasoning that gave us the new Coke.  Until so many people in the entire world went ballistic, writing Coke (angry) letters and stockpiling all the old Coke that could be found, Coke then had to change back to the original but with a new name, "Coke Classic," in order to emphasize that they were back to the formula everyone wanted - in order to not lose anymore consumers!  However, if the CC's do as they claim, this could be a real boost to the consumer - not to mention the bottom dollar of the companies making these new CC's.  In fact, I think that it's time for the CC creams in that every company is now making their own BB cream and only a fraction of them, it seems, can legitimately be called BB creams.  Oh how I hope that this doesn't happen with the CC's.

But another reason as to why it's time for the CC?   So many consumers and makeup artist have complained about the limited availability of color and have wanted a larger and better selection of color.  Supposedly, they will now have it - somewhat.  The color variety is not as extensive as some have called for but the color supposedly works itself into the skin so well that the pigmentation won't be such a problem: reading between the lines, I should say, the pigmentation won't be as MUCH of a problem.

Furthermore, the CC creams will now also have remarkable powers to even and brighten the skin.  Furthermore, whereas many beauty editors and makeup artists found problems with the BB creams in terms of texture, feeling like they had too much silicone which made them just too oily and silicone-like on the face, the CC's have corrected this problems too (apparently) and will have a lighter texture.  (We shall see!)  I only hope that these are not yet more empty promises.

Some of the CC's will be more liquidy than others.  I'm hearing that the Olay's "Total Effects Tone Correcting UV Moisturizer" is just a repackaged version of their old BB cream, and is more souped up like a primer, whereas others will have more coverage.  In the the case of the Asian CC creams, the CC creams were developed there and have been in use for a while.  In other words, it'll depend on which you try and which will address your own personal needs.  The Singaporean brand "Rachel K" is getting great press, especially since it has so many goodies, such as "epidermal growth factor, which stimulates collagen production by speeding up your skin's natural exfoliation."  Exfoliation?  Be still my heart!  (Oh dear son and daughter-in-law: Christmas presents?)  I DO know that I'm running right to Chanel's version, which was also developed in Asia, as I do not want to mess up my face any further than the last few months have managed to do so on its very own, thank you very much, so I'm going to the company that I think will most agree with my skin, that Holy Grail: of course, Chanel.

With more treatments (for wrinkles, pores, etc.) added as well as antioxidants, not to mention the color improvement (I felt that that most of the old ones simply sat on your face too much, like a mask), I can't wait to get my hands on them.  Now WHY didn't the Chanel lady at the airport in Malaysia tell me about them?  (Kidding, I think!)

Here's to everyone feeling the very best they can, only better.  Caio and paka!