Masks: Fighting Dehydrated Skin & Pores

The weather here has been horrendous because of the cold temperatures and that's not good news for skin, especially CFIDS/ME/CFS and/or fibro nor hypothyroidism skin.  Once we factor in the "windchill" factor it's been hard for even normal, healthy people to function.  I'm in bed (yay!) resting up as much as possible, sleeping off and on a lot, hoping like mad that my body finally realizes that I'm trying to work WITH it and not against it.  So far the body's not getting the message, but I keep trying, and keep on truckin', as we would say waaaay back when.

With this freezing weather, the central air heating is working steadily and my skin is getting more dehydrated each day.  I've been too exhausted and in too much pain to keep up washing my face properly and to take advantage of these in-bed days by doing all sorts of "girlie" things. However, yesterday I couldn't take it any longer and decided it was time to try to get back to taking care of my skin.

Ahhh.  And there's been another complication to add to the entire aging fiasco:  my face has been extremely dehydrated from all the high fevers I've been running.

Last night I took a bath that was entirely too warm for this time of year.  It was an oh so wonderful feeling, though the hot temperature is "bad" because the skin gets too dry and dehydrated and then is compounded by my NOT putting any moisturizer on my body because usually I can't stand anything on it. I did "do" my face since, hey, as I always say, the face is sacred!  I thought I'd try one of the paper or cloth-like masks, which are filled with product and you put on your face for a certain amount of time.  Since pores are something I'm always battling against, I thought I'd give the Masqueology Pore Minimizer I'd purchased this past summer a try.  (Why do I keep saving these things for a special day?  Half the time I wouldn't recognize a special day if... well, I just wouldn't and all those things I save go way past expiration dates or out of style...  but I know, back to topic at hand!)

I love these sorts of masks in general.  They are loaded with product and so easy to apply in bed.  Better yet, you use it and then discard.  (Hallelujah!  I have enough clutter in my life!)  After my face was clean, I laid back in bed for 20 minutes and let the mask work its magic.  This was easy to do because I was absolutely exhausted and drained from the entire bath experience and in shell shock as to how much of my hair keeps falling out.  OK... Sigh, I know: again, back to topic at hand!

At first I thought the solution was a tiny bit on the sticky side and wasn't sure I'd like that.  There was a bit of excess of the product after the mask was in place and I used it on my extremely dehydrated arms, elbows, shoulders and even my 30 inch arm/hand scar.  Within a couple of minutes those areas - which are so hard for me to keep hydrated - were no longer sticky, but extremely soft and well on their way to being hydrated.  I couldn't wait to see what would happen to my face after 20 minutes.

Simply the idea of these "cloth" masks thrills me because there's so little muss and fuss. They're extremely popular in Asia and since the Asian market is so far ahead of us in quite a few beauty areas - the BB and CC creams are great examples that come to mind - I thought I'd give them a second try.  

Furthermore, I love how this mask came to be.  According to sources I read, "Masqueology worked with top Korean dermatologists to develop a rayon-cellulose fabric that best delivers product into the skin and paired with a patented pro-vitamin D3 gel that fights UV photo-damage."  The first time I used another "cloth" mask is explained just a little bit here with an embarrassing picture of moi. I've learned from my mistakes and won't be doing a repeat of that again for the world to see.  I also thought I'd done a proper review but evidently not.  Will do so in the future.  Sorry!  That's what you get with fibro-brain!

But back to the mask at hand: the "cloth" is extremely thick so in that sense it's easy to work with - it's not about to tear as you adjust it to your face.  It's quite cold (it felt absolutely wonderful for someone who's been running fevers and getting clammy constantly) and the product consistency feels quite a bit like the gelatinous aloe vera - that is, slimy.  This, it turns out, is to our advantage because it helps the mask adhere to the face so much better, stay where you put it and not dry up after 20 minutes.  In fact, after I removed the mask I bunched it up, squeezed what product was left into my hand and then spread it again on my elbows, arms, decolletage and shoulders: heaven!!!  And so very soothing!  The slimy feel lasts only a moment or so.  It's not much of a factor in my book.

But back to the beginning: I ended up even covering my eyes with my mask and all but the nostrils of my nose. To cover the eyes, mouth and nose areas is optional, though breathing was most certainly not optional!  (Right? Right!)  While waiting for the twenty minutes to pass, I talked to hubs who had been watching TV but found my face with the mask ever so much more entertaining.  Poor hubs: he's under the mistaken impression that I'm the only female out there who does this sort of stuff to her face and when assured otherwise, he's then so pathetically happy that he was born a male.  

Anyway, while he gawked, I thought about what I'd read on the Masqueology web site and here's what the key ingredients are and what they do, taken right from the Masqueology web site, words and all.  In other words, their PR people probably went a little overboard as PR people generally do.  However, they weren't too awfully far from the truth!

"Benefits:
• Minimizes the visible appearance of pores [so-so]
• Refines skin’s overall texture and appearance [agreed!]

Key Ingredients:

Comes in a 3-pack.

• Sodium Hyaluronate [incredible, all of it!]:
Helps skin absorb more water effectively
Reduces any sort of trans-epidermal water loss 
Small molecular size makes it especially penetrative
Holds 1000 times its weight in water
• Panthenol [fantastic!]:
Improves hydration
Reduces itching and inflammation
Accelerates and improves healing of epidermal wounds
• Mushroom Extract [great!]:
Reduces inflammation and irritation
Impacts the appearance of lines and collagen production
Helps brighten, fade sunspots and acne scars
Prevents cell breakdown and exfoliates the skin
• Ceramide 3 [yep!]:
Repairs damage to the skin’s moisture barrier
Smooth away wrinkles and crows feet
Repairs skin tone"

Perhaps what is best is what Masqueology does NOT contain:
-Parabens
-Sulfates
-Synthetic Dyes
-Petrochemicals
-Phthalates
-GMOs
-Triclosan

In the past I've tried quite a few products with Hyaluronic Acid, and while they helped somewhat, they were not enough to really combat the severely dehydrated skin associated with fibro, CFIDS (etc) AND hypothyroidism.  In fact, I thought that it was simply my skin and that I couldn't expect better since we do have such funky skin.  However, I was so wonderfully mistaken with this cloth mask and its abundance of product.  This product worked like a charm.  I'll need to retry my other products with Hyaluronic Acid because at this point I like the Methodology best, even better than the Clarin HydraQuench Cream, the Clarin HyraQuench Cream-Mask and Clinique HydraQuench Bi-phase Serum.  And though it kills me to say it, I think I like it better than even the Sisley Express Flower Gel.  I want to say, "say it isn't so, Joe!"  So another testing of said products needs to be done!  (Especially since they're sitting in the cabinets lonely and waiting for me to start using them again!)

Furthermore, I liked the anti-inflammatory ingredients, which worked well with the itchiness on my arms. I'd used that excess product well for a problem I just spoke about in Friday's Tidbits last week.  (Darn!  Wish I'd thought to put some of that product along my back!  Next time?)

At $8 a pop, this mask is pricey but if you compare it to a facial by a professional, then it's a huge bargain.  I liked this much better than the few professional facials I've had in the past, so....

And finally, if you're going out for the evening, I can see spending a little bit of extra time and using this mask before putting on makeup, etc.  It just gives a nice finish to the skin.  It'd also be great to take on a trip or vacation since the packette is so thin, non-bulky and there'd be nothing to drag home! 

Altogether, I'm so glad I bought the three-pack and look forwards to using it again soon. Masqueology is available at Amazon, Sephora and Dermstore dot com.

In the meanwhile, I hope everyone is feeling their best, only better.  Ciao and paka! 

Beauty and the Repair Complex

I think I need a good few days away from all things CFIDS/ME/fibro, away from the inadequacies, the stress, the pain, the angst. (I like that last word, "angst." It says so much, though a bit melodramatically?)

Instead, I'd like to go to the "beauty world" part of my life: it's August and it's HOT, HOT, HOT. That means "miserable."   Why is it, I often wonder, that despite my not going outside, I am STILL affected by the weather?   Perhaps barometric changes influence?   I have no idea.

But what I do know is that not too long ago (smooth but awfully corny transition!) I bought a couple of Esteé Lauder promotional products.  I'm not sure why I've never been even slightly interested in Estée Lauder.   When in high school, I had a neighbor who worked the cosmetics counter at our local department store and perhaps I somehow associated the EL line with Bebe, who, bless her heart, would slip me a sample of this or that every once in a while, along with a few much-needed tips that high school girls want (and desperately crave!).  

At any rate, in both promotional packages, I found that there were tiny little bottles of EL's Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Recovery Complex, a product in a brown glass bottle that I've never even given a second glance.  Was I disappointed to find those samples?  You betcha!   But after a couple of weeks I was in one of those "let's play girl" moods (my BP must have been up to almost normal if I was up for games) and so I smeared a bit of it onto my face.  When I woke up (who knows if it was day or night - it was SLEEP!) I happened to brush my hand across my face and was absolutely surprised to find that my skin felt so much softer and definitely more finely textured than it had been in quite some time.  Having so little short-term memory, it took me a while to remember why my face felt so much nicer and then looked "healthier" in the mirror.  Surprise!   It was the Night Repair.   I liked this product so much that I ended up buying a bottle of it and refilling one of the sample-sized bottle to take with me on my madcap adventure to Kuala Lumpur.

I was further surprised to find out that the serum is a "classic," and a real workhorse, known for its reliability.  Yet another surprise for me! 

And it is quite a good serum.  I like that there is hyaluronic acid in it, the acid I wrote about in an earlier post (see here). Hyaluronic acid is a naturally-occurring substance which we start producing less of as we age (of course - all the good stuff goes!).  It holds water in the uppermost layers of your skin so when you apply a beauty product which contains hyaluronic acid onto your face, you're capturing the moisture and keeping it there.  It's essentially a water magnet.  It's also hugely effective as a healing agent.  The stuff just keeps sounding better and better.

There is much more mumbo jumbo about it, "scientific" stuff that EL is throwing around, just like every other skincare and beauty company out there.  Who knows how much is hype and how much is truth, my skewed opinion, honestly, in everything with the beauty industry.  Add in the "what works for one may not work for another" and then the "consistency" problem - there is no way on God's green earth that I'm going to be able to carry off using any product every day - and you have a very skeptical customer.  So, I basically go by the old standard of, "does it work for me?"  

And then today, as I started to do some preliminary research on the serum, I discovered that there is reportedly a bit of silicone in it.  I didn't find that whatever silicone is in it affected me negatively and I'm not sure if the reason the silicone not disturbing my skin is because of the formulation or if it's because I don't use it every night, just on nights I don't use my other products.
  
Ah yes, I happen to like to change my beauty products, unlike most sane people out there I suppose, because I work on the "shampoo principle."  

"And what is the 'shampoo principle'?" you many ask?  

Well, back in high school we were always told that you needed to switch your shampoo around because your hair gets "used" to a product and changing brands occasionally helps move things around.  Now I have no idea if this is true, or was ever true or true back in the day: lots has changed since I was in high school.  And you may very well ask, by WHOM pray tell, were we given this advice?  Warning: don't choke!  Take whatever you're drinking away from your mouth or you run the risk of spraying water onto your computer monitor when I tell you and spraying water out of mouth is a decidedly uncouth thing to do.

Ready?  I think it was the nuns at my one wonderful year at a Catholic boarding school - nuns who were very dedicated to making "ladies" out of us, and "Southern Ladies" at that! - who taught us that bit of news.  (Yes, they WERE women before becoming nuns, rumor has it!)  

At any rate, that bit of "wisdom" has stayed with me.  And to be fair to those beloved nuns who taught us that, I find that it works!   So, having put all these pro's and con's together, I must say that I really like the serum and will be using it for quite some time, although I know I'll keep on switching things around, experimenting. 

Yes, it's a bummer getting older.  I realized that not only do I need to get rid of the hyperpigmentation (age spots) that is appearing at an alarming rate, but that I also need to try to detour the wrinkles coming along and get the dehydration out of the way.  Yes, dehydration, one of the hallmarks of CFIDS/ME/fibro: all three chronic illnesses.  So, for that alone, the night repair is staying in my skincare drawer.  

Do you have a favorite product or beauty routine that you picked up quite by accident and are not sure how or why you continue to do so?   I'd love to hear it.

In the meanwhile, I hope everyone's feeling as best as can be, only better!  Till next time!


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Fighting dehydrated skin (especially on long-haul flights)...

I've been scouring the Internet in order to find or put together some magical formula as to what I should pack for my trip to Kuala Lumpur (KL) and when I forget that I'm trying to find beauty tips in order to do a long-haul flight, it's actually been a lot of fun.  I mean, I can read beauty "stuff" all day long (and often do!).  It's only when I remember that I'm not looking for theoretical information, that I actually have a mission to accomplish, that my stomach goes all topsy turvy, with more than a little bit of anxiety thrown in.

And with this trip, I have the usual worries with an added factor, which is, actually, NOT so minor: it's the first time I'll be flying alone in at least 15 years and I'll have to be wheel chaired from one airline to another - twice! - going there as well as coming back - and in huge airports.  To make things a bit more disconcerting, I feel that I'm at a huge disadvantage not knowing the languages involved.  No, I don't speak Italian, Spanish, German, nor even Greek for that matter, but Asian languages are a whole different ball game for me.  I know that English is spoken "everywhere" there are tourists, but it's still an unsettling feeling - though I'm certainly trying to turn it into an adventure.

At any rate, I thought I'd pass on a few of the tidbits I've run into that I have found interesting, for one reason or another:

• Dry skin vs. Dehydrated skin:

I've felt for the longest time that I didn't really have dry skin, but I've never really been able to put my finger on what else it could be when, in the grand scheme of things, I have so many bigger problems: like trying to figure out my whole sleep mess.  But I've always felt awkward saying that I have "dry skin."  Even saying "combination skin" somehow made me feel like an impostor.  I wasn't sure what I had, though I certainly knew I had sensitive skin of some sort, but what else?  Then after a hospitalization a few years ago - with the Intensive Care Unit thrown in - my skin really turned on me and with my whole compartment syndrome hospitalization six months ago... that didn't exactly help matters either.

This wasn't flabby skin (though heaven knows I have more than I'd like of that) but skin that wasn't young and plump any longer.  To complicate matters, I happen to be one of those people who really, really does not like cream on my skin, other than on my face.  I've tried just about everything out there (or so it often seems to me) and have pretty much hated everything I've tried, save my Dove soap (OK! OK! "beauty bar"!  Sheesh!) and the LaMer Hand Treatment, which I use on any dry parts.  However, in the last few years, even my Dove and LaMer have not been of much help.  Out of desperation I've turned to other products, enduring them in hopes of their helping turn things around a bit, with not much luck.

• Hyaluronic acid:

I've been hearing about hyaluronic acid for a while now but somehow it never really clicked that I should give it a try, especially since it is great for dehydrated skin.  (I suppose because of my ongoing war with my pores!  How many battles can be fought at one time?)

But evidently hyaluronic acid, which is a naturally occurring substance in our body fluids, found in joints, for example - could be the answer, or a step in the right direction.  As we age we a) produce less and less of it and b) it gets broken down faster.  I've learned a ton of facts about it in the last few days, but the key factor here is that it locks in moisture.  If I go into the science of it all, we'll be here all night, so at this point I'll just say that I'm thrilled that I have made this discovery, especially since cabin air is so horribly drying.  I'd like to NOT look like I could easily pass for King Tutankhamen's only slightly younger sister when I get off the plane in KL.

• Clarins HydraQuench Intensive Serum Bi-phase:

Heavy on hyaluronic acid, I'm going to give this HydraQench serum a try, as well as the cream mask.

• Spritzing my face:

In my fight to stay as hydrated as possible, I'll hopefully be able to spritz my face with my Avene "water in a can" and/or my Omorovicza facial mist.  

The strange thing about this whole water problem is that in order to keep my blood pressure high enough, I need to eat a lot of salt.  Given how thirsty we who have CFIDS/ME/fibro are to begin with, the salt further complicates the whole dehydration issue.  Agh!!!!

At any rate, these are the newest weapons in the arsenal to fight against my crepe-y skin and thirsty skin issues. Hopefully, they'll work out nicely and not prove hubby right when he said, "shouldn't you have tested those things out before-hand?" followed by "what if you have an allergy to them?" 

Oh how I hate logic at times!  I'm trying to ignore him, though I'm giving them a try-out even as he goes off to bed, the smug little...killjoy. ;)