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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Skinceutical's CE Ferulic Acid

In honor of our wedding anniversary today: lots of dancing!

Call me fickle, but I do so love to play around with different beauty products.  I suppose this is what happens when there is little else you can do in your life, although that's probably not the only reason.  My mom, too, has always been keen about skincare.  As a child I always thought of it as a European thing - although because of little discretionary income (hardly any!) my mom stayed with a couple of tried and true products. But I well remember when an occasional package would come in the mail from NYC, with a jar of "something" so exotic and expensive that no one but my mom was ever allowed near the product.  As years went by, I learned that the package would come from from a French-Russian lady living in NYC who made her products in her home and had quite a following in the immigrant communities. 


I always remember my childhood years, too, with my mom's very quick application of a DYI  "mask" of some sort to her face, applying a mysterious (to me) concoction made of honey and an egg yolk left on for twenty minutes before heading out the door for any event, including going to church.  As a reaction to my mom, I never cared for any skincare products but - sigh! - eventually we all do pretty much become our mother's daughters.  


And so, with that said, one of  the workhorses in MY personal supply of "stay as young as possible" products is Skinceutical's CE Ferulic treatment.  Its main ingredients are Vitamin C with a touch of Vitamin E and, of course, Ferulic Acid.  The C is there to clarify, brighten and lighten hyperpigmentation, whereas the E protects the skin from being further damaged by those pesky free radicals.  The Ferulic Acid, according to Skinceutical's PR, "neutralizes free radical activity."


I've been using this treatment on and off for four months now, approximately once or twice a week and have been thoroughly impressed with the progress my face has shown.  My old "freckles" (age spots, mom!  NOT "little flowers"!) are getting lighter.  In fact, it was because of the success of this treatment that I started using other treatments and different brands.  I think I used to believe nothing really worked so, in true "me" fashion, once I saw one product work, I went from seemingly nothing to seemingly everything.  I'm such a product of extremes! (Another sigh: this one for those of us with the DD and know our "all or nothing" tendencies all too well.)


Most importantly, perhaps is that this Skinceuticals product is intended for those who have sun damaged skin which is also dry and sensitive and  for those who wish that their skin were smoother, softer and, that panacea we're all after, radiant. I like it too because it's meant to be used in the morning.   It often seems, to me at least. that most treatments are recommended for evening/bedtime use.  While using this product, however, one absolute "must" is the use a good SPF - unless, perhaps, you happen to be like me and live in some sort of version of Batman's bat cave and never see much light.  On the other hand, I've read that this CE Ferulic and SPF work synergistically - thus one reason for its recommended use in the AM.


After applying a few drops to my dry, cleansed face and throat (I skip the chest since it's just too sensitive for anything) I usually end up putting a moisturizer on after the Ferulic application or a good SPF that also acts like a moisturizing cream, LaMer's sunblock in my case, or a BB cream.


In the beginning, I found that in applying a drop onto my skin, the skin just absorbed the drop without giving me a chance to smear it around.  It was very puzzling as to how in the world I'd ever manage to smear the recommended 4-5 drops all over.  In fact, at first I dabbed a bit of each drop on a targeted area (where the age spots were the worst) and hoped for the best.  Happily, after a month of use I found that the dryness had improved so much that the drops actually did now begin to slide around my face.  Now that's what I call improvement!  


I also have large pores on my nose and I've found that they appear less deep and the skin on my nose is smother, less bumpy when using the CE Ferulic.


So, all and all, this is a product one can't help falling in love with, especially when considering the funky skin those of us with CFIDS/ME/fibro all have to deal with.

Now, since I've stopped eating honey (in my attempt to get my body back on some sort of "good" track) that means that there's a rather large bottle of it in my kitchen; tonight I may try my mom's honey and egg concoction and see if, indeed, it will firm up my skin yet leave it soft and radiant.  Today is our wedding anniversary, so perhaps I should give myself a good facial to bring out the youth in my skin before hubby gets home!  (OK: I'm rolling all over the floor with laughter with that last bit!).


In the meantime, here's to hoping all are doing their best, only better - boy, some days I really do love fibro-logic!  I just hope fibro-brain wasn't too evident in this post!


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Beauty products and "The Suitcase Test"

When you travel half-way round the world - literally - and realize that you really need to scale down what you're going to carry with you, it makes one realize just which products you really love, rely on, and can't do without. With me, the obvious are Dove soap, which I've used religiously since high school, and Créme de LaMer, which I've used as often as I'm up to it, since at least 1996.

I do always love to experiment with other products, some successfully, some not. Since I've started this year's resolution to look "more human" (darling hubby would quibble about that but he just doesn't get a woman's need and desire to look the best she can and besides, as I believe he's still in love with me, he thinks I look good all the time - gag!), I've tried a lot of new beauty products. I'm trying hard to at least give myself a psychological triumph over the constant battle with CFIDS/ME/fibro. And since I started this blog and it's taken a decided beauty direction (who wants to read about lumbar punctures, migraines, BP regulation problems, endocrinological concerns, etc, right?), I've tried even MORE beauty products.

The interior of the Petronas Towers

So, I thought I'd mention a few products that have become firm favorites of mine, which passed "The Suitcase Test":

Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanse:

I've already mentioned this product but I wanted you to know just how much I really do love it. I find that I use it anytime I do not want to think about experimentation and want to go into automatic pilot - usually! - or when I know my face needs some TLC, yet a good scrub. I definitely wanted it on this trip and have used it twice daily since arriving. You apply it to your dry face (that took a bit of getting used to, I must say!) and it's so gentle that you can spread it all through your eye area and it will dissolve all eye makeup. After that, getting rid of anything else on your face is a breeze! A muslin cloth is used to wash off all the mess and as you take it off, the bit of "texture" from the cloth works to gently exfoliate your skin. I took my large bottle with me, not bothering with decanting into a smaller pot...I knew I'd consistently use it and couldn't be bothered with figuring out how much I'd need. It's a bit difficult to find and I've ordered Liz Earle's prize-winning products through the Liz Earle USA website. The Brits have absolutely gorgeous skin, so I must admit I do have a bias toward using British skincare products, but I absolutely think going through the extra bit of trouble of ordering is really worth it. See my review here .

Alpha-H Liquid Gold with Glycolic Acid:

This is part of an Australian line of products that are also worth the trouble of hunting down. The description calls it an "overnight facial in a bottle” and for once the words are true, not hype. It "revitalises, firms and gives radiance in a single application." I find that it evens out the skin tone and since I have a few age spots and very old freckles, this has been really successful in terms of making them appear less prominent and truly making the skin more, well...radiant! I don't use a moisturizer after I apply this to my skin and for some reason my skin will produce just the right amount of moisture needed, all on its own. When I finally (!) got to my hotel room here in KL, the first thing I wanted to do after giving my face a good scrub was to apply the Liquid Gold. I knew it would address the slight dryness and dehydration I had (only "slight" thanks to the DYI facials I gave myself during the flights, as well as drinking tons of water). When I first started using the Liquid Gold, I bought the "beginner's kit," which included a prep that allowed your skin to get used to the glycolic acid gradually, but I think I could have gone straight into it, really. I normally use this every two or three nights, leaving it on overnight. Love it! I haven't found a source I'm enthralled with. I just order from a reputable place when there is a free international shipping promotion. Cultbeauty.com is one such source. (Ah! A rain is coming down. Perhaps I should stick myself out on the balcony for a nice moisturizing mist to work its magic! Whoops! Thunder and lightening: perhaps I'll stay in!)

Phytodefrisant Botanical Hair Relaxing Balm:

This has been around for quite some time and I cannot imagine what I'd do without it. I'm so paranoid about not having it when I get out of bathtub or running out, that I have about four or five tubes of it, stashed in overnight bags, each bathroom and in the back of my hair cabinet where "extras" of any products are kept. Given that I'd read that KL is humid, I was so paranoid about forgetting to take this product that I found that I'd somehow stashed TWO tubes in my luggage. (Fibro-brain, anyone?)

This relaxing balm has not only won countless beauty awards, but like my beloved LaMer, has even been put into at least one hall of fame in order to allow other products to have a chance of winning an award. I smear a bit of it all over my (very short) wet hair and since I started using it about twenty years ago, I have no frizz problems, even when my hair was a bit long. It does have silicone in it*, I believe, or something that makes my scalp itch at times (this is definitely a CFIDS/ME problem, not a "normal" problem, because my scalp area has a tendency to swell up and I then need to take a medication that will bring down the swelling - a normal "water pill" doesn't help). At any rate, I avoid getting it on my scalp, just applying it to my hair, especially the areas that will get wet from sweating; often I look as if I've just gotten out of the shower, my hair is so wet after all the work involved in getting dressed, putting on the minimum of makeup and sunscreen. I can get surprizingly close to the roots with no added problems to the "swollen head" concern (oh, I can just hear the jokes!). It works so well, I don't care WHAT it has in it but luckily, all Phyto products are botanically based. I buy mine at drugstore.com (at the beauty.com part) and it last forever since such a small amount is needed.

I'll be experimenting with cosmetics today, hopefully, as I continue to rest up after this trip and try to build up as much energy as possible for the shopping of an appropriate dress for the wedding, as well the for the wedding itself. I realized I needed to know exactly which cosmetics I'd wear on the big day, no fooling around at the last minute, which robs one of said precious energy. I'll let you know which of my favorites make the cut!

Until then, I hope everyone is feeling as well as can be!


*CORRECTION: It doesn't appear that there is any silicone in the Phyto.

..the good, the bad and the ugly (skin!)...

My mom and I on the crazy trip to visit my daughter: we were NOT in Florence!

Skin problems are often seen in people suffering from CFIDS or CFS/ME.  And because of the various symptoms/conditions we pick up along the way as a result of our wacky immune systems, at times our skin can develop rather major problems.

Out of nowhere around 1998, I suddenly developed huge hives over my entire body. My feeling? Crud.  I'd already had pityriasis rosea, a childhood affliction which I managed to develop as an adult.  I also got a nasty case of shingles after my children came down with chicken pox, all three right in a row.  

The funny thing about the shingles episode was that it is rarely seen (at least back in the 80's) in young adults but is seen mostly in the senior population whose immune systems are compromised.  This should indeed have been a bit of proof to the doctors whom I kept telling that there was definitely wrong with me. (Please imagine an eye roll here. Thank you!)

Another point I found interesting is that in order to have shingles, you need to have had chicken pox first, something I never had as a child.  Doctors have told me that I must have had a sub-clinical case, one where I had chicken pox but never actually came down with the bumps and markings.  I still have a hard time believing this is the case because my mom and I have examined each and every possible medical event in my life and there simply never was a time that I had the virus in the form of chicken pox.  Surely I would have run a fever at some point, at the very least.  But really, as a kid I was as healthy as an astronaut prepared for space travel.  No ear aches, barely a cold, though I did have the occasional sore throat and, of course, headaches.

Furthermore, our systems are so messed up that it wouldn't surprise me if I'd never had it and simply went into it, bypassing the root virus.  I mean, who REALLY understands these things?

So, here I was, stuck in 1998 with these huge hives which made me into an itching machine. Some of the hives were plate-sized and in some areas the hives had hives.  Honestly, I looked as if I belonged in some sort of freak show. Worse, my daughter had moved to Florence because NYU had suddenly been gifted a breathtakingly gorgeous Villa by a generous benefactor and was spending a semester there. Lucky girl.

I love to travel and I was sorely missing my daughter.  I know you can guess what's coming next... but you might also be surprised.

Amazingly enough, time-wise, I had just spent an entire year going to a holistic clinic in Columbus, Ohio, every week for an entire day or two or even three at times, of intensive treatments for my core problem, CFIDS/Fibromyalgia and the off-shoot problems.  More on this part of my "journey" at another time, however.

Because I felt relatively healthy, I thought I could handle a week of seeing my daughter, and the trip wouldn't be too much of a financial burden since I had the frequent flyer miles to make the airfare a nice zero dollars.

But (and really and truly, there always is a "but") I broke out in hives a couple of months before I'd even imagined this trip to Florence. Pitiful. I did NOT want to go the steroids route and resisted it for weeks as I itched, scratched and was totally miserable from this wicked state of affairs.  My weight was at a comfortable place and I really didn't want to become an eating machine with the off switch broken yet again.

When the idea of visiting my daughter in Florence came up, however, suddenly the steroid option started to sound good. And after a course of steroids, my hives disappeared for a while. Just as I was about to leave, however, the hives came back and I needed a steroid shot again. To give a quick summary of the hives aspect of this story, I'll simply say that those hives did return and continued to do so for quite some time until we finally found an anti-histamine that I've now been taking for years as a prophylactic measure.  As soon as I forget to take those little pills, the hives would come back.

My point?  All too often, skin issues are a very real, often severe, and an always annoying issue for "us." Thankfully, I have developed a huge array of options now which don't include steroids (knock on wood!), which often help me avoid drastic measures. Saturday and the following days after my beauty adventure was one such example.

Once hubby and I walked into the "beauty heaven" on Saturday and could collect our thoughts before starting the whole rigmarole, ever observant hubby asked me what the heck had happened to my neck and decolletage, the fancy word for the delicate skin on the chest area. I had huge, and I mean HUGE, blotches on my neck and chest, and I'd used nothing but my regular Dove when I showered.  A couple of areas had what looked like scratched bumps which were open. I suppose it was simply too much for my system to wash as well as go out - too hard for my system to endure.

This had happened in the past, just a bit.  I remember being embarrassed once while at an appointment with a cardiologist - a five-minute trip from our front door.  But Saturday's redness was way beyond what I'd seen in my "normal" past episodes.

To make things worse, the further along we went on with the day, more redness kept appearing, seemingly growing as if it were being fertilized.  At one point ever-observant hubby said it looked like he had tried to strangle me...and done a messy job of it at that.  Angry, red, though thankfully no welts, it looked almost as if someone had poured acid on it.  I must admit I wasn't too concerned and explained that this happened practically every time I went out, ever so patiently - as well as condescendingly - to my nosy hubby.

Got home and WOW!  What a shocker to see the mess in my own (larger) mirror and to realize that it had progressed during our ride home.  OK.  I admit we did stop at TJ Maxx, a compromise because I really wanted to go to a good Pittsburgh mall, and hubby was outraged. And I admit that I have that tendency to really want to run if I can do so at all. But in this case I had never been to the "new" TJ Maxx, despite the fact that the new strip mall was not so new anymore and I thought it was a good time to remedy that situation.  Plus I wanted the observation I made to a friend of mine when I burst out in frustration one day, "I don't do malls, I do CONTINENTS!" to no longer be true.  So I did have my reasons for going....

Back to the nasty red thing.  It was also now starting to hurt and my fingers wanted to scratch it, touch it like your tongue touches a sore tooth.

I looked over my supplies and saw "The Green Balm" among my (newest) goodies, ordered from "Cult Beauty" in England. I bought it because it WAS from "Cult Beauty," after all - a new discovery for me.  They really do carry only cult items, not full lines of any brand, but the items "everyone," professionals and the peons like me, are wild about.  Each product they carry is there because it really works.  What a fantastic idea!  This balm (I'd ordered an assortment because of a free international shipping promotion combined with a discount, courtesy of Ruth, the model, whose blog I love to follow) looked promising.  No "bad" stuff in the balm at all. All so very green and gentle that you can even dilute it in water and gargle with it, according to one source, though somehow I don't think I'll be trying that too soon.  

I gingerly patted a bit on my neck and decolletage and it felt heavenly.  A couple of hours later I noticed the area had really calmed down.  Hubby was duly impressed.  By the next morning, it started to look like I had simply had a bit of too much sun, skin turning almost into a tan.  I knew that with luck I would not be getting the bumps or discoloration which these sorts of rashes can cause, not even the tiny scabs that can occur.

The red angry rash, or whatever the heck it was, was practically gone - well, in some lights. The places I touched as I reapplied The Green Balm turned redder again, not happy about being touched but within ten seconds the area was back to the barely visible redness before touching.  My skin was also sooo soft.  

So this is the story of MY adventures with skin problems with this DD.  I have more I'd like to touch on in further posts. I'm trying out another product that looks promising in the oils area as well as those BB creams I mentioned last month.  

I do hope that this has helped some of you (possible) readers out there, at least to know that you're not alone.  It's a crazy illness which no one really understands.  

I also hope that there may have been seeds of thought cast out there for you to consider.  If and when you happen to run into these skin problems, my adventures may shed some light as to how you choose to treat them.  

And if nothing else, I hope you've had a few chuckles to make your day that much more happy/bearable.  I really do believe in the power of humor and laughter, right there after the prayers and positive thoughts we send out and receive.

Laughing from my sickbed about the new multi-tasking craze...

Oh my.  I have discovered an incredible new category of beauty products, the BB creams, which stand for "Blemish Balm" or "Blemish Base."  Actually, the names are pretty silly because controlling "blemishes" seems the very least of their tasks - if at all.  I wasn't sure exactly how long they'd been around but they seemed to be a wonderful idea for those of us who are a bit lazy when it comes to sun protection and beauty products, be they skincare of just makeup.

OK, OK.  I suppose I should explain my language. When I say, "lazy," I really mean, "too tired and sick."  "Lazy" just seems to make me feel more in control of my life, I suppose. 

Getting back to the BB creams.  I looked them up on Sephora and luckily for me, I didn't have to start pickin' and choosin'.  I am soooo indecisive.  Sephora had a package of a few BB creams just perfect for suckers like me.  Whoops!  Did I say "suckers"?   I meant "enthusiasts." I also had two separate samples from two different companies.  Wow!  I was in business.

The BB creams appear to be all-in-ones.  There are a few differences among them but all appear to be a combination of sunscreen and/or moisturizer/primer, a bit of color that is supposed to fit all and they usually include a skin treatment of one type or another.  You pick out the type you want by which properties you need, be that anti-aging, a  bucket load of anti-oxidants, skin lightening or brightening, and who knows what else!   Incredible.  Since I can never remember which comes first, a sunscreen or a serum, this whole BB cream concept is a no-brainer for me.

If it's at all possible that these creams work, then I'm all for them making my life a little bit easier. It's getting to be a bit difficult to use so very many products at once.  If I don't use sunscreen I'm a fool, if I don't use moisturizer I'll look like a prune, if I don't use a primer my foundation will slide off within an hour of application, and on and on it goes.  In many case I've stopped putting on makeup because it has become such a minefield of products.  And the expression "mutton dressed like lamb" comes to mind, too.

I started off with the Dr. Jart+ Premium Balm (there are two Dr. Jart+'s..why, I have no idea) and can't say how great it is or is not.  The packaging was so wonderfully elegant that I bored my hubby silly by making him examine it for himself.  Of the two of us, I was the person who won the enthusiasm award by a landslide.

Doing a bit of homework I discovered that Dr. Jart+ is evidently one of the first of the BB creams to come to the States from Asia.  Invented by a German dermatologist for patients undergoing laser treatment to sooth red sensitive skin, evidently the creams took South Korea by storm, spreading to the rest of Asia, and then to the US.  BB creams have been described as "an Asian cult favorite."

I have to give Dr. Jart+ another try but I didn't get a rash or break out or feel a burn from my first attempt, a huge plus.  I find that my skin really doesn't like extras, be it because of illness, medicines I'm taking or just plain me, I have no idea.  So, I believe my Dove soap - whoops, they call it a "beauty bar" now - may very well have found a sibling to join my family of must-have's.  I only have to work on figuring out which one I end up liking the most!  

I promise I'll let you know...after all, I'm here to help you live your life a little bit more easily...!

Laughing from my sickbed about my beloved Dove....

I began my last post with the words, "Color me lazy," because I've lived the 
vast majority of my life with little more than Dove soap.  But suddenly I 
realize that I'm not the only "lazy" person out there who's my age, from the era 
when we cared so much about makeup, but really did not worry too much about our 
skin.  

Thank heavens most of us were using Dove soap, now called Dove "beauty bar" in 
order to reach/grab the beauty business.  I've seen that it's now winning awards 
in "best of" lists for magazines such as InStyle.  But the dirty little secret 
here: the Dove we used back in the '60's and '70's is not the Dove of today.  
Believe or not, but our's was much better.  It's been reformulated over the 
years and that's just plain lousy!  Many of us old-timers are spending a lot of 
time lamenting the demise of the old Dove and get more than a bit upset when our 
hubbies accidentally bring home a huge lot of the wrong kind of Dove, like the 
new sensitive editions, exfoliating versions and so forth.  The newly 
reformulated Dove we can sort of live with but the new kinds out there?  Don't 
even get us started!  And what, we wonder, ever happened to the 1/4 moisturizing 
cream of the ads and commercials of yore?  Like I said, don't even get us 
started!

Dove has now spread out to dozens and dozens of products in an effort, I suppose, 
to stay in business with all the face cleansers out there today.  Around the 
time I was in eighth grade, Dove's only competitor seemed to be Noxema, and who 
even remembers Noxema today?  Pond's is still around but that seemed to be a 
product our moms used.  Oil of Olay was a competitor too and I remember using 
that lovely pale pink lotion in a glass bottle on my face for a while, loving 
the smell of it, buying it only when it was on sale because those were our salad 
years when hubby and I could barely manage the rent.  Sooo silly because I 
didn't really need it.  Dove took care of everything, and anything extra I put 
on my face usually caused a small bout of bumps of one sort or another to come 
out as if to warn me what would happen if I even thought of using anything but 
my beloved Dove.

When the Soviet Union fell apart, I flew to visit my cousin in '96, a time 
when Russia was suffering severe shortages of everything from basic aspirin to 
basic food.  Along with candy for her grandchildren I carried many, many bars of 
Dove as a treat for my cousin.  Can you tell I love the stuff?  (And yes, I did 
bring those precious medicines that they needed back then...I'm not completely 
superficial!)

In the hospital I once made the huge mistake of showering with the soap they had 
there - a reputable brand - and within five minutes I started to scratch all 
over.  By the time I called hubby to quickly bring over some Dove from home, 
rashes were setting in.  It was a nasty picture.  I'd never used anything but 
Dove even on my children as babies, having made many a convert to Dove over the 
decades, but from that hospital moment on, I haven't even traveled anywhere but 
with my Dove.  My cousin in Russia, I felt, deserved no less.

My BFF - a term I'm not overly fond of because visions of Paris Hilton and 
Nicole Ricci bounce in my head - and I so love Dove that when she went on her 
first big trip to Europe with her hubby she actually calculated exactly how much 
Dove she needed to bring with her to carry herself and her hubby through those 
weeks but not have any to bring back home with her either.  (And people wonder 
why we've been best friends for over 41 years?)  She knew Dove's properties so 
well that her calculations were right down to the very last day away from home.  
When we traveled to England and later to Paris, we just grabbed however much we 
thought we needed and then some.  By the time Linda went to Europe with her 
hubby, the airlines were cracking down on how much weight and how much luggage 
could be brought with us.  Such a shame!

As I'm discovering a whole world of new CATEGORIES of beauty products (more on 
that to come) I realize that we were so lucky to have had Dove.  It was an era 
of getting as tanned as could be, even if some of us (read pale-skinned me) 
couldn't tan but burn to lobster red.  Dove, which I still use religiously, I 
have a feeling will never be substituted, that is, if they more or less stick 
to their old formula.  My other products may come and go, but my Dove, I hope, 
will be here to stay.

Laughing from my sickbed about skin care.....

Can you tell my BFF picked out this picture for me?  I can!

Color me lazy.  I suppose I've been blessed by good DNA when it comes to wrinkles and such because I've basically lived with little more than good old Dove soap as just about my only skincare.  Oh, I bought LaMer, a ridiculously expensive cream worth every penny for my face too, but I can't say that it's helped a HUGE amount - only because I don't use it on a regular basis.  It's wonderful, wonderful.  I love it.  And its more expensive, but even more effective "The Concentrate," has helped me out of a few jams over the years when need be.  

But the new beauty thing these days seems to be about skinCARE!  Who even cared about skincare until about the last five years - or even less?  No one!  Well, perhaps a few hippies in California, but really, did they even count?  We had makeup, by golly, and we used it liberally.  There was a time NO one saw me without my war paint on, not even my ob/gyn when I delivered three ten-pound screamers.

It's truly amazing how much "paint" can accomplish.  About a year ago, I had a regular appointment with my GP and found that after my shower/bathing ordeal, I actually had a bit of time and, better yet, energy on my hands.  What to do?  I really, really hate to sit around.  Lie around is one thing, but sitting around takes precious ENERGY.

Well, I thought, let's put on some foundation.  And trust me, I really do need foundation. My freckles, let's face it, are, at fifty-plus, not freckles but age spots!  And I have always hidden them... well, once I reached college and was out of sight of my old-fashioned and very strict mom.

So I thought to myself, let's shake the heck out of my long-suffering GP.  He'd not seen me look anywhere near "good" in over a year.  A girl remembers these things, you know.  A little later, bored by the extra time, I thought I'd put on some eyeliner too.  That's getting towards the "big guns" and a real pain because the hand's not too steady any longer.  In fact, if hubby is helping me get ready and sees the eyeliner in my hand, he know to flee.  Nothing puts me into as foul a mood as putting on eyeliner.  It used to be something that took no more than two minutes, if I were having a bad day.  Now, darn it, the eyesight is going too, so that makes it an even harder job to accomplish.  Magnifying mirror is not enough...worse mood.

After about two hours of paint, rest, paint, rest, I was looking pret-ty dern good.  That Nars illuminator with the Bare Escentuals Radiance worked beautifully together but I know I'll never be able to reproduce the successful combination...sigh.  

I had my appointment and as I was leaving, my doctor said, "you are looking really good today!"  I've never, ever been able to take a compliment graciously - mostly because I'm looking for some sort of hidden smirk behind the compliment.  After muttering something inane about how it took me two hours to achieve this look (how embarrassing is THAT statement?) I suddenly remembered that there WAS something I forgot to mention, a new, big pain.  Understand I live in pain every day, but this was new.  OK.  I get new stuff all the time too, but this actually got MY attention, somewhat of a miracle, trust me!

Well, I looked so good that the doctor poo-poo'ed it and pointed out how much stress we were under lately...true.  I didn't think that explained the "new pain" but...hey, the man's been right on an occasion or two (ha!).

That day I also decided that the two almost year-old prescriptions for glasses I'd been carrying around could be filled at the one-hour place at the mall.  Yes siree, get me out of my bed and the sky's the limit.  Often my daughter will say, "so, shall we now drive up to Babushka's?"... her grandmother who lives eight hours away. Cute kid!  Very funny kid.

I was in an absolutely wonderful mood.  I actually picked out two frames I loved, a first.  My son and I sat down where he gobbled down his dinner and then ate mine too.  Good time as we walked around.  

My luck!  I picked up the glasses and tried them on.  Both prescriptions were wrong...WAY wrong.  The man, who HAD thought that they were an odd prescription, tried to talk me into liking the new "vision."  I informed him that IF my son were playing at the Super Bowl and IF I wanted to see if his nose were running, only THEN would I need the new prescription.  I had thought the new eye doctor might have been a bit off when I saw her...OK, I actually wondered if she was nipping from a bottle, but never did I expect a bad prescription.  The reading glasses were off too.  The poor optometrist at the one-hour place was about to go home but he was roped into checking my eyes.  I really did not want to come back.  Who knew WHEN I'd put makeup on again, much less get out of bed for a day...carpe diem, as my disgustingly optimistic hubby would say.  Seize the day!

Two new pairs of glasses had to be grinded.  My son looked at me and said, "things never do go quite smoothly for you, mom, do they?" Oh, as I've said once before, out of the mouth of babes!  An hour later, I was on my way home, happy that I'd picked out new glass frames to go with eyes which had on makeup.  The last time had been without eye makeup and it was a most unfortunate move.

But the next day, I had a really bad pain that nothing would help.  I finally woke up that eternally optimistic hubby of mine who took one look at me and said, "OK...off to the ER!"  There we had many tests and it turned out that this new pain was gall bladder stones!  Appointments for further testing were made.

So, the moral of my story?  Well, there are several morals but I'll only point out a few.

Ladies, do NOT throw your doctor off by putting on war paint when going for an appointment. It really threw my GP off his game.  Wow!  Was HE ever shocked! 

Secondly?  DO wear your eye makeup when picking out new eyeglass frames.  I hated every minute of the four years I wore the pair where I wore no makeup picking out the frames.  Sad.

Thirdly, if you think there's something wrong about a doctor...look into it, for heaven's sake.  That woman was nuts!  NOT to mention blind.

Fourthly: skincare is here to stay, girls!  Forget the big guns and paint.  Yes, the no-makeup look takes a lot of work but don't let anyone fool you...it's a lot easier to achieve if your skin is good to begin with.  I know, it's very time-consuming, but what can I say?  Sometimes it's a real pain being a woman.

Finally, if you go to the ER, you may want to consider washing your face off with bleach and detergent...you WANT to look bad and not radiant from the latest wonderful blush you bought.  Church: wear it all.  Hospital?  If you want to be taken seriously, don't even THINK about hydrating your face!