Cosmetics

[jazzlover]

Read product labels to avoid PARABENS. They are NOT good for us (or anyone!).

Right now I'm only using lipstick and an eyebrow pencil. I usually use mascara, but after my inflamed eye of last week, I haven't been able to use it. I look so ILL without it! UGH!

Soy... does the almond oil have a strong fragrance? Wondering if that would work for me or not. I'm very sensitive to odors.  I've tried olive oil and coconut oil and both made me itch. GRRRR.

PS .. The very best (gentle!) facial cleanser I've found is Aubrey Organics Seaware with Rose Mosqueta. It is awesome! Vitacost has it.

[jazzlover]

up for Soycoffee

[quilt4fun]

I wash my face with " Purpose". Can be found at Walmart and most grocery stores.  It only takes a drop and is quite inexpensive. Olay with spf 15 works well for me..
 
I have very fair skin, light eye lashes and brows--always had to wear mascara and shadow so people wouldn't ask me if i was "ok".  Now I can't wear any makeup- it all irritates my skin and eyes.  Now i just have to settle with being pale and sick looking--ugh.

Can't even with tinted lip balm--my lips will chap and get sore in a matter of minutes.

[CathyO]

I use Murad skin creme, orange line, with SPF and Vitamin C for dryness. Helps. For occasional pimple, I use my daughter's Murad (blue line) and it works great. I like Jane Iredale for a light powder cover up, covers up my blemishes, and it isn't heavy or irritating. Mascara is hard as my eyes are so irritated and I just had a big inside eyelid infection and abcess.

[Skylar]

I use one drop in each eye of "Visine gets the red out" only on days I work. it will last 6 hours. I hate going to work with blood shot eyes. I only use it sparingly d/t the preservitives in it.

eye2dry

eye2dry - I've been warned by my Ophthalmologist and other doctors to never use those "get the red out" products ever if you have dry eyes - you'll even see these warnings in Sjogren's and Ocular Rosacea literature for patients. Please check this information out with your physicians if it's okay for you to use. To be honest I find sometimes information that isn't accurate gets pushed by doctors and then copied on all kinds of websites and then ends up as TRUTH - maybe my understanding of the "get the red out" products is like that - maybe it is okay?

I have extremely sensitive skin - LOL I'm a walking textbook of skin disorders. I've had great success following the advice of Paula Begoun - I buy some of her products and use her beautopia (on her website) to choose my other makeup products. She is known as the cosmeticscop.com  If you go to her website you'll find many of the products mentioned here, like Cetaphil are recommended on her site. What I like is you can find cheap versions of the pricey items without sacrificing quality - after all there are actually only a few manufacturers making all those make up and skin care products that we buy - things are just packaged and marketed to different segments of the population. For example - with eye brow pencils, there are only two manufacturers - one in Germany and one in Korea - so no matter what name is on your product, it came from one of these two places.

I also found switching from the common Standard American Diet that most people eat to Dr. John McDougall's starch based whole food diet made an amazing improvement in my skin and eyes drmcdougall.com  For the rest I see a dermatologist.

I also love sweet almond oil on my skin - it has a very mild sweet almond smell - but it's kind of pricey so I switched to Jojoba oil that I buy at Trader Joe - it doesn't have any aroma that I can detect. I also like olive oil, but it does smell like salad dressing LOL

I can't use Bare Minerals make up -I'm allergic or sensitive to the Bismuth Oxychloride. I use l"Oreal's version which is Bismuth Oxychloride-free on those rare days when I want to look a little more polished. Mostly I just apply sunscreen and call it a day.

[eye2dry]

Hi Skylar.

I don't know what to think anymore.

At my last GP appt for a thyroid check, we talked about my eyes. He wrote me a script for flurbiprofen and I filled it. It came with a info sheet in the box and I read it of course.

It said people with rheumatoid arthritis should not use this medication. So, I put it away in my closet and at my next eye dr appt I am going to show it to him and ask why not.

The reason I won't ask my GP who rx'd it is...he knows I have RA and he still gave it to me.

eye2dry

[Skylar]

At my last GP appt for a thyroid check, we talked about my eyes. He wrote me a script for flurbiprofen and I filled it. It came with a info sheet in the box and I read it of course.
eye2dry

Okay - then you don't have to worry - Visine is a vasoconstrictor - and that is what we shouldn't use.  Flurbiprofen is an NSAIDs - big difference - that you can use with care.

[Linda196]

I'm not sure why the information sheet would say flurbiprofen shouldn't be used by people with RA, since it's one of the old school first line RX for RA.
Definitely something to check out with your rheumy.

[A66eyroad]

Re: Permanent eyeliner --- the best thing to do is to find others in your area who've had it done. I used a girl in my hometown who's been fully trained and licensed. She'd been doing permanent makeup for about three years when I found her --- I knew she'd done at least a hundred others.  Also, there were several girls in my circle of friends who'd had it done by her.

Every year when he examines my eyes my optomitrist comments on what a great job this particular artist does, so that might be a good person to check with when you're making your decision.

I went to the shop and interviewed the tattoo artist -- who's also a beautician and cosmetologist -- and looked through her before-and-after scrapbook.

I checked out her equpiment and her sterilization procedure. I picked out the color I wanted (deep black-brown) and the width of the line (medium) and made my appointment for a Saturday morning. (I got the darker brown and the medium width line because I didn't want to have to have it done again. Cheap!)

She said that she guarantees her work and that she'll re-do the tattoo as many times as necessary for up to six months. She said that sometimes she has to go back over a section if she happened to miss a little bit. She sent me home with written instructions and a cute eye-shaped cool pak to put in the fridge for when I got the liner done.

On the morning of my procedure she numbed both eyes then started on my right eye. It felt like an annoying buzzy feeling but it didn't hurt. It did swell up right away. She did it among my lashes.  Because I've had my tear ducts cauterized, the numbing drops rolled out of my eyes and the second eye wasn't as numb as the first. Stupidly, I was too shy to ask her to stop and re-numb so I just soldiered on.  It started out being just annoying but by halfway through the second eye it hurt more than I thought it should, but it wasn't unbearable.

My eyes swelled up and looked as though I'd had a good, hard cry for about three days. I didn't tell anyone I was having this done because I didn't want to be talked out of it. My husband was out of town for three days and when he got home he asked me if I'd been crying, but didn't notice the eyeliner right away. 

I had to hang around the house for a day and place cool compresses on my eyes for ten minutes out of every hour the first day. The second day I was fine -- I even painted the living room. Also, I had to keep antibiotic ointment on my eyelids for a couple of weeks.  It took about three weeks for it to heal completely.

As I said, it's been about 7 years, and the color has faded a little -- just like any other tattoo it's a little more blue-ish than I would like, but it's still OK.

If I had to do it again, I'd have opted for a thinner line and a lighter brown. Oh, and of course, I'd have stopped her and asked her to re-numb my left eye.

Hope this helps!

[4Kids]

Eeks! I am so lucky. I wear the brands I want, mostly MAC. Nothing bothers my face very much, thank God and I hope it lasts.

[jazzlover]

Don't forget to check for Parabens!

http://www.naturalskincaresecrets.com/parabens-and-cancer.html

[meow]

A66beyroad, thank you for that description. You gave me a lot of good information!

[A66eyroad]

Meow, I'm glad I could help!

You wondered if it might look too harsh -- this reminded me of when I told my daughter (then college-age) I had gotten my eyeliner tattooed. She said, "Oh no! Do you look like Michael Jackson?"

I told her no. But really, I do!   

(I bet he paid a whole lot more for his than I paid for mine!)

[meow]

LOL!!!!