I am looking forward to hearing your stories on all the crazy, itchy, horrible rashes you have had from using old crusty make-up. I know you want to tell me in person, and I am all ears! But I hope you will take the time to write it all down, right here!
- CLICK on the image and go to Beauty Alert! Headquarters
My saga began on a hot August day about three years ago as I peered, with one eye open, into the morning mirror. I was reflected back to me with that perfect sunlight that calls attention to the wrinkles, dark circles and puffiness surrounding the delicate eye skin with unwelcome detail. Great. I have a wedding to attend and I would like to, well, look, er, fresh. Yes, fresh…like a daisy. (Is that a douche tagline? Oops.)
Hmm, I think…somewhere in my cupboard, in a squashed up gift bag, behind some homemade bath salts that I’ll never use (because I did it wrong, damn you Martha Stewart) rests a free anti-aging eye cream sample. So what? – I think – so what if it is from the last century, it’s never been opened. Plus, LOOK at my wrinkles, I need help STAT.
With a liberal ease that only bleeding hearts normally enjoy I slather this origins-unknown-eye-aid all over my eye region. WOW, it burns. Holy sh*t, it *really* burns. And it is tingling like my eyes are stuck in powerful electrical sockets. Yay!! – this miracle solution is really working hard to make me fresh as the driven snow. (Detergent tagline? Bah.) Those little nanotechnilogical paraben soaked brushes are scrubbing away the old and exposing the new!
To enhance the process I take a scolding shower and let the cream STEAM in. I’m going to have the skin of a blushing 10 year-old when I get out, I think.
If I’m to be honest here, and so far I have been, I did have this nagging thought in the back of my mind that something was amiss with that anthropological artifact. Yet, stalwart in my mission, I did not remove the cream.
I get my outfit on in my mirror-less room. In the middle of pulling off-white fishnets over my pasty legs my eyes began to tear spontaneously and forcibly; without any emotional provocation. I had Sly and the Family Stone playing. This is not music to cry to. The tears were flooding to the point where it was difficult for me to make it down the hallway to the bathroom.
My new mid-morning reflection was breathtaking. Not in a good way. The area surrounding my eyes could best be described as fresh as swollen and rotten plum flesh. My whites were shot through with blood and I looked like I’d “just fallen down the stairs” and to be just a hair under 150 years old.
I immediately cleansed my skin about two to three hundred times. Now it was me scrubbing off the micro-scrubbers, which turned out to be some horrible bacteria eating away at my skin! Gee-ross!
My dermatologist told me that if I didn’t watch it and my products got old that the bacteria could cause to me to go blind. Now, I don’t know if that part is true or his scare tactics.
But…
It took almost two weeks for my skin to return to normal. It appeared crepey and paper thin like golden brown puff pastry flakes. It was an odd experience to be speaking with friends while they become hypnotized by the peculiar skin around your eyes.
Never again.
In order to attend the wedding I was pumped up with antibiotics, had to pile chamomile cream and steroid cream (from the derma) around my eyes and wear sunglasses.
To this day the thought of those beasties eating away at me makes my stomach lurch.
Thank you for sharing your story! Yikes….
I had a shoot on a cold, November morning where I had to be on-set at 5:30am. Holy cow. I can get up and be somewhere at that time of day, but to show up “camera-ready” as they requested? This was going to be tough…
I got up at 4:15, showered, washed, dried, and styled my hair and then began with the make-up routine. I had a bottle of moisturizer and my small container of liquid foundation and was going to mix a little, just like a make-up artist had showed me how to do. Each of them were no more than a few years old (I could still remember purchasing them) and I kept them in a cool, dark drawer of my dressing table. I rarely wore the liquid foundation… it was in my collection for on-camera auditions and gigs. As I smoothed the concoction on my face, it got tight and began to feel hot and itchy. At 4:45 in the morning, I did NOT have time for this. My face became increasingly, visibly red beneath the foundation. I washed it off and found my face to have, in mere minutes, turned from healthy and dewy into dry, scratched, and feeling BURNED! It was horrible! I showed up to the set without any face make-up on an incredibly sensitive. It was mind-over-matter the whole day to keep from clawing at my face and the make-up artist did an amazing job hiding my redness. Every time we took a break, I would press my face up against any cool surface I could find and it was almost a month before my skin returned to normal.
This was not a container of ancient or cheap cosmetics… these were professional grade, high quality products that were months past their prime, but they totally did me in and could have made for an embarrassing shoot. I kept thinking of Buddy Epson, the man who was first hired to play the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz and had a reaction to the silver make-up and had to be hospitalized… I could’ve lost a gig in my attempt to be thrifty.
I’m not one to be wasteful, but when my Beauty Alert labels tell me that time is up, I don”t mess around…
I think old liquid foundation is the root of these annoying tiny white breakouts under the skin that have been visible and erupting one-by-one for the last two months.
As a child, teenager and woman in my twenties, I had one or two visible zits in my life. I have never had acne and it is humiliating!!!
I have really fair skin so when those tiny painful breakouts start to emerge the redness is really noticeable. Since they don’t go away no matter how much I exfoliate, cleanse, tone and moisturize, I have to pick at them to make them disappear, which is not only embarrassing but is a no-no.
Once I do that, the redness and scarring is visible for several weeks. As it is not gone yet, I imagine it will be up to several months.
It seems like it’s coming to an end. I only have about three more of those barely visible under the skin white breakouts and I really hope they freaking go away.
Some things I used in combination: St. Ives apricot cleansing scrub, Neutrogena healthy skin rejuvenator, Queen Helene mint julep mask (makes the redness go away and draws out stubborn under the skin breakouts–AND really inexpensive), and Oil of Olay SPF 15 moisturizer as it’s light and doesn’t clog pores. To top it off, I use Scarzone, which is great at healing reddish scars.
Tiny white pimples are really hard to get rid of, some people get them after lip waxing. Bacteria can really do a number on our skin. Take it easy on the mint mask when you have had a reaction, that can be very stimulating!
I am going to throw out all my makeup and get new stuff but I am worried about the news reports that say that all the cosmetics and perfumes have bad stuff in them that are carcinogenic or hormone-interfering. Now I don’t know what is safe to use. I’ve already stopped using perfume and am only using safe soaps and detergents but have not been able to find out any information on the internet. Help!
Also, one of my daughters got pinkeye from using old mascara!