Our Artist Rocks!

One of the coolest things that happened for Beauty Alert! this year was meeting our new artist, Kendal Tull Esterbrook. She created a funny and cool image for us that we turned into a girly greeting card. Her website, lubdubart.com, tells the story of our awesome time together!

Very fun! You can get yours at www.beautyalert.biz for only $4.95.

Ultra tweezers are made in Italy of stainless steel, slant tip, and have cut outs on each side for a perfect precision grip. Best of all, they are guaranteed for life. If the tweezers stop performing, simply return the tweezers in the original packaging to the U.S. distributors and they will repair or replace them for free. Who does that? They are the best tweezers in the universe, and retail for only $20.00.

Once, I had the bright idea to leave my sunscreen in my car, so I could reapply when needed.  One warm day, I pumped out a little of the lotion with SPF, and it was lumpy and curdled.  I didn’t even know a lotion could do that.  It was a new, 6 ounce tube, and I felt very wasteful.  Store your products in a cool, dry place.

If something smells or separates, toss it. Bacteria loves warmth, humidity, and liquid, so your products are a very good breeding ground for things to go very wrong.

I keep my potions and lotions in a beautiful red box, it is a great way to hide your make-up and creams away from light and makes an attractive storage place. This cream comes in a jar, so try not to double dip (touch your feet and then put your fingers back in the jar) and it is also the perfect example of what our Beauty Alert! labels are great for.

This cream would fall under the six month category when properly stored and no double dipping occurs. I love this foot cream! Warmer weather reminds us to take care of our feet. Make sure you get your mani/pedis in a salon that uses a good sterilizer, and never walk barefoot around a nail place, or in a hotel for that matter. Travel with flip flops. Use a cream like the Brown Butterfly foot cream with Tea Tree to keep yucky fungi away. Wash and dry your feet completely after your bath or shower, and do find a good place to get a pedicure! You don’t have to paint your toe nails, but pedicures are a great way for women (and men) to keep in touch with how your feet are doing.

I think I need to clean out my inbox more often than my hand lotion container. The story goes like this:

I spent last summer in Europe and sublet my apartment.  Before I left, to make space in the bathroom, I put my Lubriderm hand lotion in a drawer.  When I got got back, I put it back on the counter and did what I always do, put it all over my arms and legs.  A few days later, I developed a big nasty blister on my shin, which I thought was just an allergy (my skin is super-sensitive), so I just put some hydrocortisone on it.  But it spread, all over the place:  various spots on my legs, my arms, even a spot on an underarm, and then one really nasty one on my left index finger (it was really disgusting—I’ll spare you details).  That one really worried me because it just would not go away and was spreading, so I called Group Health and told them I was worried about MRSA.  I described symptoms and they told me get over right away.  The GP was worried, and thought it might be some auto-immune response, so she called in the dermatologist who biopsied the blisters. We went over all the possible things that could cause something like this:  I had spent the summer in Spain, I go to a gym regularly, but nothing made sense.  She didn’t think the lesions were auto-immune but was worried about MRSA and she gave me both mega-dose topical steroids in case it was an allergy and an antibiotic in case it was a bacteria.  She asked me if I used any new skin products, and I said no, I’m really fussy about that.  What she didn’t ask me was whether I was using any OLD skin products.  It turns out that the culprit was that bottle of Lubriderm that sat in a drawer in my bathroom, all summer (an especially warm one), and it was the perfect incubator for bacteria.  Blame both my thriftiness (there was about 2 inches left in the bottle!) and the fact that it never occurred to me that Lubriderm could have a shelf life or grow bacteria.

The story has a happy ending.  The steroids + antibiotics combo worked like a charm, the biopsy showed nothing but bacteria.  A few weeks later my skin was back in the pink, not red and blistery, and only the fingernail on my left index finger betrayed any signs of all that nasty bacteria.  Now, I use those Beauty Alert stickers on EVERYTHING.

One more thing:  I should see you more often, not just because my brows need attention but because I always come away inspired, with such good advice on how to live a healthy life.

Thanks!
Theresa

Here is the link