Carly's guide to top beauty survival products (part 2)

Yesterday I shared the beauty survival products I use in the shower, for my hair and skin. Today I am sharing the products I use when I am sore, and the 'luxury' ones.

The list is a modified challenge set by My Favourite Things.

Note - these products work best for me, and I recommend you seek your doctor's advice before trying them on you or your child.

Soreness

When I am sore I usually have a bath. I use a combination of these three products - all from the supermarket. Olive oil and table salt, or bleach.

I keep my olive oil in a pretty ceramic decanter in the bathroom. I use about a cup each of oil and salt to a bath two thirds full of water.

Bleach baths are not scary. They reduce inflammation and infection, and actually moisturise. I use half a cup of bleach to a bath two thirds full of water. Bleach baths were recommended by my top dermatologist. And he knows his shit. I even splash the water on my face.

When I first had a bleach bath, I did it at my parents' place in case things went wrong and they had to rush me to hospital. Nothing went wrong. It did reduce the inflammation on my face and Dad kept singing Michael Jackson's Black or White. It was funny.

I also soak chux cloths in salt water and use them as face and body compresses when I am sore.

I use these creams (on my body only) when it's sore. Silvazine cream and Diprasone ointment.

Usually these are last resort options - when I am almost dead or in hospital.

Silvazine is a burns treatment. I use this with bandages like a mummy. Like this. (Except never Silvazine on my face.)

Diprasone is used on my body too. Maybe on my face, but I think it's more likely to be Sigmacort.

Both have side effects. Silvazine can be absorbed into the body. I fear I will end up like the guy who turned blue from absorbing silver.

(source)

I probably won't turn blue. It's too expensive for me to stock up, and the PBS does not prescribe a great amount anyway. But turning blue would be exciting for me! Silvazine also dirties clothes.

Diprasone is a cortisone and thins my skin so I can end up with sore patches after a week of use.

Fortunately I don't use these frequently.

There are other creams I've been prescribed but the combination of cost and side effects leave me choosing the ones I really need/can afford.

Luxury items

I guess these are my real beauty products. Luxury items!

I only use Calvin Klein Eternity perfume and Lucas paw paw ointment each day.

I love the subtle smell of Eternity. Sometimes I use Estee Lauder Beyond Paradise or the Body Shop's vanilla oil. I either spray the perfume on my clothes or dot the oil on cotton wool, roll it so the oil is on the inside of the cotton wool and won't touch my skin, and stick it down my bra. 

Paw paw ointment is used on my lips and hands during the day. Vaseline doesn't moisturise my lips like paw paw does. 

The other products are 'sometimes products'. For special occasions.

Body Shop Brazil nut define and no frizz hair cream is brilliant for softness and curl.

Lush American Cream conditioner is good as a leave-in styling product. It creates tight ringlets and smells good. As a real rinse out conditioner, it leaves my hair with the Pantene effect - siliconey and a very scaly scalp. Beware though, if it rains, it may run down your face. I had the experience of a rainy night on Lush-styled hair and it made my face infected :(

I sometimes use L'Occitane shea butter on my lips and hands. It smells of rice pudding, and is so gentle. There used to be shea butter lip tints sold in Australia, and I liked the bright red one. Sadly the store does not stock them anymore.

Speaking of lips, lipstick (or gloss, whatever it is called) and nailpolish is the only true makeup I use. I use lipstick about twice a year. I got some freebies last year and here I am wearing some, on set at No Limits.

I hate removing nailpolish so I usually only wear it on my toes.

It was fun compiling and writing this extensive list.

I hope you found my list interesting and of course, useful. I am particularly keen on hearing back from people with ichthyosis. There is nothing glamourous about my beauty survival regime. It's relatively cheap, but I only wish more of it was listed on the PBS for the Medicare Safety Net. Please remember, these products work best for me, and I recommend you seek your doctor's advice before trying them on you or your child.

Carly's guide to top beauty survival products (part 1)

After my first vanity, beauty and prejudice piece I wrote last week, who would have thought I'd be writing a blog entry devoted to beauty products? And who the hell thought I'd NEED such products?!

 

 (source)

Hold on, keep reading. It's all relevant!


My Favourite Things has set a list challenge that I'd thought would be both fun and informative to do on my blog. I have modified the list to categories that are relevant to my own life.

I don't use any make up or many off the shelf body products. I wanted to share my usual beauty product routine with you though. Or survival product routine as I call it. It may be useful for you if you have sensitive skin or ichthyosis.


Note - these products work best for me, and I recommend you seek your doctor's advice before trying them on you or your child.

Shower

I shower twice a day.

For about 10 minutes.

The morning is laborious: wet hair, leave in shampoo/condition, scrub nails (with gentle soap and nailbrush) wet ears, wash face and ears, wash body, comb scalp, rinse hair.

Night is easier: Wash face, wash body, scrub nails, stand under hot water.

I wash my face with a facecloth and plain water.

I wash my body with simple products. Hamilton Gentle Wash (or QV, whichever is cheaper) and sometimes bath oil (again, sometimes Hamilton or QV).

 

I only use these products on my body, never my face.

I have also used Cetaphil Restoraderm body wash recently, which has been good for the fatter parts of my body but makes things sore in places where the skin easily rubs off (particularly chest and feet). And it's expensive too. But can be used as a shampoo.

If I am sore (with infection) I will use Microshield handwash in the shower, particularly when I am in hospital.

Moisturiser

My moisturising regime is also plain and simple. Cheap. And very greasy.

 

It's good old customised (by the chemist) and prescribed (by the doctor) vaseline. I call it cream.

70 percent soft white paraffin and 30 percent liquid paraffin. In the cooler months the ratio is changed to 60/40 for easier application.

It comes in 500 gram tubs - I get about five kilos every month.

For easy transport in my handbag I use little jars of vaseline brought from the supermarket.

I apply this all over my body after my showers, twice a day, and then when needed.

Everything I touch is greasy. Everything.

Don't give me the 'vaseline is polluting your body' lecture. Particularly when you're smoking.

Sometimes I use Elidel in addition to my cream to reduce the redness on my face before a big event.

I can't use sunscreen so I cover my body up and wear a hat.

I also drink a lot of water to keep my skin hydrated - perhaps three to four litres a day.

Hair

I have been a recent convert to sulphate free shampoos. I used to use 'gentle' ones, or medicated ones. But these irritated my scalp, leaving it itchy, scaly and at worst, hairless. I have finally found shampoos that wash my hair well and are gentle on my scalp.

I generally wash every second day and condition every day - all during my morning shower.

For the past few years I've been alternating between Dermaveen and Alchemy products

I started using Alchemy gentle shampoo and macadamia and wheat conditioner about five years ago, and it was like a miracle - all the scale was easily removed from the front of my scalp.

My dermatologists did advise against using plant based products because specialists can't predict how the ingredients will react with my skin. But Alchemy has been great for me.

Dermaveen shampoo and conditioner is, I guess, a more medicated product. It's quite thick and leaves my hair ringlety. It is also good for my scalp.

Recently I was recommended Modern Organic Products shampoo and conditioner. They are sulphate free.

They wash and condition my hair well - leaving it soft and silky, and my hair styles well when it dries. Pricey though! I spent $53 on these.

Every day I comb the scale out of my hair during and (in more detail) after my shower. It can get messy but has to be done. Once, a former manager pulled some skin from my hair at work. Ooops.

I always towel dry and style with my fingers. Sometimes I will use a hairdryer. A straightener will probably do damage to my hair or worse, catch on fire from my cream.

My form of ichthyosis means my hair breaks off at the scalp. So I try to avoid pinning or tying it, or using harsh styling products. When I was 15, it turned into an undercut, and I had big patches without hair - very bloody and itchy and scaly. Really difficult. It is prone to small patches now, usually caused by comb nicks.

When my scalp is extra scaly, and because I have inherited my Mum's African hair in the form of my Dad's loose curls, I use an occasional treatment of olive oil or Sorbolene through my hair and scalp overnight.

I have two more categories that I will cover tomorrow.

I hope you found my list interesting and of course, useful. I am particularly keen on hearing back from people with ichthyosis.

There is nothing glamourous about my beauty survival regime. It's relatively cheap, but I only wish more of it was listed on the PBS for the Medicare Safety Net. Please remember, these products work best for me, and I recommend you seek your doctor's advice before trying them on you or your child.

iSkin and iPhones :/ - an open letter to Steve Jobs

My life is a haze (slippery slope?) of vaseline and dead skin. That's the reality of it. Icky to the non acquainted/OCD type. But that's my life.

My life is also jam packed with Apple products. Ok maybe not jam packed, but most of my technology needs are satisfied by Steve Jobs. I have an iPhone, iPod Touch and MacBook Pro. I am madly in love with the latter two. They are beautiful. And functional. More so beautiful. Actually my T key is a little sticky on my MacBook Pro, and I am unable to do eTax on it, so a little irritation has crept into my love.

My iPod Touch is the most wonderful music player I have ever had. I dreamed of playing four hours of Savage Garden when I was 15, and now I can do this. Last year I had an operation, and during the pre-op check up, I needed to give a wee sample. Who knew the iPhone Touch could assist me with this?! I downloaded the Shy Bladder app a few months earlier, in jest really. I thought it would be as much use as the cigarette lighter flame app I downloaded (zero use). When my wee didn't flow naturally, I returned to my doctor's room, grabbed my iPod and headphones and took them back to the toilet, assuring the doctor I'd explain when I returned. After a bit of waterfall sound effects through my Sennheisers (and pleased that I wasn't wasting water when our dams were at their lowest), my wee flowed. And when I returned to the doctor's room, I explained the need for my iPod in the toilet and he laughed and laughed. Ingenious.

But the iPhone is not the best thing to come into my life like others believe theirs to be.

I vowed not to be one of those who succumbed to an iPhone. I really only need a phone to make calls and take the occasional (crummy) photo. But last September, about a year ago actually, I lost my phone (a basic Nokia) in a taxi on the way to ChIPS camp. Optus had previously stuffed up my account whereby they didn't sign me up to the plan I believed I was on, and so I was credited about $700, so when it came to replacing my phone, I thought, what the hell, I'll get an iPhone because I won't have to pay a bill for a while. And I didn't - it's only been since about June this year that I have started paying my mobile bills again. When I bought it, it was pretty good - like no other phone I had. I didn't have my MacBook Pro then, so it was a handy portable device. But then things went awry.

I have had three iPhones in a year. Soon to be four.

My skin and vaseline don't mix with the iPhone. The first iPhone was replaced because the microphone failed. No one could hear me on the phone. I could hear them though. The speaker component also suffers - my ring tone and alarm are bearly audible.

I believe it is due to skin and vaseline blocking the microphone/speaker, despite my vigilant cleaning with a dry toothbrush (sometimes I do this while waiting at the train station and people freak out - RELAX - the toothbrush has NEVER been wet or in my mouth!).

The second iPhone smashed when it was dropped. I waited six weeks to get a replacement through home and contents insurance. My beautiful looking iPhone became like this ugly witchy Barbie doll I once got as a part of a Snow White and Wicked Stepmother set, aged four. I couldn't bear to look at the smashed screen, it reminded me of this Barbie doll. And black glass bits kept of flaking off, leaving a sticky residue. It was usable - I could make calls, check emails and Facebook, but there was also the problem of the microphone and my skin.

This current iPhone has lasted since May. People have complained they cannot hear me when I call them. So on Wednesday it is back to the Apple store where I hope to get another replacement.

Despite using a cover and little plugs in the power bit, my iPhone is not ichthyosis friendly.

Steve Jobs - you have enough money and compassion to design one where the microphone is protected from my skin and vaseline. If you are reading this and got all the way through it, I thank you, and hope you will understand the skin and vaseline issue is not due to me kinkily using my iPhone.

Steve Jobs, I challenge you to consider redesigning the iPhone to make it more accessible for me. I don't want to have to be constantly replacing my phone.

Thank you.