Saturday, September 25, 2010

The search goes on after all

Around the time my Trilogy moisturiser started to run out, I noticed that sometimes after I used it on my face my skin started to heat up. So I guess it must have developed a sensitivity to one or more of the ingredients. The Xma-Ease was till fine, but it's not a moisturiser so I can't use that on its own.

So...it was time to go back on the search for something to use on my (how inconvenient!) dry and irritable complexion.

One problem I had with experimenting was that if I squirt something from the tester bottle at the shop and put it on my hand, wrist or even behind my ear, it might feel perfectly comfortable. But it might be quite irritating on my face. And there's no way I'll put something new on my face unless I'm at home - in case the new product turns out to be a burn-y, sting-y thing from dermatology hell.

Then I had a Eureka! moment and realised all I had to do was to carry a small, clean pot around with me so I can squirt an untried moisturiser into and take it home for testing.

If I'd only thought of that earlier, I'd have save myself 20 bucks on a tube of The Honey Company sensitive skin cream.
It did save me from wasting money on a tub of Olive moisturiser though. And both of these felt perfectly nice on my hands.

The latest hopeful was Lush's Celestial, of which I was given a free sample to try. By all accounts it's fabulous for dry and sensitive skin, and it's been raved about on the Internet. On day one, I was converted. On day two, I thought I detected a slight, worrying tingle that came and went after I put it on my face. On day three, the boy took a look at my glowing cheeks and said I looked like I'd been over-enthusiastic with the exfoliation (which I daren't do).

Apparently Olay is quite safe. Does anyone know whether it's tested on animals?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

No idea. But poor you sounds completely tedious and annoying!

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, anything with synthetic perfume or chemicals is going to irritate your skin. Which rules out all supermarket shelf or even chemist skincare products. You'd be best trying pure almond oil (available from your local chemist for about $10 a bottle) which will help to 'reset' your skin. It's highly moisturising and won't clog your pores. It also surprisingly, will sink into your skin very quickly and be non-greasy.

After which, i'd strongly recommend you try an organic moisturiser from a health store, something like Natural Instinct, which has no perservatives or artificial anything. My son and his father have extremely sensitive skin prone to eczema. This is what works for them.

Good luck!

Violet said...

donnasoowho: ah well. I bought a jar on a whim because it was relatively cheap ($15). But no...burn-a-rama...

cathi: thanks for your suggestion. I'll see if I can get a free sample from the Health shop around the corner from work.