Monthly Archive for April, 2008
I went bra shopping on Tuesday. Now, I shop as a hobby. I’ll do it to kill time or just out of habit. I love shopping for just about anything from home furnishings, to shoes, to computers, to cookie sheets. Love.
Bra shopping, though, is just frustrating. Every time I go, I’m a slightly different size than I was the last time so I only have a vague idea of what size to try on. Bra makers change up the styles they have on offer every few years so I can’t just try on a few versions of the kind that I already have. the last time I went bra shopping in the US, I had a really hard time finding something that fit correctly. I thought that I was just in between sizes or something. But I think my problem was that the brands that used to work for me have suddenly stopped fitting. I’ve been forced to go looking through brands that I’d always discounted as not fitting in order to find something. Which makes no damn sense. Well, it makes sense that as I get older, I’d have to start switching brands. Women’s bodies just change that way and a bra designed for a 20 year old isn’t going to fit on someone older. But the brand change I made makes no sense. I’d been wearing Madienform bras and suddenly Calvin Klein bras were fitting better. What the hell? I think the transition is supposed to go the other way.
Anyway. I managed to get a couple of bras. the ones I bought are pretty basic things. Nothing frilly, no pushing up or creating cleavage out of nowhere. The last year or so I’d mostly been wearing these little things that were like sports bras but without the smooshing. So wearing a real, properly fitting bra is making me feel like I have these huge things sort of bolted onto my chest. It’s weird.
So last week I was reading the “Sephora Spy” feature on Jezebel. Basically they get a skin care obsessed Sephora sales person to answer cosmetics questions and give reviews. In this particular post, she talked about this oil based face cleanser that’s the new thing they’re pushing for people with oily skin. Basically it’s just oil that you rub into your face and then rinse off with a hot wash cloth.
It turns out that there’s a home version of this product that’s just a combo of Castor Oil and Extra Virgin Olive Oil. The Caster Oil is supposed to work to clean out pores and the EVOO is supposed to moisturize, which in theory will balance out the oil production in your skin. Which pretty much goes with the whole “strip oil from your skin and put more on with lotion” theory of oil control that cosmetics companies have been peddling for years. I’m way too lazy to do more than wash my face once a day. I always forget about putting lotion on.
So I decided to try this out. I read a bunch of posts on the Natural Living LJ group and the whole thing sounded pretty simple. Hippies were raving about this.
I tried it in the shower this morning. So far I haven’t noticed a difference between the oil stuff and just using normal soap. Well, no, there’s one difference. Normally with soap, my skin gets all tight and flakey for an hour or two after my shower and then goes back to being oily. With the oil thing, I’ve skipped the dry and flakey and just went to somewhat oily. Which is somewhat annoying since I associate the dry feeling with “clean”. I get the same results by putting lotion on after i shower, too. Which is probably one of the reason I don’t normally do it. Why do the extra step if my face is just going to go back to oily anyway? The hippies say that it takes a week or so to see a difference, so hopefully I’ll start noticing less oil overall or fewer blackheads in a week or so. If not, I’ll be out however much the castor oil costs, which ain’t so bad.