Product recommendation
Thu, Jun. 17th, 2010 12:40![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jarissaToday's topic is probably best labeled "beauty care", I guess: Not really dinner table conversation, but no terms unusable in the presence of preadolescents.
I'm a healthy, typical American mix of several ethnic subgroups: in my case, that'd be Irish, Italian, and German. In the genetic lotto, I inherited pale skin that freckled in my youth, but doesn't tan easily; large pores, which turn attempted use of makeup into a logistical nightmare; and very thick, dark hair that starts well below the surface of semitranslucent upper skin.
In other words, the hair on my head is only now starting to thin down to "average" at quite a bit more than thirty-five years of age; it's long enough that I have accidentally sat on it before, and as a teen/college kid I could get the Tina Turner Effect simply by brushing my mostly-dry hair over my head until all the knots were completely out, and then standing upright and throwing the hair (using both hands!) upward out of my face. No hairspray or hair goop needed.
The hair on my legs, however....
Shaving my legs has long been a frustrating, fruitless pursuit. I had the equivalent of a five o'clock shadow no matter how carefully I'd labored, no matter which razor I used or what shaving cream, no matter how long I spent at work, because the segment of hair under my skin was dark enough, and the skin itself pale enough despite its density, to show up even when it was too far under the skin for a razor to reach. An acquaintance in high school suggested that I try waxing my legs, but what kind of fashionista gives herself second-degree burns in order to rip out some of the offending hair in each session, guaranteeing both that ingrown hairs will result AND that some of the hair will simply break off instead of being pulled completely out?
It wasn't worth the pain, as far as I was concerned. I spent what time in the sun I could during the summer, trying to bleach those roots and get some sort of color in my legs; I wore a lot of pants, or fought with opaque tights, starting about a week after the end of summer. To this day, I can't bring myself to wear shorts.
Once I was doing my own shopping, I even tried Bikini Bare, but it was useless against that strong Italian keratin. At the time, no competitors were available on the local shelves, so I gave depilatories up as a failed experiment.
In the past decade or so, however, I've been trying various depilatory creams as they appeared on the market. Sure, most of them still smelled like boiled cow's urine (the main functional ingredient, at least early on). Veet got a high percentage of it, but I still had to shave the next day; Nair was still the stinkier equivalent of regular shaving cream, managing to make the hair brittle and coarse but not get it actually gone. Carefree (the sanitary napkin brand) came out briefly with a depilatory that was fantastic: for the first time since sixth grade, my legs were truly hairless, and it lasted almost three days. I guess I was the only customer that adored it, though, because within a couple of months it had vanished off every shelf again.
So I've been using Veet in thick layers, for the maximum recommended time, and still having to shave the missed spots. The process takes a hefty chunk of time out of the day, causing me to schedule it around dog care and social life and the need to use some hot water to run dishes and laundry each day; I tend to shave late at night, after the guys have gone to sleep, or on a stormy Thursday, or Fridays when I've got nearly all the week's prepwork done and we're expecting company that night.
That may be a thing of the past! Veet has come out with a very slightly varied setup, shown here: I hope it sticks, because HOLY COW it got ALMOST EVERYTHING on the first try! (And I'd put off shaving for a few weeks!) It's still boiled cow urine, don't get me wrong, but the smell is only "annoying" instead of "dear Smurf, it burns the cilia all the way down my throat"; it works fast enough that when I was done applying to the second leg, and took a swig of Coke, and then tested a small area of the first leg, it was ready to come off; and, in fact, I had to sit for a minute and wait between rinsing the first leg and going to work on the second. I spend more time than that on the shampoo-and-conditioner routine!
Even before moisturizing all my limbs, my hands smelled like soap instead of chemicals, and I've had no irritation or water retention. I know this isn't a universal solution -- it isn't even an ideal solution for myself -- but for people who've been dissatisfied with prior trials, I'd definitely recommend giving "the Veet with the large bottom, with mention on the label of a sponge you can't see" a try.
Now if only we could convince Target's Buyer that fat ladies also have a need for businesswear slacks, versus the current and past several years' repeated options of "crop pants" (Uhm, pants designed for beach/boatwear are NOT officewear!) and "sweatpants or jeans" (We don't just lounge around the house or the gym, we have to make the money to afford said house and gym!), I'd be doing remarkably well. I haven't been shaped right for anything at Avenue and similar plus-centric clothing stores around here.
It's raining yet again, so I ought to be taking my steampunk outfit from storage and examining it for mending; Extraordinary Contraptions are coming into town next month, and I'm really looking forward to seeing them again.
I'm a healthy, typical American mix of several ethnic subgroups: in my case, that'd be Irish, Italian, and German. In the genetic lotto, I inherited pale skin that freckled in my youth, but doesn't tan easily; large pores, which turn attempted use of makeup into a logistical nightmare; and very thick, dark hair that starts well below the surface of semitranslucent upper skin.
In other words, the hair on my head is only now starting to thin down to "average" at quite a bit more than thirty-five years of age; it's long enough that I have accidentally sat on it before, and as a teen/college kid I could get the Tina Turner Effect simply by brushing my mostly-dry hair over my head until all the knots were completely out, and then standing upright and throwing the hair (using both hands!) upward out of my face. No hairspray or hair goop needed.
The hair on my legs, however....
Shaving my legs has long been a frustrating, fruitless pursuit. I had the equivalent of a five o'clock shadow no matter how carefully I'd labored, no matter which razor I used or what shaving cream, no matter how long I spent at work, because the segment of hair under my skin was dark enough, and the skin itself pale enough despite its density, to show up even when it was too far under the skin for a razor to reach. An acquaintance in high school suggested that I try waxing my legs, but what kind of fashionista gives herself second-degree burns in order to rip out some of the offending hair in each session, guaranteeing both that ingrown hairs will result AND that some of the hair will simply break off instead of being pulled completely out?
It wasn't worth the pain, as far as I was concerned. I spent what time in the sun I could during the summer, trying to bleach those roots and get some sort of color in my legs; I wore a lot of pants, or fought with opaque tights, starting about a week after the end of summer. To this day, I can't bring myself to wear shorts.
Once I was doing my own shopping, I even tried Bikini Bare, but it was useless against that strong Italian keratin. At the time, no competitors were available on the local shelves, so I gave depilatories up as a failed experiment.
In the past decade or so, however, I've been trying various depilatory creams as they appeared on the market. Sure, most of them still smelled like boiled cow's urine (the main functional ingredient, at least early on). Veet got a high percentage of it, but I still had to shave the next day; Nair was still the stinkier equivalent of regular shaving cream, managing to make the hair brittle and coarse but not get it actually gone. Carefree (the sanitary napkin brand) came out briefly with a depilatory that was fantastic: for the first time since sixth grade, my legs were truly hairless, and it lasted almost three days. I guess I was the only customer that adored it, though, because within a couple of months it had vanished off every shelf again.
So I've been using Veet in thick layers, for the maximum recommended time, and still having to shave the missed spots. The process takes a hefty chunk of time out of the day, causing me to schedule it around dog care and social life and the need to use some hot water to run dishes and laundry each day; I tend to shave late at night, after the guys have gone to sleep, or on a stormy Thursday, or Fridays when I've got nearly all the week's prepwork done and we're expecting company that night.
That may be a thing of the past! Veet has come out with a very slightly varied setup, shown here: I hope it sticks, because HOLY COW it got ALMOST EVERYTHING on the first try! (And I'd put off shaving for a few weeks!) It's still boiled cow urine, don't get me wrong, but the smell is only "annoying" instead of "dear Smurf, it burns the cilia all the way down my throat"; it works fast enough that when I was done applying to the second leg, and took a swig of Coke, and then tested a small area of the first leg, it was ready to come off; and, in fact, I had to sit for a minute and wait between rinsing the first leg and going to work on the second. I spend more time than that on the shampoo-and-conditioner routine!
Even before moisturizing all my limbs, my hands smelled like soap instead of chemicals, and I've had no irritation or water retention. I know this isn't a universal solution -- it isn't even an ideal solution for myself -- but for people who've been dissatisfied with prior trials, I'd definitely recommend giving "the Veet with the large bottom, with mention on the label of a sponge you can't see" a try.
Now if only we could convince Target's Buyer that fat ladies also have a need for businesswear slacks, versus the current and past several years' repeated options of "crop pants" (Uhm, pants designed for beach/boatwear are NOT officewear!) and "sweatpants or jeans" (We don't just lounge around the house or the gym, we have to make the money to afford said house and gym!), I'd be doing remarkably well. I haven't been shaped right for anything at Avenue and similar plus-centric clothing stores around here.
It's raining yet again, so I ought to be taking my steampunk outfit from storage and examining it for mending; Extraordinary Contraptions are coming into town next month, and I'm really looking forward to seeing them again.
