Saturday, January 1, 2011

Acne Victim update

well, happy new year, dear readers!

since my last post, a lot has happened!  my parents and i took my kids to disney for Christmas and had a wonderful, wonderful time.  i've also changed concealers and what a difference!!!  see for yourselves:

i know my numbers are backwards :)  this was on December 15, just two days after my last post.  

this side, thankfully, looks better...

...but my forehead still looks bad...


so i didn't get to take DAILY pictures, like i promised, what with disney and Christmas and New Years. however, i did start noticing a HUGE difference.  i bought a concealer that i know for a fact - ingredient list! - does not contain any wheat derivatives.  combined with serious acne therapy - benzoyl peroxide face wash (which WILL bleach your towels, fyi) and salicylic acid emergency gel (be sure you still use some sort of a moisturizer - oil free, acne, whatever - at night), my face is looking MUCH better.


this is today (excuse the bored look) - january 1, 2011

i know the pictures are not as close up, but you can still tell...it's not as angry red, there are fewer itty bitty bumps and the break outs are NOT (yay!) cystic!!!

it's amazing.  truly amazing.  unfortunately, while i was in disney, i started using a hotel shampoo (not from WDW) that turned out to have wheat or some derivative in it.  my scalp has been flaking for two and a half weeks now.  soon as i can, i'll be getting a T-Sal shampoo by Neutrogena to pull all the dry flakes off the scalp and hopefully start a repair on that.

in doing all this, i've come to learn that with food products, the FDA requires an ingredient label that includes an allergen warning.  you can read about it here.  however, in my research, i can't find ANYTHING requiring companies to include that MAY CONTAIN warning on other products.  products like cosmetics (FDA's labeling manual can be found here).  i know i'm not the only person in the world who has had this problem.  and i think it's time that the FDA recognized that allergens are not only contained in food products.  and by allergens, i don't mean fragrances and things like that.  i know people have allergic reactions to those type things.  being a Clinique master consultant for quite sometime, i learned a few things.  but what i'm talking about are products that contain one of the top 8 major allergens (provided to my by Mayo Clinic):

*milk
*eggs
*tree nuts
*peanuts
*fish
*shellfish
*soy
*wheat

i do realize that very few, if any, cosmetic products contain shrimp or dairy.  but you would be really surprised at the number of products containing wheat, soy, and nuts or nut oil.  if you have an allergy to one of these major allergens, you need to be carefully checking the labels on your cosmetic products - everything from make up to hair care to body wash, shaving cream, and lotion.  wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have to learn what products to look for?  i carry this list in my purse everyday to check against ingredient labels:
cosmetic ingredients containing gluten:
hyrolyzed malt extract
hydrolyzed wheat protein
hydrolyzed vegetable protein
wheat germ
vitamin e
cyclodextrin
barley extract
fermented grain extract
oat (avena sativa)
stearyldimoniumhydroxypropyl
samino peptide complex
phytosphingosine extract
triticum vulgare
dextrin
dextrin palmitate
maltodextrin
Secale Cereale
Sodium C8-16 Isoalkylsuccinyl Wheat Protein Sulfonate
yeast extract
anything with wheat in the name


seriously.  shouldn't it be easier?  just as with food, i believe that those of us with major allergies should be able to look at ANY label and see the words "MAY CONTAIN" followed by an allergen.  and likewise, if the product does not contain any gluten, it should have the GF label on it.  so what can we do about it?  we can band together.  i'm starting a campaign, Cosmetic Allergen Alert, which you can read further about at my gluten free blog Gluten Free Adventures.  if you have a major allergy, please consider joining the campaign to contact the FDA and require allergy labels on cosmetic and drug products!!!  from here, we can all go be gorgeous!

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