suncream, zits and wrinkles: rolling skincare thread?

I tried plenty of prescriptIon stuff for my skin but still permanently had one or two spots on my chin until I went to this US dermatologist last year. He was awesome and I only paid co-pay. Literally the only good experience I had with the u.s. Health"care" system. He had tons of "subtle" botox etc posters on the wall.

Out of curiosity, what didn't you like about the system? Was it all the red tape/cost BS or the actual care? I ask only because while I love the NIH in theory, the doctors ( 2 diff GPs both in London) I had while on it were horrible. The dentist I saw might actually have been worse. I hate admitting that because I wish it weren't so but the standard of care was a lot lower than what I've experienced here. That said, I have an excellent PCP here and I know that.

lol I meant NHS not NIH. I am putting together a grant app to the latter this afternoon so it's on my brainz.

Well, you don't want to get me started :)
Actual care was ok, I guess, although so ass-covering - they couldn't give me actual information about whether I should go home or not ("well you could, but you might die in the night, so it's up to you...") and just literally every single person talked to me like I was speaking another language (not just me either, my husband found this). like I'd ask a straightforward question like 'where can I get some water' 'how long will i be here' 'what is the address of this hospital so I can tell the car to get home' and they would not know (in the case of that last question) or just tell me a random sentence. Nothing was joined up, I had to give my insurance information repeatedly and they still fucked up absolutely everything, basically refused to send (very straightforward) test results to my doctor because they screwed up, arghghgh. No-one could ever tell you who in what department to talk to or anything.

The red tape side, man, I hope my life is never genuinely in the hands of those people. Absolutely appalling. Again, no-one could answer a question and you felt like you're completely on your own taking crazy pills. I spent literally a year not knowing whether they were going to charge me several tens of thousands of dollars because they just could not understand a single question I asked and gave completely irrelevant answers. (I was in overnight for observation, they billed insurance co. for intensive care unit, they refused, I questioned repeatedly whether a mistake had been made ad infinitum.)

To be fair I have not had any serious experience with NHS except my husband was very recently in for a similar thing and it took a lot less time (including follow-up testing, the same that I had) and people talked to him like a human. I'm sure it all depends on who you end up talking to. My GP in the US was a bit weird but I just picked a random place I could get to on the bus and never got around to changing it. Oh yeah that office insisted I had a SSN when I didn't and it turned out they were referring to a form where I'd written 'my husband's SSN: ' in big letters as it was his policy. He also prescribed me tons of drugs for a weird neck thing I had and gave me a referral for an Xray and I was like WHAT! Is it really serious enough to warrant all this? and he was like 'nah'.

Interesting thanks for elaborating! I find this stuff fascinating partly because it has to do a bit with part of my job and also just because of personal experience. Sounds like you were in a bad hospital which totally happens and is the pits. The red tape part of it all is just totally awful and inexcusable, you're right.

AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn22227-rosacea-may-be-caused-by-mite-faeces-in-your-pores.html

i hate u

hahahahahahaaaahahaha omg

no no no no no no nooooooooooooooo

my face it is filled with shit ;_;

I think I won't read that article. a;lsdkjf;alksdjf

omg I wish I hadn't read it

I'm almost as scared of that closeup of rosacea-face as I am of the bugshit

O_O

i think it's interesting

there are mites and their poo everywhere, whatevs

not saying it isn't gross, just saying i like ~science~

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5258/5465902801_b766b897dd_z.jpg

^ this book changed my life in weird ways

i wonder if we need mites as much as they need us

maybe, but the tiny spiders dying and rotting in my pores thought is still giving me palpitations

^^^^

HOW DO I GET THEM OUT?

bleach imo

dudes, this is oooooold news. I am currently running a rosacea clinical trial that is using an anti-parasitic compound. It's working like a champ.

!!! That's kind of awesome.

Sorry guys I know it is sorta horrifying but also v interesting! I will admit that I made sure to wash extra well tonight. And yeah Kate, that is really neat.

kate, you have my attention

This is the study.
If you're interested in participating in clinical trials, you can search by disease and geographic area at clinicaltrials.gov.

I see it mentioned a couple of times upthread, and I know Julia loves her NutraSonic, but has anybody else purchased one? My pal (and ILX lurker) Courtney just got one and really likes it and I'm considering it.

Is that like a Clarisonic? I have the Olay knock-off and love it. Might shell out for the Clarisonic one day but it's so $$.

i skipped a wk of nutrisonic and cld tell the diff. (i use it twice weekly) ugggh dull peely face. before i tried it, i had tried every exfoliant ever (it seems) and nothing helped before. my skin is rly weird tho. (skin condition + wonky hormones = eek)

olay is supposed to be the same thing cheaper, from what i've heard. doesn't seem worth shelling out for the pricier ones if you like hwat u have!

xp Yeah, same general idea. I guess I meant has anybody else purchased one of these new fangled face brushes. Courtney got the Clarisonic. I'm not married to any one brand, although I like the idea of a device that is rechargable.

x-post - Yeah, I'm going to keep using the Olay until one day if/when it seems like it's no longer working. It's cheaper than the replacement brush heads for the other ones. It's very gentle so I use it every night. It's battery operated but I've had it about 4 months so far and haven't had to change them yet.

Oh, that's a plus.

I shall now bombard you with questions: Can you use it in the shower? If you use it at the sink, is it really messy? Does the brush spin or vibrate (I think that's what the Clarisonic is supposed to do - vibrate like how the Sonicare toothbrush does)?

lol, no prob

- I've used it in the shower without problem.

- Not messy at all ime. Sometimes you get a little splash of product but it's minimal.

- It spins which is how it differs from the Clarisonic, yes. However, it really does seem to clean well. Reviews are overwhelmingly positive though you'll get the occasional person who points out that spinning isn't the same as vibrating though I'm not really sure if there's any science to back up the vibrating thing anyway. For every one of those reviews there is someone saying they have both and can't tell any difference so i don't know. When I got the Olay I figured that if it sucked I would only be out ~ $30 and so far it's worked for me.

Oh and it also feels really nice which makes me actually want to wash my face at night which is something I've been lazy about in the past.

i use nsonic in shower, have to close my eyes so soap spittle doesn't fly into my eyes.

good to hear that olay is gentle, i'm def getting that whenever my nsonic dies. (had it for 2 yrs, but eventually i'm sure it will)

When Sonicare toothbrushes first came out, I got a Crest Spinbrush and it kind of sucked (it tasted weird and would catch my mouth in the spinning apparatus somehow). My mom got me a Sonicare a couple of years ago and I love that fucking thing, so I kind of have a bias against spinning things v. vibrating things. But, the reviews are really good for both products, and if you factor in the human tendency to rate something they paid a lot of money for more highly so as not to feel like chumps for paying a lot of money for it, they are about even. Plus, and I think this is the ultimate deciding factor, if I go with the Olay thing, I can get it today, but if I want the Clarisonic (even getting the cheaper one-speed Mia), I have to wait until I get paid next week.

It also seems reasonable to try a cheaper version to see whether I even like using it before.

To finish that sentence, "before I spend a lot of money on the more expensive one."

^^^I am a sucker and I have just decided I am going to the same thing as carl, despite the fact that I never considered a face-washing device until JUST NOW. Thanking u thread for taking all my monies away :(

In other news I just bought a new blush over the weekend but I think it's too dark or ruddy or something and now I have to go return it and that makes me sad because Ulta is far away and I'm lazy. It looked OK in the store dammit!!

ha, quincie, I'm sorry to be an enabler. But this product is going to solve all of our problems. All of them. I just know it.

I want one too, pfft you guys. So we're buying the Olay one?

LOl yes we are. I'm going to Ulta at lunch today because I think I have a coupon somewhere in the depths of my purse.

bwahaha. I will have to wait a bit as I told my sister to take my credit card and get herself textbooks and some back to school clothes, so I really shouldn't spend anything on myself right now. Except maybe as a present for being such an awesome big sister.. hehehe..

Hmmm I hope CVS or Walgreens has the thing, too lazy for Ulta today and MUST EMPLOY NEW WASHING TECHNOLOGY TODAY!

Hahaha you guys crack me up just don't blame me if you hate it or it doesn't agree with you for some reason!

I should have put that thing about the blush in the comestics thread. Oh well. It's Ulta I need to go to to return that so I feel you on that QUince. The other places should have it.

I'm pretty sure Walgreens or CVS carries it. I wanted to go to Ulta because I like to rack up them bonus points. I stopped in Ashley Stewart on the way and found a lovely black linen and rayon skirt and a pair of shorts* on megaclearance, and I wouldn't have gone there had I not been on the way to Ulta so obviously this product is already solving all of my problems.

*There is a vacation involving some light hiking in my future and I realized that unless I was going to go hiking in skirts and Spanx, I needed to break my no shorts ever rule.

I cannot wait to go home and wash my face.

hm, I really like my sonic care toothbrush and have been curious about sonic vibration face cleansing, so maybe I will jump on board too...