h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've never been much of a girly-girl--all I do with my hair is wash, condition, and run a comb through, and I cut it back up to my waist once it reaches below my hips (though one, it ended up at the bottom of my shoulder blades, because it took that long to get it even). I wash my face every couple of days, and I almost never wore makeup except for special occasions. Then, somewhere around the time PaperKid was born, I noticed that my nose was pink, and in photos, it was bright pink--even when I couldn't just shrug it off to sunburn (though sun *is* one of my triggers). My nose kept getting brighter, and the pinkness spread to my cheeks and my chin. I finally had someone look at it, and learned I had rosacea. OK, no big deal, and at least I knew it wasn't anything sinister. Of course, I also knew that it would never go all the way away, though the gel stuff worked pretty well to fade it.

Now, working with easily distracted kids, some with memory issues, meant I had the same conversation several times with the same kids. A few have had no trouble remembering the assertion, "That's just the way my skin is," though some have had to be told it's not contagious. And no, I don't have a cold. And so forth.

The red nose and pink cheeks and chin mean that, when I do wear makeup, I can't just throw on some blush and lipstick and leave it at that--I need full coverage, concealer and all (I have dark circles too--I like to say I inherited them from both directions, from my mom *and* my kids) and things work best if the concealer I use is green, to optically correct the redness.

Just before this school year, I finally decided I was tired of fielding the red nose question. So I did some searching, and found an online mineral makeup company (not the one you've seen on TV) (yes, I'm sure--lower price, more product by weight in each jar) that gave free samples *without* requiring you to sign up to anything--no having to send back the stuff if you didn't like it, or remembering to get off a mailing list as pernicious as, say, Columbia Record Club. I have fallen in love with this company. Not only is their makeup wonderful, with an incredible range of colors in every bit of makeup you can think of (heck, they even added water-based nail polish this month) but their customer service is great (I got help in picking out which foundation shades to try, once I sent a photo). If you sign up for the monthly newsletter, you get a coupon code each month, and are notified of free gift offers, if you order a certain amount of product (usually $40 after discount and before shipping, though this month it's $30). This month, some of their skincare was the gift--the facial scrub and any 2 of their moisturizers. I thought a scrub would probably cause my rosacea to flare up, since just rubbing cleanser specifically for rosacea onto my face gently with my fingertips does, a little, but I figured that, for free, I could just do a little more cover up, if necessary, and give someone else the rest of the sample. Well, I just got out of the shower, and not only did my face not get any redder than just cleaning it makes it, I probably could've gotten away without moisturizing (I did anyway, with my usual moisturizer, so that I'd only be changing 1 parameter for the experiment). And that's what prompted this not-quite-a-commercial-because-I-made-sure-not-to-mention-brand-names

I'm glad you found something that helped, Amy.

The only time I use makeup is when I'm in a show. Otherwise, I'm mystified when I get behind a woman with a lot of cosmetics in her shopping cart at the supermarket. Those things are probably costing her a small fortune. What is she giving up in order to afford them?

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