Beauty Regimen Safe Products (for now)

Long gone are the days that I can just run into Walmart, Target, or CVS and buy some quick make up. This is where MCAS gets complicated, once again. MCAS is a touchy, smelly, pain-inducing syndrome and I say that literally and figuratively because when lotions or chemicals touch my skin; it can set off a reaction. If I smell something over powering, it will trigger vertigo-like symptoms; which set off my POTS. If I eat something problematic, my whole body can and (most likely) will be in pain; especially in my stomach and my face. 

Once upon a time, not too many years ago, I was developing mouth sores, scalp sores, my eyes were always swollen and painfully black and blue, my face was red and peeling like it was sunburned, and I was getting ulcers inside my mouth and in the back of my throat. I had a ton of racing thoughts in my mind: Cancer? Lupus? Alien? 👽😉 Not going to lie, I was clueless and I was reaching (desperately searching) for answers to all the madness that was happening to my body!

Thanks be to God for knowledge, discernment, and an inquisitive mind because I was able to start digging into reasons why this was happening to me. Remember, at this time, MCAS was not even on any radar of mine. All I knew was that pregnancy with Briella changed me--from the inside out--and I couldn't understand why or for what reasons. 

Every few years, sometimes more or less, my body seems to change to what is 'safe' for me to use. At this very moment, these are the products that I can use safely. And to say that I am so grateful for these safe products is an understatement because there was a time I was making most everything that touched my skin (deodorants and toothpaste for starters) or only used 1 ingredient products such as Shea Butter or coconut oil for moisturizing so "graduating" to such luxurious products that are pictured below, is such a blessing to me when I was in such a sensitive, fragile place just 5 years ago. I never take it for granted as I can use a product one week and the very next week, it's causing severe reactions. While I have these luxuries, I want to recognize them so, as of today, this is what I can safely use.  

  

This is one of many Eucalyptus rollers and spritzer for when we are sick/congested/or need an uplifting scent. It's Eucalyptus oil either mixed with boiled water that's been cooled or almond oil. It's great for colds to open the nasal passages and it's green for an invigorating spritz. We all have one next to our bedsides. 

  

I'm so thankful for shampoos and conditioners! I gave the "no poo" method a good try a few years back and my hair was so brittle and falling apart. I needed something more subtle with cleansing and nourishing with conditioning. These products don't give my scalp sores or insatiable itchiness/redness so it's a win for now! 

If there's anything that I am a bit addicted to, it's makeup. I've always loved make up. I love to look like I'm not wearing make up so I love products that give me coverage with my facial rashes, but don't leave me looking caked and a different color. I'm very grateful for these two foundation products: one is a liquid and the other is a loose powder. 

I love this moisturizer! I can't say enough about how light it goes on, but how it takes my dryness to minimal or none. It's a game changer for me because my reactions come from the inside out. Which means, when I get a red rash on my face, it's burning me from the inside out and that means I will be left with a patch of dry skin that flakes and peels where I had my rash. This doesn't totally take that away, but it minimizes the dryness and that's helpful to me. 

While I still actually enjoy using my homemade deodorant, it's been fun to use something that's 'convenient'. 

Up until last winter, I was using a 3 ingredient olive oil soap, but I would get out of the shower and my eyes would be black and blue and my face was speckled red all over it. Plus, I was feeling like my eyes were punched and skin was itchy. I saw a New Year special and took a chance on this soap and it's been working very well for me. Yay!

This is the soap I put into all of our soap dispensers in our house. It's the only hand soap I can use that doesn't make my hands crack open and bleed. 

When I was using traditional toothpastes, just a few years back, the skin inside of my mouth was coming out in chunks. As in, I'd be talking and I'd start feeling chunks of stuff in my mouth and it was the skin from the insides of my cheeks. GROSS! My gums were receding so badly that I needed a very painful gum graft in 2012. Likewise, my uvula in the back of my throat had large, painful ulcerations developing; which made it painful and difficult to swallow. Now do you understand why thoughts such as cancer were coming to mind? This was not 'normal' to me and I had never experienced anything like it before this time. 

   

This is one of a few homemade perfumes made from essential oils. This particular scent is "Peaceful Sleep". I boiled water, let it cool, and added the Peaceful Sleep oil to an old spray bottle. For the perfume roller, I added the Peaceful sleep to almond oil. It's a very relaxing, calming, yet pretty scent that makes me feel like I smell nice. 💖 Who doesn't want to feel like they smell nice, right?! 

I am a huge lipstick/chapstick fanatic and, once upon a time 😉, I was slathering Shea Butter as my chapstick, but that was messy and causing breakouts around my mouth from it clogging my pores so when I find a chapstick that works, I get so excited! I found these gems in Walmart last year and I'm still able to use them. 🙌💥

It was just a few months ago that I lost the ability to use this product (or any products from this once safe-for-me brand). All the products that I once were able to use safely with this brand are now causing my eyes to swell and turn black and blue. The lipsticks immediately dissolve the skin in and around my mouth to instant painful peeling of layers of skin (like it was severely burned). It's never fun saying goodbye to a product I once loved, but no beauty product is worth the pain it causes me. 

**For the record, I am NOT getting paid to highlight these products and I am not trying to endorse any of these products. This is just simply a post to document what is currently safe for me to use at this very moment.**