Why Reviewing Beauty Products Can Be Hazardous To Your Health
Last year I accepted an invitation to review a beauty product that I was not familiar with. Specifically, the product was one of those "expensive" wrinkle reducing serum/cream thingies that I'm always a sucker for and could not, until NOW, say no to because I'm terrified of getting wrinkles. Anyway, to make a very long and quite painful/embarrassing story short, here's how my unofficial review went:
1.) Put anti-wrinkle cream on
2. ) Wake up the next morning with very puffy and itchy eyes.
3.) Go about my regular business with sunglasses on all day because my eyes were all kinds of scary looking. Good thing I had some cute sunglasses!
4.) By noon, my entire face and neck started getting itchy and hot. I looked in the mirror and I had huge red spots all over me.
5.) Took some Claritin and hoped things would get better real quick because I was responsible for hosting a baby shower the next morning.
6.) Wake up to the most horrific face I've ever seen. One eye was swollen shut and I kind of looked liked the elephant man. (I am NOT kidding you!) So, a trip to the emergency room was definitely in order.
7.) ER doctor said I had an allergic reaction to one of the ingredients in the anti-wrinkle cream. Ya think? He gave me a shot in the butt and some other medicine and sent me home.
So, in conclusion, testing out a new beauty product caused me to have a severe allergic reaction and cost me nearly $500 in medical bills. In the end I declined to review this product, and never even contacted the company back that sent me the product for review. I should have said something before now but I didn't.
From that moment on I vowed to never again use a facial beauty product I was not familiar with. However, a few weeks ago I was asked to test out another anti-wrinkle cream from a different PR company. What is up with all these wrinkle cream solicitations anyway? Do PR Peeps think Moms are old hags? Hopefully they just think that we think we are old hags. LOL.
Anyway, I was familiar with the brand but had never used their products so I nervously replied with an, "Ok I'll try your stuff". Boy, was I a freakin' idiot or what? Within a few days, my face started getting red. Thankfully the reaction was very mild and it went away rather quickly. So, it seems as though I really am allergic to a mystery ingredient in several retinol-based wrinkle serums. Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever had a review gone bad? What did you do? What is the appropriate thing to do?
These days I'm only using L"Oreal or Wal-mart's Equate version of L'Oreal. I feel like I can trust a product that has yet to turn me into Elephant man. ;)Labels: reviews gone bad
Last year I accepted an invitation to review a beauty product that I was not familiar with. Specifically, the product was one of those "expensive" wrinkle reducing serum/cream thingies that I'm always a sucker for and could not, until NOW, say no to because I'm terrified of getting wrinkles. Anyway, to make a very long and quite painful/embarrassing story short, here's how my unofficial review went:
1.) Put anti-wrinkle cream on
2. ) Wake up the next morning with very puffy and itchy eyes.
3.) Go about my regular business with sunglasses on all day because my eyes were all kinds of scary looking. Good thing I had some cute sunglasses!
4.) By noon, my entire face and neck started getting itchy and hot. I looked in the mirror and I had huge red spots all over me.
5.) Took some Claritin and hoped things would get better real quick because I was responsible for hosting a baby shower the next morning.
6.) Wake up to the most horrific face I've ever seen. One eye was swollen shut and I kind of looked liked the elephant man. (I am NOT kidding you!) So, a trip to the emergency room was definitely in order.
7.) ER doctor said I had an allergic reaction to one of the ingredients in the anti-wrinkle cream. Ya think? He gave me a shot in the butt and some other medicine and sent me home.
So, in conclusion, testing out a new beauty product caused me to have a severe allergic reaction and cost me nearly $500 in medical bills. In the end I declined to review this product, and never even contacted the company back that sent me the product for review. I should have said something before now but I didn't.
From that moment on I vowed to never again use a facial beauty product I was not familiar with. However, a few weeks ago I was asked to test out another anti-wrinkle cream from a different PR company. What is up with all these wrinkle cream solicitations anyway? Do PR Peeps think Moms are old hags? Hopefully they just think that we think we are old hags. LOL.
Anyway, I was familiar with the brand but had never used their products so I nervously replied with an, "Ok I'll try your stuff". Boy, was I a freakin' idiot or what? Within a few days, my face started getting red. Thankfully the reaction was very mild and it went away rather quickly. So, it seems as though I really am allergic to a mystery ingredient in several retinol-based wrinkle serums. Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever had a review gone bad? What did you do? What is the appropriate thing to do?
These days I'm only using L"Oreal or Wal-mart's Equate version of L'Oreal. I feel like I can trust a product that has yet to turn me into Elephant man. ;)
Labels: reviews gone bad
Permalink posted by PetiteMommy at 7:02 PM
11 Comments:
Goodness. That's quite a reaction. A few years ago I had a bad reaction to a sample I received in the mail. I was some kind of face serum. It was expensive, I know that. Anyway, my face started to feel funny and the small test section of my face started to get discolored, sort of a black color. Then it looked like my skin was starting to sink in a little. It was so weird and hard to explain. I ran to the bathroom and started scubbing it off, praying that I would be ok.
You just never know what's going to be in these products.
OMG I am glad you're OK! I am almost 40 so I have to admit I've been kind of glad to review some skincare products. ;) But thankfully I haven't had a horrible allergic reaction to any of them. That sucks!
Oh man, and you didn't tell the company what happened? I guess if it was an allergic reaction, it's not something that would happen to a LOT of people. But still!
Karen - yes, you never know and now I'm just plain terrified of trying new stuff.
Jamie - I was originally excited but now not so much. However, if L'Oreal sent me their stuff to review I'd be excited! :)
Kate - I know I'm horrible. I didn't tell the company.
Yikes. That would be scary. I've heard of horrible allergic reactions... and have to say that my skin has become much more sensitive since becoming a mother. Especially since the second child. I had to switch from my cool body washes that I'd always used to plain Ivory soap after breaking out in hives a few times. Crazy!
OH NO! That's awful, you poor thing. The review thing can be tricky. I was sent something to review that I didn't like and I still haven't responded to the co. I just kind of feel bad saying that I don't have anything good to say about the product. Ugh.
Could you help me do a survey.
http://freeonlinesurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=q394jkcdcpjabse553234
as the currency in runescape gold the Warhammer world, plays an runescape accounts important role in the economic system. The experience plays take in game kinda depends on how much Warhammer gold they have. To amateur players, runescape accounts they do not have much time to play the game, not even farming Warhammer gold. So most of Warhammer players would like to purchase Warhammer gold. runescape gold Warhammer online CDkey are the codes runescape gold which be used to runescape power leveling your Warhammer Accounts. Warhammer online accounts then will be needed after your Warhammer Accounts have been activated. That runescape money you have to use both Warhammer CD-key and Warhammer Timecard after you creat an Warhammer account, so that you can access to the Warhammer world.
I actually had a similar, but not so severe reaction to a very well known, high end facial serum. I don't want to post the brand, but within 30 minutes of my applying to my face as per the directions, my entire face welted up, especially the center of both my cheeks! I looked red as a tomato. I immediately rinsed it all off, but not even that was able to bring me any relief. My husband rushed to the grocery store and purchased me some Benadril and after taking that antihystamine my swollen and red welted face started to go down about 4 hours later. I had to keep taking the Benadril for 2 days afterwards just to get it back to normal, Good grief, it was a nightmare. Ever since then whenever I try a new product I use it on a small area of my skin before applying it all over. Luckily, this had never happened before and most likely won't happen again. Just one ingredient in a product can cause this and it was just a fluke reaction. I am so sorry you had such an extreme reaction and I can totally relate to part of what you went through!
joannaonthelake@gmail.com
OMG!!! Thank goodness I'm not the only one. I took it upon myself on the request of some of my readers to review the hair removal product "Smooth Away." Worst decision ever. Won't bore you with the details but the full story is here: www.rockstarmamaonline.com/theblog. It's the article called "worst product ever created", if that gives you an idea. LOL! Your post made me feel better!
Wow, that was a review gone bad. You should've got back to the company, if only to protect potential customers in the future,
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home