Beauty must-haves: the old faithfuls

I'm as much of a sucker as the next person for the latest and greatest (and most gimmicky) beauty products. But however much we spend on our cosmetics, all of us have in our cupboards the old faithfuls - the no frills basics with the price tags to match that may have even been in our mothers' cupboards. These are the ones we keep coming back to time and time again because however basic they are they do their job, and they do it well.

Mine are:


Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Hand Cream
I have tubes and tubes of different hand creams dotted around the house, but the one you can always guarantee will be tucked away in my bedside draw is Neutrogena Norwegian Formula. For moisturising even the driest of hands this stuff is the bomb, and wonderfully economical because a little of it goes a long way. It does have a bit of a greasy feel for a few minutes after application, so I don't put it on if I'm about to do something that requires dextrous hands, but I slather it on at night before bed for soft hands in the morning.


Vaseline Intensive Care Dry Skin Moisturiser
Much like my hand cream collection, I have numerous bottles of body lotion of varying prices and promises. But for a quick shot of moisture that is absorbed quickly and doesn't irritate my post-shave legs as some do, Vaseline Intensive Care is the winner all the way, and it's cheap as chips. Plus the smell takes me back to long summer days spent soaking up the rays, and long summer nights spent slathering Vaseline on our sunburn (those were innocent days!).


Amolin Baby Cream
No, your eyes do not deceive you. Yes, that is baby cream. As in, cream for putting on babies' bottoms. And yes, when my kids were little it was the best, bar none, for their nappy rash. It is, however, so much more than that. When I was growing up there was always a tube of this in our medicine cabinet and we used it for everything from scratches and grazes to chapped lips (and probably my baby bottom too, I don't remember). And it's for chapped lips that I still use it to this day. My lips are naturally very dry, not helped by my being a compulsive lip licker, and nothing equals Amolin for soothing and moisturising them. And for approximately NZ$8.00 a tube it lasts forever.


Chapstick Moisturiser
As much as I love my Amolin, experience (and several ruined handbags) have taught me that it's not the most practical thing to carry around in my handbag, so for lip moisturising on the go Chapstick Moisturiser (the stuff in the blue tube, not the original black tube), is always with me. Plus it doesn't just work on lips.

So, what are your old faithfuls?

A new use for an old favourite

I have a confession to make. I'm a Perpetual Pimple Picker (do you see what I did there, with the alliteration?). Ever since my first spot appeared in my early teens, through to the adult acne that still plagues me now in my (late-ish) 30's, I've been completely unable to keep my hands away from them. I'm well aware that this is a Bad Thing - picking spots spreads the infection, can lead to scarring and half the time makes them look worse than they did before I started prodding at them, but I'm completely unable to stop myself.

A couple of weeks ago I developed not one, but two of Those Spots. You know, the massive, painful blind spots that throb painfully and feel (even if they don't look) like a giant beacon shining from my chin. So of course I had to squeeze and pick and generally mutilate myself, until I ended up with a patch of painful, raw, red skin on my chin, even after the pimples had long since gone. After two weeks of trying every moisturiser in my arsenal and even a bandaid (which looked really stupid and itched like crazy) in an attempt to stop myself from picking at the scabbing and help it to heal, I finally, in desperation reached for the Chapstick I always carry around in my handbag, figuring that if it helps chapped lips then maybe it would do something for my poor, sore chin. And what do you know, it worked a treat. The thick, sticky texture of the Chapstick meant that I wasn't tempted to pick at it, and it very quickly soothed the raw skin. Within a few hours the skin was less inflamed, by the next day it was smoother and the inflammation had gone down even further and now, several days later, I have only a patch of slightly pink skin in place of the social life-destroying monstrosity (ok I may be exaggerating slightly) that was there previously.



In future I'm obviously going to try to stop myself from squeezing pimples in the first place, but I'm also going to ensure that I always have a tube of Chapstick handy just in case.