Reinplatz Intensive Moisture Hand Pack

I was looking forward to trying this one, I must admit.  As a member of hospital personnel, I find myself in the unique position to have horribly dry, chapped, and cracked hands.  The air in the hospital is dry as desert sand, even when it's raining outside.  And all that wonderful, patient-protecting hand hygiene will suck the life out of your skin.  Add that to the fact that it's winter right now and you've got a recipe for bleeding fingers due to overdrying.

I knew that I wouldn't have time or inclination to enjoy this hand mask at home.  So, one night, when I decided to work a double shift (You can totally, legally work 16 hours straight in a hospital), I decided to pass the twilight hours between 1 a.m. And 3 a.m. with an impromptu spa treatment.

I figured that since I usually don't have to do work requiring great finger dexterity during an overnight shift it would be fine to wear these intensive moisture gloves under my sterile rubber gloves.  I was right.  The gloves slipped beneath the rubber gloves perfectly and, actually, wearing them like that increased my skin-to-product contact ratio.  Noice.

Courtesy of ljblog73.blogspot.com

Instructions:

Wear hand care glove pack after washing hands (I wash my hands about...30 times per shift..).  Wear gloves for 20 minutes.  Remove gloves and massage in any remaining essence.  Don't wash hands for at least 3 minutes after removing the pack.

Active Ingredients: Shea Butter and Jojoba oil

Initial impression:

The Reinplatz packaging is plain, straightforward and leaves no room for guesswork.  Open the pack, put on the gloves.   Since I've used foot packs before, I knew what to expect.  However, this pack surprised me.  The lining of the vinyl gloves was kinda velvety.  Also, it didn't feel like there was enough of the product in the glove to coat my hands.  I slipped them on anyway and put some extra small medical gloves on top to hold them in place while I worked.

The scent upon opening the pack was kind of bland.  It smelled a lot like plain shea butter that you buy in the canister at the beauty supply, sort of oily and planty.  That's great!  I hate overpowering scents.

Results:

WELL.  First of all, I have to admit this: I didn't remove the gloves when I should have.  I removed them like....2 hours after I put them on.  It's not like I forgot about them.  We got an admission and he decided that it was his job to wake all the patients who were asleep.  That said, my experience with this product may not match yours.

At first the product felt dry on my hands, however after about 10 minutes, I noticed that my hands were sweating.  The velvet inside the glove was locking the sweat to my hands and the product in the gloves seemed to be expanding, making a creamy coating around my skinny, wrinkly fingers.  After about 20 minutes, the gloves just REALLY moist.  As time passed, they got more and more moist on the inside.

...2  hours later they were slipping on my hands so much that I snatched them off and flung them in the trash.  I massaged my hands as directed and flexed my fingers.  They felt moisturized, the skin was supple and had a subtle sheen to them.  My fingers didn't look or feel like sandpaper any more and the skin that was peeling rubbed off the next time I washed my hands.  My usually wrinkly fingers were less wrinkled and my cuticles weren't cracking any more.

What I didn't like about it was the effect the shea butter had.  One of the reasons I shy away from shea butter hand creams is because it leaves a weird, waxy coating on your hands.  In truth, this coating is good for your skin.  It protects it.  But... I just don't like the way it feels.

After I washed my hands, they still felt soft, supple and plump and overall, less dry than they had before.  The skin wasn't tight or wrinkly.  Even after two more washes, my hands weren't as dry and brittle feeling as they were before, so it's clear that this product imparts some long term moisture. 

Recommendations:

I would recommend this to anyone who has damaged skin on their hands from over-washing or age.  The shea butter and jojoba oils nourish and soften the skin better than thinner hand creams on the market.  You should give it a try if your hands have been suffering or, even if you just want to have a D.I.Y. manicure.

Skinaz: The Kissable Lip 24 Hr Lip Tattoo

It's not often that I have a bad experience with a product... but I had a bad experience with this one.

Courtesy of Instagram

I bought it from eBay, curious about its mystical properties, after hearing of from them from the darkest corners of the internet.  I applied it to my lips with little thought.  The results were horrible.  It was thick, sticky and messy.  I didn't think a peel off lip tint would be a turn off for me.  I've used plenty of peel off masks.

It was like spreading extra thick glue.  It formed a polymer coating over my pout and adhered strongly to my lips, but this experience was horrible and uncomfortable.  It's supposed to exfoliate while it stains your lips... But what I experienced was more like having my lips glued together and then the skin ripped off them.

Once I peeled it off, it left a nice, long lasting stain, but the unexpected aftertaste was bitter...and perfumey.  My lips felt tender, and looked a bit...patchy.  I wouldn't be surprised if it actually tore off some of my skin for real. 

Maybe I didn't do something right... but for now, I'm going to stick to my Etude House Dear Darling lip jelly tiny. 

You Should Be Watching: The Babadook

Ok.  So.  You know that I'm a HUGE horror movie fan.  I love urban legends, I love mythology, and I adore films that can deliver thrills and chills with an unsettling metaphor.  The Babadook offers all of those things in a spectacularly classic horror movie fashion.  This movie.  I cannot even begin to tell you how refreshing and creepy it was.

The premise: A widow and her son are terrorized by a mysterious, malevolent entity.

Courtesy of Joblow.com

It's so simple, it's almost deceptive.  I watched it once at night and in the day time so I could have an unbiased look at the storyline and critically evaluate this beast.  It was so nicely done, the metaphor/monster warranted a second look.  The Babadook offers a look into the lives of its characters that drive the creepiness, the insidious nature of the titular monster into your mind.

Courtesy of Google

The Characters:  There are two main characters, Amelia, the widow and her son Samuel, who acts very much like a child with either severe psychological trauma or as though he is autistic...with psychological trauma.  These two struggle through their lives, both isolated and estranged from their peers due to the death of Sam's father.  Amelia works as an aid at a senior daycare with dementia patients.  As a person who occasionally has to do this, I can say that this job is stressful, demanding, and can wear on your spirit.  She's often late, often exhausted, and seems bereft anything but the blithe smile on her face.

Samuel goes to a private school, where he barely has contact with his peers.  He is the weird kid who is brilliant, but the others all shy away from his inventiveness and explosive anger and tantrums.  Deep down, he's a sweet kid, but bullying and isolation drive him to recognize those around him as either people to be pleased or literal monsters to be slain.  He, like many little boys, wants to protect his mother, who he witnesses in a stay of constant emotional decay.  Meanwhile, he struggles to define himself and thrive.

Baaaabaaaa Dook Dook Dook....  Finally, in the midst of everything that both main characters have to deal with, the Babadook enters their lives, first, via a chilling children's story book and finally... in a quite literal fashion that threatens to destroy them both. 

Overall:
This movie explores horror in the truest fashion.  Not simply with monsters, but with a look at the human mind and heart.  It terrifies you with themes and stressors that we all encounter: the death of a loved one, a sick child, work stress, and the difficulty of putting up a brave front while feeling that every effort you have made is in vain.  The Babadook explores the terror of our own insecurities, frailties, and day to day struggles.  It gives it a face... and provides a word of caution.  There's little more horrifying than a peek into the deepest darkest parts of our own hearts and the possibility of the nightmare our lives can become if we don't peer into that darkness and recognize it for what it truly, truly is.

Pastel Goth: Creepy cute

I must have slept on this one, but I swear, I'm awake now.  Pastel goth is a thing. 

As a child of the 80's, I've always liked many elements of goth fashion.  As a girl raised on Disney princesses and Barbie dolls, I've always loved things that are pretty and feminine.  As an anime nerd, I've always liked the idea that the cutest, girliest character can be the heavy hitter, have unconventional interests, or specialize in being tough.  Never, have I seen these ideas married into a fashion or subcultural movement, though.

Well, that is until I heard about this pastel goth thing.  One of the primary things I've never quite liked about many branches of the goth subculture were how ...HARD everything appears.  I understand the philosophy behind it: recognizing, accepting, embracing, and beautifying the things that most fear because they are ultimately inevitable.... but I never could get with shaving half your head, bleaching your skin, and having so many facial modifications that your visage could be mistaken for a dragon or ogre.

Courtesy of Dailymail.uk

I get that many people who associate with the trend are also members of the church of body modification (it's a real denomination that takes the idea that your body is a temple of God and seeeks to decorate that temple with as many piercings, implants, and tattoos as possible), but there's a great deal about that sort of life that doesn't appeal to me.

Finding pastel goth, which marries creepy and cute, was like finding a pretty bead.  I can blend my love of cartoons and love of dark humor into fashion that amuses me.  Further, my current experiment with colors that aren't shades of black, white, tan, and gray OR jewel colors gives me more than enough opportunity to adopt this creepy cute style and try something like this! 

I found this on Google

I can try styles like Lovely Ify, Drew Disaster, and Offbeat Look's styles.

Courtesy of Google

Courtesy of Drew Disaster

As long as my clothes match.  Haha!