Getting the Red Out

I'm doing another product review - for several reasons.

First, as I've stated here several times before, I'm a complete and total health and beauty product whore. I love browsing hair care products, skin care products, makeup, and all that stuff. I probably tried about 50% of all of the products on the market, so I'm a fairly educated resource. (Ok, I realize even 50% of the entire Health and Beauty product market is still huge, so I may be embellishing a little. But I've experimented with a lot of stuff).

My second reason for doing this review is I'm an avid online shopper. My choice of products shopping online is infinite. My choice of products here in Kutztown, Pennsylvania is limited. Very limited. Since online shopping obviously doesn't allow me to actually see the merchandise I'm buying up close and personal, I'm a big fan of reviews. I read them obsessively. Of course I take some reviews with a grain of salt, but for the most part, they're pretty spot on. Unfortunately, I can find almost no user reviews for my (current) favorite skincare line. So that's where this review comes in. I'm not making any money from pushing their products, I just love them... which brings me to my third reason for writing this review:

In many, many years, I haven't found any other product - prescription or non-prescription - that produces results like this one.

So, this brings us to puppytoes.net product review #2:

I've been battling rosacea a very long time, so this review may be a little long. I have fair, sensitive, easily sunburned skin (which is how I ended up with skin cancer). As I've gotten older, my skin has become more and more red and irritated. Many years ago, a dermatologist told me it was rosacea. Great, ok, so how do I get rid of it?

I tried three different prescription rosacea creams or gels - MetroGel, Finacea, and some other cream I don't remember the name of - started with an N or something to that effect. None of them really did anything to calm down the redness and bumpiness. I also tried tons of over-the-counter cleansers and moisturizers - I can't even remember them all - and none really ever did anything spectacular. The dermatologist told me that constant use of antibiotics would do the trick, but I really didn't feel like taking Tetracycline the rest of my life. I also investigated Intense Pulsed Light treatments, but I bristled a bit at the $1500 it cost.

So one day, I'm browsing sephora (that's like the mothership calling product whores like me home...too bad they don't carry the whole B. Kamins line anymore), and I found a Rosacea Starter kit from B. Kamins, Chemist. Apparently they have a whole line of products aimed at people with rosacea, so I ordered it on the spot. If I remember correctly, at that time (a couple of years ago), it came with the Vegetable Skin Cleanser, Diatomamous Earth Skin Masque, and their Booster Blue Rosacea Treatment. Immediately after using the products - we're talking the next day here, I noticed my skin was smoother. Not so much less red, but smoother. The bumpiness was gone! To make this part of the story short, I kept using their products. They've since expanded their Rosacea Skin line, now including a Booster Blue Rosacea cleanser, masque, and moisturizer (I tried the moisturizer - it was a bit too greasy for my liking). But I used the Booster Blue Rosacea Treatment for about three years.

Then, horror of horrors! I ran out of the Booster Blue Treatment. As I was cursing my stupidity for not ordering sooner, I was pawing through my bathroom drawer looking for the little sample baggie B. Kamins usually sends with their orders (LOVE the samples - just enables my habit). I didn't have any Booster Blue samples - damn! - but I did come across a teeny tiny tube of Redness Defying Lotion. I was desperate, and I decided to try it.

Holy sweet mother of God!

The very next morning my skin looked like it does when I'm taking antibiotics (usually when I had a sinus infection or something else that required antibiotics, my skin would end up looking fabulous). Sure, there was a teeny little bit of redness lingering, but I was pale again. And in a good way! I haven't seen my skin like this in years, I'm not shitting you. My skin was smooth, soft, non-flaky, and non-red. The. Next. Day. As in, after the first application. Hot damn!

Needless to say, even though the Booster Blue Rosacea Treatment is lovely, B. Kamins' Redness Defying Lotion is my new mustmustmust-have product. I don't know exactly how it differs in composition from their rosacea line of products, but if they'd create a line of products based on the Redness Defying Lotion, I'd buy every single one.

Of course, with everything, there are some drawbacks - at $75 for 1.7oz, the price is enough to make me flinch a little. I started using the bottle I have right now in the second week of October 2008, and it's just about to go empty now. So $75 is a little steep, but for 3-4 months of use, effective use at that, I'll take it. Another negative is the packaging. The container is opaque, so there's no way to see how much product is left. I went to use it on Christmas Day, only to get air coming out of the pump. I nearly fainted until I realized it was probably just a little air bubble. But I couldn't tell. The bottle feels like it's nearly empty, but I can't tell how close to the end I really am. I just hope the order I just placed will get here before it runs out. And the last negative isn't really a negative. B Kamins, man, make a bigger bottle! Dude, I would bathe in that stuff, if I could, I love it so much. Yes, I will most likely bitch about having to pay a lot of money for a bigger bottle, but at least my face won't be red.

So the final word on B. Kamins, Chemist Redness Defying Lotion? I can't limit it to one word: TRY IT. YOU'LL LIKE IT. Hard to believe the prescription creams were a fraction as effective as this stuff. It's probably been about 15 years that I'm dealing with rosacea. While this stuff doesn't cure it, it certainly beats it down.