Dear Friends,

Early this morning I replied to a post from a desperate Newbie, who has rosacea, allergies, and sensitivites -- and who sounded totally miserable. I gave my usual advice for cleansing with straight EVOO and rinsing with distilled water. Now, I don't know if this person has oily skin with rosacea or dry skin with rosacea. What I do know is that EVOO will help to soothe and calm the skin if used as a cleanser right off the bat. It doesn't matter if your skin is oily. EVOO will not clog pores. It doesn't clog our arteries either, right? You want to get that skin calm fast by treating it gently before going on to a more cosmetically elegant cleanser.

The importance of posting test scores comes into play when members offer recommendations for anti-redness products, barrier repair products,
serums, moisturizers, sunscreens, etc. A person with a dry skin score may not be quite as dry as I am, and so would probably do well with a lighter weight moisturizer. If a person has rosacea, often chemical sunscreens are a problem. We can recommend other choices, but we don't know about this unless we are told. Yes, sunscreens come in different "weights" too!

In posting replies to questions, I often can't remember if Susie so&so is a stinger or not. I always look for the test scores and any tidbits of info in the signature of the person posting a query. This tells me that Susie is a stinger, and so she probably shouldn't use Product X because it contains urea. I can then suggest she try Product Y.

We are not trying to perform identity theft here. We are trying to help people with our advice and opinions, hoping to save them money in the long run by zeroing in on products that really work. Many of us have been through extensive (and expensive!) product trial and error. I'm sure we are all advocates(like Dr. B.!)for more intelligent info for consumers so that they can make wise choices.

If you do not know how to post your test scores in your signature, please ask.

And now I'll get down off my soapbox. Inky