Wednesday, December 31, 2008

mystery solved

Does Lotion Expire? It doesn't have an expiration date, but it would seem logical that after some amount of time it wouldn't be good anymore. Though, you'd think you'd know wouldn't you? It would get clumpy, or runny, or smell bad or feel funny...

or cause a rash.

A while back I cleaned out drawers in my bathroom and pulled out the many lotions I've acquired to start using them. One of them is a clinique lotion I got a few years ago... like, three or four... (some people might automatically throw it out, not me!)

I've been using this lotion at work for a good six months or more and it's been just fine. Yesterday evening, after having suffered through the day's latest hive breakout, I was hating that this seemed worse that it was when it started a few weeks ago, it was worse on my face and neck, and farther down on my wrists. Then it slowly seeped in that it started after I had put my lotion at work on my very dry face, neck, and hands...

and I looked at my wrists, and how I always spread the excess lotion from my hands on my wrists, and noticed that the rash stopped exactly where I always stop putting lotion. And I thought about how, only at work, I always put lotion on and then sit at my computer with my left hand on my neck or chin, and my fingers sometimes on my check (i had thought it was odd that the rash had spread just a little bit on the left side of my face but not the right...)

It makes so much sense. Yes, I've already thrown the lotion out, and I'll be shocked if the rash comes back after this. And trust me, I'll be checking my lotions better from now on!

So, while the itching yesterday was horrible (the Zyrtec has already helped), it was worth figuring out what was causing it.

by yellowgirl at 11:08 AM |