Mini-Ep 384: Cleansing Balm For The Soul
Kate’s kids see her for the free-mugging mom she is and Doree uncovers a Target price scandal from a listener Vitamin C rec. They also hear from listeners about a Canadian comfort watch, the ups and downs of earplugs, and receive some divided thoughts on Pond’s Cold Cream.
Mentioned in this Episode
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Transcript
Kate: Hello. Welcome to Forever35, a podcast about the things we do to take care of ourselves. I'm Kate Spencer.
Doree: And I'm Doree Shafrir.
Kate: And we are not experts.
Doree: We're not. We're two friends who like to talk a lot about serums,
Kate: And this is a mini episode where we're going to hear from you, share your comments and thoughts, and answer your questions to the very best of our ability.
Doree: Yes. But please remember, we are a podcast host. We're not experts. We always encourage you to seek support first and foremost from a medical and or mental health professional as needed.
Kate: Doree, you know what? We're recording this fairly soon after Mother's Day. Here we are in the United States.
Doree: We are,
Kate: And I received two very sweet gifts from my kids, little gift bags with things that I love.
Doree: Oh my gosh.
Kate: Super sweet. But I have to tell you, one of the gifts that my youngest daughter got me are these reusable plastic coffee cups. And I am going to show you one. I have one right here. Do you see this?
Doree: Yes.
Kate: Okay, So for me, a person who loves to take a mug freely wherever I go on walks in the car, you all know the drill. I'm a free mugger. We've established this. We've talked about it. If you're tuning in for the first time, just know I am a reckless coffee drinker and I love it. But I had a good cackle to myself where I was like, does she see me? And is this a nice little compromise? It's not a big clunky travel mug. It just looks like a 16 ounce.
Doree: That's so funny.
Kate: Kind of cup you'd get at Starbucks, but it's plastic and reusable. I'll share a link. Look, they're $5 for three.
Doree: That's really funny.
Kate: She knows a good deal when she sees one.
Doree: That's really funny. I think she is. I think free mugging makes your children uncomfortable.
Kate: Now, Doree, how dare you say that.
Doree: I'm just going to put that out there.
Kate: Wow.
Doree: I'm just going to put that out there.
Kate: I'm going to ask them if they notice that I do this. I don't know what the, they each got me. They're so funny. They each got me a candle and they got me all this, these masks, which they then did to me in a spa day, which was very nice.
Doree: Cute.
Kate: It was very nice. It was really nice. I actually kept falling asleep, which was lovely. And then like,
Doree: oh my gosh.
Kate: They would purposely wake me up, like snap a hair clip in my ear and stuff like that. I mean, they're children and they got me my favorite candy.
Doree: Oh.
Kate: So I'm like, do they see me? What is this? What is this? Reflect, what are these coffee cups mean?
Doree: Right. Right.
Kate: What is this reflection? Yeah.
Doree: Right.
Kate: Anyway,
Doree: That's so funny. I love this so much.
Kate: But you know what? I used my little travel mug today, so she's onto something
Doree: Amazing. Amazing.
Kate: Well, Let's hear a product recommendation from a listener.
Doree: Ooh, A prod wreck.
Kate: Okay. They said to us, for the listener with face eczema looking for vitamin C, CeraVe exclamation point. This product is a holy grail. I also have eczema on my face, and this baby is gentle for daily use, non aggravating. And I have all caps seen results. One of the only products I've actually visibly seen work without a doubt, $25 a target.
Doree: Okay, so this is the CeraVee vitamin C serum.
Kate: Yes. I believe it is the CeraVee vitamin C serum. It's $26.49 cents at my local target.
Doree: That's so funny. It's $27.49 cents at my target.
Kate: Are you kidding?
Doree: No, I'm not kidding.
Kate: Wow. We are divided by mountains here in Los Angeles. So on your side of things, things are a little pricier.
Doree: Wow. That is fascinating.
Kate: Oh my Goodness. That is truly. Target. What's up with that?
Doree: I don't know, but I, wow. This is shocking.
Kate: Wow. Wow. This is, have we just unearthed the greatest scandal to rock the world?
Doree: Possibly.
Kate: What's up with this inflation happening over Doree's Target?
Doree: I don't know, but I don't like it.
Kate: Okay. Well look folks, let's do some investigative journalism. Click onto your target and put in your local store and see how much CeraVees skin renewing vitamin C serum costs.
Doree: We need to know.
Kate: We need to know. I just bought a new CeraVee. Okay. I did. I had to go to Target to pick something up and, I of course did the thing where I was like, I need some eyebrow wax. So then I bought like 50 Nyx eyebrow things and also some of the CeraVee Salicylic acid cleanser. Just the necessities. Sure. The renewing SA cleanser. It's the best. And I use their hydrating cleanser as well. These are the two alternates in my shower.
Doree: Love this. Love this. Kate, we got another text. You've likely never heard of this show as it was Canadian and not super huge, but I grew up watching the shopping bags, which ended up having two spinoffs. One about Beauty pros and one about cookbooks. These two friends, Anna and Christina would buy and test out different products for people to know what products were best compared to other similar ones. Anyway, I adored the show and watched with my mom all the time. We especially loved the cooking one. When I started listening Forever35, back in year early times, I immediately pictured you two as Anna Blonde, as Kate and Christina brunette as Doree. I can never erase it for my brain, no matter how many videos I see of you two talking, it's a major disconnect in my brain and won't mess with me for the rest of my life, but it warms my heart anyway, feeling like a version of the show is continuing in audio format. So I thank you for that.
Kate: Now Doree, click on the photo that the sister sent to us.
Doree: I'm looking, this is very funny. These two women look nothing like us.
Kate: They look nothing like us. And what's like kind of sweet to me is the photos are from the early two thousands. So they've got kind of Rachel from friends' haircuts.
Doree: Yes. Yes.
Kate: I, also hope you are imagining us looking the two early, two thousands versions of these two women.
Doree: Yes, totally. So funny. Well, thank you for that and for that mental image. I appreciate it.
Kate: Have you ever, It's so interesting to me too. I think I've told the story of how my child had this vision of what Ed Sheeran looked like, and I think they had a crush on Ed Sheeran, and then when they saw Ed Sheeran, they were sad. And I, well, I, it's so easy to see what people look like now, but even 20 years ago, it was harder to get a full photographic evidence of a person's existence.
Doree: Totally.
Kate: Every person on npr, I don't even want to know what they look like. They're just all little figments in my brain.
Doree: Oh, it's true. It's so true. It's so funny.
Kate: That's you and me, the Canadian version, the shopping bags.
Doree: I wonder what happened to those women.
Kate: I'm Wikipedia will tell us. I can see the shopping bags on Wikipedia right now, so I'll look them up. I'm sure they're doing hopefully great.
Doree: They're probably living their best lives. Kate, we have a voicemail.
Voicemail: Hey Kat and Dor, this is Lauren calling from Miami. Love the podcast. I wanted to call in reference to the person who's asking about selling clothes online and how to get it sold as fast as possible. So for a few years now, I've been using two apps. One of them is Mercari that one you might know from commercials, at least since where I live. There's always commercials and the other one is called Vintage. And I, over the years have been slowly, like you said, do very slowly selling my clothes, not nice stuff, not designer by any means, very Old Navy stuff. I've bought at TJ Max, like non label things. And my strategy has been to sell them for a low price just because it's high volume. I have a lot of stuff to sell low price. And over the years I've gotten a pretty slow trickle of income and I, I've made a few, I think thousand dollars now that I come to think about a bit, but just very, very slowly. So yeah, try that
Doree: I mean, this is kind of what I was saying of you have to view, I think you have to view your stuff as a sunk cost. So in most cases, getting back what you think it's worth is just not going to happen.
Kate: No way,
Doree: And you might as well just try to sell it.
Kate: Yeah.
Doree: So I really appreciate this listener's perspective.
Kate: Totally. And I hadn't think I had heard of either of these two sites either.
Doree: I know Mercari, but I've not used the other one.
Kate: Well, hot Tips. I need to do, I need to do a better job of selling my own stuff. And Doree, as you have seen in text messages that I've sent to you, I've listed a couple things on Poshmark, and people have come in low balling hard, which is very funny to me because I get very defensive about it. But that is my strategy on Poshmark to just come in so low. But when you're the one selling the stuff and in your brain you're like, I already listed this really low, you're like, this is insulting. How dare you? So I do think you really have to manage your expectations. And also, as you've suggested Doree, kind of take the emotion out of it, which is hard because we get so attached money and clothing, all these things are emotional.
Doree: Yes, I was just going to say, it's a real lesson in practicing the art of non-attachment.
Kate: Ooh.
Doree: Which, you know, as a trained yoga teacher, I'm sure are familiar with the concept.
Kate: Yes. It's And understand the concept. Harder to put into practice,
Doree: Very hard to put into practice. I agree. I agree. Now the only other thing that I will say, and this has happened to me a couple of times, is people will low ball me on things and I will be like, absolutely not. And then I don't get any other offers and I'm like, okay, well maybe this is what it was actually worth. What this person was willing to pay is what it is actually worth. So I think that that is worth kind of considering
Kate: I, I've had been having that kind of talking to myself about that exact thought.
Doree: All right, Kate, before we take a break, let's just remind everyone that they can call or text us at (781) 591-0390. They can email us at Forever35podcast@gmail.com. We also have a website forever35podcast.com. There's links to everything we mentioned on the show on that website. We're also on Instagram @Forever35podcast. And do sign up for newsletter at Forever35podcast.com/newsletter and shop our favorite products at shopmy.us/Forever35, and now we're going to take a break.
Kate: All right. We have a really interesting question here about earplugs. So someone emailed us and asked, I was listening to your episode with Sarah Peterson and her self-care practice of earplugs in the morning. I was a religious earplug wearer for my first three years of college because I fortunately shared a dorm room with someone with vastly different sleep habits. I also wore them for several year, several years when I worked a night shift as a nurse and had to sleep during the day. I'm pretty noise sensitive and when consider wearing them to sleep. But how do you get around the anxious feeling of missing hearing something? Just me. I have two kids and I worry I'd mish hearing them overnight or in the morning. And what about some kind of home breakin? Are you able to just plug them in and not worry? Do you have your partner on deck to wake you up for something? Maybe I won't get past this and earplugs at this stage of my life are not going to work. Interesting question.
Doree: So I wear earplugs to sleep and I have a monitor in Henry's room, and I'm able to hear him through the monitor even when I have my earplugs in. So I don't know what your monitor status is, but that could be an option. Even if it's only an audio, an audio only monitor, you could could leave it on loud enough that you would be able to hear them if they needed you. For me personally, home break is not an issue because I have a guard dog. I mean, he is not an official guard dog, but he's essentially a guard dog, so
Kate: He would bark so loud,
Doree: He would lose his mind if anyone attempted to break in. So that part of it does not stress me out.
Kate: And you can hear those barks through those ear plugs.
Doree: Yeah,
Kate: It's got a very deep wolf
Doree: Yes, yes, yes.
Kate: It's interesting. Sorry. It's interesting that this listener raises this question because I've actually had the same thought. My kids are older. We don't have monitors in their rooms anymore, and I don't feel a need to sleep with earplugs at the moment. But I have had this thought of, what if I don't hear something? And I also am a bit of a light sleeper and wake up, and I also wake up gasping. Like I'm panicking every time I wake up. If someone wakes me up in the middle of the night, but I sleep with a loud white noise machine. And I have the same kind of concern, and I've been turning it down lately because I'm just kind of nervous. I'm not going to hear stuff. I will say, I have these loop earplugs, which I bought, hoping they would block out the entire world, and they don't do that. However, I have found them to be great for concerts. I have two different pairs, but also they have one, I think they have these called engage, and they say take the edge off while staying engaged. So it seems like they filter noise, but not a ton. So it's a light filter. So figuring out the level of earplug, there's so many options out there now. I bet it's possible to find something that might kind of help you and reduce some noise, but also make it so you aren't just completely blocked out to the world if you don't want to be.
Doree: Great recommendations.
Kate: Yeah. All right. Doree, do you want to take this email suggestion?
Doree: Sure.
Kate: And share it with us.
Doree: Howdy. I do not know about hair. I'm an air dry girly. I wear a low bun to work and a ponytail or French braids to the gym. It is almost never down. And in my face, hair is not my thing. I do, however, to curl my hair for special occasions. I've tried multiple methods, including straightening irons and curling wands, all to limited success. And with multiple burns occurring, my infrequent attempts meant I never practiced enough to master it. But I've finally found the lazy girl method that looks good, even though I only practice it two to three times a year. Hot rollers. I grabbed a set from Conair on Amazon, and then I check those bad babies in my hair and leave them for about 10 to 20 minutes while I do my makeup. Then I take them out and I use my curling wand for the face pieces and any spots that need some extra love, bam. Done. Easy peasy. Instead of taking two hours and burning the crap out of my thumbs, it takes 20 minutes and I only have to use the wand for two minutes. And I finally got a glove. So the burning thumbs have been greatly reduced. The only downside is that it takes up a lot of space. So if you're traveling, it's not the most practical, unless you're checking a big bag. I hope my fellow lazy hair girls are untalented, stylers out there, find their peace the way I have. Toodles
Kate: I mean, I just love this spicy attitude, number one. Okay. I'm curious about rollers. I'm roller curious and I'm wondering, is there anyone out there who could kind of which Con Air listener? Because I went right to Amazon and looked, and I don't know which ones. There's so many. And the last time I used hot Rollers, it was like my mom's hot roller set from the eighties. You know, remember that those, which I'm assuming the technology hasn't changed that much, but that's the last time I really used a hot roller situation. So I would love to know some specifics. Am I just getting the ConAir big curls and wave jumbo ceramic hot rollers for $31? I'm willing to try this out.
Doree: I mean, it sounds like you are.
Kate: Well, cause
Doree: I mean, that is what you're getting.
Kate: Okay. I'm sitting here just clicking order as I ask. Yeah. I'm like, I'm not really going to order this. Of course. It's just interesting to me because I bought myself this curling iron stick and I was like, I love this thing. And then of course I burnt my head. It gave me an excuse.
Doree: Oh yeah. You were talking about how much you love the wand.
Kate: I think the wand is great, but I did burn my forehead. And what was kind of fascinating is that I burned it. It didn't hurt. It barely hurt. It hurt a little bit, but it didn't, didn't feel like it made a big impact. I didn't think there was going to be lasting like damage. But then I had a mark on my head for a week and the skin peeled.
Doree: Oh no.
Kate: And I busted out my old French bien because that's good on burns.
Doree: Oh No.
Kate: Yeah. So I had a little bit of a like, Ooh, maybe this isn't like, and then this curler email came into my life.
Doree: Interesting. You have also used those, what are they called, the rods? Do you know what I'm talking about?
Kate: Go on.
Doree: I've seen you use these. I don't know what they're called. They're long kind of rod things that you wrap your hair around.
Kate: Yeah, I have one by kitch, the thing that you sleep in, right?
Doree: Yes, Yes, yes, exactly
Kate: Yeah. Which I also, but I don't feel like it gives quite gives me the results that I need or that I want. And also sometimes it's not foolproof, it's not totally idiot proof. And it's also not entirely comfortable to sleep in. I'm a back, I can sleep on my back. So that's helpful. But if you're a side sleeper, it's a heatless curl. Yes, you're right. A heatless curling rod headband, I think is what you're referring to.
Doree: Okay.
Kate: Yeah, I don't know anything about curlers. So if there's a world in which this is easy, although maybe this is just like, I'm just searching for the white rabbit of it all. This is just finding a good pair of jeans. Nothing really exists.
Doree: I mean, this is the question, right? This is the question.
Kate: I mean, isn't the goal of capitalism to just keep us hanging on trying different curling tools until we're no more?
Doree: Yeah. I mean, you're not wrong.
Kate: I don't think I'm wrong. Am I susceptible to it? And am I participating a Hondo P, but, but here we are. Here we are. Well, Doree, we're going to take another quick break and Okay, let's do that and come back and hear from some listeners about Ponds Cold Cream. Alright.
Doree: All right. We are back. And just to remind everyone, this was a product recall that we did a few weeks ago. I don't even remember. When did we do Ponds Cold cream?
Kate: What is time? You know what? I don't know, but I have a Excel doc that has the date of every episode, so I'll refer to that recently at some point it
Doree: Was, so we got some messages about Ponds. All right. Here's a text. We are Ponds fans at my house, but just for specific reasons, my 14 year old daughter is a dancer and often has to wear full stage makeup. Pond is one, ponds is one of the only things that will get it all off without lots of scrubbing and irritation. She's not the biggest fan of texture and will only use it in the shower and always follows it up with a basic CeraVe wash.
Kate: So she's doing a double cleanse.
Doree: She's doing a double cleanse with ponds.
Kate: I mean, stage makeup is a lot to get off.
Doree: Stage make up is legit. Yeah, totally. Yeah. So this is interesting to me that this is the thing that gets it off.
Kate: Yeah. Do we think stars of stage are also Ponds users?
Doree: I dunno if you're a star of stage, please reach out.
Kate: Yeah. If you're stars of stage who are out there listening right now, what do you think? I should send my husband snooping on the Broadway cast of Beetlejuice the Musical. And ask him. You could ask.
Doree: I don't think he needs to snoop, but he could maybe ask.
Kate: Not snoop
Doree: Ask.
Kate: He'll just, Why is Anthony King in our dressing room?
Doree: Why is he lurking about the makeups
Kate: Just staring at all our skincare products?
Doree: That would be really funny. Oh,
Kate: But I mean, yeah, I am curious because folks who are stage actors or stage performers in some way, you're dancing whatever you are in a heavy makeup almost daily. And you got to get that shit off.
Doree: You have some You need to have, yeah, you need to have something good that's going to get it off.
Kate: Yeah. Well, someone else called us with a Ponds memory, and it was interesting because it kind of mirrored, I think, the texture aversion that this person's 14 year old daughter has. So let's share this voicemail.
Voicemail: Hi guys. Just finished the Ponds Cold Cream episode. I am 42, 41, somewhere around there. And a good friend of mine, I'd never known anybody who used it until I got or thought they used it anymore until graduate school. I noticed a good friend of mine in her apartment had it in her bathroom. Shout out to Betsy. And she used it every day and had a lovely pristine skin. So I bought some, this was owed like 2009 and started using it. And the frustration I had with ponds is that you, it didn't wash off. I had to wipe it off each day with a towel, or if you said a tissue, I just felt like I was throwing away a lot of things, or I was really gunking up a lot of laundry, which I didn't want to stay on top of either of those things. And then at the time, those microfiber cloths were getting popular, so I bought some of those, but then I still just had a little pile of oily cloth wash. So I stopped using it. Am I doing it wrong? Is there somebody out there who uses paws now? Cause I love the stuff, but I feel like I now use the Clinique Miracle bomb. And it does the same thing as Paws, but it washes off. And then I use my CeraVe bar cause it lasts forever right after that to do my double cleanse. So interesting to listen to the ad for it, but I felt like the big frustration I had with Ponds is the fact that it had wiped off and it felt really wasteful and yucky, funky stuff. Thanks. Bye.
Doree: This is so interesting. I mean, it does sound like you need to do the double cleanse.
Kate: And I also wonder, has Balm technology, has it advanced? I know the Clinique balm of which you speak, it's very good. Perhaps that's fine. Maybe you don't need to go back to palm, to palms, to ponds.
Doree: Yeah.
Kate: Although it sounds like, I like the advice of the previous listener because it sounds like that person is washing it off with a rinse in the shower.
Doree: Exactly. Exactly.
Kate: Not doing the wiping. And I know, I think because that's still my confusion about Ponds cold cream.
Doree: Right, right. Yeah.
Kate: And I did just want to say, when I double cleanse, I have the first day dissolve cleansing bomb, or I think I have the vanilla clean it zero. Those are the two that are currently in my little bathroom drawer that I'm using. And they also work great. Similar to the Clinique one. So Doree, I don't know. Do you have a current dissolving balm situation that you like right now?
Doree: I'm not using a balm right now. I'm still working my way through my GLAD skin oil makeup remover. If I wear makeup, I usually do their makeup removing oil. So yeah, I haven't used a balm in a while,
Kate: So I don't know. I kind of get the feeling if it's not broke, why try to fix it
Doree: Reasonable. Yeah, I do. I do. That is reasonable.
Kate: Thank you, Doree. Thank you.
Doree: Well, you're so welcome.
Kate: Listen, we need more ponds people to weigh in, so if anyone's out there, let us know. But again, if you have to wear a heavy face of makeup for whatever reason, what's your initial removing step?
Doree: Yeah, let us know.
Kate: Let us let us and we'll share. All right, everybody, have a nice rest of your day.
Doree: All right.
Kate: Thanks for listening.
Doree: Bye.