Mini-Ep 407: Two Friends Who Like To Talk About Sunscreens
Doree and Elise discover a sunscreen from yesteryear and hear from listeners about the perfect gift-with-purchase bags, the long-term effects of Yoga Toes, whatever happened to the real life “Dolphin Girls,” and a useful hack for keeping your Squishmallows under control.
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Transcript
Doree: Hello and welcome to Forever35, a podcast about the things that we do to take care of ourselves. I'm Doree Shafrir.
Elise: And I'm Elise Hugh. And we're just two friends who like to talk a lot about serums,
Doree: And this is a mini episode where we hear from you, we share your comments and your thoughts, and we answer your questions to the best of our ability, which includes the caveat that we are podcast hosts. We are not medical or mental health experts, and we always encourage you to seek support first and foremost, from a medical and or mental health professional as needed.
Elise: We sure do.
Doree: We sure do. So Elise, I feel like a recurring topic on our mini episodes has been about sunscreen and also after sun care.
Elise: Yeah. I should just be like, we're two friends who like to talk a lot about sunscreens. So
Doree: True.
Elise: Maybe that will be my tweak. Oh my gosh, yes. In the Elise
Doree: Era
Elise: Of this show. Yes,
Doree: Totally. So I came in hot with this theory that no one gets a hundred SPF sunscreen anymore because we've all acknowledged that it's kind of bullshit.
Elise: Yeah, I haven't seen it. I've only seen it. I remember we talked about this. I've only seen it maybe as high as 70, but that's rare
Doree: Too. Yes. So I had to eat my words because we went to a theme park in Portsmouth, New Hampshire called Water Country, and my mom brought a few tubes of sunscreen, most of which were almost empty. There were five tubes of almost empty sunscreen, and one of them was laroche Jose, a hundred SPF.
Elise: Whoa. And I was like, whoa. Was it from a different time
Doree: Period? Yeah. So I looked it up and it is actually, it's still sold. You can still buy it. You can buy it at cvs, you can buy it at Walgreens, you can buy it at Alta, you can buy it at Target, you can buy it on laroche jose.com. It is still being sold. So I was like, oh, okay. I didn't realize
Elise: You got got. Don't worry. Got
Doree: Got. I got got, I got got. Yeah. I mean,
Elise: I still don't support SPFA hundred. I agree. Because of the brain trick. It plays on you to mistakenly thinking that you don't need to reapply.
Doree: I completely agree. And something that I did mention on the casual chat, and my mom might be listening to this, but mom, I feel like I need to call you out on this. I asked her to put sunscreen on my back because I was wearing just a regular bathing suit. I wasn't wearing a rash guard bathing suit because I was afraid I would be hot. Also, packing the long sleeve bathing suit is so much bulkier, it took up so much more space. So I was just like, I'm going to bring the other bathing suit. And I was feeling how much she was putting on my back and it really didn't feel like she was putting anything on. And then I turn around and look and she was putting the tiniest speck of sunscreen on her fingers and then rubbing it in lo and behold. And I was like, mom, may I teach you how much sunscreen you were supposed to use?
Elise: Well, maybe she was tricked by her SPFA hundred.
Doree: I mean, that's kind of where I'm going with this. I'm like, maybe she thought you didn't need as much, but that is proving our point.
Elise: Case
Doree: Closed. I rest my case. Case closed, but I did not get a sense. I did not get a sunburn. So
Elise: Not even on your left foot?
Doree: Not even on my left foot. I did go to great pains to reapply sunscreen on my feet because I got pretty badly burned on my left foot at the beach a couple weeks ago. And Henry didn't get burned either, so that was also good. Did you have any adventures in sunscreen this week?
Elise: I was going to say I am proud to report there were no sunburns in my household this week either though the girls are back in school, which means they are out on, there's just not a lot of shade on school grounds or on this school ground in particular. And so I'm going to have to make sure that they reapply when I'm not overseeing them. I'm not there to witness or to intervene. That's tough. But otherwise, especially my very fair skinned, one of my three kids is quite fair skinned. She just has different coloring. When she was little, she's like, is it because I have the special skin? And it's like, yes, the special skin, your skin has less melanin, so you have to apply more. And so the youngest one, yeah, the youngest one is just going to have to be careful, but so far smooth sailing.
Doree: Okay. Thank goodness. Well, before we take a break, I actually want to get to a couple of listener questions because they are skin related or listener comments. Do you remember a few weeks ago we heard from a listener whose son had pretty bad acne? We decided it was the nape of not the nape of his neck. Actually, no, it wasn't. Was the new area the new pool? Yeah, exactly. It was above the hairline.
Elise: Yes.
Doree: And we heard we got a follow up. I love a follow-up. I love when someone writes in with a problem and then we hear back from them. So
Elise: Glad
Doree: How it's going. They said, I'm happy to say my son's skin cleared up. Thanks to a listener suggestion. Clindamycin. Clindamycin. Thank you. Thank you. And then they have another question. This one is about serums. Do serums have a minimum effective dose like meds do? I'm alternating two serums at night and I'm wondering if I'm getting enough of either one to get the benefits.
Elise: It depends on which serums because it depends on their formulation. We don't know that much about the formulations. I mean, I guess you can research it and find out, but it's going to depend on formulations and ingredients and the amounts of each ingredient. What do you think dor minimum.
Doree: Yeah, that's what I was going to say. I was going to say it depends on the concentration and I don't know what serums you're using. There's also, there's some serums that I think are okay to use every night and then others that you might not want to use every night. And it depends what you're alternating. And so I feel like we don't have enough information.
Elise: One thing I like is ampules, because they're already measured out. They're already measured out with the recommended dose. So you can just pop open the ampule and then put that amount on your skin. I feel like I'm constantly out of date when it comes to the Korean innovations because they just change so fast. But they were very popular a couple of years ago in K for sure. Yes,
Doree: I remember this,
Elise: But I like a good ampule every once in a while.
Doree: Well, I think anything that is sort of portioned out is always so helpful. I mean, it's not great for the environment, but I feel like single serve sunscreen would be really helpful for people because it would be like, okay, this is how much, if you're putting this on your face, this is how much you're supposed to put on. If you're putting this on your body, this is how much you're supposed to put on because people don't know.
Elise: Is that targeted at your mom door?
Doree: Look, it's just a general suggestion. Okay, and then the other skin related communication that we got was a voicemail.
Voicemail: Hi Doree Elise. I wanted to bring up a topic I haven't heard very much on Forever35, but it is melasma. I have suffered from melasma, a huge spot on my forehead and some on my upper cheeks for four to five years. And I have tried everything that the dermatologist has suggested. I've been using retone for years. It hasn't made a difference. I used hydroquinone for a while, tranexamic acid with niacinamide and cogic acid, anything that has been marketed for melasma. I'm sure you've heard of Muley from Instagram ads. I tried that as well. Nothing worked at all. And finally my dermatologist told me about a peel that is available at med spas that has been known to help. So I tried it out. It's called cos Melon, C-O-S-N-E-L-A-N. It's like a multi-step process. You do one peel and then you peel for a few weeks and then you do a second peel and you also have some three follow-up products that you use for the next six months or so.
And I have done the first peel and had the after photo done and it was like 90% better. And it was so amazing to me because I've been suffering from melasma for so long. Makeup doesn't cover, I'm just coming to terms with how my face looked, but I don't have to do that anymore. I am so excited. I want to shout this from the rooftop so everyone else who's suffering from me asthma can give it a shot. And I can't wait because I just did the second peel a few days ago to see if it's a hundred percent better after a few weeks. And this maybe something I have to repeat every couple of years, but it is so worth it. I'm so happy. And if anyone else is suffering with melasma and has not found a solution, look it up. Cos Milan, I love it. C-O-S-M-E-L-A-N. Thanks guys. Bye.
Elise: That just warms my heart to here.
Doree: I love that. Great cosan.
Elise: Also, it's a shout out to the product for anybody else who's suffering and is looking for a solution.
Doree: Totally. Totally. Alright, well let's take a little break. Before we do that, I just want to remind everyone that if you have a question or a comment for us, you can call or text us at (781) 591-0390. Just put us in your contact so you can be like, Hey, call Forever35. I'm not going to say the name because then they might do that as you are listening to the podcast. It happens, but you know what I'm saying. And then our email is Fe five podcast, gmail do and podcast. We have links to everything on the show. We're also on Instagram podcast newsletter. All right, we are back. We've been talking a lot about travel, and we got a voicemail about travel outfits that I wanted to play. Alright.
Voicemail: Hey, I'm calling in response to the quote, perfect travel outfit, and I don't have an entire outfit, but I do have to say a couple years ago I bought a pair of high waisted joggers from Target, and those have become my airplane staple. They're loose and comfortable on the legs, but tight on the ankle, any jumper style, which I think is great because then you don't have these loose ends getting caught on things. And a couple of the pockets have interior pockets with zippers, pockets within the pockets with zippers, which I find super helpful when you are going through security or well, rather when you're waiting in the gate, especially if you have kids and you're holding onto a lot of things and you just need access to a couple things, but you need the security of a zipper it in place. Anyway, I think they're the perfect travel pants and highly recommend. Okay, bye.
Elise: Did she link these joggers to us? Because you know, I'm like, Elise, soft pants hue over here.
Doree: I know.
Elise: And I also travel in high wasted travel joggers with pockets, inside pockets.
Doree: So alas, this listener did not, but listener, if you are listening and you hear this and you want to send us the link, we would be very pleased by that. So please do that. Ask me for a friend and myself asking for a friend. I do just love when you find that holy grail item of clothing, whatever it happens to be.
Elise: Like your tank dress. Like
Doree: My tank dress. Exactly. Exactly. Elise, do you want to read this next one?
Elise: Yes, we have a text for you, Doree.
Doree: Okay.
Elise: I'd be curious to get a Yoga Toes update from Doree. I believe last I heard she wasn't using them anymore. I am getting bunions, so I'm considering trying them again. When Doree originally mentioned them years ago, I bought them, but I found them painful, but open to giving them another try. Doree Yoga Toes update.
Doree: So I'm not using them anymore. They still live in my nightstand. I didn't stop using 'em for any real reason. I liked how they felt like they definitely felt weird and a little painful, but in a good way. In a way that I was like, Ooh, this is good for my feet kind of. But what I have found more effective than even using yoga toes in terms of my foot health is wearing shoes that actually fit me
Elise: Well. This reminds me of another question that we had last time about just those Peloton shoes
Doree: Actually. Yes, yes. So I have just gotten really, and maybe this is middle age also, but I've just gotten really picky about the shoes that I wear. I try to be barefoot as I work from home, so I try to be barefoot as much as I can. I just realized for so long, for literally decades, I was forcing my toes into very uncomfortable positions and they were getting scrunched and I have a permanent, I don't know, corn or something on each of my fourth toes, but I will say they've gotten so much better because
Elise: This is where I feel like Gen Z really gets things right.
Doree: Yes.
Elise: The hokas and the orthopedic shoes.
Doree: Yes, yes. So I'm taking a page out of Gen Z's book here, and just letting my feet breathe has I think been better for me than eight minutes of yoga toes a night could possibly be. So I realize this is more of a lifestyle change and you might not be in a situation where you can always wear super comfortable shoes, but you can at least make sure that your shoes do fit you correctly because that was also a big issue of mine that I only realized quite recently that I was pretty much wearing the wrong size shoe at all times.
Elise: My feet grew at least half a size, if not a full size during my first pregnancy.
Doree: Oh yeah, that too. They flat feet out too, and yeah, and my feet are slightly different sizes, so there's that. Anyway, thank you for this question. Well, on the topic,
Elise: Yes, thank you for this question and on the topic of feet, let's stay on feet for the next submission because regarding the Peloton feet falling asleep issue, somebody rode in with a solution. You can replace the pedals with regular bike strap pedals that are cheap on Amazon, and then you can wear whatever shoes you want. You do not need to wear their bike shoes on the Peloton. I wear a pair of Allbirds that I keep near the Peloton and they're very comfy and my feet never fall asleep. Boom.
Doree: Boom,
Elise: Problem solved.
Doree: Thank you. I think that four like serious cyclists unquote, this would not be an acceptable solution, but assuming that you are a casual cyclist, it's probably fine.
Elise: Sorry if we've offended any.
Doree: Yeah, because there is, I mean, there is something about how if you're wearing cycling shoes, you can pull up on the pedals more effectively than you can if you're feet are in cages. I think you do get a better workout if you're wearing cycling shoes, but everything is a trade off. Okay. Let's see. On a totally different note, we got an email that said, or text that said, had to pause the pod during meeting at 4 0 4 regarding the conversation of gifts with purchase and little pouches. If pouches is what you desire, you need Ipsy. I've been a subscriber for years and now have so many pouches that I give them away to friends, nieces, guests, you name it. They come in cute varieties and styles, not to mention the plethora of skincare and makeup prods, and that is from Kat from Connecticut. Thank you, Kat.
Elise: We have been talking about how I'm a sucker for gifts with purchase. We both are, and gifts with purchase often come with pouches
Doree: Totally.
Elise: But it looks like I could just become an Ipsy subscriber and guarantee my pouches with regularity.
Doree: Thank you. Yeah, hot tip. All right, let's take another short break and we'll be right back.
Elise: We'll be right back.
Doree: Okay. We are back. And Sarah wrote in to say hi forever, 35 friends listening to episode three 12, and Laurel is right. Dolphin girls were for sure a thing in the eighties and nineties, and some of us actually grew up to be marine biologists. Thanks for making such a wonderful show that it brings all types in. Marine biologists included. Have a great week, Sarah.
Elise: Oh, yay. Yeah, we were talking about how when we were growing up, it seemed like everybody wanted to be a marine biologist. Did they become marine biologists?
Doree: Sarah did. Sarah did. I mean, we talked about how the book Island of the Blue Dolphins was huge when we were growing up, right? Yeah. Okay. Just making,
Elise: I also had fourth grade required reading a story about a girl on a ship called The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, and so there was a lot of seafaring.
Doree: Totally. Well, if you grew up in New England, you watched a PBS or public television show in school. They had it. Everyone watched it on the VCR called Voyage of the Mimi. Do you know Voyage of the Mimi?
Elise: Oh, I remember. There's some Child Star that was on this, right?
Doree: Yeah. Ben Affleck, Cambridge, Massachusetts'. Own Ben Affleck. Famous
Elise: Bostonian.
Doree: Yes, exactly. So it was just about being a bunch of kids on a boat, but everyone watched it. It was part of the curriculum in, at least in Massachusetts. I don't know if it was nationwide or it's one of those things where if you mention it and you can, it's just one of those New England things where you're like, oh yes, you grew up in New England in the eighties.
Elise: Well, I'm remembering so much ocean content now because Teen Hearth Rob or Tween Harth, Rob Jonathan Brandis, not to be confused with Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Jonathan Brandis, who was in ladybugs. He was also in a made for TV movie when I was in middle or late elementary school called Atlantis. I think I might be making this up, but I remember there was a lot of promo for some movie like this about Atlantis or called Atlantis. A lot of sea stuff.
Doree: A lot of sea stuff. I mean, I'm also remembering Mila Jovi's return to the Blue Lagoon.
Elise: She did one.
Doree: Yeah, she did a blue Lagoon. Yeah, so there was definitely, you're right, that was definitely in the air. What was that about? Part of the zeitgeist. Part of the zeitgeist, the ocean. Thank you, Sarah. I love knowing our listeners' professions, I have to say. And of course, no shade if you don't have a profession, because that's fine too. Alright, Elise, this next and last note is mostly directed at you. I will read it because you were talking about squish melow storage.
Elise: They're overtaking my house.
Doree: Yeah, they're overtaking your house. And this listener wrote OMG. I have a squish melow management suggestion. It's been a game changer at my very stuffy centric house. Buy the cover for a beanbag chair could also do an ottoman and fill it with squishy. My kiddo is thrilled to have a beanbag chair in her room and she can just unzip it and rotate stuffies as needed. She has this one from my beanbag.ca, so I don't know if this is a Canadian listener or if they just got it from this place. Just buy it without the cushion and go for the adult size. You've got squish metals to wrangle. And then they also said, loved your recent app. Had to share this photo of my daughter eyeing the animatronic werewolf from Costco. I did not buy it, and she included a very sweet picture of her daughter in front of me. Enormous animatronic werewolf.
Elise: Oh my God. It looks like Teen Wolf after he turns
Doree: It's terrifying. $250 is a lot to spend on a Halloween decoration, but it looks like it's worth $250. Don't you think? It's so big. It
Elise: Is so big.
Doree: It's so big.
Elise: I don't know where would I store it? I mean, there's so, so many
Doree: Questions. It would've to be a permanent fixture of your front yard
Elise: Then nobody would take books from my little free library.
Doree: Oh
Elise: Yeah. I've already been having this problem the last couple of weeks, just people have been adding books but not taking books away. So I've been feeling a little defeated.
Doree: Oh, that's interesting. There's a little free liner near me.
Elise: Yeah, that's right. I'm just scared if I add that werewolf. It just makes things even worse. They're going to be like, who are these people?
Doree: Right, right, right.
Elise: Well it is so cute. What a cute photo to send in. Thank you.
Doree: Yes,
Elise: Thank you so much. Now I know what you're talking about, Doree.
Doree: Yes. Now you can really picture it. Alright everyone, thank you so much for listening and we'll talk to you soon.
Elise: Bye bye.
Doree: Bye.
*Transcripts are AI Generated.