Product review Wednesday

     The things that have changed in my life recently can be told through a series of reviews concerning changes in products I have made.

Ocella

Ocella is the generic pill for yasmin, and it was prescribed to me by my dermatologist along with spironolactone, a potassium sparing diuretic (My acne is hormonal, so he said that these medications would be quite effective for my kind of acne).  Before beginning Ocella, I decided to look up this specific pill because I had never heard of it before and I was excited to learn all that I could about a medication that might actually relieve me of my flocks of zits.  Upon googling the drug, I found many distressing posts on various blogs (with acne bents as well as medical ones) explaining the horrible side effects some women had experienced upon beginning this pill.  Although my parents warned me not to get worked up about these posts, that could have been written by anyone, after having started the pill, I became more and more anxious every day.  The first week I was on it, I had such a severe panic attack that I had to go to the emergency room in the middle of the night.  In subsequent nights, I had panic attacks (nearly every night, in fact) but I was able to talk myself out of them, telling myself that my problems were probably psychosomatic and that I was just expecting to experience side effects from this pill.  Unfortunately, the heart palpitations and breathing problems became more and more frequent, happening almost every night and starting to occur during my classes during the day.  Even though I had had my potassium checked (Ocella paired with a potassium sparing diuretic such as spironolactone can increase your level of potassium) and found that it was high, but not too high, and even though I knew that I was in good health, I realized that even with my anxious, worrisome nature, this level of anxiety was not normal for me and it was affecting my life on way too many levels.  I stopped taking the medication and now I am much calmer, and haven't had a single panic attack since (This is my fifth day off Ocella and my fourth day off spironolactone.).  I read online that panic disorder can be linked to Ocella, and although I'm not sure how credible the sources I read are, I am highly tempted to claim that it was Ocella that was causing the problem (My dermatologist had me go off both pills, though, because we don't know for sure what could have been causing the side effects.)

I did notice a dramatic change for the better in my skin, acnewise, but the side effects were not worth clear skin.  I am still using the topical treatments that I'd already been using, so we'll see how it goes.

Maybelline

I love Maybelline products, and have been using their powder (sometimes I buy their mineral powder, others their shine proof powder or something of the like) for about a year now.  I've noticed that their plastic cases have a tendency to crack easily, though.  I have a set of their blush in a broken case, and the lid to my powder, which had been cracked for a couple weeks, finally broke in two.  I have had this happen before with Maybelline powders (not with the mineral kinds though, which seem to be in a sturdier case) and with the caps to their foundation sticks and it's always annoying, but I deal with it because I like to use their products.  I know plastic breaks, especially if it's thin and you occasionally carry it around with you, but I wish the company would come up with some more durable packaging.

Clinique

I loooove the Clinique Superfit liquid foundation I bought from Sephora.  The only complaint I have is the same one I see in some of the comments of the product on their website, posted by other extremely pale people, apparently, which is that even the lightest color is not really that light.  For me, it is not only a bit dark, but it is too yellow (a problem that I often have with makeup foundations).  I have pink undertones, but it seems that some makeup companies tend to make their lighter shades only in yellow undertones.  Although yellow is good for concealing purposes, and sometimes I wish I had yellow undertones, but I don't, and so I look a little weird in this color (My Italian teacher thought I had gone somewhere warm for spring break.  I didn't tell her that I had stayed in Illinois and simply switched to a foundation that was too dark for me!).  My Maybelline powder is a lighter shade, though (however still more yellow than pink), so it evens out well enough (I'm a powder AND liquid girl.)

That's about it.  I'm so ready for this semester to be over (but not ready to turn in my term papers!  Agh!)!