Consumer recommendations

[I DClaire]

I'm curious about what make-up, fragrances, skincare products, haircare products, household products, etc., different members use that they truly are impressed with or perhaps woefully disappointed with?

I recently purchased a new L'Oreal moisturizer that strikes me as being incredibly effective. It is Age Perfect Hydra-Nutrition GOLDEN BALM. It is app. $17 for a 1.7 oz. jar that lasts a long time - you don't need much. I've been using it on my face, neck and then rubbing my hands with whatever is left on my fingertips. This is the best wrinkle cream I've ever bought! Others must feel the same way - twice I've had a hard time finding the product.

Then, I found Alba Botanica's Papaya Mango Body Cream at a health food store. If you ever notice this amazing product, whether you buy it or not, stop and smell the fragrance. I was so impressed I ordered a dozen jars for Christmas presents and everyone loved it. I can't get enough of it!

My third recommendation is nothing glamourous but if you like to iron or need to iron anything, find a bottle of Mary Ellen's Best Press, The Clear Starch Alternative. I found it at Hancock's Fabric Store. It is a little expensive BUT it takes ironing where it's never gone before - almost to joyous perfection! I, for whatever reason, love to iron and I iron a lot of stuff nobody else would ever consider ironing. I know starch!! This product gives the most perfect finish, the fragrances are all divine, it NEVER EVER creates/leaves any dried starch residue whatsoever (even on dark fabrics) and it truly seems like a miracle starch.

Anyone else willing to share favorite product recommendations? Nothing irritates me anymore than buying something that does not meet my expectations and I've seldom found I'm disappointed in anything a friend recommends.

[Octavia]

Refresh my memory...what is ironing? ;)

Cool idea for a thread. I will think about what I would (or would not) recommend...

[I DClaire]

Refresh my memory...what is ironing? ;)

Cool idea for a thread. I will think about what I would (or would not) recommend...

I know women who don't even own an iron. :anim_63: I loathe housework more than any woman on earth but I love to iron AND I have to have clean windows.

Paul used to say he had to hide his clothes to keep me from washing/ironing them so much but I have gotten over THAT! I still iron a lot though - including our pug's little cotton sheets. Jimbo likes smooth sheets! :indifferent0023: He might possibly be the only pug on earth with his own little cotton sheets but considering how fussy most pug owners are, probably not!!

[nasdaqphil]

I never understood why women want to iron everything. After you wear a shirt 6 or 7 days in a row there are no wrinkles so why bother?

[shellebean]

Tossing a shirt in the hot dryer with a damp towel for about 5 minutes is MY ironing!!! Hate it. I'm even a bit OCD with being organized and having orderly, but ironing does nothing for me.
I have several things that are on my "favorites" list. I'll think and add some into the link!
Fun idea.

[Lovlkn]

I love the starch tip. I like to starch my shirts that I wear with my suits and the cleaners don't do a good job on ladies shirts - thank you I DClaire

Lets talk windows... I clean my windows several times a year as I have 57 windows and 30 of them face South, have no coverings on them and look at the lake I live on which means they have to be clean. I've tried everything and this stuff is the best.

Ettore Super Concentrate Squeegee Off -$4.98 for 16 oz and you use a tablespoon in a gallon of water so it lasts forever. Use a soft towel or rag to wash and squeegee off and you're not going to find a cleaner window. I find mine at Lowe's hardware.

[Octavia]

Well, I can't think of any cool products I've discovered, but since many of us share frizzy hair issues, I'll tell you my simple, inexpensive solution: baby oil. Yes. After I blow-dry my huge, thick, frizzy, shredded-wheat hair, I spread a smidgeon (I'm guessing about a third of a teaspoon) of baby oil in/on it, then methodically (but not slowly) run the "top layer" through the straightening iron or curling iron to smooth it all in there. The result is silky smooth hair that looks noticeably better and mostly normal. :)

I have spent my share of $$ on expensive silky-hair-promise items, and none of them work as well as baby oil for me, which is a fraction of a fraction of the price of some of the other stuff! And it seems to be safe to use with colored hair. (oohhh...did I just admit that my nice blondish/brownish/sometimes-with-a-hint-of-reddish hair isn't natural????)

[Lovlkn]

I wonder if the baby oil will tame the grey (colored of course) frizzies?

[I DClaire]

Ettore Super Concentrate Squeegee Off -$4.98 for 16 oz and you use a tablespoon in a gallon of water so it lasts forever. Use a soft towel or rag to wash and squeegee off and you're not going to find a cleaner window. I find mine at Lowe's hardware.

I would kill for 57 windows! One reason I'm so obsessed with clean windows is my house is so dark. We don't have enough windows to say grace over but, by golly, they're usually clean! ;)

I'll look for this product at our Lowe's tomorrow. Our daytime temperatures have been in the 70's every day this week - perfect weather to get outside and spruce things up a bit.

I mentioned being disappointed sometimes and I was never more so than with another window cleaning product I bought to use in a mini-power washer. I bought a gallon and I don't believe it would clean anything!

Savogran "Dirtex" Multi-Surface Cleaner (aerosol spray) is the best product I've found for inside windows, mirrors, and chrome. The only place I can find it is one local paint store but surely it is sold elsewhere. I love and use Dirtex so much I usually buy six cans at a time! I also use it to get rid of water spots and make crystal sparkle.

[I DClaire]

Well, I can't think of any cool products I've discovered, but since many of us share frizzy hair issues, I'll tell you my simple, inexpensive solution: baby oil. Yes. After I blow-dry my huge, thick, frizzy, shredded-wheat hair, I spread a smidgeon (I'm guessing about a third of a teaspoon) of baby oil in/on it, then methodically (but not slowly) run the "top layer" through the straightening iron or curling iron to smooth it all in there. The result is silky smooth hair that looks noticeably better and mostly normal. :)

I have spent my share of $$ on expensive silky-hair-promise items, and none of them work as well as baby oil for me, which is a fraction of a fraction of the price of some of the other stuff! And it seems to be safe to use with colored hair. (oohhh...did I just admit that my nice blondish/brownish/sometimes-with-a-hint-of-reddish hair isn't natural????)

Can y'all handle another funny story? My daughter always has new and interesting beauty products when she comes home and sometime last year I saw her using Jane Carter Solution All Natural Nourish & Shine, a product she'd bought at a health food store for dry hair and dry skin. It's all natural butters and essential oils, etc. What it is is really what people used to call "pomade". It is so concentrated it's almost a solid and a little dab will do you sure 'nuff! Think rubbing cold butter on your hair.

I bought a jar but back then my white hair really was not that dry but my husband's hair was so I talked him into using it, cautioning him a hundred times just to basically touch the product lightly, then rub his fingers together to kinda' melt it, then rub his hair and scalp. I explained over and over not to use much of it!

The next thing I knew Paul looked like a greasy, oily-headed cartoon character! He looked like Dishonest John! He had put a glob of Nourish & Shine on his hair and the harder he tried to get it off the greasier it got and the more it plastered his hair to his head.

I laughed till my ribs ached! I put the jar away and pretty much forgot about it until now. I honestly suspect you could use it to wax cars!!

[I DClaire]

I never understood why women want to iron everything. After you wear a shirt 6 or 7 days in a row there are no wrinkles so why bother?

Oh, lordy!! :anim_63:

Phil, my son-in-law may be wearing his shirts 6 or 7 days in a row these days. Tim kept complaining that the reason the collars on his knit shirts wouldn't lay down right was because my daughter wasn't laundering them his way. You know where this is going, don't you?

My daughter finally told him the solution was obvious - Tim needed to start laundering his own shirts!!

The way my husband does laundry is almost criminal. Paul thinks Clorox is the greatest thing since sliced bread. One time I accidently left a brand new, expensive, cotton blouse in the washing machine. Paul piled his stuff in on top of it, gave everything his customary sloshing of Clorox and then left it all to soak for awhile.

When I tried to lift my new blouse out of the washer, the collar came off in my fingers! The whole thing basically disintegrated in my hands!

[Octavia]

I would kill for 57 windows! One reason I'm so obsessed with clean windows is my house is so dark. We don't have enough windows to say grace over but, by golly, they're usually clean! ;)


Your windows are always clean AND you iron everything? Do you realize how bad you're making the rest of us look? :)

[webster2]

Your windows are always clean AND you iron everything? Do you realize how bad you're making the rest of us look? :)

I agree....I only iron when I am quilting. I change the "dog and cat artwork" on the windows once in awhile...

[peacesells560]

I don't iron anything, I just put it on a hanger when it comes out of the dryer. I'm a guy and I've been doing my own laundry since I was 14.

[I DClaire]

Your windows are always clean AND you iron everything? Do you realize how bad you're making the rest of us look? :)

:anim_63:

Unfortunately most people never give any thought to my clothes being ironed and can't see the windows because the rest of the house usually looks like a tornado struck a secondhand furniture store!

Someone sent me a little cartoon this week that struck a little too close to home. A guy was in the doghouse after his wife asked him what was on the TV and he replied, "Dust". Dust is one substance I cannot get ahead of...dust and pug fur!

I can iron all day with my frazzled old ADD brain wandering in a million directions but to concentrate on something like dusting furniture is all but impossible for me.

I love to cook but prefer decadent dessert-making to healthier recipes AND, left to my own devices, I'd probably live outdoors doing anything that involved digging in dirt rather than trying to maintain a clean house. And, another ultimate irony - I live between two couples who are all obsessive-compulsive about housekeeping and taking care of their belongings. One neighbor comes home from work every afternoon (yearround) and picks up every leaf that has fallen in his yard that day. Nobody, not even his grown son, is allowed to touch his vehicles which he hand-washes 2-3 times a week.

Right now I'm majorly conflicted. I want to sew - BUT - my conscience is giving me a hard time because the whole house is a mess and company is coming on Sunday. My conscience won't let me sew and I simply don't want to clean house so I'm sitting here at the computer doing neither!! ;)

[I DClaire]

I agree....I only iron when I am quilting. I change the "dog and cat artwork" on the windows once in awhile...

Jimbo is our artist in residence when it comes to keeping the windows decorated!

http://www.thyroidboards.com/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=84

[webster2]

Since I got my cast off, I have been sewing up a storm! I shut the door to the craft room and zone out. One of these days I really will get back to being a good housekeeper. I figure I've been out of the loop with this thyroid business that I am going to have some fun for awhile and just enjoy life now that I am no longer a lunatic! :P