Curing ugly-puffy-morning-face with hydrocortisone

My fiancée and I watch this girl down the street (we're people watchers) each morning from our window. Same routine every day... gets up in morning slippers and walks the dog. The odd thing we have noticed is that when she first gets up in the morning she has the worst swollen morning face we've ever seen.

She also has a cosmetics fetish. I think the girl owns 100 different shades of every type of finish you can shellac on your face. Anyway... the second time she emerges from her house each day she has her usual dabbling of make-up on... and puffy face completely resolved.

So peering into her collection the other day when we were invited to lunch my fiancée noted several products labeled "hypoallergenic with hydrocortisone .5%"

The conspiracy?

I see a pattern here fed to the public... pollute your face... wake up with an ugly swollen face hangover... gotta do something about it... "makeup makes it all better" pollute your face (with hydrocortisone .5%")... instant make over... puffy ugly face gone, go on with your day... go to sleep wake up with an ugly swollen face hangover... hydro .5%... the cycle repeats. Day after day.

I almost want to believe there is some mad scientist somewhere at Almay or Clinique that is adding an ingredient known to cause ugly puffy morning face... that is 100% accutely curable with .5% hydrocortisone hypoallergenic base.

Some reading on subject (couldn't really find supporting evidence for my theory):

www.ewg.org Commentary by Margaret Morrison to 1978 FDA WARNING

70 percent of products may be contaminated with harmful impurities, and more than half of all products contain "penetration enhancers" that drive ingredients deeper into the skin to the blood vessels below

March 7, 2005 FDA Warning to Cosmetics Industry

As a result of the decision, manufacturers may continue to label and advertise their cosmetics as "hypoallergenic" or make similar claims without any supporting evidence. Consumers will have no assurance that such claims are valid.

Let me know what you think...

-Sri Oracle

Your admitting to spying on your neighbor and rifling through her personal belongings and we're supposed to be worried about mad scientists. My personal belief is that what goes into your body is much more important than what goes on it, but, you know, I use a hydrocortisone cream somewhere else other than my face.

This is what hydrocortisone is good for:

This medicine is used for the treatment of inflamed areas of the body, severe allergies, skin problems, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, organ transplantation, leukemias/lymphomas, brain swelling, ulcerative colitis, sarcoidosis, spinal cord injuries, Addison's disease, and arthritis.

This medicine is used in other diseases where the anti-inflammatory or immunosuppressant properties are needed. Talk with healthcare provider.

The rectal forms are used to treat symptoms from hemorrhoids or rectal itching or irritation.

www.umm.edu...

This is how it works:

Hydrocortisone is a man-made form of an important chemical produced in the body.

Hydrocortisone puts down the body's response to the allergen (the cause of the allergy) and reduces swelling, redness, itching, and other symptoms of allergy.

It also reduces the body's ability to fight infection.

www.umm.edu...

From your description, I would suggest that your neighbor probably has good reason to use this medication.

While this is highly unethical, you did discover a well known method of making money. It's like a cigarette manufactuer selling a "breath easy" medicine.

I steer clear of anything with 'cortisone' in the ingredients, unless absolutely necessary and nothing else in the world can help me, It is very very bad for U
It has ruined many women's bones and teeth.

And I never have 'puffy face' I do hear U though, alot of girls look just awful without make up on, compeltely different to when they do, but a lot don't. Guess we know who is using cortisone-based creams and who ain't.

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
Your admitting to spying on your neighbor and rifling through her personal belongings and we're supposed to be worried about mad scientists.

I admit to looking out my window in the morning while I drink my coffee and commenting on what I see. I also admit to using my neighbors bathroom and noticing her neatly organized shrine of designer cosmetics, toiletries, and perfume that consumed a 6 tier bookshelf. Burn me at the stake.

My personal belief is that what goes into your body is much more important than what goes on it.

What goes on your body ABSORBS into your body.

From your description, I would suggest that your neighbor probably has good reason to use this medication.

But if she wasn't painting her face each morning with a chemical bath, she would have no reason to reduce the swelling with hydrocortisone. And... if she didn't wake up with ugly-puffy-face... she probably wouldn't be turning to cosmetics to begin with.

I guess my claim is that cosmetic companies are including ingredients which make you ugly the next day so that you become hooked on curing the problem with their products.

Originally posted by JBurns
It's like a cigarette manufactuer selling a "breath easy" medicine.

Exactly.

Oracle

Okay. Your saying that by hypoallergenic the cosmetic industry is saying this product contains hydrocortisone, which I guess seems a little disengenous if the cosmetic itself is an allergen.

I was thinking that if the woman's face is swollen in the mornings before she puts on her make up that she may be allergic to something in the environment and that she uses hydrocortisone products to help with that issue.

I don't use it often, but I do keep a hydrocoritsone cream around to relieve itching. I only wear makeup on halloween.