Off Brand Beauty

I hate spending money on beauty potions. They never work, and then I have this full bottle of stuff I spent a fortune on and am too frugal to throw out. I try to pawn the mirace cures off on friends but they have their own drawers full of failures and are reluctant to take on mine. What to do? I have recently started using the unliked products "off brand".

The lemon lightener face cream that broke me out is wonderful as hand lotion before bed. Smells great and I am telling myself it is lightening the brown spots on my hands. The body wash that made me itch is doing double duty as hand soap at the kitchen sink. The progesterone cream that didn't do a darn thing hormone wise is a nice light face cream. I am shaving my legs with the conditioner that weighed down my fine hair. Our shoes are fresh scented as a result of an asthma producing spray body powder. (I go outside to spray the shoes). I still haven't found a use for the numerous unopened lip glosses a friend sends me every Christmas. Ditto the numerous vitamins and supplements that give me heartburn. I did get a friend to leave the house with the high potency Biotin that gave me diarrhea. Biotin in high doses is supposed to keep your hair from thinning. The blackhead remover strips also work dandy as hair remover stips if glued to the upper lip. The peroxide toothpaste the dentist forbade me to use seems to work as blemish cream. I dab it on the pimple before bedtime and next morning, no pimple. And yes hemorrhoid cream smeared under the eyes does relieve puffiness. These are just a few of my off brand uses. My most major faux pas was prescription exfoliation cream. Cost me a hundred bucks for one little tube. It peeled my sensitive skin down to the bone. Was awful. That tortuous pricey cream sat in my medicine chest taunting me for five years before I found a use for it. I use it on my dry cracked heels. Works like a charm. I have the feet of a thirty year old.

If anyone has any other ideas for off brand use I am interested.

Next time, my homemade skin care products.

As ever, Bea

P.S. I am using the tinted sunscreen that made my face oily on my legs as a concealer for spider veins.