My $1 dream cream

This is for my friend and cousin I call Danielle.  She knows already what this is about by reading the title and is laughing. I'll probably get a text from her as soon as she gets done reading it too.  Here's to you, D.

I have always had terrible skin.  My mom had terrible skin growing up too.  My brother had not-so-great skin too, but for a guy, it's not as big of a deal.  My mom took me to the dermatologist in high school and we tried various things.  Her big push was that I ate too much chocolate, grease and drank too much pop.  I'm not sure if that is the gospel, but I recently caught myself telling my daughter the same thing.  Shame on me.

I had terrible acne all through high school and into my adult years.  It was on my face, neck, arms, back and chest.  Now, let me clarify, I say it was terrible, I'm sure there were others who had it worse, but to me, it was terrible.  When the question would come up if you could change anything about you, what would it be?  My answer was always my skin.  I was always told some day that oily skin would come in handy...it would mean less wrinkles.  We'll see.

I had never been one for using moisturizer on my face because I felt like I had enough moisture/oil on my face to grease a cake pan.  The last thing I wanted to do was add anything to my skin that might possibly add more shine.  I had plenty.  For whatever reason, I was finally convinced one day (probably from watching Oprah or something) that I really needed to start using some sort of moisturizer on my face for the future of my skin.  And being the cheapskate I often am, I went to the local dollar store and picked up some $1 anti-wrinkle moisturizing cream.  It was smooth, didn't smell too bad and I started using it religiously.

Suddenly, or so I thought, my face had completely transformed.  My skin was near perfect (for me, that is).  I didn't have any nasty pimples popping up like I had before, my face had a glow and it wasn't from an over-abundance of grease and oil either.  That cream was amazing and I had to tell everyone about it, especially my friend/cousin Danielle.  Since we are from some of the same stock, we have similar issues.  I couldn't wait to share this amazing $1 dream cream with her.

So I told Danielle and I told my girlfriends.  Of course, I'm not sure any of them went out and bought any, but they went along with it and confirmed that my face did, in fact, look better.  It's one of those things that unless it's your issue, you don't really notice sometimes, but I knew that my skin was clearing up and improving and it HAD to be this cream.  I went and bought two or three extra containers of it just in case they would happen to sell out or discontinue carrying it.  Something this amazing wouldn't stay secret for long and I was not going back, if you know what I mean.  My skin was awesome!

I cannot recall what made me put two and two together, and I wish I did, but eventually I discovered that my new and improved blemish-free skin had nothing to do with the $1 dream cream I was coating it with each and every day and night...it had everything to do with something in my birth control pills. 

So the other night when we were dressing up for Trunk or Treat, Madolyn and her friend were going as old ladies with their hair in curlers, etc, and Madolyn wanted some kind of mask or face cream.  She dug around in the bathroom cabinet and pulled out the $1 dream cream...it made me laugh.  I told her she could have the whole jar for herself.  I couldn't believe I still had one.  I'm embarrassed to say I had several in stock just in case.  It was good while it lasted...