Duh moment of the day...

Umm.....duh!  That is what I have been telling myself all day since the dumb thing I did this morning.  Let me give you some context:

Last week I went to Whole Foods and there was a pleasant lady walking around with a basket of samples of cleanser and moisturizer.  Well, we started chatting and she told me that I looked like I needed a moment to myself (I don't know if her first clue was the baby in the carriage, the bags under my eyes from lack of sleep, or the disheveled look of my clothes/hair). She told me that the cleanser can also be used as a relaxing masque.  My brain immediately thought of a facial and how amazingly relaxing and refreshing that sounded....so, I figured "what the heck" and I took the sample from her.  I then proceeded to ask her if there was any almond in it, and I mentioned I was allergic to almonds.  To this she replied "I don't think there is. But the ingredients are listed, so you can read them over."  I glanced at them, particularly the moisturizer, and I didn't see any almonds either.  When I got home, I stuck the samples somewhere on a counter (added to the rest of the clutter) and proceeded to forget about them.

Fast forward a week to this morning.  I was cleaning up some of the aforementioned clutter and came across the little skin samples.  My mind immediately jumped back to the vision of me laying in a white cotton robe on a bench and receiving an amazing rejuvenating facial.  I looked back at the package and thought "well, it isn't the spa, but it is close enough".  So once the baby was down for his nap and I changed over the laundry, grabbed my sample, and headed to the bathroom. 

Once I got the "masque" on, I headed to the couch and put my feet up.  It wasn't on for more then 5-6 minutes, when I started to feel really hot in the face.  "Hm...I pondered, maybe my face doesn't like this".  I walked into the bathroom and saw my very red, very hot face and proceeded to immediately wash it off.  After I was all rinsed, I pulled the cleanser ingredients from the wastebasket and listed as the fourth or fifth ingredient, is... GASP "sweet almond"...uh oh...

So immediately I went upstairs to grab the children's benadryl (the liquid form hits the blood stream faster then the pill-form).  I called my husband to put him on alert that I could die at any moment (he started heading home). Then I washed my face, took a shower, and tried not to panic.  After the initial panic subsided and I could feel the benadryl doing it's thing. I spent the remainder of the day looking at my red and sun-burned looking face and thinking about how STUPID I was for not carefully reading the label when I have a known allergy of an item found commonly in natural beauty supplies.

So, let this be a lesson to you.  If you or your children have an allergy--please please please, read the labels very carefully on both food and beauty items.  Don't just skim them and listen to a random hand-out-samples lady.  Read them (no matter how small the print) and be careful.  I really should know better...

In health and wellness,
Nicole Harter