u/BeeWhisper

and it's so backordered too 😭

I was on a different cleaning quest (enzymatic surface cleaner to keep the serratia marcescens out of my shower) and stumbled across this company Everneat that makes enzyme laundry & cleaning products. Not an ad, but I'm intrigued because they have an unscented liquid with lipase, and an oxygen bleach with DNAse. They have unscented and scented options. Here are the ingredient lists:

Detergent($22 for 16oz):

Alkyl Polyglucoside (coconut derived), Potassium Cocoate (coconut derived), Propanediol (corn derived),Isopropilidene Glycerol (glycerin derived), Glycerin (vegetable),Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate (plant derived),Citric Acid (food grade), Amylase, Protease, Cellulase, Lipase [fragranced version also lists essential oils]

Booster ($18 for 16oz):

Sodium Percarbonate, Sodium Carbonate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Phosphodiesterase

They have the same underdosed recommendation as Dirty Labs (1/4 to 1tbsp depending on load size) and my sense is that, you would need to use at least the full 1tbps dose. But you get twice as much detergent for about the same price as Dirty Labs.

Right now I'm waiting on for a FEBU restock so I can use tide odor refresh + febu + downy r&r unscented combo as my main setup. But I'm curious if the liquid is worth trying for the cases where I want the enzymes in my liquid without an oxygen booster. I'm still pretty naive about surfactant packages so I don't know where this would stack up.

At the start of may I installed an extension called "Insight" (not an ad) that tracks the time you spend on different websites. Unlike other time saving extensions I've tried it doesn't block you from anything, it just gives you some honest accounting of how you're spending your time online.

My top two sites were youtube (doesn't bother me terribly because I listen to video essays while I do my chores) and reddit (probably should spend a little less time tbh) but my third most visited site was olive young. This is because their global shopping site with korean-exclusive products is closing to orders from US customers, and I spent a lot of time agonizing over my last purchase. But ELEVEN HOURS on one skincare site? How humiliating. I also spent three hours this month looking at sephora even though i didn't and don't need anything from there.

So I basically lost one waking day of my life making and remaking that cart. My problem isn't exactly overspending. I don't go into debt and i try to make well thought out purchases. But the TIME i am spending making those purchases is absurd and feels like a real problem to me. The money I can excuse away because I can "afford" it, but can I afford to be wasting hours of my life like this?

Anyway, it really opened my eyes and maybe it's a tool that could be useful for some of you too.

I turn 35 this week and treated myself to the xerf treatment and wanted to post an immediate review of the procedure since it's getting a lot of buzz right now.

The price: I live in NYC and I paid $2100 for 900 shots across my full face and neck. The clinic I went to is a bit more expensive than others I saw (it seems like its usually around $1800 ish for one session in the city) but I wanted to go to someone I trusted so I picked the provider who I regularly see for picosure pro & genesis laser (honestly if I could recommend you book anything after this post, it's pico. i love pico.) I also don't know if those other clinics are treating the neck for that price, or just the face.

The time: the procedure took about 90 minutes, which is longer than anything else I have tried. The process is kind of tedious because they have to hold the tip of the machine down on every inch of your skin, wait for the energy to be delivered, and then move to the next area. I also asked for a 5 min break halfway through because of the pain.

THE PAIN: This is advertised as a painless procedure that feels like "hot stone massage." Girl, it's a lie. I have a high pain tolerance to begin with, dermatologists and dentists both have told me this. But that shit HURT. On a 1-10 pain scale, Xerf was like 1/10 on the forehead, but 4/10 on the lower face, and 7/10 on the neck. You're supposed to get two sessions for full results, but there is no way I am going to get my neck done in round 2. I was able to breathe through it and get the treatment done but that was the most painful procedure I've done (For reference over the past 5 years I've had ultherapy prime (3/10) ONDA (4/10), sofwave (3/10, but useless) above mentioned lasers (1/10) and IPL(1/10, but also useless). The makers of XERF say it does not require topical numbing, but if you are able to ask them to numb you, do it.

The process: I had a consultation with my provider where she adjusted the plan to my face. xerf has a standard treatment plan (roughly 150 shots each for each section. right upper face, right lower face, right neck left upper face, left lower face, left neck), but faces aren't always symmetrical. I have a small forehead so she allocated some of the upper face shots to my lower face, and my right side is a little more lax than my left so she treated that side a bit more.

The machine also has some imaging technology that allows the provider to see where the energy is going. She was able to see that I have a thicker dermis so she increased the energy level so she could hit the appropriate levels for best results. Maybe that's why it huuuurt more than advertised. Finally, when she could see that i was white knuckling through the neck part she asked if I wanted to do fewer shots on the neck and use some of them on my chin/jawline instead which I happily accepted.

I would encourage you in your consults to talk to your provider about how they would customize the treatment to you because that made me a lot more comfortable that she knew what she was doing with this relatively new device.

The verdict: No before and afters yet because results can take 1-3 months to kick in. You're supposed to do another treatment 4 to 6 weeks after the first, but I'm not going to book until a month has passed because for the price and pain level i need to see at least some results from the first session before I decide if another is worth it. That said, you do get an immediate lifted/plump look because the tissues have been heated, that lasts for about a week. It does look nice and was part of my motivation for doing this before my birthday weekend, but I don't expect it to be permanent.

Would I get it again? I budget to do ultherapy once every ~2 years but did xerf instead this time to see what the hype was about. Judging on pain, price, and convenience of one treatment vs two, I would go back to ultherapy. But if the results really impress me, i would consider it again as long as I could get numbing cream next time.