It is a dreary/chilly/damp day and I am alone/warm/dry in the house, and this should be a LOVELY combination but I am twitchy and weird today and nothing can please me.
Oh! Except! I am very pleased about a decision regarding an advent calendar. I bought this tea advent calendar, despite ALREADY HAVING a See’s advent calendar AND already having a drawerful of tea I rarely drink:
(image from Amazon.com)
I mentioned this somewhat silly purchase on Twitter, and Twitter reminded me of our idea of doing advent calendars starting the day AFTER Christmas, when many of us could really use the emotional support. WHAT, I ask you, could be better for that than TEA?? In the festive weeks leading up to Christmas, I will be buoyed by stress and excitement and busyness; in the weeks AFTER, that is when I will want to sit in a chair with a cozy therapeutic drink and perhaps spend a few minutes focusing on mental wellness if applicable. So now I am even more excited about the tea advent calendar, and also less sheepish about buying it when I already had an advent calendar.
I am also pleased because I re-solved a mystery. Quite awhile ago, I started having an odd and icky problem (I will be brief with the description of the ickiness and will not linger on it) where it seemed like the inside of my mouth was very lightly (I’m sorry in advance) peeling. Not a lot, nothing where any part of the inside of my mouth looked injured, but just, there was a little bit of matter that seemed to be a very very thin layer of skin that had peeled off from the gums and/or the insides of my cheeks. I asked the dentist about it (IS IT MOUTH CANCER) and he said that happens to some people when they use certain whitening toothpastes, and he said it was hard to even find toothpastes without whitening anymore but try using plain Colgate or plain Crest. I bought a 3-pack of plain Colgate (surprisingly hard to search for; this is the one I bought), I started using it, the problem completely disappeared, and I forgot all about it.
Now we move forward in time: much more recently, my lips, which I pick at out of habit/anxiety and so they are never in the best of condition, got noticeably worse. They were chapping beyond the lip line, and the corners of my mouth would (again I apologize in advance and I will be brief) crack, like little tiny paper cuts. DID NOT FEEL GOOD. I went so far as to completely stop picking at my lips for several days, to let them fully heal, and that helped somewhat but not as much as you’d think, and the corners kept cracking. I tried many different lip balms and ointments. I wondered if it could be mask-related, or maybe the detergent I use to clean the masks. I wondered shudderingly if it could somehow be something…fungal. And then I noticed that my toothpaste, which was supposed to be plain Colgate, was somehow a whitening toothpaste again. It didn’t seem like it could be the same problem as before, with such a different symptom, but it wouldn’t hurt to go back to the plain toothpaste—and I did, and the issue ENTIRELY CLEARED UP. Lips went back to normal levels of chapped/picked! Corners stopped cracking!
I mention this in case you are having any similar issues and wish to attempt the absolutely easiest first-tier solution just in case it works. I would never have suspected whitening toothpastes, because I’d used them for DECADES with no issues. But perhaps this is just one more of the ever-mounting joys of getting older.
The tea advent calendar, and using it for AFTER Christmas, is so genius. I have been avoiding buying myself an advent calendar for a ridiculous reason, and maybe this is the smart reasoning I need to go through with it!
Oh! I had the same mouth issue when I used to use mouthwash! I don’t know if it was a whitening mouthwash, or just regular, but it went away when I stopped using it. I just recently started using a fluoride mouthwash, I’ll have to see if I have any issues.
I bought three Advent calendars from Aldi this year (beer, cheese, and Paw Patrol — one for each person in our family) and it perked me up immediately. I don’t usually get excited about Christmas or the lead up to it, but stuff like that helps.
a CHEESE ADVENT CALENDAR?!?!?! *runs to Aldi*
I got the cheese one too! They also had a gourmet chocolate one! Can’t wait to try both!
Adding the tea calendar to my wish list!
I get a similar mouth-peeling issue when I have too much cinnamon. Not like I’m doing that dumb thing when you try to eat a spoonful of it, but if I have cinnamon cereal a couple of days in a row, or cinnamon gum or Red Hots. For skin cracking issues outside of the mouth (ok for lips), I like Aquaphor. It’s especially nice as a light layer of protection from the cold for cheeks or hands.
Not sure if you have Trader Joe’s near you, but I thought of you when I saw their Cat Advent calendar this weekend! https://hip2save.com/deals/trader-joes-pet-advent-calendars/
Oh the twitchy and weird on a seemingly perfect day. The worst. Thank you for giving language to this! I love reading :)
I get that exact same mouth peely issues- my dentist told me it was an allergy to sodium laureth sulfate. I’m going to experiment now to see if it’s actually the whitening part that does it.
Oh INTERESTING. I will look into sodium laureth sulfate, too!
It’s in most hand soaps, shampoos and body washs. If you have dry skin, hair or hands prone to eczema, it helps to avoid it. It’s really harsh and drying, and for some reason it’s often even in stuff made for sensitive skin.
Look for things with coco sulfate instead (there is another sulfate I can’t remember the name of), basically as long as it’s not sodium laureth sulfate but another kind, it’s gentler. I’m not sure how much hassle it is to find such things in the US (in Germany, it’s only become easier in the last year or so), but I remember an episode of Queer Eye were they were with a family with lots of girls with gorgeous long hair, and when they went shopping at Walmart (I think) with Jonathan (the beauty and skin care guy), he dismissed one kind of shampoo because it had SLS and picked another one instead. So there should be some options available without too much hassle.
Another option is baby shampoo, which often also comes without the irritating stuff. Word of warning though for people with greasy hair: I used it for a while and at some point realised (after a brand switch, so maybe t was that, too) that my hair still looked greasy after it was washed and dried. So for my scalp, t was a bit too gentle after all, to the point where it got ineffective.
I was coming here to say something similar. H was getting persistent and quite painful canker sores for awhile even after he gave up eating nuts (to which he has a mild allergy) and he was frustrated and stumped until his dentist told him that the SLS in toothpaste can cause some people to get canker sores. Once he stopped using toothpaste with SLS his situation improved markedly. The only catch is that it’s really difficult to find a toothpaste without SLS that has fluoride. I’m not sure why toothpaste makers think that people who don’t want foamy toothpaste also don’t want to protect their teeth with fluoride, but I digress.
Have you been able to find any? I’ve just given up in the search (which admittedly never went further than my grocery store’s toothpaste aisle) and have just been using the ones with no fluoride…
I also have the canker sore / Sls issue. I have recently found and love Arm and Hammer “essentials”. Has all the good stuff (fluoride, baking soda) but not SLS. It’s at target!
I just don’t use fluoride. I switched to hippie toothpaste because of a skin condition that was possibly triggered by fluoride, and I was kind of worried because I have had a LOT of tooth issues and didn’t want to damage my teeth in the process of healing my skin. But my teeth have been absolutely fine, no cavities or other issues and I’ve been fluoride-free for a couple of years now. I use Schmidt’s Wondermint.
Pukka is my favourite tea and that advent calendar us sold out in Canada, sadness! I just ordered a different one though, will report back!
I bought myself a(n overpriced IMO) tea calendar this year, and I am holding myself back from starting it! I do plan to do it leading up to Christmas because so much of Christmas is about doing things for other people (which I enjoy!), but I sometimes get grumpy because those other people rarely think in advance about what they can do for me. This way I get to try some nice samples of tea and think happy thoughts.
Ooohhhh. I FEEL THIS SO MUCH! Not the tea, the rest
TL;DR Jason has a great SLS-free toothpaste with fluoride, but note that it doesn’t have the usual minty taste.
https://www.pharmaca.com/jason-healthy-mouth-tartar-control-toothpaste-fluoride-free-tea-tree-oil-cinnamon-4-2oz
I used to get constant canker sores inside my mouth, and after much trial and error discovered that I can’t eat tree nuts (peanuts are okay) *and* I can’t use toothpaste containing SLS. My current favorite toothpaste is Jason Healthy Mouth gel. It says “tee tree oil and cinnamon”, which sounded like a terrible flavor to me when I first saw it, but it turns out to be mild and clean– just be aware that if you’re used to the sharp minty freshness of a typical Crest/Colgate this isn’t going to feel the same. Note that they also sell some fluoride free toothpastes, so double check that you’re getting the right one.
I have used several other sls-free toothpastes, and while YMMV, I really couldn’t stand the flavor of Hello.
By the way, I think the reason sls-free toothpastes often overlap with fluoride-free is that some people seem to think that both sls and fluoride are “unnatural” ingredients that might cause cancer. (I am a big fan of fluoride, and find this annoying, but i find it calming to blame the consumers rather than the companies when I’m having a hard time finding an acceptable toothpaste on the store shelves.)
I just noticed someone upstream posted that they do better with a fluoride-free toothpaste. Just wanted to clarify that I absolutely support you and anyone else who finds that they do prefer a fluoride-free toothpaste! I just happen to have run into a lot of webpages with “fluoride causes cancer” theories, which as far as I can tell are not well-supported by evidence.
I impulsively bought the See’s Advent calendar when you mentioned it. I may hold it until after Christmas to get through the January slog. Or maybe February which is the month I like the least. Or I could get a *second* See’s calendar or another chocolate calendar… I wonder if Ghiradelli does an advent calendar…
Well. Macy’s has a Frango chocolate advent calendar and a Harry & David chocolate advent calendar on their 50% off Black Friday Sale now through Nov. 27. A chocolate advent calendar for each month of 2021 seems a little excessive.
It may seem excessive now, but when March is being its cold and pointless self at us, a little chocolate will come in handy.
Off topic, but I thought I would share, because while I scroll twitter, I am not ON twitter. My kids got their shots last night, but our 11-year-old neighbor got hers the night before, and she actually came to our house while we were eating dinner to show my daughter her vaccine card. It was the best.
Just a fellow reader here, but this is SO delightful!
THE BEST
I got a tea advent calendar for my birthday in September and I was going to wait until December, but I am in the southern hemisphere so we are going into summer, so I started it straight away while the weather was still cool enough that I felt like drinking tea. Anyway it has been great and I am now thinking that advent calendars year round are the way to go. I have two for December: a Lindt chocolate one and a yarn/knitting one. I wonder if I can find any on sale in late December/January.
Sensodyne Pronamel is SLS free (but not all the varieties so make sure you check).
I have had the same issue with toothpastes and that slight cheek peeling.
I use either plain Crest paste, or Sensodyne Pronamel. I will alternate in a whitening toothpaste about once a week. On occasion it is fine but not daily.
Yay! For tea. Also, my girl child had a weird rash thing from those EOS egg lip balms. Looked terrible, all around her lips, red, cracking. Stopped using it, never happened again. In case the toothpaste doesn’t seem to be the culprit for others.