Then the next frustrating phase begins – trying to find a suitable replacement. Sadly, sometimes that’s a quest that’s never fulfilled.
I’ve been in this situation several times in my adult life. The first time I can remember was with a type of bottled water called Water Joe; it was out around 1995. Water Joe was just plain, unflavored water with caffeine in it. I loved the stuff! It was better for you than drinking caffeinated soda all day, but it still gave you energy- certainly more than regular water provides. However, I could only ever find this product at one store – one of those ‘independent grocer’ kinds of places. And eventually, even they stopped carrying it. I was pretty disappointed, but there didn’t seem to be much I could do about it.
Another product I currently use, that’s surprisingly (to me) hard to find, is the Swiffer Max – now called the Swiffer XL. It’s a version of the regular Swiffer floor cleaner that has an extra-long cleaning surface. I like it because (this should be obvious) it cleans more of the floor at one time. :-) However, it’s really hard to find the refill cloths! I used to buy them at our local Wal-Mart, but I was recently there looking for them, and they’re no longer carrying them! I kind of panicked a little and wondered if I was going to have to resort to buying a “small” Swiffer.
I decided to drive down the road a little and give the local K-Mart a try, even though I didn’t recall them carrying the product before. Lo and behold, they did have the Swiffer XL refills! I bought two boxes, and I hope they’ll last me a while. I also hope K-Mart will keep carrying them!
Now, it’s time for me to talk about the product which led me to write this in the first place. I think a lot of women are like me, on that seemingly-endless mission to find the perfect cosmetics for their makeup bag – always trying new foundations, new eyeliner, new lipsticks, etc. But when they’re fortunate enough to find the ‘perfect’ product, they become extremely loyal to it.
Enter Blistex Lip Tone. I discovered this product at least 11 years ago – I know I was using it before I got married. It’s a lip gloss “with a touch of color” – that’s what it says on the package. It goes on smoothly and gives your lips a nice nude color, while also protecting them with SPF 15. I think it’s ‘perfect’ because it eliminates the need to carry several different colors of lipstick, because you always have something that matches what you’re wearing. Plus, it provides skin protection that many regular lipsticks don’t have.
When I first started using Blistex Lip Tone, it wasn’t hard to find. I’d go into one of several different local drugstores, and there would always be several packages hanging on the rack with all the other kinds of lip glosses. Those were the days!
Then, a few years later, I started noticing that Blistex Lip Tone was harder to find. Instead of being available at several different drugstores, I could only find it at one or two chains. I started making special trips to these stores just to buy Blistex Lip Tone, and I’d usually buy a couple at a time.
A couple of years after that, I went into one of those stores and saw that all the Blistex Lip Tone was on clearance. I knew what that meant – they, too, were going to stop carrying it! I snatched up just about all the packages they had, much like Elaine did in the Seinfeld episode about ‘the sponge.’ And for quite a while, I had plenty of Blistex Lip Tone to keep me happy.
Eventually, though, that ran out, and I was lost. No one in the area seemed to be carrying it anymore!
I happened to mention my plight to one of my friends, and she said she had seen it at some kind of outlet/closeout store (kind of like Big Lots/Odd Lots) from time to time, and that she would get some for me anytime she saw it. And in fact, this year for my birthday, part of my present from her was two tubes of Blistex Lip Tone – and I was thrilled!
But as the content of those tubes dwindled, I began to worry again. I even started buying other kinds of lip glosses in the hope I would find something suitable, but knowing nothing could never truly replace my beloved Blistex Lip Tone.
Then one day a few weeks ago, I was talking with a friend at work, and somehow the subject of Blistex Lip Tone arose. And as it turned out, she, too, had been a huge fan of the product, but once it became harder to find, she pretty much gave up and switched to other products. (Note I said products – I don’t believe she’s ever been able to find a suitable replacement either.)
We both lamented the near-disappearance of this wonderful cosmetic, but she went one step farther – she went to the Internet.
Ah, the Internet!! It gives us so much – information (true and false), advice (good and bad), news (important and trivial) – and BLISTEX LIP TONE!
Turns out one of the few places you can still purchase Blistex Lip Tone is online – on Amazon.com! (They sure have come a LOOOONG way since just selling books about 10 years ago!)
So, this desperate woman took what some might call a desperate measure – she placed an order on Amazon.com for 24 PACKAGES of Blistex Lip Tone! Yes, that’s a whole carton – just like what would be put on display at a drug store (if they were nice enough to actually carry the stuff). Lucky for me, I had an Amazon.com gift certificate just waiting to be used, so I got all this Blistex for a discount price.
Since you’ll probably never get to see an actual display of them in a drugstore, I know you are all dying to see what 24 packages of Blistex Lip Tone looks like – so here you go!
My one concern about buying this much Blistex at one time was, would it go bad? Does Blistex actually expire? I looked all over the boxes, and on the tube itself, but I couldn’t find anything that looked like an expiration date. So that relieved me somewhat.And, since I had now found a fellow Blistex Lip Tone addict (as I guess I must call myself – sigh) she happily purchased 5 tubes from me! I brought the whole carton to work so she, too, could marvel at the sight of that much Blistex Lip Tone in one place. :-) As we were doing this, another co-worker walked by and was (understandably) quite curious. We both enthusiastically extolled the virtues of Blistex Lip Tone to her, and she asked if she could try some too. She bought two tubes.
So, now I’m down to a mere 17 tubes of Blistex Lip Tone, but I’m not feeling at all nervous about running out…yet. Maybe when I’m down to 10… :-)
The lesson learned here – the Internet really does have EVERYTHING!! In fact, as I was typing this, I decided to look up Water Joe to see if it is even still being made. It is, but unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be for sale at all in Pennsylvania. Perhaps another search on Amazon.com is in order…
No comments:
Post a Comment