get rid of the dark circles under my eyes

I’d completely forgotten about this until someone cheered me on this topic =)

But, yes, it’s a big fat scam. It’s been 2 months now. The website and the directions on the box only said to return the unused portion for a hassle-free full refund. It didn’t specify where, so naturally what makes the most logical sense is to return your defective merchandise to the original manufacturer. If no one else, they ought to know what to do with it.

I sent in the unused portion with my purchase receipt, a letter explaining that I followed the directions on the box for just under 30 days and I didn’t notice any difference. And also, explicitly, to please send the full refund to the name and address I specified.

No one around me mentioned anything about my eyes either or “something different” about me, not even something they couldn’t put their finger on.

It didn’t cost much to send it back, but it was still at my expense. So that, BY DEFINITION, disqualifies it in the “hassle-free” category.

I got a letter back from Mr. Justin Crowthers saying they got my package. The fact that I got this letter says that they have my address correct. My name was correct on the letter. The letter said that they opened a “Customer Account” for my issue and to please call the toll free number.

I called the toll free number several times, each time slower and more careful. I kept getting a “This number is not in service…” each time. I e-mailed the addresses on the Hylexin website (the service one and the international one) to try to contact them and got no answer.

They have my name, they have my address, they have a copy of my purchase receipt. They have enough information to issue me a cheque or a draft.

I returned the unused portion within the designated time period. I have fulfilled what was instructed of me to get my refund. They do not need to speak to me further… that’s what “no hassle” and “no questions asked” means.

I’m ready to call this a scam. I’m out about $100+ dollars which isn’t enough to take to Small Claims or really do anything else, but it’s enough that it hurts.

I ordered my tube of Hylexin on July 9 and started using it on July 10. I decided, over this past weekend, that it just wasn’t working. I wasn’t seeing a difference at all.

So, I took them up on their 30 day no-nonsense 100% money-back guarantee. I wrote a note on the back of my invoice explaining that I had followed the instructions for almost a month and I did not see any difference. I put the rest of the tube and the note in a bubble envelope and sent it back to Bremenn Research Labs LLC, Salt Lake City, Utah.

I will be expecting my full, prompt, no-questions-asked refund very soon.

Now I see that Bremenn Research Labs LLC has been referred to the Federal Trade Commission by the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus for false advertising claims. It sounds like the purpose of the NAD is to fast track the biggest potential and/or alleged scammers through to the Federal Trade Commission. Bremenn was named as an example of one of those potential, alleged scammers that went to the FTC’s top-o-the-pile earlier this year.

I haven’t seen anything about the results or a ruling or anything. Someone once warned me about buying things from companies based in Utah… I shrugged it off at the time, but now I’m wondering…

The article (in PDF format) is published by the National Law Journal. If you search their site for ‘Bremenn’, you’ll see the article dated February 2006. They require a subscription, but the PDF was freely available when I googled for ‘Bremenn Research Labs, LLC’, hosted by General DataComm.

-sigh- I didn’t see that before… =P

Caveat emptor. Buyer beware. And all that. ={

I’m definitely skittish about trying Ocuderm now as well… but Ocuderm is carried by Amazon.com. You would think that Amazon, having a reputation to protect, would not be carrying a product unless it were legit.

I’ll have to look into that a bit more.

Let’s face it. I’m a human living in a society of humans. We care about appearances. Aside from the visually impaired, sight is the foremost sense we rely on in life.

I care about what I look like. Even if I’ve denied it as a girl growing up and vowed to myself that I’d rather be butt ugly than stupid… I want to be pretty. There, I said it. And my brain didn’t melt and ooze out my ears like I thought it would if I admitted it out loud.

For the first 15 or so years of my life, I had two warts on my fingers. They were embarassing and I tried not to show my left hand much. I didn’t know what to do about them, I didn’t know what they were. But it was only a small deformity, so I accepted it as a part of me.

I was falling down delighted when I finally got rid of them halfway through highschool. I was amazed at how much better I could feel at getting rid of a tiny insignificant blemish as that.

I can understand how people can become addicted to cosmetic surgery, clothes/shoe shopping or other things related to outer appearances. There is something very magical about feeling good and gaining confidence. It’s something that needs to be done with a lot of forethought and care. It needs to be tempered it with a good sense of reality.

I’ve thought long and hard about this. And I think now is the right time to use a little superficial help in the Looks Department™.

To that end, I’ve ordered myself a tube of Hylexin. It’s not cheap and I still have a few reservations about it. But, it says there’s a 30 day moneyback guarantee which I fully intend to take them up on if it really doesn’t work.

This doesn’t mean that I stop doing the other things towards getting rid of my dark circles. I see the eye cream as a crutch, some kind of help and hope for my spirits in the long journey ahead.

Others might want to check out The Dermatology Report where there’s a nifty chart that ranks different dark circle treatment products by effectiveness. I found this after I ordered the Hylexin, otherwise I might have tried Ocuderm instead. But, whatever. Hylexin seems to have pretty good reviews too, especially in the first three categories which is what I care most about.

Maybe Epinions or other online consumer reports have more product info as well.

I got my kidneys and liver function checked. If the racoon eyes are a symptom of a deeper underlying problem, I want that treated. My test results came out normal, but I’m still skeptical. I asked if there was a possibility that there was something wrong that didn’t show up on the tests and there was a non-committal but positive “possibly”.

So, at least there isn’t anything glaringly obviously wrong with me, but I have yet to tease out what to do and where to go from here.

Dark circles under the eyes can point to kidney and/or liver issues. I had to insist on having these tests done. My doctor wasn’t going to do anything because nothing was hurting, which is bullshit.

You don’t have to be in pain for something to be terribly wrong. As an example, the first sign of LDL cholesterol levels being too high is a heartattack or a stroke. I have more personal examples. I feel like I have to fight my doctors to get things investigated. And even if the first round of tests come out normal, I have to keep at it.

I’m only part of the way through this segment of the fight. It’s infuriating that I have to describe it as a “fight”, as though my doctors are my adversaries. And they shouldn’t be. They should be my teammates in the struggle to find out what’s wrong with me.

My next steps are to bring up Adrenal Exhaustion, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Procoagulant Syndrome.

I’m in the middle of a long winding road that seems to go on forever and has no end in sight. All I can do is keep googling, keep reading and keep switching doctors until someone believes me and cares about me.

Get healthy.

Having beautiful body parts will do you absolutely no good if you’re dead or ill and in too much pain. Without the health and life to enjoy them, beautiful body parts are either cremated or buried or just plain won’t matter.

Since “google” is now officially a verb =) I googled for foods good for the eyes and tried to incorporate as much of the advice as possible. I get as many foods organic as I can.

• Variety is key.
• Everything in moderation.
• Eat only until you’re ³/₄ full.
• Get regular exercise (half an hour to 45 minutes; 3-4 times a week; brisk walking counts. Over-exercising causes problems too.)
• Get enough water (drink only as much as you need to keep your urine a pale yellow colour; for the “average” person this is eight 8oz glasses a day, but who the hell is actually “average”?).

Just to name a few. I’ve learned to listen to my body, I guess it’s a part of growing older. We’ve come so far out of tune with our physical health, it’s not funny.

This step took me several years and is never-ending. So long as you don’t stop living, you’ll never get to stop being consciously aware of your health.

I’ve always had dark circles which is most unfortunate because my eyes are the one thing I actually like about myself. I was born with big beautiful doll eyes. Not ridiculous Anime large, but a good size and almond shape in proportion to my face.

I probably became conscious of the dark circles when I was 8. My parents say it became apparent when I was 2 or 3 after being hospitalized twice for pneumonia as an infant.

I have pretty much accepted that it’s permanent. It’s not because of a lack of sleep or allergies (which are the two leading causes of dark circles). I do have problems sleeping — which definitely doesn’t help — but I’m not sure the problem is enough sleep. They’re lighter but still there even when I consistently sleep well.

I’m maybe ²/₃ into my journey. I may as well write it down in case it helps someone else.