Sep 20, 2011

Polish Plastic on a Smart Car Fortwo :: How To



Polish & wax the 3 uncoated plastic pieces on the rear end of a Smart Car Passion. This method is applicable to other plastics as well.

Materials:
Meguiar's Plastx
Cloth
Plastic safe wax (I'm using Zaino Z2)
Wax applicator & a Cloth to remove the wax

Disclaimer: Demonstration purposes only. Please use safety precautions whenever working on a vehicle. Do it at your own risk.

Sep 13, 2011

Tide Allergic Reaction :: Hives/Dermatitis


For a month and a half, I had an itch that wouldn't go away. The symptoms included raised red bumps all over my body, constant itching that got worse at night, difficulty breathing, and difficulty sleeping. I truly feel for you if you're dealing with hives/dermatitis.

To cure the itching, I tried everything! I tried refrigerated Cetaphil lotion, J&J baby lotion, ice packs, Allegra, Benadryl, Zyrtec, rubbing Guava leaves on my itchy spots, eating Eastern medicines (gross tasting btw), meditation, and switching to an organic diet. These attempts temporarily calmed  my symptoms, but the allergies kept coming back. My body was reacting to something, and no amount of medicine or lotion would cure it.

It turns out I had hives due to my laundry detergent, Tide Clean Breeze. With every wash, my clothes would be coated in allergen causing my skin to severely react. The difficulty breathing was from drying my clothes, and the detergent residue would get shot into the air from the dryer outlet, which I would then breath in and react to. From what I read, the itchyness gets worse at night because our body's natural defense goes dormant where its less active than during the day.

I've used Tide for many years without any reaction, but either my body chemistry changed, or something in Tide's formula changed. I switched to a 100% Natural detergent from Costco. Then I rewashed all of my clothes and bedsheets. 3 days later, my symptoms improved dramatically. No more bumps, and no more itch! If you're dealing with the "Itches," hang in there. I wish you strength.

Update: 5/24/2013

I wanted to give some closure to this post. Since the day I wrote this post in '11, my detergent allergies disappeared. I continue to use a 100% natural detergent.

Update: 8/4/2013

From the comments, thanks anonymous, for a detailed detergent comparison breakdown, check out http://www.diaperjungle.com/detergent-chart.html