Meaghan schools the ladies on how and why they should protect their skin from the blistering sun. Tangents include Carey discussing her experience with a shady, fly-by-night pop-up stores selling eye creams and Kathy reminiscing about her glorious experiencing using Sun In at the local pool during middle school.
Meaghan schools the ladies on how and why they should protect their skin from the blistering sun. Tangents include Carey discussing her experience with a shady, fly-by-night pop-up stores selling eye creams and Kathy reminiscing about her glorious experiencing using Sun In at the local pool during middle school.
Yeah,
Drea:Well, we missed you guys.
Meags:We sure did.
Lisa:did.
Kathy:Hello, we missed you
Carey:Yeah, I missed you guys, it seems. Did you have fun? I mean, even though we weren't there.
Drea:No kidding. Yeah.
Lisa:Yes. We couldn't have any fun without you. Carrie and Kathy. We cried.
Carey:That seems to be the first thing every everybody's commenting on. So.
Drea:for the listeners, since I just started randomly saying this, we went to Mexico, three of us got to go to Mexico Beach, Florida. I keep saying Mexico Beach. People are like, where in Mexico did you go? And I'm like,
Lisa:Oh, it's Florida.
Drea:Florida?
Lisa:beach, Florida. It was cool. It's
Drea:Yes. And Megan,
Lisa:that built up. Cheesy stuff.
Drea:Megan accidentally missed her flight.
Lisa:Oh yeah.
Meags:I did, I got a, I got a little extra Tampa time. I got to meet Nancy's dogs and, I mean, and her husband and her kid too, but I mean, really Nancy's dogs,
Drea:Yeah,
Meags:which is pretty exciting cuz Nancy's dogs are pretty fabulous.
Lisa:I first say before she takes us out, what happened? I want to say it's really funny because the night before she was saying how like it was impossible to miss a flight and she's experienced and she would never miss a flight.
Meags:No, that was not what I was saying at all. I was saying that I am experienced because I have missed every flight possible.
Lisa:Oh, I see.
Meags:And because when, when we lived in New Orleans,
Carey:there?
Meags:If I flew to Maine all the time, and it's very, very easy to not be able to get to Maine because there are very few flights to Maine. So we were per, perhaps, I, I was not as on top of the whole leaving thing. And in my defense, we were in a different time zone and then we crossed time zones and I did not plan adequately. And then it was like, oh, we arrived at the airport just as my plane took off.
Carey:Oh shit.
Meags:but you know, and then, and then Dre, what did Drea say? Drea said, why are you not freaking out? And I was like,
Lisa:there's nothing to do at that point.
Meags:like freaking out is not gonna help. I'm gonna go talk to the nice person and I'm gonna be nice and hopefully they're gonna be nice. And lo and behold, I had a fight to go home on in the morning, and I eventually got to Maine after some quality time at BWI Airport. Yeah. Which was fine, but let. Yes, I'm glad I made it home too. And I can just tell you, as somebody who normally travels with, you know, a family of five, missing a flight by myself is infinitely more simple and just not, nearly not, it was hardly even a challenge compared to traveling with my family. So it was, it was all good. It was all fine. I, I had booked myself an extra day of vacation anyway, so I, I spent it flying home.
Carey:That's perfect.
Meags:Yeah, it did, it worked. It worked out pretty well. I was pretty pleased how the whole thing came
Drea:Yeah, I know. Well, the first time I was coming to meet you, like I came to Maine, I was, I had to drive, I was flying, I flew to Houston, to Dallas, and then got stuck in Dallas because there was a blizzard going on up in Maine. And so, so I had to, had to do like, wait, wait a night. So I stayed with my grandma and then came up.
Meags:yeah. We, we are officially at the end of the line. No, no place is connecting anywhere from here like, If you're coming to Maine, the, the plane is just coming. Yeah. You know, like the plane is just coming to Maine. So like, like there were plenty of other flights that could have gotten me halfway home, and he, but they, like, the guy just looked at me and was like, you're not getting to Maine tonight? And I was like, yeah, I had a feeling. This, this is why I have stayed in hotels in Boston, New York, Newark, Philly, and pretty much anywhere else on the eastern seaboard at one point or another because I could not get to Maine. So
Drea:Yeah,
Meags:I,
Drea:can't miss that connection. That's just not a connection you can
Meags:you just gotta settle in and hope that, you know, you're, you've got your book and you're ready to hang out.
Drea:Yeah, definitely.
Meags:yeah, no, no upside to freaking out. No freaking out. Necessary. I did eventually get home. All was good. The best, the most entertaining part of it was that my husband was in Tampa at the same time, like he was flying to Tampa. On Monday night, and we were supposed to cross in the air. So then of course we were both in Tampa. And so I texted him and I was like, so I'm still here. And he was like, well, I'll have a hotel room by the convention center if your friends start annoying you. And I was like, no, I love my friends. I'm gonna stay with my friends. I'll see you when you get back to me.
Drea:It is so funny.
Meags:it,
Drea:All right.
Meags:it was an adventure as always.
Drea:What's on the docket tonight?
Meags:Oh, well, speaking of the beach,
Drea:Oh,
Meags:figured we would have a chat, perhaps not a terribly long chat, but an informative chat about sun safety, because
Carey:Oh
Drea:hmm.
Meags:is a big part of my job and I spent a lot of time talking to people about this, and I thought, perhaps I should, I would love if the people I love were being careful about this too. because
Carey:it on. I could use a lesson.
Lisa:As I sit here with sun recovering sunburn,
Meags:I was gonna say, yeah, and like I had somebody, I had multiple people in my story this week who, like in the course of just a regular interaction, I said something and they said, oh, I didn't know that. And I was like, Ooh, maybe it's time to go back over these facts, make sure people are, you know, getting the whole message. So we're gonna talk a little bit about safe sun, practicing safe sun.
Drea:say something before you say that?
Meags:I would love that.
Drea:All right. Because last summer we went down to, to Kathy's beach house and it was Carrie, I was with Carrie's family. I was, you know, I, I was the tag along the permanent tag along with everybody else's family and she, we got on the beach. Well, thank you. We got on the beach and she like, just like slapped some, some sunblock on like in various places. Like
Meags:Yeah. We're gonna.
Drea:she didn't rub it in. So you've got like and hand flashes. It's the funniest thing.
Carey:And I had my legs crossed, and so like I had just this line kind of diagonal line. All the way down. This is like literally half of it was red, red, and half of it was white. It was a great look.
Meags:yeah, like that. That sounds like a lot of Look, I, I will tell you that, in my, my many, you know, sunscreen adventures in my lifetime, I tan. I have one brother who is a candy cane. He's white and then he is red, and then he is white again. And my youngest brother, we like to say that he's like a brown and a serve sausage cuz like you let him out in the sun for five minutes and he's tan already. Like I have, we have no idea where he came from. but when he was a kid, my mother put me in charge of him at the beach. And those were in those days of Zinka, cuz who remembers Zinka? Anybody. Okay. So a hundred percent zinc. But it used to come in the slim colors.
Drea:Mm-hmm.
Lisa:Hmm.
Carey:it and all the movies that he was bad on.
Meags:Per precisely.
Carey:On the nose. Remember they all, all the cool guys wore it on their
Drea:Oh, yeah.
Meags:It was like a, it was like a lifeguard thing. so I took it and I made a big sea on his back for Connor so I could tell him from the other kids in the water. which was fine until we got home and my mother put him in the bathtub and sh man, and I walk in, of course he's got this big white sea on his back. He's all tan all around it. I was like, I was like, well, you're not gonna lose him. Like my, I had a, I
Lisa:that's what I was thinking. I mean, all summer you'll know which one he is playing in the water.
Meags:Yeah, exactly. Well, he tanned so well, it didn't last very long, but yes, like for a while there we, we were able to spot him from a distance. And it was helpful. It was definitely helpful. but like, the reason we're gonna talk about sunscreen, and the reason why I spend lots of time talking about sunscreen is that we used to feel like sunscreen was a vanity issue. It was a, like, I don't wanna get too much sun because I don't wanna end up looking like that old lady in the Jim Carey movie, or whatever. Not the, what's the, what's the one where something about Mary where she's like, she looks like leather.
Drea:Oh, and she's still tanning
Meags:Correct.
Drea:and she's got like the thing that
Meags:And it's like every, everybody knows somebody in the generation ahead of them who like, looks like they were road hard and put away wet. It's not cute. and so for a lot of people they feel like, well, I'm not worried about getting old or I'm not, I'm gonna wrinkle anyway, so I don't care, so I'm not gonna worry about sunscreen. And the issue with that is that as time has progressed, skin cancer is the real deal. Skin cancer is, is very much the real deal. and since we know lots of ways to avoid it, it's really in your best interest to avoid it because would you guys like to guess. How many Americans will develop sun, skin cancer in their lifetime?
Lisa:Hmm,
Drea:500 billion.
Lisa:I was gonna say over half.
Meags:Over over half would put us in Australia. In Australia. It's is like Yeah, it better they, for them it's more than two and three in the United States. Yeah. Australia is bad news cuz all they're underneath the hole in the ozone. So like, they have a much more serious sun issue and they have a, they have a, you know, a lot of that culture is based on the sun and outside and surfing and sailing.
Carey:Well, for all the o listening, be sure to
Meags:Like I, I'm not telling them anything They don't know. They're like, they've got like a whole national program for this. There's a lot going on there.
Kathy:best sunscreen.
Meags:make really good sunscreen. True. but, so for those of us up here in North America, one out of five. Of us will develop skin cancer in our lifetime. So if you count our little screen here, UNO dose trace, Quatro cinco, it means basically at least one of us, perhaps more, are gonna have some kind of skin cancer. The good news is that most of the skin cancer, they can, because, you know, they keep an eye out for it and stuff. They can spot early, they can take care of it, but skin cancer can definitely be deadly. in Australia it's currently running at about 2000 deaths a year,
Carey:Wow.
Meags:which is not, not a small number for, for not a very big country. and what's really nuts about it is 90% of skin cancer. So like a full 90% is caused by sun exposure.
Drea:Hmm.
Meags:like, there's definitely some genetic traits and stuff in there, but it's not like any of the other cancers like this one. We know, we know where we're getting it. We know what's happening. so. I have that conversation a lot with people, and I think it's important for people to have that in their mindset when they feel like, I don't want to do this. This is a pain in my butt. I don't wanna put that stuff on. I'm not gonna rub it in. I'm just gonna slap my leg. Not in your best interest long term. Not at all.
Carey:Thanks a lot.
Meags:well,
Drea:sorry. Didn't mean to You might rat ratted yourself out, so I just beat.
Meags:so yeah, so definitely, not, not just a vanity issue, definitely a safety issue. and I see so many, parents and moms especially, who are super careful with their kids in sunscreen and then are like, they're last in line, not okay. You gotta take care of yourself too. really, really important that you're careful. So I did a little who, what, where and when, because you know, it's the, it's that communication schooling in me. So when we talk about who needs to wear sunscreen, everybody, like there's no exceptions. There's no, you're too old. There is a tiny bit of, you're too young, like, you know. But then again, let's hope that you don't have your under six month old, like out in the full sun bacon on the
Lisa:That's why you having the, having them in the shade when they're that little.
Meags:Correct. Like, that's why. And we're gonna talk a little bit more too about, how sun safety covers lots of things besides sunscreen. Sunscreen really should be like your, your last, the last thing in your line of things you're doing to be careful in the sun. the bigger part of everyone that we need to highlight is everyone, regardless of their skin tone. So I have a, I live someplace with lots of wonderful people who have emigrated here from all over Africa. I have the conversation at least once a day that being black is not gonna do it. Like you still need to wear sunscreen. They've got plenty of data on that at this point. And like this is one of those places where the vanity does come into play. Cuz it's like, you know, you know how you were saying you felt like you were seeing a spot developing? Like that's the sun. Exactly. Here we go. We can fix that. so sunscreen for everybody. So if you're at the beach with friends and they say, oh, I need to wear a sunscreen, I'm whatever background, like, nope, you still need to wear sunscreen. Everybody gets sunscreen. so they have very helpfully given us a whole list of guidelines, our friends at the C d C, because I was like, let me find some like legit data here. Yeah, exactly. Science with capital s I feel like there's no Latin or Australia, but I feel like
Drea:Oh,
Meags:I'm getting, I'm going in the right direction.
Drea:oh my God.
Meags:because
Drea:taking over.
Meags:It's definitely not taking over. but that's one of the issues too with, with sunscreen. It has so long, has fallen under sort of like the beauty rubric, which makes people feel like, well, I don't really have to, you know, like this might, you know, Vogue says this and Cosmopolitan says that, and I'm not listening to any of it. so here's what the c d C has to say for us. they're number, number one guide line for avoiding skin cancers is stay in the shade. Which I have to say simple, but genius. Very, very
Carey:if they just said moron,
Meags:Yeah. Like, but it's such an important thing that so many people just don't think about. Like, when I was a kid, nobody took shade to the beach,
Lisa:Yeah.
Meags:you know? and now I see so many more people with tents and stuff, and I think that seems like kind of a pain in the ass. And then I, you know, I, 20 minutes later I'm like, they're kind of geniuses. just, they're not sitting here just baking like I am. so. Number one, stay in the shade. Number two, wear clothes that cover your arms and legs or whatever other part of you you're concerned about. this sounds, I'm like, all the Texans are looking at me like, Megan, are you being really freaking serious? Like, yes. The good news is that we've got lots of clothes now that have sunscreen. They're woven so they have sunscreen in them. Not to mention that any kind of clothes that block the sun are a better choice than unmitigated sun exposure. in fact, I just was modeling my two new s p f hoodies for everybody at the beach last weekend, and nobody told me they were ugly. So I think they're okay. but the
Drea:I do have to say, like, part of the problem with, I mean, unless you're getting in a water or something, the long sleeves and the long pants, it is really fucking hot down here.
Meags:It is. Which is why I think that if I was in that part of the world more often, I would definitely be opting with this, the stay in the shade part of the program.
Drea:oh, I'm all for that. I'm all for that.
Meags:You know, because that's the other thing is it's interesting how, you know, different people, different places in the world have different expectations in terms of sun exposure. and so like they've got unbelievable stuff that you can wear in the sun that weighs nothing. If you start shopping on the Korean websites and the Japanese websites because they're way, way more concerned about sun exposure than we are because they think that if you look tan, you look like a poor person.
Carey:Interesting.
Meags:Yeah. Yeah. That's one of, that's one of those interesting cultural differences where like, There are some parts of, you know, there are some parts of the world where we don't really treat black and brown people very well, but we wanna get brown in the summer.
Carey:Right.
Meags:There are other parts of the world where the people are yellow, but they like to pretend like they're more pink. But no matter what their, what their skin color is, they don't wanna be dark. They don't ever wanna be any darker than they are.
Carey:Wow, that's
Lisa:historically, it used to be that way here, like the wealthy. That's why the ladies with their parasols and everything walking around in the sun cuz they wanted to stay pale cuz if they, yeah. They didn't look like, you know, people working in the field.
Meags:correct. we have, we have Coco Chanel and band sole to, to thank for the Healthy Tan concept, which is like, boy, we could have done without that, that would've saved a lot of lives, but no,
Drea:Wasn't Coco also a Nazi,
Meags:yes, I am. I,
Lisa:Ooh.
Meags:yeah, like I, I am.
Lisa:say yes, I've listened to a podcast about her
Carey:same podcast, I should say,
Meags:I was gonna say that's,
Carey:that's behind the Bastards. If any of you are out there are wondering. It's a
Meags:say there, there are a number of places that touch on that fact with some frequency in the beauty and fashion sphere too.
Carey:Really? Yeah,
Meags:yes, yes, yes. It comes up. it's interesting, it, every year I feel like it comes up a little bit more, cuz I think we get a little bit further away from like the, the ingrained fashion magazine. Sort of like, ooh, Chanel into more
Carey:right. Yeah. The ideology.
Drea:a sunburnt Nazi.
Carey:to have, you know, like famous designer, but she was a Nazi, like so,
Meags:But you know, I mean they've
Carey:I mean, that's a terrible thing to end the sentence with.
Meags:Yeah, it's, I, I agree. Like none of them, none of them are all good. It doesn't stop them from throwing a mu gala for them, but, you know, they all have their things that, you know, some things they're good at, some things they're less good at, like, you know, human rights. so yes, I think, you know, the clothing thing is tough. Like, obviously yeah, it's being somewhere super duper hot complicates matters, but at the same time, like
Drea:you're laying out the facts.
Meags:yeah, like you, you gotta do it like, you know. and I will say, like, we went to, not too long ago, we went to a, an air show. So we were literally on a tarmac in the middle of the day. and there was someone there who had, you know, she had long sleeves on with. Pieces that came down and covered her hands. And she had a hood on and she had a, you know, a, like a, a modern parasol, for lack of a better word. And it was like, I gotta admit, she didn't look terribly hot.
Lisa:Hmm.
Meags:but it, I did feel like, wow, if I had to go through all that trouble, I think I would've just stayed inside. but, you know, everybody's gotta come up with where, where they, where they lay in on that sort of lineup. I will say that, you know, if you have people in your life who hate sunscreen, i e my children, or you yourself just don't like to feel sunscreen, like looking into the clothing that they've got now that has f p SPF in it is, super duper helpful. Just a lot less, less to, you know, slaughter yourself with. all right, so we talked about staying in the shade. We talked about wearing clothes with sleeves. Here we go. Here's another radical choice, a hat with a brim.
Lisa:Mm-hmm.
Meags:They're, they're advocating for a big brim so that it actually covers like your ears, the back of your neck. I must admit, I see more of those than I used to, which is awesome because it does make a big difference for lots and lots of folks. and this is one of those places too, where like, you know, if you have balding people in your life, keep an eye out because man, lots and lots of skin cancers on the scalp and
Carey:All the men in my family are very adept at wearing ball caps.
Meags:Yeah,
Lisa:Joe always wears a hat. Well, even, I mean, I would stay at the beach, but also even when we're just outside watching our kid play lacrosse or whatever, you know, he's always got the
Meags:yeah, Some, some guys are definitely right on top of that.
Carey:to get Brian to wear a ball cap, but he's really fair and like, I mean, you could just see his head getting red cuz it, you know, it was really blonde and really fair. Yeah. Oh
Meags:Yeah.
Lisa:Well, actually, I should say Joe's, Joe's uncle did pass away from skin cancer, so I think that's also why he's a little more good, you know, aware of those things.
Meags:Yeah. Yeah. No, my father-in-law definitely had a few, pieces taken off of his scalp, which looked very uncomfortable and unpleasant. And, he was a big gardener. So like, you know, you don't even have to be like a, a super beach goer. Like there's lots of other ways that people get more sun than they are realizing
Lisa:Yeah,
Drea:Hmm mm-hmm.
Meags:time. speaking of Lisa's poor eyeballs, you should also be wearing sunglasses in the sun.
Lisa:I did wear sunglasses though, but I still got sand in my eyes.
Meags:yeah.
Lisa:When the wind, what was it, 20 miles per hour?
Meags:I thought it was like 40 miles an hour. It was ridiculous.
Carey:Are you guys in a
Meags:It's, whatever. It's what it, it's whatever it takes to have like, all the flags just look like they're boards. Like, no, no, no love, no wiggle, no nothing. Just, um, and like consistently, like, no, no, not like any kind of, you know, it blows, it stops, it blows. Not just, it blows.
Lisa:Yeah, there was a surfer. You hardly ever see surfers in Florida. I mean, cuz it was
Meags:Well, especially in the Gulf. Yeah, absolutely. so yeah, so sunglasses, you want them to, I, I will say as somebody who worked in an obstacle shop for some time, you, you wanna actually look at your sunglasses and make sure that they protect you from U V A and U V B. There are a surprising number of$5 sunglasses at the mall that do none of those things. They're really just dark glass. That's not ideal. Especially not if you're gonna be, you know, doing anything for a long period of time outside, like driving. that's gonna.
Drea:Can you get, like a sunburn on your eyeballs, like an eyeball burn?
Meags:That's an excellent question for my father, the retired ophthalmologist. And I'll be sure to ask him that. I don't think you can get a sunburn on your eyeball because your eyeball doesn't have, your hypo doesn't react the same way to the sun. Like it, you, it doesn't have cells that produce melanin cuz otherwise our eyes would get darker if we just got a little bit of sun and that would be weird.
Lisa:Hmm. Mm-hmm.
Meags:but like you could definitely overdo it with the sun, and your eye. It can make your eyes sensitive. It can make your eyes red and puffy, but I don't know that you can actually get a sunburn,
Carey:well, why aren't you supposed to look at the eclipse or the whatever that was that Trump looked at made everybody blind. He made him
Lisa:it makes, it has to do with your, cause the in St. Louis a few years ago was like, we got the total eclipse
Meags:yep.
Lisa:so they, you know, we had the glasses and everything. Cuz if you're looking directly at the sun during a total eclipse, there still are, the harmful rays are coming out. So it can destroy your people.
Carey:Oh, so it's basically like just don't look at the sun ever, right? Yeah.
Meags:right. But the, so the thing is that like when you look at the regular sun, the actual light, you know, your eyes avert from that on their own. But when you're looking at Eclipse, you don't have that white light that to make you say, oh, hey, I shouldn't be looking at this. So like, that's why they're more careful with,
Carey:Okay. Gotcha. Gotcha.
Meags:yeah. That kind of stuff. Exactly. so yeah, so sunglasses very helpful. I will say too, as, as sort of a, a side note, as somebody who works with lots of people who are freaked out about aging on their faces, Almost everybody is pretty good within where their lenses lie. We see lots and lots of people who their first spots show up right there, right at the edge of where your sunglasses are. so your sunglasses are definitely helping you. You just have to remember to put other stuff on your face too. The sunglasses alone are not gonna do it. But they do definitely seem to, you know, have a cumulative effect, not only for your eyeballs, but for that skin around your eyes. it also sells, like I get sometimes I get people who are very into sunscreen who are like, you know, well, what can I put on my eyelids? And like, basically in my eyeball? And it's like, well, there's not a lot of good choices there, but you could just put on sunglasses. Like, you'd be amazed. So many people are like, oh, like right, you are over complicating this. Put on sunglasses. Maybe you go sit in the shade. so yeah, keep people on the, on the straight and narrow. And then, you know, now that we've gone to through those five, five options that are not sunscreen, the CDC C brings to us broad spectrum sunscreen. Put it on SPF 15 or higher. They're not gonna get real complex about it. and I must admit, you don't really need to get real complex about it. There's already lots of people who have done that. so, you know, lots of sunscreen. In all the places that get exposed to sun. and you know, the, the real draw, the real bummer with sunscreen is, you know, it doesn't work forever. You gotta keep putting it on all day,
Carey:How often should you reapply?
Meags:you should be putting on sunscreen every two hours
Carey:Wow.
Meags:is the Yeah. So like, so now that we've covered all the other things you can do, we will go, I will, I will not get all inside baseball on sunscreen for you because like I really have the capability to do that. Cause I literally talk about sunscreen all the time, every day. so I'm being like, if I start fall, you know, wandering off into left field, you tell me. sunscreen in America is interesting because the f d controls it. And while the FDA is great at lots of things, it's not real great at sunscreen.
Drea:Hmm.
Meags:Amer in the United States, we have approximately. We have two physical sunscreens and probably 1215 chemical sunscreens, which are, you know, all of have to be approved by the f d A. Like Kathy was saying, Australia has way better sunscreen than we do. You're, they've got some better sunscreen in Europe. Japanese in a, you know, the Japan, the Japanese, the Koreans also way better sunscreen than we do.
Drea:What do they do? Like what makes it better?
Meags:because, so like, have you ever been able to put sunscreen all over your face in America and not have it bother your eyes at all?
Drea:I don't know.
Lisa:Like
Meags:I'm gonna tell. I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna tell you, almost everybody will tell you that sunscreen hurts their eyes. Especially if they, especially if they wanna, like, especially if you put it on like a guy, you know, just rub your whole face. because the majority of sunscreens we use in the US are older and they weren't developed with that much. The technology wasn't there. because. In Australia, it's such a, you know, sign much, a significant safety issue, more significant than it is here. Like they've got, they've got, you know, the, the might of the government behind, they're concerned about it. and in Asia where it's very much a vanity issue, on a super high level, they have spent a lot more money in the labs developing sunscreens. Korea in general is considered to be two to three years ahead of the rest of the world in terms of skincare technology. Like, they're just way more into that. Like they're way, they are like anything, anything with appearances. Korea is all over. they're way ahead of us in how to
Carey:talking about South Korea cause I'm not trusting
Meags:yes. No, no, I am, I, I apologize. I am not talking about
Carey:I think. I think that
Meags:don't, I don't, I don't have to make that distinction very often in my business because we
Drea:I was
Meags:we only talk about South Korea.
Drea:I was just thinking the same thing, Carrie. I was like, I don't want.
Meags:No. Nope, nope, nope, nope. No. Trust me, they're not, they're not like No. South Korea's interesting cuz South Korea loves to, make stuff and they kind of like to share it, although they like to hold onto all the patents and all the rights.
Carey:Yeah.
Meags:but they do like to show off how good they are at things and they are real, real good at things like that. but because in the United States, sunscreen has to go through the F D A, we don't have any of those things here. We don't have access to them. the good news is we have access to more than they do in Canada. So like, we're not the worst, but we're not the best. when, when it comes to your options,
Carey:So you couldn't buy, I couldn't go buy South Korean sunscreen online.
Meags:you could definitely go buy, you could buy South Korean sunscreen online and have it shipped here, but you're not gonna be able to find it in a store
Carey:Gotcha, gotcha,
Drea:Did I get it in Mexico?
Meags:I don't know. I haven't been to Mexico.
Drea:Oh.
Meags:Maybe I doubt it like it does, it seems like kind of a weird import, kind of a niche import for Mexico. But, I will say
Drea:the beaches. Maybe On the beaches,
Meags:I mean, I would say like, I would think you might, you might be able to get it if you're somewhere, where that's like the, their primary clientele for tourists.
Drea:yeah.
Meags:Like you might be able to get more of that. Just like I'm, my guess is that you can probably get, the better European sunscreens in Cuba. Cause like those are, that's everybody who's on vacation there.
Carey:yeah. Right, right.
Meags:so like was one of those things. But but yeah, you could definitely I have ordered, right? Yes, I will, I will come clean. I have definitely ordered. Korean sunscreen and it is lovely. and it's what's really crazy is like it's by brands that, like, here we might just walk right past in the grocery store like Borre. Do you remember Borre? Like the, the rip the nose off? Yeah. So Borre Borre makes a fantastic sunscreen that feels like water and just totally disappears. they've got a lot of, yeah, yeah. They, they've got all kinds of things that they make, over there that they do not export over here because we don't take things like that over here. the other kind of weird side effect to the, the f D A being in charge of sunscreen, is that once upon a time you could go into a, you know, a big department store even, you know, at, you know, c v s Target. You buy lots and lots of different foundations and tinted moisturizers and stuff that had sunscreen in them. there's significantly less of that on the market now. Like much less. and you can't, it's, it's very difficult to find a moisturizer that has sunscreen in it. I have lots of ladies, especially eminently practical ladies, Carrie looks totally appalled by this idea. Like I have lots of very practical ladies who come in here are like, I just want it all in one container. And it's like, they don't really do that anymore because it's much harder for the companies they have to like, they can just like make their stuff and put it out or they can have to go down this whole other track through the F D A and get it all approved. And like, if they are gonna have to do that, they're just gonna pull the sunscreen out of it. because the sunscreen is difficult, be because the sunscreen is difficult to formulate with because sunscreen is inherently oily.
Drea:Mm-hmm.
Meags:difficult to make work, you know, it doesn't play well with other things. It doesn't feel good, makes your products need to expire faster. So like for the, the, for the brands, like, they're just like, all right, well great, we'll drop it. Now we have an excuse to get rid of it. But it's not, not necessarily the best for folks.
Carey:great for consumers.
Meags:no, but I will say this is, this is where, this is one of those like, you know, two sides of the coin type issues where it's not great for consumers, but it wasn't great for consumers to begin with because nobody who counts on their makeup or their moisturizer, having enough sunscreen for them is actually getting enough sunscreen.
Carey:Ah, interesting.
Meags:So this is conversation I have like 10 times a day. Nobody likes it, but I still have to sell them. You need a certain amount of sunscreen on your face. When you look at your, your bottle of sunscreen, it tells you a number. 15, 30, 50 doesn't really go up past 50 anymore. that number is based on you having essentially a third of a teaspoon to cover your face and ears and neck, top of your neck that much sunscreen in a, in a more practical measuring form, is a line down two to three fingers. So, like if I take a squeezy tube, I'm gonna make a li like, you know, like a, like a ketchup bottle down each of my fingers. That's gonna be enough for my face, Mike. that's a lot. That's way more than the average person puts on for sunscreen, which is why we have lots and lots of people who feel like, I wear sunscreen every day and I still get color. Like, how much sunscreen do you have on? Because if you are using the lowest level sunscreen, like you're using like 15, and then you're proceeding to put on a third of what you're supposed to put on, that leaves you somewhere sub, you know, SPF five. And like we know that like even Hawaiian tropic had SPF four on the tanning oil. I mean, SPF five is like nothing like
Carey:That's why I'm gonna
Drea:a friend
Carey:cancer. I use that shit.
Meags:like Yeah,
Drea:what, Carrie?
Carey:I use that shit. I mean, I don't, not recently, like when I was at a child,
Meags:Yes, def I definitely had that when I was growing up and smelled great. Unfortunately, this, that doesn't have a lot else going for it. the right, the right amount of sunscreen, A mostly naked human adult is about one ounce. So one ounce is, we are all familiar with this one. That's a shot glass.
Drea:Mm
Meags:that's a lot of sunscreen. And when you look at the sizes that they sell at the store, that's a lot of sunscreen.
Drea:mm.
Meags:You know, I get people all the time who are buying sunscreen to take on vacation. And it's like if you're buying body sunscreen and you're really thinking you're gonna sit out on the beach all day every day, even if you're just gonna be out, you know, for four or five hours in the middle of the day, that's two ounces of sunscreen per adult.
Kathy:We use an entire, my family uses the three of us on average, one whole can of sunscreen spray on a given like summer day.
Meags:yeah. Yeah. Well, in spray, yeah, spray you go. You're gonna go right through spray. Spray. Spray is great for like, do you guys put on sunscreen at home before you leave or you just go with the spray?
Kathy:typically we have like a cream or something for the face and neck a stick or something else,
Meags:Yeah,
Kathy:least me. And, and that's how it's Charlie and I do it. And then Nick sprays his hands and rubs it all over his face like a man.
Meags:Uh,
Kathy:he will use,
Meags:there's only so much you can do for your spouse. You can only give them so much information and then they're gonna do what they're gonna do.
Kathy:but he will spray the shit out of himself and he reapplies
Meags:Yeah. Replay.
Kathy:I finally got him to this like this just like a couple weeks ago to the dermatologist for the first time to get his check check. So,
Meags:Good. Good, good, good. that's, that's the other interesting thing about sunscreen. It only works if it gets on you. so there are a million billion, like every year I feel like, like I have a brand that brings out a new way that people can put on sunscreen. I have, especially for your face. I have sticks, I have powders, I have it, you know, in all different kinds of makeup and stuff like that. I have setting sprays. I always tell people like, those are definitely better than nothing, but they're really best for reapplying. So like, you wanna make sure you get it in all the places it belongs. Spray sunscreen could be a little tricky for that if you're really getting in there and rubbing maybe. But the other issue with that, and who did I have this? Oh, I had this conversation at work this week. There aren't a lot of reasons why a Caucasian person would need to know the difference between what kind of sunscreen they're using, chemical versus physical. It's generally the biggest issue for people who are either super sensitive are people with a deeper skin tone. Cuz it's gonna look, it's gonna show on them, it's gonna look, make them look kind of blue gray. What you do wanna know is that when you're headed to out to be in the sun, if you're using chemical sunscreen, you need to have that on for 15 minutes before it starts working.
Drea:What's the difference between chemical and physical? I guess? I thought when you were saying physical, it was like putting on the shirt, so,
Meags:No. So physical sunscreen is either zinc oxide or titanium dioxide. So I always, I always like to talk about how it's rocks.
Drea:Okay.
Meags:they're rocks, they're ground up rocks, mineral sunscreen. Precisely. You're gonna put'em on your skin and the sun is actually going to bounce off them. That is how they work. They are the oldest forms of sunscreen. a lot of people like them because they feel like they interact with their skin and their body less. There are some people who are concerned about absorbing too much chemical sunscreen. There's not a lot of, data that support that. Like nothing. There's, there's very little that sunscreen is gonna do to you that, skin cancer is not gonna do to you. So it works out a little bit like that. but so those are physical sunscreens. The downside of those is they're white, like white, white. they actually use titanium dioxide in lots of other forms, including in our food that we eat because it makes things white, white. They use it to make like frosting white, white and things like that. especially in pre-packaged foods. so those are physical sunscreens. Chemical sunscreens are things that they've developed in the lab. So oxybenzone, Ava Benzone, there's like a EAs like, so like if, if it doesn't look like a name that you recognize from the periodic table, it's chemical sunscreen.
Drea:Okay. Good
Meags:That, that, that's how it shakes out. but, and like thanks to the wonders of modern science, like they both work really well, you can have a preference. You cannot have a preference. What matters is that you put on sunscreen. But there is the caveat that those chemical sunscreens take about 15 minutes to get working physical sunscreens work as soon as you put them on. Cuz things are bouncing off them. So if you have somebody who's really fair, like carries Brian or like, you know, my youngest Charlie, you just have to be careful cuz like when I was, you know, my brother when I, we were kids. He would be sunburned like before the sunscreen even started working, if you put it on him at the beach cuz he's sunburned that fast. And then it would, and then my mother would be like, I put sunscreen on you. And it's like, right, but you put sunscreen on like standing in the middle of full sun and it's a full 15 minutes
Carey:Well, I fucked that up.
Meags:in.
Carey:Add that to the parenting list of things I screwed up.
Meags:Oh yeah. Well, I mean, if it's not one thing, it's another, they gotta go to therapy for something. just, just, just check another nickel in the therapy jar for them. Like, yep, there you go. There's gotta be something to argue and fuss and fight over. but they know it's definitely a no better do better kind of situation where the more you know about it, the better you can do, the better off everybody is. and hopefully, you know, now that he's a semi grown up, he's got it figured out for himself.
Carey:For
Meags:He's got it figured out mostly for himself. So we talked about lots of different options here in terms of protecting yourself from the sun. what they like to use to kind of describe this model. This is the same one that they used to use for Covid, which is the Swiss, the Swiss cheese method. The Swiss cheese mode of, so like, there's all these different things you can do. You can wear a hat, you can wear sunscreen, you can wear a spray, sunscreen, you can wear cream sunscreen, you can wear, you can take a stick and draw on your face, whatever you need to do. the idea is that, you know, since you have, you know, now we know that we've got, you know, five or six really strong options for protecting you from the sun. You wanna put a couple of them play because if you are at the beach and you don't quite catch everywhere with your cream sunscreen, but you have on a hat, you've essentially got a second line of defense. So the more lines of defense you have, even if you know, cuz people feel like it's overwhelming, there's a lot of stuff, do I have to do all this stuff? I just wanna go to the beach. I just wanna go sit in my backyard. I just wanna go sit in my pool. and it's like, if you can do as many pieces of the stuff as work for you and your lifestyle and your budget, and what you've got going on, like the more of those layers you can get going, the better they're gonna stack up for protection. But even if you can just get two or three, it's way better than just having one. So if you've just been wearing sunscreen to the beach, then your next step up is, you know, a hat or thinking about do I really need to go to the beach at 10:00 AM Can I maybe wait and go to the beach a little bit later in the afternoon when the sun's not so strong? Say maybe after two. Could I, would I enjoy my backyard as much if I sat in the shade instead of sitting in the sun? Like, you know, there are just things to think about. Cause there's definitely a cumulative total to all this exposure. and the more you know, anytime you can save yourself from a little bit of it, the better off you're gonna be. Because I want you all to lead long healthy lives. I don't want anybody to get any part of their nose cut off cuz it's really depressing when people come in and I have to fix their makeup because their nose got partially cut off.
Carey:Oh, well that sucks.
Meags:Yeah, no, like it's, well it's, it's funny cuz like I deal with all ages and so I have, on the average week I have two or three people come in who say, you know, I've had skin cancers, I need some help covering this area. Or I need to change my skin routine cuz I realize I need to be taking better care of myself and especially at this time of year. For every one of those people I see, I see at least one or two who are like, can you pick out a foundation color for me? Cuz I'm gonna go to the canning bed before prom. And can you just be like, guess what color I'm gonna be? It's like a, this right here is a makeup brush. It's not a magic wand. B, are you worried you're not gonna get cancer fast enough? You're gonna go lay down in a microwave. Hey, what are you doing? You crazy little
Lisa:thought, I thought kids did spray tans these days. I thought that
Meags:are some that do spray chance, but there are still people who go tanning. I mean it. I would think that it may
Carey:I mean, it's a much cheaper alternative. Yeah. Well, a lot of people in Fairbanks would go to tanning beds in the wintertime because there was no light anytime. Right? The sun was never out. So the theory being that you've got some of those, I don't know, was it gamma rays or whatever that help you feel better?
Meags:Usually people are looking for vitamin D
Carey:vitamin D, there we go. And I have one of those, I've got one of those like mood lights that, you know, you turn on in the wintertime and it. I don't know if it works or not, but it doesn't,
Meags:well, it
Carey:hurt. Do I need to wear sunscreen?
Meags:You do not generally need to wear sunscreen with those cause you're not in front of them for all that long. They're more, they're more like, you know, even though they're stronger, they're more like a house light. and like there's lots of data showing, like, it's not so much the light, but it as it is like using that kind of light to reset your circadian rhythm
Carey:Ah, gotcha.
Meags:really helpful, especially for people who, are all out of whack and depression prone and, you know, up until all hours help
Carey:right,
Meags:get your body back in the right order. but yeah, like, and like, it's interesting because there is, there's definitely all kinds of studies that go on in terms of, you know, sun, sun is. You know, it's awful. Cause I feel like we live in a world where sun is like, eh, no. Like we're all vampires, get away from me. and then there's definitely lots of benefits to sun, you know, primarily the whole vitamin D issue. but the more, the more studies they do, the more like, it's definitely an active area of research. Like the biggest part of it is like we're just not dealing with the same sun exposure that our grandparents did, or even our parents. it's a lot stronger than it used to be. And in some parts of the world, it's like, like Australia, it's like deadly trial. So we don't wanna, we don't wanna mess with that if we don't have to.
Drea:So have y'all ever noticed that people, and, but maybe this is just me, but it feels like people that go to tanning use tanning beds have like a different weird color, like a different tan look. It's like a.
Lisa:I did it in high school during for proms probably. I know I did a little bit for my wedding, but that's more just, you know, wanna be like white. I didn't sit in there, like when I went in high school, I would sit in there for like 20, 25 minutes. When I went, like before my wedding, it was like 10 or 15 minutes just to get a little something and then, but yeah. But as someone who actually tanned, there were a lot of girls in my high school that were like this. They would just get so dark, but it just didn't look natural. You could tell it was from a tanning bed and it was
Drea:Yeah.
Meags:the other thing too is like, I. Now, I don't know this for a fact, but I'm gonna put my suspicion out there cuz I feel like this is an educated guess. There's an ingredient that you use in self Tanner. I would not be surprised at all to find out that that ingredient is used periodically in Tanners for, you know, in tanning oils, for tanning beds. It's called d h a. There's only one ingredient that you can put on your skin that turns to tan, but it definitely looks a certain way. and it, and it does it, the issue is that when you see people who've used it, especially to excess, they're just a shade that they could never get in, just laying in the sun. And I think that's part of what you're seeing is that you see them and you think, well, like with her hair coloring and eye coloring, like there's just no way her skin should be that color.
Carey:Right, right. Right.
Meags:and so like, my guess would be that, that some of those expensive, you know, oils that they sell you at the tanning salons probably have d h A in them so that you're also. Boosting that color in your skin.
Drea:Yeah,
Meags:because that would, like, there's only so many things you can do to make yourself tanner. Like, you know, like whether it's a, whether it's a bed, whether it's out in the sun, like, you know, I was on a cruise once with a girl who, would order two beers at a time and pour one over herself cuz she was sure it was giving her a golden tan. It's like people are full, full of all kinds of ideas
Carey:Like a roasted chicken.
Meags:I was like,
Kathy:Like
Meags:I was just like, that seems like a real waste of beer in my
Lisa:I think I've heard that for your hair, to make it blonde. I've heard beer and your hair, but not on
Meags:acid in your hair and that will interact with the sun or, you
Kathy:Now,
Lisa:People used to put lemon in their hair.
Kathy:I have never,
Meags:Kathy's sunon story. Here we go. I love this one.
Kathy:I have never. Tan artificially or self tanner, artificial bed, or naturally because it's just not possible. But did sun in here's, here's what vegan's waiting for. I used to do sun in and it, it worked perfectly. It w I was this folks model for sun in it worked perfectly for my hair and it made everyone else who I was with in middle school who didn't look like shit. But it worked great for me. The only thing that ever worked for me sun related in any way was sun.
Lisa:that does not work for a dark brunette like me. I remember trying sun in and it just turned my hair orange and it was disgusting.
Kathy:what happened to my friend. Her hair were turn orange and then mine looked like it. Like I'd spent hundreds of dollars at the BD parlor getting like
Lisa:Hmm.
Meags:I love it. I, I think that's awesome. I
Carey:Do they still sell it?
Drea:They do.
Meags:Uh,
Drea:they do.
Meags:Yes, because my, my sister-in-law let my niece use it. And of course my niece just got hair, like all the way down to her butt, and she spends a lot of time in the ocean surfing. So she ended up very blonde, and my brother was like, what is happening? Because then once she was really blonde, she was like, can I, can we keep doing this? Can I, can I go in? And he was like, he called like, do you know how much this stuff cost? I, I am fully aware how much it costs to go and get bond. Yes. I deal with people all the time who do that and who, you know, do it for people. So like, I'm fully aware, like, do not, under no circumstances do you let, do you allow your 10 and 11 year old daughter to start thinking that this is, this is in her, her
Carey:my God, yeah. You gotta wait
Meags:get back, get back on the surfboard and get sponsored.
Drea:I know. Yeah,
Meags:It's like, that's the only way this is happening,
Drea:I know. I spent a lot, I spent that money today to get my hair blonded, and tomorrow I'm gonna spend it on my daughter, but
Carey:You make your own money. You just can't, you can't, like you don't do that for your kids. Like once they get their own money, then they
Drea:Yeah. Yeah.
Meags:Well, well, especially at the age where like there's no chance that they're gonna have their own money. It's like high school is one thing, but like
Drea:Yeah,
Meags:years old. Like,
Carey:right, right. So you have at least seven more years, 10 more years that you're paying for that.
Drea:yeah, yeah, yeah.
Meags:no, no, no, no, no. but yeah, no, like Sun End. Yeah. Sun end is lots of fun. I mean, I feel like, I feel like, you know, the culture that the culture and all the other products that have sprung up around the idea of being tan are a whole nother conversation that I have strong feelings about. But
Drea:Well, I told you.
Carey:mark, multi-level marketing. Scams, should I say, out there that target the beauty industry, or I guess use beauty industry products and sunscreen being one of them. I know that there are, at least I can think of at least two people who I'm Facebook friends with who sell questionable beauty product. You know, like, huh, I've never heard of this brand. Like, I wonder what's in this,
Meags:yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, I think, I think the beauty industry on the whole is, you know, largely an outgrowth of the snake oil industry of the 18 hundreds. because like there's a lot of complicated things going on with vanity and desperation and aging and all these kind of things, and you know, if you have the money.
Carey:There's a prod for you.
Meags:Yeah. And like, and I've seen some ladies like some very. Wives, generally thoughtful ladies, make some unbelievably large investments in things that it's like, did you really think that was going to work? And like, I had a, I had
Lisa:were hoping,
Meags:I had a lady in my store this week who had been on vacation and you know, they caught her on a day, she wasn't feeling her best. And she spent, she got something for under her eyes, of course, they put it under one eye and it made it all tight. And she was so excited. Now she
Carey:I had that happen from all.
Meags:yeah, yeah, she was like in her seventies, like late sixties, early seventies. So she bought whatever they were peddling to the tuneup,$600 Hess.
Kathy:Whoa.
Carey:I think I've had that same scan. The I thing. That shit worked, but
Meags:and she was like, she was like, it worked great, except that the bottle they sold me only had about six applications in it.
Lisa:Oh no,
Meags:And I was like, oh
Kathy:for six applications.
Meags:yeah, it's a little.
Drea:wow.
Carey:how
Meags:But you know, she was on vacation, so she's already home. She's not gonna do anything, you know, she can't do anything about it. They accomplished what they wanted to accomplish.
Carey:Oh God, I know exactly what scam you're talking about, and it's,
Meags:yeah.
Drea:where is
Carey:real, like there's a millisecond where you're like,
Meags:I, I don't know
Carey:eyes look really good.
Meags:yeah, like, yeah, I don't know whether she was on a cruise or whether she was, you know, vacationing somewhere and, yeah, I'm not sure exactly where she was, but she was not at home and she was like, you know, she, it was really funny to talk to her cuz she like had the whole list of reasons why she had fallen for it and she was feeling pretty, she was feeling pretty down on herself for being so dumb. And so we had a long chat about how, like, dude, I meet people all the time who fall for that and they are literally prey on your insecurities. Well, like, you shouldn't feel bad. You should, they should feel bad because they're horrible human beings.
Carey:It's effective. I
Meags:And the other thing too is it's like, you know, did you like, you know, like I know that you're not happy that you spent that money, but like, can you pay your rent? Can you know, can, is your car gonna get repossessed? No. So no better, do better next time you don't let the guy sell you$600 eye cream. Or at least you, you know, check how much it's in the package.
Drea:So Carrie, what happened to you?
Carey:Well, it's kind of interesting cuz it was, I guess it was maybe about a year ago, maybe a little bit longer, but it was in a Texas mall, maybe Totally. Stone Briar. and it was a storefront and there was this woman who was, she was very pretty. and she was like, oh, hey, do you wanna come in here and get like a free eye treatment or something like that? And I tell you what, I would've normally never stopped. I have no idea why I did, but I did.
Drea:cuz she's hot.
Kathy:pretty,
Drea:She was hot.
Carey:because
Kathy:she was
Drea:looking.
Carey:This is quite possible. But, so so I sat in her chair. It was like, they had like kind of, it was all kind of like a, like a hair salon almost. But they had these chairs that you sat in front of a. Mirror and she put this stuff on my eye and she just kept talking the whole time. Like under, like, and I get, I'm really prone to get bags, and she's talking and then, and she's like, and look, look how great your eyes look. And like she only did one side so he could really see the difference. And I was like, holy shit. I like, I didn't realize they were that bad, you know? And and then so she does the other one and it looks great, and like she has me totally convinced, you know, I was like, all right, even if this is like a hundred dollars, I may get it. And then it was, you know, so she's. Talking and talking and I'm like, just, just tell me the price. And it was, it was something like$600. I don't remember exactly what it was, but it was, it was so like, so out of the realm of what I was thinking that I just laughed and I was like, oh, well, sorry. I, yeah, no, I wasn't thinking that at all. But then it was still high pressure, you know? It was, oh, well, you know, how much were you thinking of spending to look a million years younger? You know? And you're like, oh God, but I like it so much. It was hard. I mean, and you know, it wore off, you know, and you know, I'm sure you'd probably have to apply it more than once a day for it to have its desired effect. But I, and there is something about talking to women like, and especially like if you're feeling kind of in a bad mood or not feeling the best, and someone's like, oh look, you look so much better. You're like, there is a cream that can do that. All right. Hand it over. But
Drea:Like,
Carey:it's really, it's a little unseemly and I'm sure that they're kind of fly by night, you know, like
Meags:yeah.
Carey:Halloween stores that pop up and then go away. I'm sure it's like that.
Meags:I always tell my husband that I'm pretty sure it's the same people who are running the, the beach stores in Myrtle Beach where my parents live. Like it's a Russian money laundering scheme. because like in where we, where I live, everybody who works either in that store or in their kiosks, is Eastern European.
Carey:Okay.
Meags:And it's like where you are, like literally importing all these people. Like I've, I've chatted with a few of these girls when they come into my store cuz I'm always like, what's happening here? And it's like, you are, you know, like you're importing people from wherever to come and do this and be sort of like vaguely European and fabulous.
Carey:yeah. I would exactly describe them as that. Yeah.
Kathy:I would say there's also the, the, the, the mineral makeup and the Dead Sea people, and they all seem to be
Meags:Yeah,
Kathy:like Mediterranean, that, you know, attractive Mediterranean people like coming to table, that your skin is, you know, pasty and pale and baggy and whatever else
Meags:A, as somebody who's been doing this for a very long time, the minute that somebody tells you something is wrong with you is the minute you need to turn on your heel and walk away.
Kathy:and never stop and talk to those people ever.
Meags:Like, and I get people all the time who come in and they want me like, well, tell me what's wrong with my face. Like I am. No, I'm not. You're like, and I always say the same thing. I always say, well, it looks like your face is working great and it's holding everything like right together on your skull. So I think your face is good. and like, but there are a lot of people, especially women of a certain age, who have been for so long, have been going to counters and kiosks like that. Like they want you to tell them what's wrong with them. And it's like, there's like a lot of weird psychology going on here that I'm not getting involved in. But yeah, there are like, there, there are definitely, a lot of places like, and like, it drives me bonkers because where we live in, where I live in Maine is already someplace that is, filled with people who are immediately skeptical of anybody trying to sell them anything. And in general, just a little bit more, you know, salt of the earth, not interested kind of folks. And like, once you let those kind of people in the middle of the mall scare them, by the time they get to me and I'm actually trying to help them, they're like, like, just like shaking it like, ah, like, what are you gonna, what are you trying to do? It's like, I'm not trying to do anything. Ma'am, I'm trying to ask you if you're finding what you need.
Carey:Yeah.
Meags:it. Like, like nobody is, or, you know, like you'll, you'll ask somebody, you know, like, like how well, is it still, is it still raining out? No, I'm good. Like, okay, ma'am, ma'am, like, I need you to take a breath. Because like I'm an actual human and I'm just talking to you. Like, I wanna know whether it's still raining outside. You just slow down and tell me that. so like, it's not helpful to us to have people out there like acting like sharks with chum in the water. because when, by the time they get to us, it's like, ah, but like, it's crazy. Like I have a coworker who is in her seventies and her sister was down from Northern Maine, which is like, let's just say super non-retail. no stores, nowhere to buy
Drea:I know there's nowhere to be.
Meags:No, there's nowhere to buy anything. And like, you know, like, what are the moose gonna tell you? They don't like your mascara. No, they don't care. and like her sister ended up in one of those stores and ended up spending, I think she spent four or$500. And I said to Linda, like I said, you let her do that. And she said, well, She wanted to, and she said, I can't wait to see how long it lasts her. I was like, I can't imagine it's gonna last her very long. She said, oh no. And I don't think it's gonna do what she thinks it's gonna do either. Like, boy, sisters, man, like you should have told her to company, like, I mean, at least if she came in here, she could have bought$500 worth of stuff and she could have returned it if she didn't like it. Or, that's the other thing too, is like if you're dealing with somebody on that level and they're like, yeah, sold, it's yours. The end like, oh,
Carey:Yeah, I don't think this place I got into had a return policy. Like I don't even know if they were gonna be there the next day.
Meags:yeah, no, like there's a, there's kiosk on our end right now that does, flatirons and they finally had to put a big sign up that says, you know, no refunds exchanges only because like we watched. Multiple times where like, cool, cuz they'll get kids into the chair who are like 14 or 15 and more money than cents or better yet a parent's credit card
Carey:right,
Meags:and who will buy it. and then like we, we watched one mother, we had a mother come back one day who we watched. She came in and talked to us and then she went and got mall security. Cause she was like, we were all like watching through the window cuz she was like, no, like she, she, under no circumstances should he have sold this child a, a$300 flatiron that is only really worth maybe 70 bucks.
Lisa:Wow.
Carey:Wow.
Meags:if she, if she was, because that's the other thing is like nothing they sell, you could ask three people who walk away from any of those kind of places, nobody's gonna pay, have paid the same price.
Carey:Right, right.
Meags:You know, they start at 600 and they're just hoping that you are gonna bite. You don't bite. Oh, well, well, just for today, just for right now, 50% off,$300. Oh, no, you're gonna walk away. Oh, no, no, no. Like we're, you know, my, my manager's not gonna be happy, but I can cut it another 50% and, you know, it's 150 bucks and it's like, dude, it's like 50 bucks worth of stuff. So you're still mark it up times three, you're fine.
Drea:Yeah. Yeah.
Meags:it's not an issue. But I think that, there, yeah, they, there's a lot of complicated stuff going on there with beauty and psychology and vanity and aging and,
Carey:Sounds like a good, uh, podcast for
Drea:yeah, I know. I was like,
Meags:Maybe, maybe we'll get it, we'll get a little bit more in depth on that one. But first you all have to wear your sunscreen
Carey:Okay. I will. You, you've made a
Meags:and all those, all those people out there, or stay in the shade or whatever you wanna do. Preferably a couple of those things, like we said, Swiss cheese.
Drea:okay. We'll, Swiss cheese it.
Meags:I love that idea.
Drea:All right. Bye guys. Talk to you later.
Meags:Love
Lisa:Nice. Bye.
Drea:you next week?