Club Q: History Repeats Itself

2016 was a devastating year for the LGBTQ+ community. The infamous Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida swept the news after a massacre which left 49 dead and 53 wounded during pride month that year. Countless mourning sites had been placed for all the victims and protests around the world started because of the homophobic action that had been taken place that night. We live in a world that doesn’t fully accept the community, but as a gay man we as a community have begun to find our own safe spaces and know where we are safetest. Time has passed since, but no one who is a part of the community has forgotten about that night; what it caused, what it meant, and what it feels like to know that could’ve been anywhere.

The Lives Lost or Changed Forever in the Pulse Nightclub Attack - The New York Times

Colorado has always been, for the most part, a generally accepting state because of the residents’ ideals. This past Saturday night, Club Q experienced another horrific and traumatizing night. No one thought history would be repeating itself on this random November night. 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich opened fire in the club. Customers dancing, bartenders, and other patrons of the club had heard shots fired but thought it was part of the music but soon realized it wasn’t what they originally thought. Everyone began to drop to the ground, run away, or hide behind anything they could.

Evidence is marked by authorities outside Club Q in Colorado Springs on the morning after the shooting.

Richard Fierro, a 15-year veteran of the US Army, was in attendance that night of the shooting and heard the sounds of the gunshots and knew exactly what was happening. His first instinct was to protect his family, waited until the shooter turned to head towards the patio of the club, where many goers had run towards to escape the shooter. “’It’s the reflex. Go. Go to the fire. Stop the action. Stop the activity. Don’t let no-one get hurt.’” Fiero said in an interview. The veteran was able to stop the shooter once he had turned around. He dragged him to the ground by his vest, and knocked the rifle out of his hand and took the sidearm pistol Aldrich had on him, and began to beat him with it.

Daniel Aston, Kelly Loving, Ashely Paugh, Derrick Rump and Raymond Green Vance

Club Q was lucky to have Fierro in the establishment that night, he probably saved so many lives, but unfortunately there were five deaths and 19 people who have been injured. We see so many people coming out and talking about their firsthand experience in the club. Barrett Hudson talked about being shot seven times and being lucky that “Seven bullets missed my spine, missed my liver, missed my colon. I got really, really lucky. I don’t know how I’m here.” Gil Rodriguez spoke about being there to see his friend deejay that night and how “I honestly thought it was the music until I smelled the actual gunpowder.”

No one would expect something like this to happen while they are out having fun and celebrating their own queerness. Six years after the horrific events that took place in Orlando, we’ve seen another attack against a community that has always existed and is thought to be gaining more acceptance as time progresses.

Outright violence towards people simply existing and having fun in their own spaces is a really hard thing for me to grasp. We’ve created these places for ourselves; clubs, restaurants, districts in cities, and other places. These are meant to be safe havens for anyone who identifies in a way that is seen as “not normal,” a place where we don’t expect bad things to happen because it’s ours and it’s where we can be us fully.

Pride Month: What to know about the LGBTQ celebration | CNN

Being gay and working in a gay club in small city where I personally have experienced homophobia, it’s become a real fear of mine that something like this could happen. I know it’s very unlikely, but I’m sure it is something that haunts not only me but quite a lot of employees or goers of these clubs and other safe spaces that the LGBTQ+ community has created for themselves. It’s important that people hear, absorb, and take what they’ve learned from these two shocking events and use it to help protect others and be more wary of what could happen. I hope something like this never happens again. And for those that were lost because of ignorance and foul thinking, thank you for being courageous enough to be honest to the world about who you are and to show the world who we as a community are. I hope you all “rest in power”.

November 16, 2022November 16, 2022

These Are A No!

There are obviously always going to be products that get popularized for the wrong reasons. In this post I will be talking about products that have been hyped up by the internet but aren’t good for your skin (and throwing in a few alternatives at the end).

Dr. Shah is a dermatology resident who uses his platform to educate people on skincare (doing the lord’s work)

What’s wrong here? Let’s get into it:

Amazon.com : Spascriptions Black Peel-off Mask Blackhead Remover Mask Charcoal Facial Cleansing Mask : Beauty & Personal Care

Black Peel Off Masks: Yes, if you want quick results then go ahead and use these masks because they’ll give you just that. Peel off masks are in fact ripping off the dead skin cells being targeted but are also taking hair follicles and healthy skin cells along with it. Ripping off healthy skin cells is where the problems arise because it starts to mess with the natural barrier that keeps your skin clear and hydrated. Over time your skin starts to get irritated and dry in turn making your skin break out.
“Sensitive Skin” Products: ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS read the ingredients labels when purchasing a new product. Just because something says “for sensitive skin” doesn’t mean it’s true. Sea Breeze is a perfect example of an unsafe “sensitive skin” brand because it’s an alcohol based product instead of water based. Using alcohol in skincare provides very good and fast results but regular usage dries the skin out and ruins the moisture barrier that keeps your skin safe from environmental factors and helps other products do their job.
Citrus in Skincare: The fact that citrus even exists in skincare is a facepalm to the max. Just like in Dr. Shah’s video, just no. Citrus is an irritant for skin and causes breakouts and sensitivity issues in the skin and provides no actual benefit in the long-term. If there’s one thing you should absolutely stay away from, it’s citrus.

5 Pack St.Ives Naturally Clear Fresh Skin Apricot Scrub 6 Oz Each | eBay

Oh St. Ives Apricot Scrub. I still can’t believe how popular this product became. I can’t lie, I too was bamboozled to buy it, by my best friend, when this product was on its popularity rise. I quickly found out that this is a HELL NO product. Being branded as a physical exfoliant to help clear away the dead skin, you first think “ok awesome, sign me up!” but what you don’t know is that not only is it scrubbing off your dead and healthy skin cells, the shards in the product cause micro tears in your skin. These micro-tears lead to early aging and dark spots and destroy the skins moisture barrier.

Even more brands, are y’all ready?

HOT* $0.99 (Reg $7) Clean & Clear Skincare Products at Kroger | Free Stuff Finder

Clean and Clear: So Clean and Clear is one of those very cheap drugstore skincare brands that has been around forever. Most of us have probably bough a product or two from the brand thinking that this could be the product that fixes whatever I’m having trouble with. It’s not! The entire product line from this brand is formulated with way too much fragrance, which just like citrus irritates the skin, and uses ingredients that are not that great, like sodium laureth sulfate and denatured alcohol. The brand as a whole is going to cause more harm than good for the skin because of the lack of quality ingredients.

Mario Badescu: Everyone has heard of this brand! If you haven’t you’re either a liar or you live under a rock. This brand was quite popular back in 2016 and 2017 because of their Rose Water Facial Spray. Mario Badescu has been discovered for using terrible ingredients in their products. There are undisclosed steroids, chemicals that can deteriorate the natural skin barrier and make it too thin . Having that much fragrance and using ingredients that lead to long-term negative results all in a single product is absolutely frightening for the skin and can cause serious irritation. On top of that, these products have been known to use denatured alcohol as well, which is seriously dehydrating to the skin’s barrier.

The part that really gets me about these brands is that people STILL USE THEM. It has been repeated by so many estheticians, skincare enthusiasts, and doctors to not use it but people just don’t care. I’m saying this from the bottom of my heart, please if you have any of the brands or products I’ve mentioned on this page, make a switch.

I know it can be hard to listen to a college student who has to write a blog for his Electronic Writing class, so if you don’t know what to believe, here are a few professionals that can back me up:

Jackie Dymond (Esthetician)

Sources:

Blackhead Peel Off Masks: Ineffective and Harmful to Your Skin

https://incidecoder.com/products/mario-badescu-drying-lotion

Is Mario Badescu Destroying Your Skin? You’re Not Alone.

November 11, 2022November 16, 2022

Skincare, It Is For Everyone!

Key Ingredients: What benefits me?

When it comes to skincare there’s no actual “rulebook,” just suggestions, that you should strongly listen to. Everybody has a different skin type which means that not all ingredients or all products are going to have the same effect that one could have for another. In this blog post I’m going to be introducing the most common active ingredients found in products and talking about how it works, what it does, and who it is best for. Let’s get started:

SPF (SUNSCREEN)

Remember this: If you’re not using sunscreen, you’re not doing skincare!

If there’s any one product you should use when doing skincare is SPF (Sunscreen Protection Factor), regardless of what skin type you are. Our skin has naturally made collagen and elastin that keep the skin firm and tight, giving our skin a youthful look. The problem with the sun is that those UVA and UVB rays break down that collagen and elastin in your skin and give the skin a wrinkly and saggy look to it. SPF is going to protect your skin from damage the sun causes to your skin from those rays.

We also see other problems arise without the use of sunscreen, skin cancer is the most common form of cancer and affects one in every five Americans (9500 people are diagnosed everyday in the U.S. alone). With such a high risk, sunscreen has been known to reduce the risk of squamous cell carcinoma, the second most common skin cancer, by about 40 percent, and lower the risk of melanoma by 50 percent.

NIACINAMIDE

Niacinamide is a MUST, in my opinion, for any and everyone who does skincare. This form of vitamin B-3 creates nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+/NADH) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP+) which are two molecules necessary to the chemical reactions that are used for repairing your skin. Here’s some examples of what it does:

Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1% Oil Control Serum - The Ordinary | Sephora

Skin Immunity: Niacinamide creates the protein keratin which tightens the skin and prevents wrinkles by healing the top layer of your skin cells, keratinocytes.
Moisture Balance: Regularly using niacinamide leads to water retention in your skin cells more effectively, which keeps your skin hydrated and helps control the oil being produced by the sebaceous glands.
Skin Appearance: From redness to UV damage that leaves dark spots, niacinamide helps tackle those appearance issues and even out the skin.
- Acne can be reduced with niacinamide because with the oil regulation in the skin, pores aren’t being clogged which is how acne comes to be.
- Redness in the skin is lost because niacinamide acts as an antioxidant and clears the skin of irritation that causes that redness
- Dark Spots can be corrected because niacinamide inhibits the transfer of melanosomes, light absorbing cells, between melanocytes, skin cell that produces the protective skin-darkening pigment, to keratinocytes.
Environmental Protection: With sunlight, pollutions, and toxins, our skin goes through a lot of external stress. Niacinamide boosts collagen and creates keratin that will help create a barrier against those environmental stresses to make sure those stressors aren’t affecting the skin.

CERAMIDES

The skin’s natural barrier, the stratum corneum, is constantly undergoing external stress whether from sun rays or environmental factors. As we talked about earlier with niacinamide, keeping that barrier strong and hydrated means less harm done to our skin itself. Ceramides are a lipid (building blocks of living cells) naturally found in the stratum corneum, that hold our skin cells together to keep in moisture and block out harmful factors.

You can find ceramides in a lot of moisturizers and night creams so that whoever is using it gets a deep hydration. Ceramides are for everyone, but people with dry skin or any skin conditions, like eczema or rosacea, should really try to incorporate a ceramide product into their skin routine.

ACIDS

First and foremost, this is not bad acids that will poison you or melt your face off. When talking about acids in skin care we’re talking about BHA and AHA chemical exfoliants. All acids are used to breakdown dirt molecules and dead skin cells in the skin’s pores, but whether it’s a BHA or AHA will give you different results. BHA’s are used to go deeper into the skin to control excess sebum and oil production while AHA’s are used to peel the skin so a new layer of more evenly toned skin comes through. With any chemical exfoliant you want to make sure you’re

A Guide to Acids in Skincare - A Beauty Edit

There are four major acids: Lactic, Glycolic, Salicylic, and Hyaluronic.

Lactic Acids: These are the gentler of the acids and are an AHA. Generally people with more sensitive and dry skin use lactic acids because of its lighter exfoliating power, but also doing a good job of eventually resurfacing healthier skin.
Glycolic Acids: This is the most common type of AHA. Made from sugar cane, this acid is found in many exfoliants but also a lot of face masks, professional treatments, and cleansing pads. Glycolic comes in concentrations of 5%, 7% or 10% depending on the level of exfoliation you’re looking for, but should only be used a few times a week because it is a stronger type of exfoliant. Use glycolic acids to reduce signs of aging and to help with any hyperpigmentation.
Salicylic Acids: Salicylic acids are have always been known as acne treatments because of its anti-inflammatory properties. Though they mostly help with acne, this acid does help mildly prevent aging. Those who have oilier skin are the better demographic for salicylic acids because they are oil-soluble which means they’ll be able to get deeper into greasier pores. The concentrations of salicylic acids are between 0.5% to 5%, making it good for sensitive skin as well.
Hyaluronic Acids: Hyaluronic acids are used for more hydrating purposes. This acid is a humectant, meaning the serum pulls moisture from the air into the skin to help moisturize and keep the skin plump. The issue with this product is that the effects of it are not permanent, so people who use this must do so regularly. This product is best for people with dry skin who want to just liven up the skin.

VITAMIN C

Vitamin C has become quite the staple in skincare because of its brightening capabilities for the skin. The breaking down of collagen that leads to unflattering skin blemishes like dark spots, saggy skin, or wrinkles can be helped with the antioxidants found in vitamin c. These antioxidants help repair that collagen to tighten and help tone out the skin.

I personally don’t use vitamin c because of its oxidation reaction. When the product is placed on the skin and exposed to oxygen it starts to react with the air around us and I personally don’t like the look of it on my skin. The biggest issue with vitamin c is its light sensitivity that leads to the breakdown of its chemical structure and can cause skin irritation. When looking for a vitamin c it’s vital to look for the product that comes in an opaque packaging, meaning the product is protected from the sunlight by the packaging.

Sources:

https://www.webmd.com/beauty/what-to-know-about-ceramides-for-skin

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/lactic-acid-for-skin#what-it-is

https://www.paulaschoice.com/expert-advice/skincare-advice/ingredient-spotlight/how-niacinamide-helps-skin.html

https://www.healthline.com/health/beauty-skin-care/face-acids-types-anti-aging#salicylic-acid