Who really tests beauty products before using them?

Not me. And I have the equivalent of a bad sunburn on the lower half of my face to prove it.

Years ago, a friend of my mom's had a violent reaction to an inocuous beauty product -- lotion or moisturizer or sunscreen -- and ended up in the emergency room with hives and horribleness. My mom told me the story in warning over the phone, and I swear I could feel the whoosh! of her finger waving past me, even from a miles away. 

I've had that stern voice in my head every time I've caught a glance of -- and ignored -- the warnings plastered to the sides of boxes of the many, many products I've slathered on my skin and hair and nails in the years since. 

I really should do that 24-hour patch-test thingy, I tell myself guiltily. 

And then I rip open the seventeen layers of plastic wrapping and glop it all over my parched/sensitive/super-fair/broken-out/petrie dish lab experiment skin.

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Sassafam Christmas, in pictures

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50 family resolutions for 2013

I love the idea of hitting the reset button as a new year rings in. I love taking a moment to look around at my family and friends and career and desk and packed-full storage space and think about what I could be doing better and what is just fine as it is, at least for another year. And I do love lists, big ideas, seemingly silly dreams and plans.

But what I don't love are the resolutions that keep me tied to an overwhelming new schedule, a weight scale or obligations that don't feel right. A challenge is great, a chore is not. So this year, we are holding fast to the spirit of resolutions -- reaching toward our better selves -- and letting go of the pressure. 

Oh, yes, I said we. I am hooking my little family into this with a jar full of moments to share throughout 2013 to help us spend time together, laugh more, hug harder, keep tidier, run around often and maybe even tackle that storage space.

Here are 50 of our family resolutions for 2013.

{Up now on GalTime}

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