All Eyes On Her

The more I delve into low- or no-preservative skincare, the more I can appreciate the idea of a bathroom fridge. Dear Grant thinks it’s a bit crazy, but the fact is, all my favorite products are prone to early spoilage!

I’ve started glancing at a bunch of different options, but I’m finding it difficult to track down a fridge that’s tiny enough to fit underneath the medicine cabinet in our bathroom. The smallest “normal” mini-fridges are all 1.7 cubic feet, which puts them at about 19″ high at the shortest. And this is still too tall for the nook we’re envisioning! Our medicine cabinets are exactly a foot up from the counter, so any fridge would ideally have to tuck under there.

But I’m starting to think I might have to just cave and get a bigger fridge, and have it sit on the counter in the guest bathroom. Sure, it’ll probably puzzle more than a few houseguests. But that may just be the price I have to pay for great skin! Even if I do go this route, normal 1.7 cubic foot fridges are still too big to allow for things like sinks and mirrors. But I’ve found a few teensy fridges that might fit the bill.

The first one I’m considering is a Sharper Image Hot+Cold Mini Fridge/Portable Wine Cooler, for $99. This little thing is billed as being pretty quiet, which is nice since we can hear the drip-drip-drip from our leaky master bathroom sink while we’re trying to sleep. So a little noise-free model sounds great. I have this fantasy, too, of just storing it on its side, since it’s only 11 inches wide. Not sure how healthy that is for a fridge, though — I may have to check with The Sharper Image about that! If I can get a clean bill of fridge health even if I set it on its side, then this little guy will probably be the winner of the Fridge Contest. I’m not sure if I’ll ever use the “hot” function, but this isn’t the only tiny fridge to boast such a feature. Call me old-fashioned, but I thought fridges were for chilling! Ah well, I suppose it could also double as a warmer in… winter? When the power’s out and all my skincare freezes? (I think this thing can run on batteries! The strange features never end!)

Next up we have a little devil from Wal-Mart, the Koolatron 21-Qt. Designer Fridge. It sure sounds nice, right? This one isn’t billed as being super-quiet, but it has the added bonus of being able to plug into your car’s cigarette lighter for trips. Probably, I’d use it in a picnic way rather than a skincare way, but who knows!? Could be useful. This one’s a bit bigger, though, and I’m not sure the price drop down to $88 makes it worth the extra space in an already-tiny bathroom. Still, it’s nice to have yet another option.

The last one that caught my eye is the Chambrer Chambrer Silent 4 Bottle Countertop Wine Refrigerator from Sears. This little wine cooler is a whopping $159, and Sears has kindly neglected to include the sizing specs on their web page. But this baby looks like it might actually be the tiniest of them all, and I just might be willing to spring for the extra cost if that’s the case. It’s out of stock right now anyhow, and heck, I’m out of work — so this is more a fantasy right now! Let’s call it “research”. I submitted a question on their site about the dimensions, so I may have an answer by the time I’d be ready to drop money on a mini-fridge.

Alas, maybe I’m crazy to think fridge in the bathroom. I know I *could* stumble on out to the kitchen to retrieve my products every morning, but I just know I wouldn’t wind up bothering. I’d be too annoyed at the extra hassle, and besides, I don’t love the idea of party guests pondering over my nicely chilled lotions and potions.

While extreme, a fridge would mean I could go back to my favorite eye cream, knowing it wouldn’t go moldy. I could start ordering the gorgeous-looking stuff from The Body Deli that’s allegedly so fresh, it arrives packed on ice. And most importantly, I could enjoy my own DIY concoctions without having to worry about finding a safe yet natural preservative to use, since temperature control could substitute. This is the main reason for me, since lab tests show that natural preservatives are often less effective, but I’m not inclined to use scary paraben-filled stuff just to make sure no fuzz grows on my homemade lotion.

We shall see — this may be one of those far-off things, that I don’t purchase until we own a house and I really know what kind of dimensions I’d be dealing with, space-wise. For now, I’ll cling to my fridgie fantasy, and dream of perfectly frigid cosmetics and skincare that stay fresh ’til the last drop!