NEUTROGENA INDIMEET - HOW I MET THE SUN

"I met the Sun, this Sunday! I met The SUN!" I exclaimed in delight, holding my friend by her arms, "The Sun! Can you believe it Rita? And it was so much Fun!"
My friend had a puzzled look on her face, "Whats there to believe?" she said grumpily, "The Sun always meets us with its scorching heat everyday, especially during summer. I'd rather not meet the Sun at all. My skin is a mess because of it."

"Oh Rita, don't you want to know how I met the Sun? What happened, the whole story?" I asked.
"You'll tell me anyways whether I want to know or not, so, go ahead," she was still grumpy.

"Rita, I met the Sun inside a 5 star hotel! Do you believe it, inside an AC hall, packed with bloggers from all over Bombay! There I met the Sun!" I was still dreamy and super-excited at the memories of meeting the Sun, at the IndiMeet event.
My friend Rita had a twisted look on her face now, that'd indicate that she thought, I had gone nuts!

"It was all yellow inside the huge hall, Rita! JW Marriot is yellowish enough from outside, but thats not all, inside too - yellow decor, yellow drapes, yellow lightings, yellow hoardings, yellow tiny and big umbrellas, yellow smiley balls, yellow volley balls, yellow hand-band pen-drives, yellow headphones, yellow neck pillows, yellow ribbons on chairs, then, many people wore yellow clothes too, including the hostess ( Minoti ) and the celebrity guest. In fact, the whole JW Marriot hotel was glowing yellow, bright like the Sun!"
"So, you go to some 'yellow themed' bloggers meet and claim thats how you met the Sun? Huh?" Rita was clearly getting irritated now and not impressed at all, "Don't talk too much yellow, else you'll get a Jaundice. Stop all these and lets go home."

"Oh Rita, this was not some ordinary bloggers meet. It was the Neutrogena Indi-bloggers meet, where a miracle product was unveiled. You may actually start loving the Sun after you know everything about it."
Rita looked at me curiously. "Go on, don't stop. If you can really make me love the Sun, I'm all ears. Tell me, how exactly you met the Sun?"

"Come Rita, lets sit down. I'll tell you everything about it." We sat inside the library hall, as Rita was scared to go even to the verandah to sit, lest the Sun burned up her delicate skin. It always did.
"So, I had gone to this meet on Sunday 7th April, anticipating lots of fun, as I had really enjoyed my last two indimeets." I began telling her my story of 'How I met the Sun.'

"Right at the entry, after I registered, I had to scribble my name on a cute, tiny, yellow umbrella ( normally used as a mocktail shade ). Some bloggers even got a Neutrogena mask which they had put on, looking rather funny. I had barely sat with another blogger and started chatting, before Anoop from Indiblogger juggled us all up from our places and made us sit with someone we didn't know.


Neutrogena India ( the generous sponsors of the event ) Head made an appearance and greeted us, making a brief speech as to why we all were gathered.
Right after that, Contests & Madness galore followed! Name all the new people ( male+females mixed up ) sitting on the table next to you at one go and claim a prize. The tiny umbrellas were brought in next, and we had to search the 'blogger' whose name was scribbled on it. It was absolute madness, though I found mine instantly, as she was sitting just in front of me. Many others, either didn't find or simply got exhausted screaming and yelling for the names. Alas, another round of blogger introductions with their names flashing on the screen with those who had the corresponding umbrella name and tell whatever they learnt about the blogger.

It was raining prizes at the venue. A tweeter even got a Nokia Lumia 620 via "under the sun" #Neutrogena twitter contest, besides others winning headphones, yellow hand-band pen drives, yellow/black laptop bags, volley balls and Neutrogena face masks too.

We were further divided into groups as per the number of holes each tiny umbrellas we carried had, and made to name our group uniquely which had 'Sun' in it and create a sun-themed song on the spot. My group was 'Sun Sunny' and we ended up winning for the most creative number. That was not the end though, to claim more prizes we had to defeat the opponents in a 'ball throwing and umbrella defense' game. Catch was, these bright yellow umbrellas had big holes in them and we had to stop the tiny, yellow smiley balls ( being thrown at us ) from entering our zones via the holes. It was a tricky game. Imagine, multiple big-holed umbrellas to stop those tiny balls! The balls however were not ordinary balls, they were UV balls representing the UVA & UVB Sun rays :-)
Good thing was, each team got to take their revenge as well.
This game ensured that everyone went totally berserk! It also had a specific purpose which was elaborated later.


We also had a beautiful actress in a bright, yellow dress gracing the event. She has awesomest skin and was specially invited for the event by Neutrogena India. She actually uses Neutrogena products herself and is a strict follower of the Cleanse, Moisturize and Protect regime. She is a blogger herself who successfully turned her blog into a show - TaraSharmaShow ( that currenly airs 3 times on 3 different channels ). Many bloggers asked her questions about her skin, her blog, her show - she was sweet, patient, honest and frank with all her answers."


"But when exactly did you meet the Sun? Did you meet the Sun at all?" Rita was getting impatient now.
"Yes, yes Rita. Be patient, I'm coming to that. After an awesome snacks break with yummiest of 5 star food, we had the Neutrogena Dermatologist ( Dr. Parikh ) who came and gave us an interesting demonstration and lots of useful information which we were quite unaware of. And he also carried the Sun with him."
"What do you mean he carried the Sun?" Rita quickly interrupted, "Sun is a little toy or what that he can carry it around. Stop joking!"

I was sensing a hint of frustration building up in Rita with my story so far, so thought to finish it quickly, before she got completely mad with me.


"No, No...I'm not joking. The Doctor actually carried the Sun with him. Well, he had this powerful machine that looked like a grey, longish, rectangular shaped box with a handle. But this is no ordinary machine. They use it for research purposes. When switched on, it behaves exactly like the Sun emitting strong UV Rays and Radiation. To prove us further that it had Sun-like characteristics, the dermatologist gave a couple of interesting demos. Now, you'll be really interested to know this part, as you are so addicted to all these various creams and lotions that you dump on your skin to protect it from the menacing Sun. But, breaking news for you - its all useless!"

Rita looked at me wide eyed, disbelievingly - premonition screaming at her, that I'll demolish all her dreams and beliefs now. And I did.

"The doctor took a UV Strip and ran the Sun ( i.e UV machine ) over it, and within a few seconds the strip was totally burnt black. Thats what happens when the Sun's rays fall on our unprotected skin. It gets burnt or tanned. But, say we put some cream or sunscreens as a layer of protection, they will still have some invisible holes that stays unprotected. ( remember the ball and 'holed' umbrella game we played earlier? )
The doctor this time, ran the Sun over two strips again, one layered with ordinary cream and the other with normal sunscreen, and to compare both he applied a layer of Neutrogena Ultra Sheer next to each. Know what, both the layers of cream and sunscreen had holes burnt in them by the Sun...Oops I mean the UV Radiating Machine, and the one side that had Neutrogena Ultra Sheer was intact, without any burns. All clean and white. I was instantly impressed with Neutrogena Ultra Sheer. Because, all this happened right before our eyes ( close-ups of the demo shown live on two giant screens ), so it is not some trick played, but for real."

"You really saw UV burnt holes in the other creams???" Rita asked worriedly. Seeing me nod my head, she exclaimed, "Oh, so all those creams and sunscreens in the market are really useless?"



"Yes! Totally." I said smugly, as now, I knew the real truth.

"See, we Indians have a certain type of skin that contains Melanin. There are usually 6 types of skin with various levels of melanin content. Melanin causes 'tanning' when we are out in the Sun. More Melanin means more tanning ( less melanin means more burning ). And these creams that we buy from the market can never give us full-proof protection. Neutrogena Ultra Sheer on the other hand, can! Because it contains the supreme advanced 'Helioplex' technology which avoids breakage upon exposure to the sun as compared to other sunscreens that breaks into holes.
We only check the SPF factor when we buy a sunscreen from the market, but thats not enough. The UVA specifics is also too vital and should be checked as well. And Neutrogena Ultra Sheer is specially designed and dermatologically tested to tackle both UVA ( that penetrates deep causing fast aging, tanning, alergies, rashes ) & UVB ( burns, spf ) harmful rays. One should not just use sunscreen and forget it for the day, but re-apply every two hours, and if you go swimming, re-apply sunscreens with spf15+ every 40 minutes, which all of us forgets to do. Also a kid only above 3yrs should use sunscreens. Sunscreens are a necessity for protection against more serious diseases like skin cancers too.

Besides, the Neutrogena brand is the Number.1 brand as well for skin protection with specialized dermatologists, scientists and researchers working & researching behind it. A lot of hard work goes into building a really good product such as this.
And in India, Johnson and Johnson is the famous trusted brand, who is bringing this magic to us. Thats why, I'm so happy to have met the Sun!
Now I know, exactly what I need to use to enjoy the Sun to the fullest, henceforth. With Neutrogena Ultra Sheer protecting my skin, I can now do everything that I have always dreamt of doing, under the Sun."

"Me too," Rita quipped enthusiatically.
"Yes! You too, infact everyone." I agreed, and just then a naughty thought entered my mind. I wanted to make Rita a bit jealous. "You know Rita, all the bloggers present at the event got an awesome T-Shirt, as well as a free Neutrogena Ultra Sheer hamper - a complete Sun-protection kit to carry home too."

"Oh, Wow," Rita said excitedly, "I want one too."
"For that Rita, you need to be a blogger first and be registered at Indiblogger.in, which is the awesomest 'Heaven' for bloggers and the IndiTeam, its 'Santa Claus' ( who appears even during hot summers ) always giving out goodies. We always have the maximum fun at Indimeets, such as this."

"Oh! but I dont blog," Rita murmured sadly.

"Hey Rita, its okay. Blogging does have its perks, you can always start with writing your hobbies etc, then perhaps try a special niche. But don't worry, you can always get Neutrogena Ultra Sheer in the market, now that its been launched in India. After my free hamper runs out, even I'll also have to buy one from the market. So cheer up girl. Now you also know the secret to having a sun-protected skin. Be thankful for that."

"Yes, thank you so much ND. Now, I've also met the Sun via your story," Rita said gratefully, "I'll buy one ( Neutrogena Ultra Sheer ) at the earliest. So, ND you said a celebrity had come, right? What she wore, can you explain in details? Did she look pretty? Whats her blog name? What does she do for her hair? Did she give any more beauty tips? How does she maintain her figure after 2 kids? Did she bring her husband along?"
Rita's unending eager questions continued for the rest of the evening.....

I wondered to myself, what would've happened, if told her about the wild 'Harlem Shake' climax of the meet. She'd have surely gone ballistic for not tagging her along to the event. I thought, it'd be safe to show her the crazy video on my blog later on. I had made her enough jealous for the day ;-)

PRESENTING THE INDI-HARLEM SHAKE @NEUTROGENA
This post is part of '#Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Indi-Meet' by Neutrogena India in association with Indiblogger

Winning post of Neutrogena Indimeet Contest in association with Indiblogger

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