My birthday is coming up at the end of August and lately I've been thinking a lot about what that means to my skin. When I was younger my only skincare concerns revolved around my occasional breakouts. But now 40 no longer seems like just an idea. At this moment my skin still looks pretty good but there are little things that are bugging me. Subtle fine lines have taken residence on my forehead. My skin looks a little duller than it used to and it takes a little more concealer to hide the dark circles under my eyes.
These are now the issues that weigh on me and then, in a sudden and rare fit of indulgence, I decided I was going to do something about it. I went out and splurged on a lot of different skincare products. I mean a lot, a lot, a lot. I got the Clarisonic Mia
(an exfoliator made by the people who make Sonicare toothbrush
), Skinceuticals Renew Overnight Oily
, Neocutis Lumière Bio-restoritive eye cream 
, Dr. Hauschka Lip Care Stick
and L'Occitane Shea Butter Hand Cream
.None of these products are cheap but something came over me and I just had to have all of them. I got most of them online from various sites (chosen based on who had the best-price/free-gift/free-shipping) so they were delivered to my door on different days. The whole of last week was sort of like Hanukkah with eight days of presents. The only difference is that instead of praying to God and lighting a menorah before opening each one I sent up a silent "Thank You!" to the skincare-lab-technitions of the world and kissed my InStyle magazine.
But of course I couldn't help but feel a little guilty. My son goes to a very expensive special education private school which I can barely afford and I'm splurging on luxury skincare? I needed to be reassured. I dialed up my friend M who picked up despite being on the treadmill.
"I spent a bundle on skincare," I moaned.
"That's good! It's an investment!" M chirped.
"Yes," I said, immediately warming to this idea. "And I did a lot of research before I bought each product. I found out who had the best price and who had free shipping!"
"That's smart," she said sagely. "Shipping can get pricey."
"I think if I don't take care of my skin now I'll want plastic surgery later!"I added.
"And that's really expensive!" she pointed out. "You're saving yourself a ton of money! If you think about it, this really isn't any different from spending money on medicine!"
"So what you're saying," I said excitedly, "is that it would have been financially irresponsible for me not to have spent this money on myself!"
"Of course it would have been! Now tell me about everything you bought."
"So what you're saying," I said excitedly, "is that it would have been financially irresponsible for me not to have spent this money on myself!"
"Of course it would have been! Now tell me about everything you bought."
And so of course I did. I've only been using the products for a week but I can honestly say that all of them are living up to my expectations (the Neocutis Lumière eye cream has surpassed them). So I'm happy I splurged. But mostly I'm happy that I have wonderful friends like M. Friends who understand that to be a true friend you have to know how to do more than just listen and talk and empathize (although those things are all essential).
has surpassed them). So I'm happy I splurged. But mostly I'm happy that I have wonderful friends like M. Friends who understand that to be a true friend you have to know how to do more than just listen and talk and empathize (although those things are all essential).You have to know how and when to justify your girlfriend's shopping spree. Thank you M :-)
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5 comments:
*LOL* I have those friends. And I have those subtle fine lines on my forehead--so what product are you using to get rid of those? Is it working? Do you think it's worth it?
We ALL need friends like that! :-P
I think for the fine lines the best thing I bought was the Clarosonic Mia. Not because it in and of itself gets rid of the fine lines but it so thoroughly cleans your pores (and gets rid of any flaky dry skin) that it allows the products you do use to deeply penetrate your skin and dramatically increases their effectiveness. So if you were to use the Clarosonic Mia (Usually around $150 but slightly cheaper on Amazon) and then just stop by your local drug store and pick up something like Olay Regenerist Filling & Sealing ($20) I think you'll see results.
BTW: I also think the Skinceuticals Renew Overnight that I got from the Dermstore.com is helping to diminish the fine lines which I REALLY didn't expect at all. I got it because I thought it would help bring back some of the glow to my skin that's been diminishing. It's definitely done that but...okay, that was one of the first things to arrive and I started seeing diminished fine lines before I even got the Clarosonic Mia a week later. Now that I'm using the two together I actually don't think I would even bother w/something like botox (an idea I was tossing around before my buying spree). My lines aren't THAT deep but still, they're there and now they're...well, they're less there :-)
Okay...I've been thinking about doing the same thing Kyra. This was very timely for me.
CC
@Christie--It's the female pre-midlife crisis. So much cheaper than the male-must-have-a-sports-car counterpart.
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