ritual of face massages

My friend who works at Sephora sent me a box of various samples for my skin care regimen. I spent an hour online chatting with him as he explained anti-oxidants, hydration, and various other things I had no idea about. The box seemed small enough when it first arrived. All these plastic tubes and small glass containers wrapped in bubblewrap.

He typed out a piece of paper explaining the various potions and the order in which everything goes and how often:

-wash face with cleanser
-once a week massage for 5 minutes microabraiser (which is this thing that feels like it has tiny pieces of sand in it)
-2 to 3 times a week use hydrating mask for 5 minutes
-cleanse face again
-use a grape size drop of the eye cream and dab with the ring finger around the bone of the eye (essentially below the eye and above the cheekbone)
-moisturize

-2 to 3 times a week use the lip abraiser and use the lip balm daily after brushing your lips with your toothbrush

then there was the body wash, and day and night body moisturizers, and perfume. I haven't gotten around to those yet.

The first day I went through all of it, it took me an hour!

In addition I am to drink 8 glasses of water and get good doses of vitamin C for all those anti-oxidants. As he called it, "good makeup begins with the canvas." [blink blink....crickets chirping] I'm glad he wrote it down otherwise it was in one ear and out the other.

Wednesday evening I went with the MoH (Maid of Honor) to Sephora to get a powder and lip gloss as the makeup artist proscribed. The store was so bright, I could have gotten a tan. Tiny boxes, tubes, bright lights. I felt like dracula out in the sun [it's burning it's burning!] SO OVERWHELMING! Everyone wore black and had walkie talkie head pieces. I just remember the bright green and blue eyeshadow the attendant called to help us had. She guided us through the various aisles and shelves, I wouldn't have made it out of the jungle without her. In addition, I bought what is essentially lip shellac, a clear liquid you brush onto your lips after you put on the lipstick. Once it dries, your lipstick is basically smudge proof the entire day. I bought a bottle for each of the bridesmaids. I also bought this mirror compact that includes a foldable brush, something I could actually use!

My friend told me to ask for a skin consultation, but she didn't seem to know what I was talking about. I could feel my eyes start to blur and my mind blank out. I think I was reaching my threshold of girliness for the day.

One of the oddest things I saw in the store were the lip plumpers. One called Lip Venom that when put on your lips creates a tingling sensation and makes your lips look bee stung. yeah. That's just frightening.

The past few days I've spent more time staring closely at my face. I can see how staring so closely can make one obsessed over every little mark. But on the plus side it's brought me a closer look at a very important part of my body - my face. The face is what we present to the world, our mask, our image. It's also one of the more intimate places on the body. Touching someone's face is an intimate act whether caressing it or slapping it, it's tied so directly to the core. And in doing all this cleansing and moisturizing I've come to understand it's contours and changing landscape as well as find the numerous pressure points in the face thank link to other parts of the body. It's intricate with dozens upon dozens of muscles that can express every emotion imagineable.

I don't think I had ever really thought about how important our faces were.

A friend asked me once why go through all this to learn to be girly. I told her well, because I've never really done it before and I just wanted to see if I could pull it off. Obviously I wasn't the girl in junior high school playing with makeup. But in this journey I'm finding it's more than what I thought it was. More than something superficial. That for someone like me who has always concentrated on inner beauty, to concentrate on outer beauty now at this stage is a way to allow my inner beauty come out even more. In a way it completes the circle.

If I had from the beginning thought that beauty was all about makeup and beauty products and getting my eyebrows the correct angle, I think I would have been more suseptible to all the advertising and marketing. My friend was correct, it's not the makeup, it's the canvas, it's the frame that the canvas is on, this too is part of beauty. In taking care of my face, the door to who I am, I am taking care of myself.

The artist in me tells me it's my duty to explore all things beautiful.

Makeup is makeup. It can make you beautiful, it can also make you look god awful. It is simply a tool of illusion to enhance or detract what you want people to see. It's part of the magic.