(no subject)

[altarflame]

Somewhere along the line I started enjoying things I couldn't have cared less about in the past. This afternoon found me spending 20 blissful minutes in the bathroom soaking my feet in warm water, scrubbing them down, and shaving my legs (yes, people with toddlers, rejoice - once you have school aged kids, you can spend 20 minutes in the bathroom with the door closed. As long as none of your toddlers are Isaac a year ago :p). Then I spent the next half hour putting lotion on my feet and legs, painting my toenails and sitting around in a mud mask they all found fascinating. I just decided somewhere around noon that if I was going to have no motivation to do anything useful, I might as well make the most of it.

I know it's exceedingly normal and obvious that women like stuff like foot scrubs and face masks and nail polish, but, well, I never really related to any of that. I still think all of you are a bit over the top, with your Lush and bpal obsessions. I suppose I could be eating my words in another 5 or 10 years, though.

Other evidence I am gradually metamorphosing:

-I own and use moisturizer. I started using lotion on my face about 2 years ago and quit breaking out for the first time in my life, and I've always hated having any kind of tan; then it dawned on me. They make this stuff specifically for your face, with SPF built in.

-I carry a purse everywhere I go - only 6 months into this habit, I no longer understand how I survived without one by my side.

-...And it has one of those huge fold out wallets in it. Given to me as a joke, I now find it indespensible.

Baby steps perhaps, but (though it was only because of a gift certificate from my mother) I have nevertheless had a facial at a spa. That was (gulp) VERY nice.

In other news, I have a birth update to post sometime, but aside from that...I've begun to imagine myself NOT PREGNANT again one day, and even - dareIsay - had the thought that there COULD theoretically come a time in my life when I was not pregnant...OR nursing O_o I wish I could have a sudden return to that level of energy. As things really happen, it will probably be more like going from sick to well again...a gradual progression that makes it easy to continue taking wellness for granted. I always think how awesome it would be, if you could just SNAP from feeling miserably sick to totally healthy again, like how your ears pop back open and it just rocks.

Comments

[the-leh.livejournal.com]

I've always been a girlie girl. I used to never leave the house without a face full of MAC.

I don't shave very often though. Not because I don't want to. My skin is too sensitive. And I never use mud masks. I don't even own one. But that's mostly because I am too broke for good skincare.

FTR- I haven't purchased any new bpal since Christmas. I have plenty.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

I've found that my own sensitive skin responds WAY better to shaving, like, every other day, than it does to shaving once or twice a week. If I want to keep rashes and such at bay, I basically have to do it constantly. I don't know what that's about.

Re: Masks - I've always loved them, because your face just feels SO CLEAN afterwards, but they're really not expensive. What I'm using now is this little tub of some fancy New Zealand whatever that I got at Marshall's. They have a HUGE section of moisturizers, masks, lotions, bath products, etc - and it's all the stuff that WAS at department stores and would normally be way expensive, for almost nothing. For instance this was the last little tub they had and it had like 10 stickers one on top of the other with lower and lower prices - I got it for $3.99. And having used it twice, I can tell I'll easily get 10 more uses out of it.

You are the least of the bpal/Lush obsessions, btw. Go look at sillyboho's journal. And Andrea/taniwha_grrrl mentions Lush AT LEAST once a week (for years now), has links next to her journal for it, and tags and filters and is in the community.

[ariellejuliana.livejournal.com]

what's bpal?

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

black phoenix alchemy labs, purveryors of goth inspired, highly overpriced scents. They sell these itty bitty samples called "Imps Ears" that people go crazy for. There are LJ communities for it and ebay is loaded with it.

[the-leh.livejournal.com]

if i dare shave every day, all the hair that hasn't quite broken through the surface yet will become ingrown, and then if i shave over that a day later, all the ingrown haris will become broken skin, on and on. it's VERY painful. then sometimes i get cysts from the ingrown hairs :/

Oh, the masks I like are spendy. I don't know where there is a Marshall's here, either.

LOL at the lush obsessions. I still haven't tried most of their products. I do have some of their karma perfume, and it's nice, but I don't OMGOSH HAVE TO HAVE IT.

[forgetfulmuse.livejournal.com]

Perfumey stuff makes me sneeze. I cut my own hair. :P Still don't own a purse - a little backpack is about it for me. Lately I've been thinking about being a bit more girly but I keep reverting to old habits.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

I hate perfume, and cologne, and use Grant's deodorant.

I've never really thought about it specifically as being more girly, honestly it seems more womanly or something. Like this is me at 25, maybe by the time I'm 30 I'll wear makeup and know how to walk in heels :p The stuff I sometimes take time for now, like I mentioned here, feel more like being good to myself. Somehow in the mix of 4 small kids, volunteering with PATH, being 30 weeks pregnant, a husband trying to keep a home business afloat and help me with them, the house, this and that - I've discovered the value in "me time" and "pampering myself" and other such previously foreign concepts.

[forgetfulmuse.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. I'm starting to experiment with mixing my own moisturizers, though straight shea butter is rather nice. I still don't know how to walk in heels though....

Cologne = blech.

[aranel.livejournal.com]

What moisturizer do you use that stopped you from breaking out? I've recently discovered that my skin looks worse (acne) when I let it get dried out--I guess it thinks it has to overcompensate and produce more oil.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

It was just using lotion that made me stop breaking out. I think I started with Johnson's Baby Lotion because I had a massive stockpile gifted from various pregnancies that I'd never used on the kids. After awhile I switched to some more natural-oriented-ingredient stuff, just whatever I could find that had real fruit extracts and vitamin e and such. I only started using moisturizer because when I was using lotion and would sweat, it felt like it would somehow reappear on my face and be gross. Plus I wanted the SPF. I'm using Aveeno right now, basically because it's the cheapest thing I could find ;) It's nice, though, it claims to be "calming" and I don't know if it's all in my head or what, but I think that part works.

I always thought I had really oily skin but in retrospect I think mine was just overcompensating, too - I was someone who used a lot of astringent and clearasil pads and stuff like that as a teen, to try to dry it up, and it just kept getting worse. It doesn't really seem to matter what I use to moisturize now, as long as I use something fairly regularly. I haven't really had pimples on my face in...3 years?