Personal Grooming

This post is not for the faint of heart.  I am going to share intimate details of my toilette so if you are of the masculine persuasion or just don’t care to read of such things then I invite you to click on any one of the links to the right.  This will just take a few minutes – you can come back in a bit.

Okay then – is it just us girls now?  What kind of freaking sadist came up with the idea of an epilator??  I mean seriously – it’s tarted up with monikers like ‘caress’ or ‘ gently gold’ like there is anything remotely caressing or gentle about it.  For those of you who don’t know it’s basically a torture device that rips the hair off your body with lightening fast little tweezery things.   It does, however, come in a lovely little velvet lined carrying case. 

Rick had to work late tonight so I thought I would take the opportunity to do a little grooming of the defoliating nature.   The apparatus looks basically like a woman’s electric shaver.  In fact, if the whole ripping your hair out by the roots thing turns out not to be your thing there is actually an additional shaving attachment you can pop on.   We are made of sterner stuff, though, and soldiered on.

You basically turn it on and then proceed like you were shaving your legs (or where ever).  Only the second you place it against your skin every nerve ending in your body shrieks bloody blue murder (or maybe that was just me – the dog did leap out of his bed with a start and scurry out of the room, giving me worried, backward glances). 

I persevered though – I cleared a little spot on my calf and then made little furtive moves to other areas on my leg – quickly coming back to the already denuded part (the thing is very painless if there is nothing to grab on to).   I was dripping sweat and my face had hectic red patches from the misery of it but I did it.  There was one heartbreaking moment when I realized that I had finished one leg and had to move on to the other or risk hirsute asymmetry for a month or two.

When I was done it looked like a cat had exploded in the bathroom and I was covered in blotchy welts but my legs are silky smooth.  And very pale.  We’ll talk about self-tanners in another post.

I do have to mention the loose power container pictured above.  About seven years ago I heard about the Versace line of cosmetics – they’ve since abandoned it but for a while you could buy lovely lipsticks,  powders and other cosmetics from them.  The powder – called Extra Glow Soft Loose Powder – is fabulous in it’s own right.  It makes your skin look ethereal and luminous.  Candle lit is the description I heard most associated with it.  However the best thing, for the entire line actually, was the packaging.  It was so luxurious and glamorous looking.  Like cosmetics used to be.  There was just something so nostalgic about the packaging that I think I would have liked the line even if the products weren’t so nice.  Unfortunately you can’t get it anymore.  I managed to find three unopened packages of the powder on e-Bay and snapped them up.  When I run out I’ll save the container and find some other powder to put in it.

Once last thing – in order to gently segue back to our regularly scheduled program of decorating and the like.  This past weekend, at the fun little antique store we visited, the owner had a display of old hand mirrors, each with a pretty vintage satin or velvet ribbon tied around the handle, mounted on a wall.  She had half a dozen or so and it looked so pretty.  Perfect for a dressing area or a bathroom.