MORE THAN BEAUTY

“Put yourself on the top of your to-do lists.” 

One of my friends is a professional cosmetologist and first of all, you know the sentence “Don’t bring work home”? This sentence never works with her, second and worse, from the first step to my home, she becomes an X-ray Face-Scanning Robot:

“How often do you use enzyme peeling?” 

“Hi, how are you Jess? Nice to see you too.” 

“Yes, yes, hello, and how does the peeling I gave you, suit you?”  

I’m really bad at cheating, so I continued without answering: 

“Would you like coffee or tea?” 

“Chamomile tea, please. Did you know that caffeine causes dark circles under the eyes? 

“Really, I thought it was because my kids didn’t sleep well at night, and last night, and last night, and… ” 

“Enjoy your sense of humour, but it won’t help your skin” 

“Why? Did you hear the quote: “Wrinkles will only go where the smiles have been.” 

 “Seriously Marta? You are my friend, so promise me you’ll use it today“.

“If I promise, will we change the subject?” 

“Yes, we will change”. 

     And I promised. But after were again plenty of different tasks during the day. And busy evening with my children bedtime routine and overtired to remember about bloody peeling. 

The next morning, I dropped the kids to the Nursery and applied a magic peeling. And I felt great, so proud of myself I even called Jess but her phone was busy. Minutes after that, there was a delivery from Amazon with new cleaning products, which of course I have to use right away. And the laundry was done, so I hung them up. 3p.m appears so was time to go get the children. And you know, with the children, the evening came and Jess called:  

“Hi Marta,  sorry I didn’t pick up sooner. Marta,  are you there?” 

“Bloody hell!! I have had an enzyme peel on my face since 7am!”  

“You mean 7pm?” 

“Nooo! 7 am” !! 

I hung up and ran to the bathroom with wet eyes. I was so scared of the result, having the peeling all day on my face. But nothing. My mirror shows the same face as the morning, apart from shinier and more fresh, but nothing else. I cleaned my face. Still okay, nothing burns or itches. Thanks God. The side effects didn’t burn my face. 

I called Jess right away but I couldn’t say anything. Laughing and crying at the same time: 

“Marta,  I’m on my way to your house, are you okay?”

After a while I spoke: 

“It’s alright. Don’t worry, I’ll be happy to see you, but I feel ok ” 

“Are you crying or laughing?” 

“Both” 

“Did you finally wash off the peeling? 

“Yes” 

“AND?” 

“Do you ask me if I feel younger? 

“Don’t make fun of it now! Any irritation, rash, burning, itching? 

“Nothing, really nothing. I was shocked, which made me laugh and cry.” 

“Write it down and stick it in the fridge. Next time, around 3 weeks I will put this shit on your face and wash it off, after a glass of wine.”

“What about the rest of the bottle?  

And what does your beauty care look like, Dear Ladies? Better than mine?