I'm a collector - of books, of art supplies, of projects and of cosmetics. I subscribe to a monthly and a quarterly box that brings these treasures to my home. And, I have every intention of using it all - the deep cleansing masques, the smoky eye shadow and those nifty patches to remove your under eye bags, But time and words pull me away.
It appears I'm also a collector of days off and then some. My day job offers an unusual perk - an added 4 weeks off on top of my every burgeoning pile of days off. So after much planning, procrastinating, pushing, and finally jumping - I'm officially on "renewal." I stacked some days off on the back end, so five weeks off to do whatever I want. Writing is on the list. Cooking marvelous meals during the week is on the list. Organizing is on the list. Traveling to the extent that I can do so safely at the moment is on the list. And, self-care. I plan to learn how to use the little rollers, and all those interesting tools that come into my mailbox. And I plan to relax.
I can see it already, the under eye bags will be gone, the skin will be toned, my eyebrows waxed and shaped, nails done and my eyes will look just smoky enough upon my return to full-time employment. Uh, well maybe not. I think there's a learning curve. Then there's the problem with relaxing, but we'll get back to that in a minute.
In one of my subscriptions recently I received a pink tool. Flat, made of some sort of plastic and shaped a bit like a misshapen flower - Gua Sha facial tool. The instructions said to scrape and massage upward all over my face for about 10-20 minutes a day. Scraping and massaging seem diametrically opposed to me, but I'll give it a try. Ten to 20 minutes sounds a bit longer than my attention span most days, so I'll start with five minutes. But first I'll have to look up one of those beauty influencers on YouTube or TikTok, I see much of my precious time off disappearing under tons of research to use one tool. We haven't even talked about the Rose and Jade face rollers yet.
I also received a cuticle masque, a targeted under-eye masque and a 24-K gold masque. That seems like a lot of time sitting around waiting for masques to dry. Yes, I know that's the point, right. I'm supposed to lie there and relax and enjoy the treatment. Now, in the interest of full disclosure I'm not a stranger to the pampering effects of a good aesthetician spending an hour giving me a facial, complete with steam and masques. Covid-19 has sidelined those treatments, so this will be my first attempt at the DIY pampering. I could probably listen to a podcast - two birds and all that, which brings us back to relaxing.
I made a list for this period of renewal. Projects to finish, recipes to try, things to do. My husband says that is defeating the purpose. We'll see. I think my plan will work because relax is on my to-do list, and I always finish my to-do lists.
I'll let you know how it's going in a week. Til then, I'm off to scrape and massage.