Day 11 - January 4, 2011 A Question of Beauty

The quest for beauty is an expensive proposition and there is so much involved with being beautiful on the outside. Creams, powders, exfoliates, foundation, blush, cleanser, buffers, zit cream, eye shadow, eye brow, lip and other body part waxing or plucking. Manicures, pedicures, mud baths, hair color, hair straightening, perms, hair cuts/styles, botox, eye tucks, curling irons, hair straighteners, hair sculpting gel, anti-frizz gel, hair spray, and the list goes on.

I'm not a high-maintenance girl when it comes to my beauty care routine. I wash my face at night after removing my make-up. I brush my teeth, floss and then I'm done. In the morning, I take a shower, wash my hair, put make-up on, dry my hair and I go. Each week I do my nails. Surprisingly, this simple routine requires the following products:

Bathing:
Shampoo
Conditioner
Tree Tea Tingle bath wash (Trader Joe's -- I highly recommend)
Toothbrush
Tooth paste
Dental flossM
Make-up remover
Clearsil face cleansing pads

Hair Care:
Spray conditioner for heat damaged hair
Goop that helps keep my style
Blow dryer
3 different sized round brushes
Hair spray

Make-Up:
Moisturizer w/sun-block 15
Cream foundation in two different colors (to get the perfect blend to match my pastey skin)
Touch base for eyelids (keeps my eye shadow on all day - Clinique product)
Eye shadow in three different colors
Mascara -- lots and lots of mascara
Under-eye cover up -- lots and lots of under-eye cover up

Hands and Feet: (The truth is that I much prefer to go to a nail salon, but in my effort to save money, I am painting my own nails. Oy vey!)
Nail polish remover
Nail polish -- base coat, color, top coat
Cuticle cream
Cuticle clippers
File or emery board
Nail conditioner

That's basically it. My entire beauty care product list. As I said, I'm not high maintenance. But as the month is going on, I'm starting to run out of a few things. First, I'm running out of the spray hair conditioner that I put on my hair everyday. I will definitely run out before the month is over, and I fear that my hair will become unruly and stick straight out like Bozo the Clown's.

I'm also going to run out of the Touch Base product I use to keep my eye shadow on my eyelids the entire day. I have to decide if these products are necessities. If not, what will my hair look like? Will my eyes sans shadow look old and tired? A couple of weeks ago a first grader asked me if I was okay. I replied yes, and wondered why she asked. She said, "Because you have dark circles under your eyes and that isn't good." Mental note to self: go to bed earlier, even it means you miss the Colbert Report. That's why you have a DVR. As it turned out, she had a broken nose a few weeks before and she had black eyes; she thought I had broken my nose because of the dark circles I was sporting.

My hair care routine -- the coloring and cutting -- is something I don't spend a lot of money on, relatively speaking. Relative to the women I know who go to premier salons and pay over $100 every six weeks just on a hair cut! Their color costs upwards of $175.00 each time they have it done. Honestly, are they crazy? I go to the Hair Cuttery and get a perfectly adequate hair cut for $18.00, and when I need color every five months or so, the whole color-and-cut thing costs just over $100. I get so much more for my money. Over the winter break I got my hair cut and I've got a Meg-Ryan sort of spikey, messy look going. Yesterday, on the first day back from break I saw a PreK class, and a little girl in class said, "Ms. Fisher, your hair looks strange." Again, out of the mouth of babes. A person could really develop a complex working with small children! I was relieved today when the 8th grade girls didn't say I looked weird, but in fact said they liked it.

Forget Women's Wear Daily and Glamour magazine, I have the students in my school to set me straight on how I appear every day.

Months ago I gave up manicures and pedicures. I really miss pedicures; to me, a pedicure is like a mini-vacation. It's relaxing and I love the massage. The beauty of smooth feet and perfectly shaped and painted toe nails is incidental to me. Truly, I could make an argument for why pedicures are necessities, but no one would accept the idea that when my toes are beautiful I am smarter. I don't even believe this -- but it sounds better than me telling the truth: pedicures are a necessity because I need a foot massage to feel relaxed. There have been times when I've been sitting in that big, leather comfy chair, having my feet tended to when I've gone into a trance and had to keep from moaning out sheer delight. It's the best when you get a massage of any kind and then don't have to put out. That always ruined the massage for me in the past. Back to necessity vs luxury: It's winter and there is no way I can call a pedicure a necessity. After all, who sees my feet in the winter? Come summer, I might have a prayer of convincing myself and others that a pedicure is a necessity if I'm wearing sandals. Check back with me in June!

My temporary solution to not buying beauty products is I'm using up every last drop of these products. I'm turning the goop upside down so it drains to the opening and I can get every last plop out. I'm using the spray conditioner very sparingly, trying to make it last.

There are some things that have to be considered necessities, but I'll have to wait until I'm totally out of the item before I can justify spending the money.

Money spent today -- Zero.

Yippee,
Karrie