Weekend beauty routine

As I've matured and wisened, I've learnt that taking care of me is not actually an act of selfishness or vanity as I was lead to believe by some selfish souls in the distant past, but an act of self love and care. Sarah Ban Breanach gave us all permission to look after ourselves in her book Simply Abundance.  If you have a hard time taking care of yourself or giving yourself permission to take care of yourself, I'd   suggest reading her book.

    

The wiser and maturer I'm getting, the more strict I am about my self care.  I admit that I was fairly lazy in my younger years to take care of my skin and today I sorely regret it.  Most often we women seem to need permission to take care of ourselves, to feel that we are worth the 'cost' of a good night cream, exfoliator, day cream or facial.  We feel we're being selfish or wasteful by spending money on it when the children, the husband, the house or pets are all needing something, so we tend to sacrifice our self care for their care.  But in reality, I think its such an intense form of self love that it frightens us, and unless we are taught or learn that we are worth it, we tend to fight it for years.

I now have a weekend routine that usually takes place on either a Saturday or Sunday morning.  I go the whole nine yards.  I start by first putting on a gentle exfoliator which I follow with the Placecol Anti-aging mask.  I absolutely love the Placeol mask, its soft and leaves your skin feeling like its that of a 16 yearold.  I exfoliate my arms, legs and feet before hopping in the shower.  I take a lovely relaxing shower followed by a good 15 minutes with the epilator ... some days it can be torture depending on sensitive I'm feeling.  I buff my feet and then lather them with my Justine Moisture-lock heel balm, which is a daily activity.  I file my toenails and nails and I pluck my eyebrows.  All the bits of me get a little loving.  Yesterday I added in colouring my hair which I try to do about once a month, but sometimes I put it  off and put it off- it was about 4 weeks past due and the roots were looking bad.  I quickly got it done before Schatz headed out to the bike shop so that he could check for spillages.

I try to do another exfoliate and mask mid-week, reading most of the products suggest twice a week. I do find though that the regular deep cleanse makes my skin look and feel fabulous and I have way less whiteheads and blackheads than I did when I was younger.

Now that its Spring, I also need to add the painting of my toenails.  In winter, since I wear closed shoes all the time, I don't usually paint them, but now since summer is here, its an addition to my routine.  Taryn used to paint them for me often and I so miss that little pampering.

Well gals, thats my post for this morning.  If you haven't read Sarah's book, do consider it, its a wonderfully comforting daybook with some interesting activities.

Have a stunning Saturday
Wendy