Of Anti-Aging Products and Make-Up

Song of the Moment: Cherry Lips by Garbage

Do you have a beauty regimen?

I do. In fact, I think my beauty regimen is a lot more complicated than most. I don’t really tell a lot of people about the beauty regimen I’ve developed for myself. Plus, I don’t necessarily bring this regimen with me when I travel, so this elaborate ceremony has never been witnessed by anyone else except myself. But when I’m at home, I really do pull out all the stops and devote a lot of time to this tedious process.

Here’s the ridiculous process I engage in every evening before I sleep and every morning while getting ready for work:

1. Face Shop Facial Wash + Pond’s Facial Wash (I normally do two facial washes --- one facial wash for pre-shower, one DURING my shower. Don’t ask me why because I don’t know either.
2. Face Shop Skin Toner
3. Pond’s Whitening Cream
4. Skincode Radiance Moisturizer
5. Boots No7 Restore and Renew Beauty Serum
6. Boots No7 Reviving Eye Gel + Clarins Eye Revive Beauty Flash (I use two kinds of eye cream too.)
7. Oxy-10 Vanishing Formula, if necessary
8. Kiehl’s Nourishing Cream + Udderly Smooth Udder Cream (I use either of the two for my feet, hands, elbows, etc.)
9. Boots Body Sculpting Cream (Targeted Areas Only)
10. Boots Stretchmark Corrector (Targeted Areas Only)
11. Jergens Skin Moisturizer (For the Entire Body)
12. DAY Only: Bath & Body Skin Moisturizer (Targeted Areas Only)
13. DAY Only: Bath & Body or Victoria's Secret Body Splash
14. DAY Only: YSL Baby Doll Perfume

I patiently abide by this process, hoping that this meticulous undertaking will be my ticket to looking young for a very long time. (And with fingers crossed, I hope that my sister keeps leaving slightly consumed bottles/containers of beauty creams for me to finish. Thanks, Ate!)

Anyway, this is where it gets weird. After applying one beauty cream after another, I involve myself in a slightly shorter process of applying make-up to make myself look “older”:

1. Liquid Foundation
2. Powder Foundation
3. Eye Shadow (Cream or Powder)
4. Liquid Eye Liner
5. Blush
6. Lip Balm + Lipstick + Lip Gloss
7. Concealer + Powder Foundation

So I actually make so much effort to slow down the aging process, but nevertheless toil through a similar amount of energy to look older than my age. It blows my mind, now that I’m realizing it. What do I really want to do with my face? Make myself look younger or older?

Metaphorically, this weird beauty regimen is my illustration of how people can get fixated with the past and the future, and totally forget that they are living in the now. Now that I’m thinking about it, perhaps my age is just the right age. I look old enough, but I still manifest a vibrant youth. I don’t need to cling on to my baby face years, neither do I have to aspire to be someone I’ll only become in due time. And this face is all I have, right at this very moment… that’s all that matters.

But that metaphor up there could just be an overreading of things. My beauty regimen is just a curious thing I do without any explanations. I’m just weird like that sometimes.

That's my army right there. Hehehe.