Mr K: What did you get up today?
Me: Ah… not a lot. I went out for a wander around the shops but that’s about it.
Mr K: Did you buy anything?
Me: Hmmm… soap.
Mr K: Is that all.
Me: Yeah… Just soap.
I blame it on Bluddy Mary. I went to visit her last year and she had this lovely soap in her bathroom. It was made by Mor and I think it was some Olive/Fig concoction and it was really nice on the skin. So today I saw some in the shops and though I’d buy myself some. It was then that I discovered the stuff is $19.95. Yes that is $19.95 for ONE bar of soap. Nevertheless I spent several minutes smelling soaps (some of which were so heavily scented they nearly bought tears to your eyes) and finally chose one that smelled of vanilla, jasmine and maybe a little citrus – called the ‘Belladonna’ flavour (though I’m not sure if soaps come in ‘flavours’… blah neither here nor there). But trust me to prefer the scent of the one with a name evocative of either a deadly poisonous plant or a well known hard core porn actress. (link potentially inappropriate for work depending on your place of work of course). So on what was maybe my second visit to a cosmetics counter at a department store this year… I bought me a bar of ridiculous expensive soap*.
As it happens I am one of those customers that the over coiffed, over perfumed and heavily made up chickies at the cosmetics counter throw up their hands in horror at. For when they ask me what products I use for my ‘skin care / beauty regime’ I usually offer a single word answer “Soap”. They look at you like you’re from another planet: “What no cleansers? No moisturisers? No toners? Facial scrubs? Anti-aging wrinkle cream? Rejuvenating this? Ceratin that? Oh my God do you know what you’re doing to your skin???”
Nope. I don’t really know and I don’t really care. On the rare past occasions when I have actually purchased some of that stuff I hardly ever use it! Maybe it’s because I’m a bit lazy in that department, but the big cosmetics companies never made a great deal of money out of me. In fact I doubt I’d spend $200 per annum on cosmetics (excluding nail polish of course). I tend to have a few tried and true products that I like and I don’t wear make up every day so they tend to last quite a while.
I guess I’m just not as much of a girlie girl as some.
*I’m not sure if I could actually hand over $20 cash for a bar of soap without having some sort of outraged internal coniption at the concept, but somehow using a giftcard I’ve had stashed in my wallet for several months made it ‘okay’.
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