It is time for... {At the Spa}

...for a mask! A beauty mask, not the Zorro kind of carnival mask, what were you thinking, I wonder (I know what your were thinking: Antonio Banderas, that is what).

This is what I told myself when finally letting go all the stress and tension of the heavy week gone by; nothing serious, just hectic and very practical sides of life taking over the little magic in the small things and words - so nothing a beauty mask couldn't solve. The result is devastating though: I feel (and look, trust me) more like the beast than the beauty.

Not that I believe in magical rebirth and rejuvenating effects after applying anything onto my face, but what the craving for such a spoiling treatment reveals is rather the need to do oneself good and stop acting (running, calling, printing, writing, calculating, debating and the likes).

Just stop and breathe.

With a smile on my tired face, I hopped to the tiny bathroom to grab the only mask around the place, for ages now it has been the same. I use it maybe once a month, absolutely not based on a regular or professional (ha ha ha) schedule but simply on a sudden feeling or spur of the moment. Most of the times it would be after one of my memorable gym sessions followed by a some-like-it-hot sauna... Total bliss of the mind and body.

Horror awaits me in the bathroom: the beauty mask, the one and only, has alreay been packed away and is sneering at me from its hideout, 500 Km away from here. Horror, I tell you.

But not for long: there is always a plan B - see, moving and battling for it teaches you something that may turn useful in more everyday-like situations, nothing is wasted. The sample box we keep around the apartment for mini versions of products we use loosely in larger than life versions is still around. Right now it looks like a treasure box to me. Amid the most incredible samples, I spot one that looks friendly enough and can make my evening: Masque ultra-confort karité coton de l'Occitane (it is an addiction).

Never tried. It is time for a new skin experience. Here I go then around the half empty apartment, white-faced and smelling like...like...nothing. The mask is perfumeless and it is very pleasantly so. I have no idea at this stage if my skin will enjoy it in the end, but it does not itch, feels very smooth, rich and above all, it is helping me to unwind, completely...

Time for the week-end. Enjoy and try a mask.

Credits: Unknown and L'Occitane