No matter where or how long i’m traveling, i always have to check my luggage. i have the hardest time departing without my full-sized body and skin care essentials and i cannot quite elicit the same comfort from one ounce miniatures.
i once picked a fight with johnny after landing in la still teary eyed from showing up too late to check my things the way i had intended, having to toss a 32-ounce bottle of paula’s choice cleanser. pre-check couldn’t save me.
he’d known what happened and had 5 hours to replace the goods before my flight landed from new york, but, instead, he greeted me on arrival with sashimi from sugarfish… i couldn’t imagine how he could be so dense, but men are not made for imagining with.
“i cannot skip my beauty regimens on vacation,” i dully explained to him. i had no consideration for sushi and i couldn’t wash my face with his diptyque hand soap, so, naturally, the relationship fizzled from the humming sense of resentment i was feeling.
i’ve, since, learned to stop putting so much trust and emphasis on having my needs met by men and depend on my own innate sense for self-preservation.
when I feel I have run out of explanatory language, I find my respite in the quiet of my day and night time regimens. Skin is such an integral component of the way the body is represented, and it can be a significant pain point for some of us.
While wellbeing and beauty are not exactly synonymous, it is nice to have the kinds of practices and resources that may unify the two– having the privilege of excusing yourself from any external perception for a moment– returning to the place within: where you go to make yourself a woman.
