The importance of potions and lotions…

Or: the main point isn’t the contents

As a child growing up, I was a tomboy: always out and about, never stopping except to read. We not only didn’t have the money, but potions and lotions weren’t as readily available: we had not yet bought into the thought that we could change our faces, skin etc. with something applied.

We only even had sun screen for those very long days at the beach – once a year, one week.

As a teenager and young adult, the need for such totally escaped me – I continued to hike, play basketball and run around without a thought to my personal “beauty”. Imagine my shock when I went to boarding school to only be told that one should shave one’s legs etc. I was in a boarding school composed mainly of the children of professionals and I had just returned from the carefree environment of Hawaii.

The first time I gave it much thought at all was when my German sister-in-law told me (aged 26 by then) that I should start applying lotion to my face if I wanted to still have good skin at 50. I did, haphazardly. I mean my own mother still had great skin, no wrinkles, no gray hair – and it was such a fiddle to have to remember morning and evening.

Through the years I have been very off and on with the application of potions and lotions, but there are a few products that I have enjoyed.  I have a tendency to give my family and friends those that are more expensive as birthday and Christmas presents – but some of them think that it’s a hint that their whatever isn’t good enough: not true, just I always wanted to get them – they tend to be pricey – so thought that others would also appreciate receiving such. 

This year, my hints worked and for my birthday I got potions and lotions from both sons and one girlfriend (of a son that is).

And have discovered the real reason for such: now when I clean my face at night or apply the day lotion in the morning, I think of A; when I wash or shower, using one of my favorite Occitane products, S; when I apply the hand lotion or use the lavender soap, the other S (yep both boys names start with S). 

My lotions and potions remind me daily of the joy of being surrounded by loving people And, as such, are worth every penny they spent!