i feel pretty

day-to-day maintenance

i've found that when i'm good to my skin, i can get away with a lot more. specifically, i managed to make it through my pregnancy and the early part of motherhood looking pretty and civilized.

skin

i've gone through more than my share of fancy, outrageously priced potions and lotions for my face. what i've found is that i have combination skin, and an allergy to a lot of the perfumes that go into the high-end face products.

i swear by Noxzema. the original kind. it smells of medicine which i find refreshing. i keep a giant tub of it in the bathroom, and keep a little one in my diaper bag. at the end of every day, i cover my face in Noxzema and leave it on for a minute before rinsing it off.
then i use a cotton ball dowsed in witch hazel to get anything that the Noxzema may have missed. just plain old witch hazel, you can pick it up for almost nothing at any drugstore on the continent.
after that comes another cotton ball, this one soaked in this evil blue astringent. i've grown partial to Clean & Clear Sensitive Skin Astringent. i only use it once a day because it's a little drying.
last but not least is moisturizer. i use Pond's. this is another once a day thing because it's really too much for my skin to take.

i'm sure it seems like a lot, but i put my skin through hell on a daily basis. this is the least that i can do.

hair

i just cut off all my hair. i'm not bald or anything, but it's really short. i don't really do that much to it anymore. because years of hair blowing and curling iron and products galore has pretty much fried it. i'm very into Dove shampoo and conditioner because they really moisturize and they smell good. and i use Pantene Pro-V Relaxed and Natural daily moisturizer because i'm black and otherwise my hair will become like straw and fall out. not pretty.

body

i have so many lotions and potions in my bathroom it's insane. my body wash is one of the new ones by Ivory (it smells of honey). otherwise i use baby bath. as far as moisturizers, what i use is directly related to my mood.

if i'm feeling particularly glamourous but not really going anywehere, i'll use baby oil that i've mixed with Egyptian Goddess/Egyptian Musk perfume oil. i also use this when i'm not wearing any perfume or using any other scented things.
when i'm going out, i use Jergen's Soft Shimmer lotion. it smells ghastly, but it's got little flecks of gold glitter in it. i didn't think i'd like it as much as i do with the gold thing, but it looks really good with my skin tone. and it doesn't look like i'm headed to a disco or anything, it's very subtle.
now that it's getting colder, i can't rely on the fancy things so much. so i'm using Eucerin for dry skin (which i have). it's unscented and it works really well too.

lifestyle

i'm a pescovegetarian. which means that i eat seafood. i eat lots and lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. i try to avoid junk food (mostly because i'm bigger around the middle than i'd like to be). i don't really diet per se; i just try to eat healthy foods and in slightly smaller portions. so far it's working.

i drink a lot of water. enough that i could float away. and i drink hot tea. i try not to drink a lot of soda. and i only drink coffee when i go out.

i hate exercising. it bores me. i take Alexandre out in his stroller whenever the weather permits, and we go for daily walks without the stroller. i bellydance occasionally as well. but more often than not, i just dance around like a crazy person (right now it's to the new album by Devildriver)