Be a Savvy Shopper With Smooth, Smooth Skin
I believe strongly in treating yourself to nice things, but that is completely pointless if you're not actually going to use those nice things. Say you're a skincare addict with a limited budget, but you save up for La Mer moisturizer. Once you have it, though, you use it so sparingly, it's practically pointless. Something that you're meant to be enjoying and using is now something that you worry about saving for a special occasion, or being stingy about using. In my opinion, that's just not right. I think you should treat yourself, but only up to the point where you'll actually use your treat the way it was meant to be used. I would be stingy with La Mer moisturizer, when my true nature when it comes to moisturizer is to unscrupulously coat my face with it. This is why I tend to walk the middle ground with skincare. I would love to buy a pricy mask or face wash, but I wouldn't feel comfortable just washing it off, and anyway, I'm perfectly happy with Origins Charcoal Mask and Cetaphil. Which brings me to body moisturizer - it's an area where I like to get a little fancier than I think is strictly necessary, but I do it on my own terms.
Quick recap for those of you who don't know, or who haven't read the about page (no one reads that, but it's still there, FYI): I have a few medical conditions, one of which is fibromyalgia. Fibro has many symptoms, and for me, one symptom is tight, uncomfortable skin. It'll feel like my skin is two sizes too small, which, as you might image, is rather uncomfortable. I noticed a few years ago that a way to make sure this pain was lessened was to make sure I kept my skin super moisturized. I had to force myself to make a habit of it - I never cared for my skin beyond that on my face before - so I actually made it a New Year's resolution to apply body moisturizer after showering every night. After about a month or two, it became a fully formed habit. I started with a simple moisturizer I got at Target - whatever I'd use when I remembered to use body moisturizer. Then, once I was sure this habit was sticking, I upgraded to a fancier body butter. I love Soap & Glory's Original Pink Scent, so I tried their body butter and loved it - the price tag*, however, I didn't love so much. I needed something that I could apply with reckless abandon and not stress about the cost of replacing. A new fancy schmancy body butter with a more manageable price point quickly jumped to the top of my shopping list.
*Quick programming note: At the time Soap & Glory was sold exclusively at Sephora. Now they've revamped their business model in the US and their products are sold on Drugstore.com, and at stores like Walgreens and Target. The prices on all products are approximately half what they were when they were sold at Sephora.
I had heard great things about The Body Shop's body butters, and I'd also seen them for sale at my local Marshall's and TJ Maxx. It was a great way to try out a $20 product for $6. I bought a tub of body butter in the most plain and simple variety I could find (Marshall's and TJ's seem to stock a lot of scents like raspberry and coconut, and I don't like smelling like food) and took it home to give it a try. I was immediately in love. The formula was so rich, but it absorbed quickly, so I didn't feel like a sticky mess for hours after application. Plus, the body butter promised 24 hours of moisturizing power, and it actually delivered. My skin didn't feel uncomfortably tight at all during the day. I officially became a Body Shop body butter addict.
The only downside was that The Body Shop's body butters sold for $20 each, and they were the same size as the Soap & Glory butter that I'd deemed too pricy (I think that one was $26 at the time). I did have Marshall's and TJ Maxx to fall back on though, so I just kept buying body butter from discount retailers. That worked for awhile, but I wished I had the full scent range that The Body Shop offered. Then I learned how to make The Body Shop work for me. See, what I didn't realize was that you should never be paying full price at The Body Shop (it's like The Gap that way). There will always be a buy 3, get 3 free sale coming up in the very near future, which means you get six body butters for $10 each, which conveniently enough, is exactly what I think they're worth. Granted, you need to actually want to buy six body butters, and want to spend $60 in one go. I have used this deal to try out a few scents, realize that my all-time favorite is shea butter, and now a few times a year, when it's buy 3, get 3 free time, I buy 6 shea body butters for $60 with free shipping. I end up looking like a true blue psycho when I unpack that box, but I've got my stock of body butter replenished, so I'm happy - no matter how much shade my judgy roommate throws my way.
