Balm for a Twenty-Six-And-A-Halfth Birthday

Today marked the end of an epoch.

I bought a skin moisturizer which also... sigh... reduces the appearance of fine lines.

When I was in Hyderabad, one of my students said "Madam, you really should put oil on your face, for your wrinkles." (I loved my students' honesty.) He told me that coconut oil was best, and so I diligently applied coconut oil to my face for about a week, until I made the connection between applying coconut oil in the morning and sunburning in the afternoon. Turns out coconut oil was what people used to slather on their bodies in order to achieve those really dark tans. Who knew?

After I returned from India, I was hanging out with a friend and he took a silly picture of me on his digital camera. It was before I broke my toe, and so I was showing off my hard-earned yoga flexibility (incidentally, today was the first day -- after a week of no practice, and then two weeks of one-footed practice -- when I was finally able to once again flatten my back in the seated forward bend).

I looked at the picture. "See, this is the problem," I said. "My face looks older than the rest of my body."

Which it did. Bending in my yoga pose, I looked like Gumby with a bunch of crinkles in his forehead.

Then I noticed this post, at HERstory. Anna's been using Neutrogena Healthy Skin Anti-Wrinkle Cream SPF 15 since her late 20s, and she's gorgeous.

And I'm in my late 20s.

I put it off for a while, since no one really likes thinking about buying wrinkle cream at twenty-six, but I realized the other day that moisturizing my precious face with the same Bath and Body Works Sweet Pea Body Lotion that I use on my elbows is probably not a good idea.

So today I bought a facial moisturizer that -- oh, I couldn't bring myself to buy anything that said "wrinkle cream" on the box, but I did buy one that is designed "to reduce the appearance of fine lines."

It wasn't the Neutrogena, unfortunately, as I don't have that much cash in my pocket (the Bath and Body Works stuff was a gift), but it was a store-brand alternative.

I'll keep you posted as to the results.