Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Me and My Yves Saint Laurent Mask Are Doing Fine, Thank You

It's odd when an impulse purchase is spurred by your brother's disapproval for not spending enough money. But that's exactly what happened to me after my brother decided that leaving Macy's with a new pair of socks just would not cut it for the day.

While economizing is all the vogue, holding a flimsy shopping bag with the least expensive item in the store doesn't really provide much "retail therapy." (Has everyone forgotten this magnificent phrase and taken up a black Puritan's hat? Not I.) Within fifteen minutes of my brother's "you-can't-leave-with-just-socks" pep talk, the words Yves Saint Laurent appeared like a flash in the sky.

Soon I was reviewing my options at the YSL cosmetics counter with a gentlemanly, turtlenecked salesperson who inspected my skin and began recommending many fancy products. And that is how I ended up with a graceful blue tube of Yves Saint Laurent Pur Instant Pur mask with special Himalayan Blue Poppy water. The purifying mask has a light fragrance and the color of the goop matches the packaging of the box and the tube. At $37, it sure isn't for St. Ives, but anything French (poems, scarves, boys) makes me forget all reason.

As for the Himalayan blue poppy part (a little freaky, no?), I think Himalayan ingredients, like Kombucha drink, have become all the rage. Everyone's doing it. And my impression is this Himalayan blue poppy can thrive in 7 degree weather, whereas I need a wool sweater when it's 65 degrees out. Yes, my darling tube of blue YSL mask will probably outlast me and Frances McDormand on a bitter December night. Maybe we shall plant the tube on an arid mountaintop with bitter soil (the preferred environment of this strain of poppy) after it is finished perfecting my skin.

Not much other news to relate. Gotta dash to an island pronto!