My santa shared two of her favorite pleasures with me - subscription boxes and indie bath and beauty supplies. I have a large tub, and I LOVE bathing, but I have a hard time justifying the expense of truly nice beauty products, and as an overworked teacher, I am often overwhelmed by intertia and laziness, preferring the easier option of doing nothing to making the effort to do the things I love. This gift reminded me of the importance of putting forth the effort to make myself happy, and I am truly grateful for it.

I opened the package on Sunday morning and decided that I’d have a real, good, long bath that evening. Something about having this experience to look forward to made me want to adjust my life to be more in line with the person I imagined doing it. The first thing I wanted to do was neaten up my bathroom - a ten minute job (plus a little bit of laundry) that made the whole room seem calmer and more feminine. I put all of my new vials and bottles into a basket so that I can see them on the counter without feeling cluttered.

My only chore on Sunday is vacuuming the house, and I usually dread it and more than occasionally skip it. However, I didn’t feel like a woman who indulged in fancy baths would have a dingy floor, and for some reason, the task didn’t seem that overwhelming this time. (And it’s not. It takes less than 20 minutes.) Having finished, I was able to enjoy the fact that my home looked fresh, and this was hours before bed and bathtime.

After supper, I usually just do some mindless redditing or facebooking until I’m sleepy, but Fancy Bath Girl is a very different person from Elementary School Teacher on a Sunday Night. I thought about what kinds of things I’m always wishing I had the time and energy to do, and I remembered that I had a package of spontaneously purchased rice noodles - one of my favorite restaurant foods, but not something I know how to make at home. I did a tiny bit of research and then spent the evening making a cold noodle salad for my lunch today. Afterwards, I read a bit of my book club book, and then finally it was late enough in the evening that I could reasonably consider bath-and-then-bed.

The First Bath

I put aside my book club book and grabbed a romantic adventure novel, set out two clean towels, and mentally thanked myself for running all the bath mats through the wash earlier in the day. I took out the two hair ties and put my hair into two looped side-ponytails. The effect was kind of funny, but it kept my hair dry and clean.

I decided to start with the pink heart shaped melt. As promised, it made the water smell amazing along with my skin, which also got really soft and moisturized. As my Santa said, I was basically bathing in lotion. I had a nice long soak, and the characters in my novel had some thrilling times.

After the bath I decided to try the facial cleansing oil from Fortune Cookie Soap. A loud voice in my head protested, “You can’t wash your face in OIL!!! That’s WEIRD!!!” But my pedantic book nerd side remembered that Elphaba washed with oil in the book Wicked, so obviously it was a Thing That Could Be Done. Like everything else I got, the oil smelled ridiculously, eyes-roll-back-in-your-head good, and I was pleased to find that my face felt decently clean afterwards.

I wore one of the warming eye masks to bed, slightly freaking out about how stinking adorable it was. (My husband was already asleep, so he could not offer a dissenting opinion.)

THE NEXT MORNiNG My face did not feel oily or greasy, and it had not erupted in blemishes, so yay on that. But the REALLY amazing thing was that it needed nothing in the way of moisturizer. My face usually feels a little tight after my morning wash up, but today it didn’t. I expected to regret the decision, but I skipped the moisturizer this morning. I never noticed the lack of it, and at the end of the day now, I think my face still looks better conditioned than it does with my usual routine. I think I’m hooked on this oil cleanser thing.

THE FUTURE

I’ve decided to sign up for Fortune Cookie Soap’s subscription box for myself. For one thing, I am so grateful that my Santa was so generous in introducing me to independent companies (which are SO much more luxurious than my usual drugstore brands) that it made me want to support the companies she loves myself. For another, I’ve realized how big a change just a few small luxuries can have on my mindset. It seems hyperbolic to say that one nice gift has changed my life, but I certainly have had a more productive and generally happier past 48 hours than I think I would have if I hadn’t gotten this amazing box of things!