During the days when I started earning that kind of money, designer goods were something that I've never thought of having - more so when I had to save up for courses & exam fees. It did help that I'm not the shopping kind...till today retail therapy is not my kind of thing. I dread shopping for clothes & will only do so out of necessity.
I guess everyone has his/her own little luxuries - if others splurge on clothes, food, expensive hobbies etc, my weakness is skincare items.
Thanks to Mom (who wouldn't think twice about buying a RM500 jar of cream with her hairstylist pay - and this was like 20 yrs ago) who shortly before my 21st bday, freaked out at the sudden acne breakout that I had & dragged me to the nearest aesthetician for treatment. For the next few months I endured what was probably some of the most excruciatingly painful moments of my younger life. I was started on a skincare regime back then & 20 yrs on, I've moved from a clarifying/deep cleansing regime to a hydrating/lifting one. Nobody believed that I had a bad breakout before....so Mom had really done the right thing for me.
In fact I've now outdone Mom on the range of skincare that we each own. I wouldn't wanna put on print the amount of moolah that I've spent on skincare over the past 10 years...it's way too obscene an amount but to me, it's $$$ well spent.
My current aesthetician is probably the best advertiser I've ever met. She's touching 50 but has skin of someone hitting 30 - no kidding. It does help that she can afford to use copious amounts of her own products, and let me tell you - the tai-tai's & high flying clients of hers buy by the dozens.
The latest product that she (successfully) coaxed me into buying is this timed-release Vit C serum (we all know that Vit C is very volatile but the Japs have found a way of encapsulating it to last more than 2 yrs). Dubbed the Miracle fluid, it purportedly works up to 12 hours per application..... "increasing elasticity & firmness of skin", "lightening pigmentation", "creates a flawless skin texture", "revitalises tired skin" & possibly everything else you want your skin to look like - she claimed that it even worked on her boobs. One of her clients actually used it on her butt (????!!) and swore that it became firmer.
For something that cost me RM700 for a palm-sized 4-inch tall bottle (and I bought more than a few bottles), it had better work or else I'll sue her for product misrepresentation.
It's a miracle alright....how my credit card balance suddenly shot up by the thousands....After a month's use I could see that those claims of flawless skin texture & revitalised skin were to a large extent true - all the 14-hour days that I've put in at work didn't make me look like an old hag.
In a society where looks are everything, could a luxury actually be a necessity?
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