Beauty at the Beach (aka How I'll Create My Own Personal Spa Week)

This is the time of year that I pull out all the stuff I don’t always have time to indulge in during "regular life;" the things I look at and think “I’m going to use that this weekend,” but then the weekend comes and I’m driving kids around and it doesn’t happen. I’m headed to the beach in a few days and I have a bunch of things I plan to use while relaxing and reading a book.The first thing is Londontown Kur Restorative Nail Cream. Londontown’s nail cream comes with cotton gloves. I’ll smother my nails and cuticles in the cream, slather on my favorite hand cream (Deborah Lippmann Rich Girl), and then slide the gloves on. The heat outside will make the cuticle and hand cream melt into my skin and nails and they will be incredibly moisturized three chapters later. I’ll have plenty of time to do my nails and I’ll have to decide which Lippmann or Londontown polish I’m taking with me. There are so many gorgeous new shades to choose from, but I think I’ll take Londontown Summer Fling or Deborah Lippmann’s Cake by the Ocean. Maybe I’ll take both and do my toes in one and my fingernails in the other.At the same time, I’ll be using one of my favorite hair masks, Soul Food by Amika. Wet hair from the ocean will get smothered with Amika’s Soul Food Hair Mask and tied up in my SHHowercap. My hair will be deeply nourished and brush out like butter the next day. One thing I have realized from using the SHHowercap and the Aquis hair turban is that those little hairs at the crown of my head that used to plague me have significantly diminished. These are the dozens of hairs that my stylist used to call baby hairs. Turns out, they weren’t. They were broken, damaged hairs. I wasn’t caring for my hair properly. Drying my hair quickly with the Aquis turban and wearing a proper shower cap has reduced the number of small hairs at my part threefold.I also want to take my favorite face mask of the moment, Fresh’s Black Tea Firming Overnight Mask. My face never feels as good as when I wash that mask off after wearing it overnight. My face is a bit raw at the moment from testing a new retinol product so it can really benefit from a few nights of this mask. Don’t misunderstand, the retinol product is AH-MAZING! More on that soon. The problem is I didn’t read the directions. I KNOW, I KNOW! This is a common theme with me. What can I say? I always think I know best. Well, obviously I don’t. The good news is that by the time it’s in the store, I do. I may often learn the hard way, but I learn.I plan on enjoying all this pampering on my vacation. It’ll be like my own personal spa week.