A friend and I made a date to catch up and she suggested we go to Inscape. I’d never heard of it; turns out it’s a meditation lounge. A noise desert smack in the middle of NYC.
I walked in to Inscape after a very hectic day at work and instantly dropped my voice into a whisper, like I do when I walk into a library. The spacious layout, neural colors and plush furniture made the space welcoming. The staff was warm and the vibe was mellow.
Dry lips drive me crazy. The last thing I do at night is slather balm on my lips because I cannot fall asleep if my lips are dry. I rarely ever leave home with out “lip stuff” as I call it. To say I am obsessed, my be an understatement.
A few weeks ago, I noticed that my lips were consistently dry and chapped. The creases in my lips had deepened and my skin felt taut. I tried to combat by moisturizing a little extra. I used Vaseline (my go to), Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Intensive Repair Balm (SO GOOD), lip scrubs… didn’t work. I tried sloughing off the dry skin but nothing really worked for long. I thought maybe it was my matte lipstick so I stopped using it for a while (a very painful decision) but that didn’t help either! What tipped me off that something was really wrong is that my lips were not absorbing moisture. Anything I applied just sat on top of my skin; the tight and dry feeling remained no matter what I did. I got so frustrated that I went to my dermatologist, Dr. Mack, to get some insight.
I consider myself to be a pretty good saver. I started earning my own money when I was about 9 because my mom owned a salon and she would give me little jobs to do. Each job had a corresponding pay rate and at the end of the week I would tally all of the jobs I did and my mom would pay me. I loved the feeling of having my own money. I liked planning how to spend it too! Clothes, ice cream and books were my treasures of choice. My mom let me enjoy it for a while but then she hit me with her one of her philosophies about money (there would be many more after that), “buy what you need before you get what you want.” So for me that meant vocabulary books before clothes, lunch before slap bracelets and science project materials before movie tickets.