Good Now vs. Good Later

I was so warm and snuggly in bed this morning, sound asleep under many blankets. I knew it was snowing and as Mom slept next to me, I was sure we were going to spend the entire day in bed. Who wants to go out in the yucky, cold, wet snow? Not me. Just like my girl Pearly, I do not like to get my tootsies wet. I'll get out of bed when the snow melts.

All of a sudden I felt Mom start to move. No! Go back to sleep!. The next thing I know, she's out of bed, running around like a mad woman. What is going on? I hear Mom yell "Get up Stubby. Time to go out and make poopy." Maybe if I pretend to be in a deep sleep she will just get back in bed and go back to sleep. Nope. She wasn't falling for it as she yelled "Let's go dude. I've got to hit the road or I'll be late for my appointment."

Where could Mom possibly be going in a blizzard? What could be so important that she has to leave the house when the weathermen are telling people to stay off the roads? Why can't she just stay in bed? All of a sudden I'm out of bed, out in the cold, and Mom is off to her appointment. Come back Mom!

Mom had an appointment for a facial this morning that she wasn't going to miss come hell or high water. She hasn't had a facial in a long time. For those of you who don't know, Mom was in a beach accident back in 2005. She received 30 stitches in her forehead and ever since then she has been afraid to have anything done to her face. That is until now. She has been complaining that her skin looks dull, feels dull, etc. So she scheduled an exfoliating facial for today, of all days.

So how did the facial go? Mom looked the same to me when she got home except that her face was a bit shiny. Not shiny like get my sunglasses shiny, just shiny like smooth. She told me that she already felt better but that she was given some product samples that she would probably never use.

Don't ask me why Mom had to put the products on my back to take a picture of them (I was napping next to her). These are samples of the products the esthetician used on her. I know what you are thinking - why would you let someone use these products on you? This is exactly what I asked her. Her answer - it's complicated.

Mom found an eco-friendly spa last year where she has been getting pedicures. She likes the spa's concept - it's LEED certified and they only use 'green' products - but she hasn't had the best service there so she didn't want to go there for a facial. She gets her eyebrows done at a different spa that isn't very eco-friendly, but she loves the esthetician so she decided to get her facial there.

Back to the products. Mom is not familiar with the dermalogica brand, so the first place she went to check them out was the Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database. As luck would have it, only one of the samples Mom was given was listed. The skin smoothing cream had a score of 7 (out of 10). There is so much bad stuff in this product including several parabens. Yuck! The lower the score the better and since Mom tries to avoid all products with a score higher than 3, these samples will go unused.

All this facial stuff got me thinking - is it worth it to use products that contain harmful chemicals so that you can look good now? Or are you better off searching for and and using products that don't work that great but that don't contain harmful chemicals? This is the classic risk versus reward. I personally think Mom looks okay and since I want her around for a long time, I think she shouldn't use products that contain harmful chemicals. Maybe she just needs to do more research to find a spa that meets her needs. She may have to travel a little bit further to get to a great spa but it will be worth it. On second thought, maybe she should just give up on looking good so that she can spend more time with me.