spa demons

Melania Trump is my secret crush, just when I think that nobody could be more vacuous, she reveals hidden shallows, despite this, I am hopelessly fascinated by her.  Possibly it is because I do not envy the lifestyle in any way; all that gold leaf, fake louis XIV and all that Donald Trump.  But we love a Cinderella story and Melania certainly fits the paradigm.  I applaud anyone who can live their life with total conviction.  My life is a daily dither, questioning every tiny detail of everything that I do.  But Melania is very clear about her goals and aspirations and is 100% sure of every choice she makes. Her Youtube appearances chatting about her hideous (although my 8 year-old-magpie-eyed inner self secretly would wear the diamonte and turquoise inspired by Versailles) jewellery range are quite something to behold.  Her comments about New York, Palm Beach and Paris being the only places in the world, pretty much says it all.
This picture is shot at the Ritz spa in Paris, it is how I aspire to look on a spa day, relaxed, happy and relishing all that pampering.
I have never been a good spa goer, I have perservered, but have succeeded in a grand total of two facials and three manicures in my life. I once had a massage but left half way through as the therapist said she could feel me getting tenser as the minutes ticked by.  It is the time to think, my mind whirrs and all I can think about is getting out to make a start on whatever plan I have hatched.  As for the manicures, the first coat was like torture and the prospect of a second one too much to bear.
And so as part of my new regime of slowing down and savouring life, I have a few spa days booked with friends in order to overcome my bete noir.
I have invested in some suitable attire, namely an orange one piece (I am taking no risks on getting any of this wrong), which was tougher to track down than would be imagined. I found one, it was a size 14, and the size snob in me wanted to send it back, but actually it fits like a glove.  These are before and after shots of my fake tanning, there is trickery with the light since it is am and pm, but it does show the tan quite well.  I look a little more two weeks in the Caribbean than a weekend in St Tropez.

I am trying out a new formula for a friend of mine who is slightly altering his range, it gives a great colour and smells sublime, quite heady like an expensive fragrance from Caron or Fragonard.  I love it but am not sure about how much mass appeal it will have.

Apparently Gisele Bundchen uses the current formulation and she positively glows so this is one treatment that I will keep up.