The Yin and Yang of My Make-Up Bag

Earlier this year I spent a lot of time working with my amazing friends Leslie and Kate (a.k.a. my health gurus) to help me get my mind/body/soul in top shape in anticipation of the big 40 later this year. Those brilliant ladies taught me all sorts of good stuff, much of which, believe it or not, I actually still do (i.e the copious amounts of water with lemon every morning, the body brushing, the breathing exercises, the limiting of sugar, the  moving around more, the stretching, the gratitude practice, the vitamins and probiotics). 

But amid all the guidance, the thing that seems to have been the most useful is the idea of balance and moderation that they espoused. The 80% rule if you will. It's hard to live clean; I'm not gonna lie. I have vices -- like chocolate and ice cream and gin and tonics with extra lime and hairspray (Elnett is my drug of choice). So to offset "the bad," Leslie and Kate promote the idea that you need to temper it with a lot of good. So I now religiously use organic skin care products (I'm crazy about everything from One Love Organics) to atone for my big, gold can of strong hold magic. The trick is deciding what's really, really worth keeping and then ditching the rest for stuff that's good for you. Easy, right??

Well, not so much... Friends, I'm having an awfully hard time with the contents of my makeup bag. 

Let's do a little inventory: there's the Laura Mercier tinted moisturizer and coal black eyeliner that I intend to take to my grave, some rather brilliant Nars lip gloss, a great Tom Ford bronzing stick thingy, and (my latest obsession) some YSL mascara that makes me feel like, well, the most glamorous person in the entire world every time I twist open the gold tube and swipe the inky goodness across my lashes. 

So until I figure out how to bring a modicum of virtue to my cosmetics line up, I'm assuaging my guilt (and managing my stress) with that little Snow Lotus roll-on aromatherapy action above. Kate gave it to me. I use it like it's my job, and I feel a little more upstanding every. single. time. I dab it on my wrists...

It's something.