so Gilly!

Duty-free Miracle

Posted on 29. Oct, 2010 by gilly in DREAM

Before every flight my daughter and I have a cosmetic ritual. We perform it so automatically that the guys already know the drill: upon entering the duty free zone, we gals throw our coats at them, beeline to the cosmetics store and loose ourselves there. They roll their eyes and amble on. We regroup at the gate and, every other time, our just-in-the-nick-o’-time arrival at said gate has them shaking heads, tapping feet, sighing silently. We’re all used to this dance.

Typically, my daughter will drift towards colorful displays of unaffordable eye shadows and experiment with exciting new shades of navy and silver. I wander towards the promise-filled face creams and begin to sample 120euro serums, exorbitant Swiss eye-gels (to prep for the wear and tear of the flight) and squirt assorted wrinkle-relieving potions onto my fast-aging-but-coping-ok-for-now face. Note: I rarely buy anything at this experimentation phase and generally shop for cosmetics in American drugstores, discount French pharmacies and the occasional WholeFoods, whenever I get to one.

On my last Spazierung through duty-free cosmetics, I paused in front of yet another display of cutting-edge serum where the copy loudly whispered: Youth is in your genes. Reactivate it. Discover the skin you were born to have.

I have to admit, that simplicity struck a chord.

Despite solid copy writing experience (it was my profession once) I am unusually un-cynical around clever copy. My husband laughs at my capacity to buy banal products (and pay premium) out of sheer elation with the back-story crafted on the label. The delightful Innocent Juices—one of my favourite and possibly the most brilliant British inventions—are such a product.

But back to reactivating my youth. I dabbed some of the clear, shiny liquid on my temples (using the lab-like glass pipette) and mused…Hmm, I have youth in my DNA, it is inside me all the time and…it’s just up to me to activate it. I mean, honestly, isn’t it my human right to reclaim the skin I was meant to have?!

There’s a science fiction dimension in there somewhere…like an X-man being activated from within while, on the surface, he/she is in the skin of an ordinary citizen.

I am cynical enough to realise (at least for now) that these miraculous drops (did I mention $78 an ounce?) will not make me look instantaneously younger and start me reversing, à la Benjamin Button but…I had lost sight of the fact that there are plenty of easy ways to feel young, remain young, be young, breath young.

Or at least: younger.

Or young-ish, as the case may be.

Which begs the question: what else lies within our cells that we can simply, with the touch of a finger (and the subliminal support of some silky serum), magically activate?

Enhanced, de-puffed, smoothed, re-pulped and scented, I realised I was late for boarding and hustled my young self and my eye-linered-to-the-hilt-young lady to the gate (no purchases). Dry, obscenely circulated air, 10 hours of it, acute dehydration, cabin pressure, HA! Bring it on! I am undaunted: I have the power to reactivate my youth, and much more besides.