Facial Party Fun

On Sunday, my cousin (and one of my bridesmaids) Andrea hosted a fun, girly day featuring a facial and a foot soak that she won featuring Arbonne (swiss skincare) products.

I'll admit it, I attended with some trepidation. I've never been a girly girl in terms of slathering myself with tons of product. In fact, I tend to pefer simple, non-scented products that can be quickly applied. So the thought of spending a whole afternoon applying stuff to my face wasn't at the top of my list.

However, from the minute I walked in the door, I was impressed by my "little" cousin's hostessing skills. She had recruited my aunt Rena to make ziti for the meal, accompanied by a fresh salad and breadsticks that she had bought at work (the OG). In addition, she had gotten green skewers from work and made these adorable strawberry and orange garnishes:

...that were the perfect accompaniment for the freshly made Sangria (Andrea's truly related to me, as that's one of my favorite drinks to make for gatherings!)

Then it was time for the "spa" portion of the afternoon, which I thought was going to be torturous. Eating, I could handle. Girly stuff, not so much.

But Amber, our spa expert, wisely eased us into the activities. First we had our choice of three different face scrubs (I chose anti-aging, ahem, as I do turn 30 this year). That was nice enough but the next product had me really amazed. It was this great sea salt scrub (could be used anywhere where you want to slough off rough skin, like your feet) which we used on our hands. It left my hands feeling very smooth yet moisturized, and had a pleasant light scent. Stephanie (Andrea's friend on the left) and Andrea (rocking red highlights to the right) clearly approved of their soft hands:

Next came the scary stuff - and I'm not talking about the winter feet that we all soaked in tubs filled with a sea salt bath. We all applied a detoxifying mask that made us look like Shrek. Seriously. I was laughing my butt off at everyone (as I was the last to apply it). We left this on for 20 minutes, which was a good thing since it was strong enough to give our skin a tingly (slightly burning) feeling. It doesn't sound very comfortable but it didn't hurt and actually dried quickly.

Seriously - are you ready for the close-up? I looked like an extra from the Mask!

Next, came hot towels to lay on our faces which helped to loosen the masks, allowing us to wipe every speck of mask off:

Amy looks very relieved to get the towel and gook off her face!

Mask off, Amy's face was glowing and clean! Be gone toxins!

The rest of the party, we literally put five different products (such as toner, eye cream, moisturizer, etc) on our face and tried different lotions on our hands. Amber was pretty funny and such a good spa hostess that I ended up buying that sea salt scrub from her (seriously, the stuff is amazing) but it really was a fun environment with no pressure to buy anything (I've avoided these types of gatherings in the past since I get uncomfortable being pressured to buy things that I don't need). Then we stuffed our selves with lemon cake and magic bars and called it a day. Amy and I headed home stuffed, with great looking skin, thanks to Andrea event planning skills.