Last weekend I unknowingly conducted a social experiment of sorts in my front room. I invited 5 male friends to come over Saturday afternoon at 1pm for facials. The assembled 6 drank fresh fruit juice, exchanged stories, banter and caught up on news and gossip before being divided into 2 groups of 3. The first group of 3 were the oily skin brigade, slightly elitist in their attitude, with their overactive sebum glands they had the air of a virile bunch of professional sportsmen feeling very pleased with themselves as only real men can. The second group, of which I was a part, were the dry skin boys, we made excuses about approaching old age or sun damage and felt slightly ashamed of our unfortunate lack of oil excretion and our unsightly rough patches.
So far, so normal, I hear you say.
I handed out hot towels to everyone and we sat with our faces wrapped in them, opening our pores in preparation for the treatments to come. The chosen products come from one of my favourite natural skin care ranges, Origins. The oily-men were using Clear Improvement which is an active charcoal mask that helps clear pores. "The Activated Charcoal acts like a magnet to draw out deep-dwelling pore-cloggers, White China Clay absorbs environmental toxins and Lecithin dissolves impurities." Apparently, "without all that 'stuff' down there, skin breathes a sigh of relief." The oily men boldly slathered the shiny black paste over their faces and sat back Homer Simpson style, hands stuffed down the waistband of their trousers grunting with self appreciation. Us dry boys carefully applied Drink Up, again from Origins, over our thirsty dermises and sat waiting for something to happen. We let the "thirst quenching Algae Extracts deliver an extra helping of hydration while emolient-rich Apricot Kernel Oil acts like a 'fountain of youth'."
It didn't take long, 10 minutes to be exact, before a sense of equality filled the room. As we rinsed our faces in warm water we realised that Origins had bridged the gap between our skin based apartheid, no longer would genetics, impurities, dead skin cells or blackheads ever drive a wedge through our friendships with each other again.
Origins, caring for your skin and the person within it.