Beauty Rituals: The Beauty Issue
Skin, dental, body, and sleep routines
More from Are You Wearing That this month: A case for overpacking, I documented a week of outfits on my recent work trip to Seattle last week in the Substack chat. I also started a chat thread on ideas for my “What to wear to a wedding newsletter” out very soon.
I will not sleep well if I fall asleep before washing my face. I can feel the day’s grime and love — human and dog kisses — seep into my pillowcase. In the morning, I change the pillowcase before inventing a 15-step cleansing system as penance for my transgressions.
My beautifying and cleansing rituals are sparse, and I am dogmatic in my approach to those I participate in. My commitment to cleansing is related to my laziness: I hate changing my sheets more than I hate showering and washing my face — which is enough reason to do it when my last brain cell teethers at 4% battery at 2:21 a.m. I also hate blind pimples.
As a teenager, I participated in beauty rituals to look older than I was, attract whoever I was crushing on, and because I loved them. I glossed my lips in secondary school, hoping Dennis would want to kiss them (he did), and I loved looking at my glossed lips in the mirror. (I do not think much of my lips these days except that they are always dry because I am PARCHED and absentmindedly lick them throughout the day.)
