A day of pampering (10th July 2010)
Pampering myself (this I mean paying someone to provide a service that makes you feel good) is something I hardly ever do as it always cost money, somewhat time-consuming and more often than not, thought of as a luxury (and I really cannot afford luxuries at the moment). My ex-colleague, Kirsty's argument to my statement was that everyone needs to pamper themselves sometimes (love thyself), that it is not a luxury but a necessity, to relax the body and mind (destress = feels lighter and happier) so that one can continue to perform well in their lives. Hmm, I do need to relax and destress before my bf comes back...The last 3 weeks has been interesting and stressful - my man is half way across the globe travelling in Canada & Alaska (Jono's been really sweet, emailing me every other day in between his travels and he has even called and Skyped me a couple of times - few more days till I see him in person, can't wait!); Mum has just arrived to NZ and I've been busy helping her settle down in the new country; work's keeping me busy and I'm still recovering from my sprained ankle, trying to get back to my activities though with slight difficulty. Maybe Kirsty's right...
Taking in Kirsty's advice, I decided to treat myself to a day to beauty therapies, starting first at The Finishing Touch on Lambton Quay with a half hour Brazilian wax appointment at 11.30am. "Ouch!" I hear you say but it was too good a deal to pass up - $20 for a Brazilian wax (normally $70)! You will NOT find anything cheaper than this, trust me! Gf Kim had sent the girls an email earlier this week about the $20 Brazilian wax promotion on the Dailydo website, a website that features daily deals of services in your city of choice, saving you between 50-90% off normal retail prices. Cost nothing to register to the site (and I highly recommend you do if you're like me, always up for trying new things AND keeping an eye out for great deals) and you can subscribe to the daily deals which gets sent directly to your email. Ah, but of course, there are some constraints such as the quantity of vouchers you can purchase for a particular deal and an expiry date in which you need to use the voucher. With this one from The Finishing Touch, I had to also be a new customer which works perfectly for me since I've never been there before!
The Finishing Touch is predominantly a spa for hands and feet (they are a professional manicure and pedicure beauty centre) and have recently hired new beauty therapist Nicola to expand their services thus used Dailydo as a way to promote her to existing and new customers. Y-eow! F&*K, that hurt!! Of course I wasn't cursing at her but at the sharp pain in my head. The last time I had a Brazilian wax was probably about 2-3 years ago (?) so I totally expected it to hurt when Nicola went R-R-R-I-P! But it does get better the more often you wax, really!
You must be wondering why on earth women put themselves through such pain for beauty - plenty of reasons from the increasingly tiny and skimpy lingerie and swimwear (pubic hair sticking out is a no-no) to "because it excites him". Personally, I just like the clean, smooth feeling of nothing down there. Nicola was really lovely and did an amazing job at the waxing, completely removing hair from the pelvis to the buttocks. She did give me the option of leaving a landing strip (a trimmed narrow vertical strip within two inches from the top of the vulva) but I decided let's just take it all off this time! It is recommended to have a repeat wax every 4-5 weeks if one wishes to maintain the Brazilian and regular exfoliation to prevent ingrown hair. I am not kidding you - she told me the easiest and cheapest way to exfoliate down there is by using exfoliation gloves in the shower, which she added, should be something every woman uses to exfoliate their whole body as it smoothes the skin. Ladies, I highly recommend Nicola to you for Brazilian waxing - it's not easy to find a beautician that does a superb and clean Brazilian wax and when you do find that person, YOU STICK TO THAT BEAUTICIAN!
Next stop, Cathy Davys Hair Design & Day Spa on Wakefield St for my massage and facial appointment at 1pm. Cathy Davys is currently promoting a winter deal for the first 36 customers to book in a Best Massage package which included a 1-hour massage and a choice of a 30-minute Japanese/Essential facial, or eye brow sculpt and tint, all for the cost of $99 (normally $189). Another great deal and it popped up in my email just when I was thinking of booking in a massage :)
Upon arrival, I was met by a lovely and highly enthusiastic Japanese beautician, Minako, who turned out to be a trained practitioner of shiatsu, acupunture and reflexology. Do not be fooled by her size - she has the strongest hands ever! With me fully clothed, she was able to apply pressure on all my sore spots, giving me a deep tissue massage - she was shocked to find how tight I was especially on my upper back and wondered how I even put up with it given my active lifestyle. Well, I really just put up with it, period.
Minako would press on a pressure point on one part of my back and the pain would shoot straight up to my head. "It is all connected," she would say, in English with a strong Japanese accent. God, it hurt A LOT when she pressed the area between my thumb and forefinger! I shall not let myself carry all these unnecessary stress and tension in knots on my back. Makes going for a massage feel like torture though I did feel much better after Minako worked relentlessly on my body. I asked her how she managed to build such strong hands for massage and she told me it took her 10 years to build such strength. "When I first started, it was so painful and sore and I cried, nearly giving up," she continued, but her preseverance definitely paid off and now her job brings her places.
I think it was a mix of sheer pain from the massage, need to rid my tension and curiosity that got me agreeing to Minako's suggestion to add on a $30 acupunture treatment to my session. This is the first time I'm trying acupunture and though I'm not afraid of needles as such, the idea of having several pinpointed on my back did make me nervous. She applied some alcohol on parts of my body and started inserting disposable sterilised acupunture needles to points (not sure how she decides where to prick), gently tapping the needles in. I had one needle on each calf, about 5 on my spine and 2 on my neck stuck on for the next 15 minutes or so. It was weird - I felt a bit like a porcupine with needles sticking out of me...She proceeded to break down 'dead fibre' on my back, lightly pricking points with a needle, some points causing sharp pain to shoot up and down my spine. I was pretty much at her mercy and had to trust her fully at what she was doing.
Once she removed all the needles (it felt like I was waiting for this moment forever!), we continued on our session with a Japanese facial which I chose from the 3 choices given. I had chosen the Japanese facial as it sounded interesting and was new to me, only to be informed by Minako that it was a no-product facial and uses acupunture needles on the face. Er, I don't think I'll be comfortable seeing needles being stuck to my face...Minako kindly modified the facial and used acupunture massage instead. Phew!
About 1.5 hours later, I walked out from Cathy Davys feeling way more relaxed, lighter and happier than I first walked in. Arigato, Minako-san! Ah, bliss...You know, I think Kirsty is right - I should treat myself more because I totally deserve it! Need to love myself more!
By the way, there was no prick marks post-acupunture. All I had was spots that looked like little mosquito bites in those areas and they were a bit itchy, and Minako had assured me it was normal. Was told to come back in about 3 weeks for another deep tissue massage session so she could help me further work on those tender areas and gain flexibility on my back. Need to re-jig my budget to see how I can work another session in!
Taking in Kirsty's advice, I decided to treat myself to a day to beauty therapies, starting first at The Finishing Touch on Lambton Quay with a half hour Brazilian wax appointment at 11.30am. "Ouch!" I hear you say but it was too good a deal to pass up - $20 for a Brazilian wax (normally $70)! You will NOT find anything cheaper than this, trust me! Gf Kim had sent the girls an email earlier this week about the $20 Brazilian wax promotion on the Dailydo website, a website that features daily deals of services in your city of choice, saving you between 50-90% off normal retail prices. Cost nothing to register to the site (and I highly recommend you do if you're like me, always up for trying new things AND keeping an eye out for great deals) and you can subscribe to the daily deals which gets sent directly to your email. Ah, but of course, there are some constraints such as the quantity of vouchers you can purchase for a particular deal and an expiry date in which you need to use the voucher. With this one from The Finishing Touch, I had to also be a new customer which works perfectly for me since I've never been there before!
The Finishing Touch is predominantly a spa for hands and feet (they are a professional manicure and pedicure beauty centre) and have recently hired new beauty therapist Nicola to expand their services thus used Dailydo as a way to promote her to existing and new customers. Y-eow! F&*K, that hurt!! Of course I wasn't cursing at her but at the sharp pain in my head. The last time I had a Brazilian wax was probably about 2-3 years ago (?) so I totally expected it to hurt when Nicola went R-R-R-I-P! But it does get better the more often you wax, really!
You must be wondering why on earth women put themselves through such pain for beauty - plenty of reasons from the increasingly tiny and skimpy lingerie and swimwear (pubic hair sticking out is a no-no) to "because it excites him". Personally, I just like the clean, smooth feeling of nothing down there. Nicola was really lovely and did an amazing job at the waxing, completely removing hair from the pelvis to the buttocks. She did give me the option of leaving a landing strip (a trimmed narrow vertical strip within two inches from the top of the vulva) but I decided let's just take it all off this time! It is recommended to have a repeat wax every 4-5 weeks if one wishes to maintain the Brazilian and regular exfoliation to prevent ingrown hair. I am not kidding you - she told me the easiest and cheapest way to exfoliate down there is by using exfoliation gloves in the shower, which she added, should be something every woman uses to exfoliate their whole body as it smoothes the skin. Ladies, I highly recommend Nicola to you for Brazilian waxing - it's not easy to find a beautician that does a superb and clean Brazilian wax and when you do find that person, YOU STICK TO THAT BEAUTICIAN!
Next stop, Cathy Davys Hair Design & Day Spa on Wakefield St for my massage and facial appointment at 1pm. Cathy Davys is currently promoting a winter deal for the first 36 customers to book in a Best Massage package which included a 1-hour massage and a choice of a 30-minute Japanese/Essential facial, or eye brow sculpt and tint, all for the cost of $99 (normally $189). Another great deal and it popped up in my email just when I was thinking of booking in a massage :)
Upon arrival, I was met by a lovely and highly enthusiastic Japanese beautician, Minako, who turned out to be a trained practitioner of shiatsu, acupunture and reflexology. Do not be fooled by her size - she has the strongest hands ever! With me fully clothed, she was able to apply pressure on all my sore spots, giving me a deep tissue massage - she was shocked to find how tight I was especially on my upper back and wondered how I even put up with it given my active lifestyle. Well, I really just put up with it, period.
Minako would press on a pressure point on one part of my back and the pain would shoot straight up to my head. "It is all connected," she would say, in English with a strong Japanese accent. God, it hurt A LOT when she pressed the area between my thumb and forefinger! I shall not let myself carry all these unnecessary stress and tension in knots on my back. Makes going for a massage feel like torture though I did feel much better after Minako worked relentlessly on my body. I asked her how she managed to build such strong hands for massage and she told me it took her 10 years to build such strength. "When I first started, it was so painful and sore and I cried, nearly giving up," she continued, but her preseverance definitely paid off and now her job brings her places.
I think it was a mix of sheer pain from the massage, need to rid my tension and curiosity that got me agreeing to Minako's suggestion to add on a $30 acupunture treatment to my session. This is the first time I'm trying acupunture and though I'm not afraid of needles as such, the idea of having several pinpointed on my back did make me nervous. She applied some alcohol on parts of my body and started inserting disposable sterilised acupunture needles to points (not sure how she decides where to prick), gently tapping the needles in. I had one needle on each calf, about 5 on my spine and 2 on my neck stuck on for the next 15 minutes or so. It was weird - I felt a bit like a porcupine with needles sticking out of me...She proceeded to break down 'dead fibre' on my back, lightly pricking points with a needle, some points causing sharp pain to shoot up and down my spine. I was pretty much at her mercy and had to trust her fully at what she was doing.
Once she removed all the needles (it felt like I was waiting for this moment forever!), we continued on our session with a Japanese facial which I chose from the 3 choices given. I had chosen the Japanese facial as it sounded interesting and was new to me, only to be informed by Minako that it was a no-product facial and uses acupunture needles on the face. Er, I don't think I'll be comfortable seeing needles being stuck to my face...Minako kindly modified the facial and used acupunture massage instead. Phew!
About 1.5 hours later, I walked out from Cathy Davys feeling way more relaxed, lighter and happier than I first walked in. Arigato, Minako-san! Ah, bliss...You know, I think Kirsty is right - I should treat myself more because I totally deserve it! Need to love myself more!
By the way, there was no prick marks post-acupunture. All I had was spots that looked like little mosquito bites in those areas and they were a bit itchy, and Minako had assured me it was normal. Was told to come back in about 3 weeks for another deep tissue massage session so she could help me further work on those tender areas and gain flexibility on my back. Need to re-jig my budget to see how I can work another session in!
Hello!
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to say that your blog made me feel a whole lot better - I only looked over it, but it was very positive to see that someone (besides me, that is) writes LONG blog posts in real English! xD I'll come back to read once I have time, but this is a definite plus in my eyes. Who knows, you might see +1 on your follower list!
Adrielne