Your Pre-Night Out Perfect Skin Ritual (part 1).

During awards season, you often of celebrities' pre-red carpet ritual.  It's what the stars do to make sure they look their absolute best.  Our red carpet equivalent is a night out.  It's one of the many opportunities to look amazing.  Shouldn't we also have a specific routine made for those special moments?

Last night, I was invited to a casual social event with a group of people.  No big deal, except these people were old high school classmates.  It's been quite a while since we all graduated and there have been lots of physical transformations over the years.  I really wanted to look like the best version of myself so I started thinking about what I could do to boost my overall look just a little.

Then it hit me. Why not do a sheet mask ceremony before heading out?  The premise is that perhaps the mask could give my skin an added glow beyond my typical products.  Prior to cleansing, I did a quick facial massage with coconut oil.  This is to promote blood flow to the face while lifting up dirt from the pores.  Next, I cleansed using the Clarisonic pro and Phace cleanser.

Once my skin was dry, I pulled out a sheet mask that I was able to pick up from a local Asian market.  This brand caught my eye because it contained mandelic acid.  Let me warn you all that this brand completely saturates it's masks with product.  Even when I pull out their heavily coated sheet, the packet still contains excess product at the bottom.  Because of their generosity in soaking this mask with serum, I have to wear the mask while in a reclined position.  Even while laying down, excess product eventually starts to drip from the sheet.

The moment this happened, I simply removed the mask and placed it gently back into its package for a second use.  Once removed, my face was covered in serum.  Suddenly, I didn't know what to do. Do wipe it off with a paper towel or cleanse again with a gentle cleanser?  The instant I stopped panicking and started thinking logically, the answer came to me.  "Massage it in, you fool!"  

Immediately, I started massaging the gooey serum in.  Within seconds, most of it was absorbed leaving behind highly moisturized skin.  My face looked like it received a weeks worth of skin loving serum in one short session (but without looking greasy).  I couldn't get over how amazing my skin looked.

When I pulled out of the driveway, I had one intention......to have some old classmate look at me and say "wow you look so young....did you go to school with us?" Call it vain, but I had a mission to accomplish.

The night was fun. Lots of getting reconnected with people from the long lost past.  At one point, this guy walks up to me and introduces himself.  I responded by sharing my name and confirming that I attended the same school. After a second of contemplation, he says, "you look kinda young to be in the same class as us."  #missionaccomplished   It was at that point that I revealed my intention to him and congratulated him for helping me to achieve it.

Overall it was a good night. Not only did I catch up with old friends, but I discovered this little trick that'll change all my night outs from this day forward.  The next experiment to try is indulging in consecutive sheet mask rituals for several nights in a row in preparation for more substantial events.  Hopefully, this is just part one of the "pre-night out" beauty ritual series.  Looking forward to doing more of these posts.