WHAT are you using on your face????

These are NOT the words you want to hear coming from Valda Sarty when you're sitting across the table from her. They are ESPECIALLY not the words you want to hear when you very sheepishly have to admit that you're using *gasp* Dove. If you're the kind of gal that actually takes care of your skin (unlike yours truly), you can imagine what her response was.... it started out with something low key like "You'd be better off using no soap at all..." and gradually moved into, "You might as well take some sandpaper and Formula 409 to your skin!" Okay, she may not have actually mentioned the 409, but she definitely said something about sandpaper.

What Valda was talking about was that my face was always red. Not the glowing, touch of sun that looks healthy, but the blotchy, 'did you just roll out of bed from a rough night' look. I've never actually been diagnosed with rosacea, but my mother has had it for years, and I always just assumed that it was my lot in life to have rosy cheeks (I'm talking the nuclear side of rosy here :) ). I couldn't have been more wrong.

After she was done harrassing me about my poor choices in skin care, Valda got to work. She IS, after all, an esthetician, or as I now refer to her, a skin care goddess. She wrote down a very simple regime for me and listed the 3 Dermalogica product that she thought were the highest priority for my rosy red cheeks. She also mentioned in passing that she would absolutely be able to tell if I was following instructions the next time she saw me. Now I wouldn't call this a threat, per se, just a very strong suggestion from a benevolent skin goddess.

I dutifully marched myself down to Elements Salon and Wellness Center and purchased my three Dermalogica "miracle cures", thinking all the while that I would absolutely follow the regime for a week, just to prove that you really could get away with using Dove, I mean, come on, its all just soap, right?! WRONG!!! It took only 2 short days for me to see a HUGE improvement. My cheeks went from 2nd degree sunburn red, to normal skin tone in nothing flat. I really could not believe it, and yes, Valda noticed right away the next time she saw me.

Of course the Dermalogica product is what made the difference in the look of my skin, but really, Valda Sarty, goddess of all things beautiful, gets the credit for laying it all out and explaining WHY I needed to change my ways!