A New Hobby

image source Miracle Aesthetic Clinic

I’ve been hit by a strong drive to reboot myself in the image department this year. It might be driven by the fact that I am post-pregnancy, it certainly seems as though I’ve enjoyed the longest streak of “I don’t care about my looks” ever, and now it’s biting me in the arse.  Along with wanting to do something about my clothes (or the lack thereof) came the realization that I can no longer get away with the au naturel look without some outside help.

Enter the mushrooming of beauty clinics in Batam, the newest of which is Miracle Aesthetic Clinic. With their  large attention catching adverts at every major road-side, Miracle Aesthetic Clinic promises miracles where everything about youthful looks is concerned.  Now if you remember this episode, you’ll rightly guess that these adverts were like siren calls to me. To my stoic and change-opposing mind, I justified it as – a reason to get out of the house and expose myself to the language, a chance at some regular quality me-time and that all encompassing “I don’t have time to do it myself so I need to outsource it” 😇😘

Reception and waiting areas. For some reason I’m quite particular about waiting areas 🤩

So last Saturday in order to get a feel for the place, I went in for a consultation. I was a bit dismayed that the reception staff couldn’t speak English.  All their road side adverts, all the headlines on their website & leaflets are in impeccable English so just maybe 🙄🙄 Fortunately the specialist I spoke with, together with an assisting technician, knew enough to help me consider my options.

Although I was interested in the Miracle Power Retinol Facial, retin-A/tretinoin being touted as the holy grail of youthful looks by my beauty gurus on Youtube, the specialist recommended the 3 in 1 Super Facial which also promised to lift my face to reveal better contours.

I scheduled the 2-hour session for the following day 🤩

I don’t know about you but in this example I’m really not seeing any difference between the before and after photos. I think they could use a better model 🤔

And, I absolutely loved the experience! 😘 The 6-step process was administered with great care and enough technical commentary to keep you updated of what was being done and put on your face. There was great emphasis placed on the newness of the materials used, they all came in sealed packs. I didn’t understand 80% of what she was saying but everything smelled so lovely and fresh that I just kept nodding and congratulating myself for having found a new fun and rewarding hobby 😁

I am not yet sure if the hobby part is in the vigilant observation of a monthly facial treatment schedule, or the curiosity to try the other beauty clinics in the process of hunting down the best. I already blogged about the idea of identifying your “special nooks” as a way of anchoring yourself to a new place in this post. At the time of writing, I admitted to not having any special nooks yet. But getting monthly facials could definitely change that!

In any case, here I am typing this with smoother skin that’s feeling a bit sunburned. It’s not actually sunburned it just feels that way. I am staying away from the sun in the next few days, should wear sunblock if outdoors, and might experience some peeling. But definitely looking forward to the next schedule, whichever beauty clinic this might be.