Confessions of a Product Junkie

The saying goes that with age you get more stuff. Well, have you noticed that you tend to accumulate more product too? Yeah, product; that stuff we buy to slather, lather and rub into our skin, hair, cuticles and scalp. The stuff we get to color, scent and cleanse our bodies and faces.

The stuff that promises to rejuvenate, thicken, rehydrate, stimulate, volumize, moisturize and refresh. And all of the paraphernalia that goes with it. Want to soak your feet? Well you'll need a foot bath, paraffin tub, pumice stone, foot brush, "footloose and fizzy" foot soak, foot creme and moisturizing socks to put on after the ritual.

Thinking about painting your nails? You need more than a bottle of the perfect colored nail polish. You need a cuticle treatment and cuticle scissors and the all important cuticle stick; a nail file, a nail brush and a buffer too. Get out the buffing creme and the hand moisturizer (it's been cold so you may need the intense formula). A paraffin dip would be good, so make sure you have your plastic hand bags and gloves. When you get down to the actual painting, you will still need to have a base coat, a ridge filler, a top coat and a quick dry formula.

Can't do a thing with that hair? I surveyed my shower stall and found shampoos that promised to provide moisture and thicken my locks. There are shampoo formulas for dry hair, oily hair and the "not so" normal hair. There are products to straighten, products to restore and products to volumize. I have them all.

My body washes include those with fragrance and those without. Some promise to "gently scrub the dead skin away." Some of the formulas are for sensitive skin. There are special creams to whisk away the unwanted hair. After shower there are creams and lotions and oils and wraps to soothe. Herbal and vitamin infused.

In the bath we have dissolvable soap petals, oil beads, bubble bath, bath fizzies and something called bath pebbles.

There are hair products for every day and hair products for special days. There are leave-in conditions, serums to thicken, mousse to volumize, sprays to de-frizz, wax to spike and hair sprays to keep the style gently in place or frozen in time.

I have brushes for my hair, brushes for my teeth and gums, and the aforementioned foot and nail brushes. There are thin combs and wide combs; round brushes and square brushes. I have mouthwash for the morning and a special formula for the night.

The face gets special cleansers (morning and night), toner, anti-wrinkle cream, an occasional mask scented with cucumber. I have lip conditioner and eye cream and tweezers to pluck away at my eyebrows and other assorted places. There are sponges and cotton balls and Q-tips to apply the array of youth promising concoctions.

My make-up tray has brushes and pencils and pretty little compacts full of eye shadows and powders and blushes. There is a slender eye brow brush and eye lash comb and an eye lash curler that I never use. I have mascaras of various shades. I have enough tubes of lipstick that if need be I could use to write "I will not buy more product" 10,000 times.

I think I might be a product junkie. My bathroom is beginning to look like the beauty aisles at Target. And I'm not quite convinced any of them are working. Perhaps I should go shopping for new product.