Rainy Days Make Me Want To...Exfoliate?

I woke up to rain this morning.  It's been raining all day long.  As I write this, it's STILL raining.  Not your typical day in sunny, Southern California, to be sure.

I don't know what it is about rain that saps the energy out me, but it does.  So since I was having a rough time getting motivated this morning, I posted this question on my social networking sites to see what other people do to pass time in the rain.

Rainy Days Make Me Want To __________.

Here's a sampling of the responses I got:

• Read a book
• Watch movies
• Scrapbook
• Get stuff done around the house
• Make yummy comfort foods like stew and chili
• Sleep
• Curl up by a fire
• Cuddle with someone (far and away the most popular response)

The key element of all these activities was relaxing.  Being mellow.  No one was in a huge hurry, just doing something fun and seeing where the day took them.  I have books I could have read, getting stew ingredients would have meant leaving the house, I don't have a fire place and I have no one to cuddle with.  Sadly, I wasn't in the mood to drag out my scrapbook stuff even though I have a pile of projects needing attention.  So what's a girl to do?

I decided a little in-home spa treatment was the ticket.

A friend got me this tub of Origins Modern Friction mircrodermabrasion scrub AGES ago.  It's been sitting in my medicine cabinet staring at me since I got it.  I've packed it up and moved it at least once.  Terrific gift idea, but another one of those things I just never get around to doing for myself.  But on a rainy day, I figured what the heck!

This stuff is basically the consistency of wet sand.  You put it on your skin dry with the little spatula, let it set for a minute, then massage it into your skin and rinse it off in the shower. 

Pretty easy, right?  For the most part yes, but I did learn a few lessons.

• Stand in the tub when you apply something like this.  Otherwise the spatula splatters a little, and you get dabs of this stuff on the floor, in your bathmat, etc.  You get the idea.
• When you rub it in, it's gonna be a little rough.  The exfoliating ingredients are things like Chinese purple rice, corn cob extract and bamboo extract.  Not exactly the kindest ingredients on the planet.  Actually, when I read this stuff had corn cob in it, all I could do was laugh and think of my Dad.  If I ever told him I was using something like this, he would have offered to save me money and go buy me a corn cob to do the same job!
• While you're doing the massaging part, be standing in the tub because little pieces are gonna fly everywhere.  Why does beauty always have to be so hard?

But the payoff was totally worth it!  I can honestly say my skin has never felt softer or smoother.  The best part is that Origins got smart and is now selling this same product in a tube so it's easier to use (plus no more keeping track of the little spatula)!

Now I just need someone to cuddle with and this rainy day will be just perfect.