Savor the Success - Business Network for women entrepreneurs

Today I'm going to tell a story. A story of something I always wondered why people would spend their hard earned money on. Something I would always read about and think was, for lack of a better word, bullshit. Something I swore I would never need in a million, bazillion years.

Luxury Skincare.

I've always been the Dove soap girl. I would wash my face twice a day with Dove soap, and my skin looked just fine. Once in awhile I would get crazy and buy the CVS brand of Oil of Olay and wash my face with that - but that was only on rare occasions. I never used moisturizer unless my face became really dry, in which case, I would use a little of my body lotion (which is normally whatever cheap brand was on sale at Walmart).

At one point it must have occurred to Angela that I hadn't tried Om Aroma. She started questioning my skincare routine at one of our NYC workshops and I quickly responded with an ‘I don't have one and I don't need one.'

"Yes you do! Do you want wrinkles?" she said.

I internally rolled my eyes. This was the same thing every lame beauty article preached. I refused to buy into this luxury, anti-aging skincare movement - even if someone I adored developed and owned it. "I don't like anything but my Dove soap," I replied.

A few months later I was staying with Angela during the Women Entrepreneurs event and the skincare issue came up again. If you don't know how persuasive Angela can be, just tell her you don't want something she's offering. I ended up somehow being coaxed into buying this Om Aroma sample kit. I took it home, put it lovingly on my shelf in my office, and didn't look at it again for a month.

Eventually the ever persuasive Angela asked me if I had been using it. Feeling bad, I started to conjure up excuses in my head. I could tell her ‘Oh it's great Angela!' But then she'd wonder why I wasn't buying it again. I could say ‘Oh it made me break out in a rash!' OK - she would know that wasn't true because she developed it from breaking out in her own rash. Sigh.

I finally broke down and opened the kit and situated everything in my bathroom so it would be within easy reach. I asked Angela for proper instructions on all the pieces (because I seriously didn't know what to do with it - what were all these creams??)

I started with the face wash (the less scary of these novel products), which kind of smelled like champagne. The texture felt good on my skin and the smell was pretty delightful. After that, I was instructed to put two tiny dabs of eye cream under my eyes. At this point, I had developed heavy bags under my eyes and I wondered how quickly this eye cream stuff was going to work. Next up was the face cream which, compared to my body lotion, felt really smooth and completely non-greasy. This was why people bought actually face cream! I thought. It all started to make sense.

Last I squirted the toner onto my face as instructed. My nose was immediately filled with this delightful smell. Seriously - it was the best smell I've ever smelled....ever. It smelled so good I squirted more - knowing that this was against the rules of skincare, but I didn't care. If crack was contained in a bottle of toner - this was it. I then squirted some on my husband who winced in shock, but also said it smelled great. I squirted some in my office too - like air freshener.

After a week I was clearly out of toner, but I genuinely felt like my skin had a certain glow. No longer was the grayish tone I had developed over the winter. After taking a whole week to pay attention to my skin, even for a few minutes a day, it actually felt really good. Dare I say - I even enjoy my beauty routine now!

I now proudly admit I'm a luxury skincare line convert - and already placed my next Om Aroma order. But I can't help but wonder - how many other things have a shunned over the years, thinking I would hate it? And which one should I try next?

How about you - what have you sworn off without ever even trying to see if you like it? Eating sushi? Going to a movie alone?  Taking a dance class? Running in the rain? Listening to a new genre of music?

Go ahead...try it. I dare you.