Sleeping with my make up on. A short story.
04th December, 2020.
It was a warm Sydney summer night, one Sarah had been looking forward to for weeks. Sarah & her friends we’re going to see Ed Sheeran live! She spent her evening dressing up, clicking selfies and dancing the hours away with her girls. It was the best night of her life.
Wobbly and giddy with happiness, Sarah stumbled back home after the concert and made her way upstairs. All she wanted to do was kick off those glittery contraptions of torture and slide into the warm cosiness of her bed.
As she tucked herself in between the sheets, and nestled her head into the softness of her pillow her tired body and mind let go; all the niggly little bedtime routines fizzled away from her consciousness as she was lulled into deep blissful sleep.
Little did Sarah know that as she waltzed to Ed Sheeran with Mike the cute barista from downstairs, her skin was preparing for war.
Sarah’s Make-up was ready for attack. They had some heavy hitters in their arsenal – phthalates, parabens, petroleum derivatives, all eagerly awaiting their opportunity to run wild and wreak havoc. Their weapon of choice: Free Radical Damage.
Sarah’s skin stood strong in defence. It wasn’t ready for the ambush, and the mechanical force through which Sarah smushed her face into the pillow only propelled the mission of their enemies further. They were infiltrating, the barrier had been compromised.
Like grenades setting off, free radicals attacked the valiant healthy cells, Sarah’s supply of anti-oxidants running short. The Oxidative stress was too much. Like a scene from an apocalyptic thriller, building blocks of collagen fell, the grim possibly of pre-mature ageing a growing reality.
There was flaking mascara, possibly well past it’s expiry crumbling bits into Sarah’s lash line, hoping for the possibility of a staph infection; whilst her “complete coverage” thick concealer celebrated a win of thousands of blocked pores, planting the dynamite for a new cystic acne explosion to come.
Sarah’s skin was defeated. The night has been long, the night has been brutal, but make up is not yet done. It’s creeping its way through the remains of fallen Keratinocyte cells, making their way to the bloodstream…
Sarah suddenly shakes awake gasping complete panic. Out of the corner of her eye she sees her Herbs & Heart Skin Tonic & Aloe Whip right by her on the bedside.
She touches her face. She feels her clean, toned, and moisturised skin and breathes a sigh of relief.
It was all just bad a dream.
*May or may not be based off a true story.
