AUGUST - 'tweet talk'

YOUTH JUICE OR BAD SKIN?

by alex o'halloran

Who said pimples stopped after your teens?

As I stood there in a day dream watching the young check out boy expertly scan my shopping, I couldn't help noticing the blemishes that had invaded his poor face.That awkward age of puberty when your body's doing weird and wonderful things and at the same time you're out there desperately trying to look cool.The last thing you want is Mr and Mrs Zit and the whole family hanging out on your face.After my feelings of sympathy disappeared I started to think about and question the whole 'zit' thing...

I had just returned from a brief break with my husband John in sunny Noosa, where on my return I was to begin work charged and refreshed. A very small dose of vitamin D to wake up the skin and I was ready to approach the cold days of our Victorian winter with a whole new attitude.

Instead, as I looked in the mirror that morning before work, I noticed a family of migrant zits had decided to have their next meet on my face! Was it the brief change in climate at Noosa or just that I had plain old zits?

Now in my 40's I truly imagined that I would be '40 and fabulous'. Like most women I'm ashamed to say that yes...I believe everything that the magazines say.There was nothing fabulous looking back in my reflection - more like 40 and freaking awful.

Did they still sell Clearasil or should I now be asking for something a bit more sophisticated like Ella Bache blemish gel for mature women? I know this may sound vain, but in our 40's god dam it, we're allowed!

I then got to thinking about Michael Jackson and how he wore the mask and all and yes...I really did love him in the 80's.Bring it on Billy Jean! Maybe he wasn't so strange after all.Maybe he was just having a bad skin decade.

I know this may sound bizarre but I've always thought there was a big gap in the market for a fashionable mask for those bad zit days. A Fendi or old vintage print could look good? And for teenagers they could go for something different, whatever it is, as they drag themselves along the street with their hoody, ipod, iphone and new mask!

As I stopped myself from obsessing and dragged myself away from the mirror, I decided to throw it out into the kitchen over coffee time. I turned to my husband and said, "check out my face! check out my pimples - I'm a mess! What's going on? They should have moved on by now!"

With that he turned to me and smiled saying, "Ali... it's just youth juice.You look fine.Look at the bright side, when you no longer have it, you'll want it back"

Was he right?

With that I bounced into my new day feeling so much better as I walked down the street accepting my new crop of zits caused by that youth juice still flowing through my body.