After reminiscing over "the forgotten me" I  realised I was long overdue some me time and booked myself in for a facial...not just any facial, the validation facial at Lush Spa, Kings Road. Three letters O M G! it took me from grey and drab to living breathing human in an hour and 20 mins.

I of course booked the treatment for 9.30am so that I could run out of the house before my husband could realise he was being left to fend for himself with the boys. I also picked a location on the other side of London forcing me to have a full day sans nappy bag.

I'm not going to dress it up the treatments here are expensive. The validation facial costing £85 however I have not had a day away from the kids in 9 weeks! 9 very long weeks! I figured I was really only spending £10 a week on myself for the time I had been held hostage.

So the session starts with meeting your therapist. I had a lovely lady called Keira who started with a  consultation that lasted about 20 minutes going through my skin type (grey, greasy, wrinkly) and what treatments I currently use (baby wet wipe quickly wiped around my face before falling asleep). From there we went onto the shop floor and holding a slate pallete  like an artist she took me round all the products that she needed to use for the treatment and I got to select which ones I wanted. Together we created the most wonderful array of splodges on the pallet. There was a lot of sniffing and rubbing in of samples. I love a freebie so made the most of being able to experiment with everything and rubbed creams into every exposed piece of skin on my body. I mean one of their facial serums was created specifically for Princess Diana I couldn't miss out on that especially as it has a price tag of £42.


The treatment rooms are incredible there are littles bottles of potions and lotions dotted around amongst the vintage homewares. Lush also has its own music department and each treatment has its own specially created soundtrack. The music I experienced took me to the Dorset coastline where Lush was born and it was beautiful.

After this the treatment begins! As I have a habit of falling fast asleep when anything remotely relaxing occurs I made a huge effort to stay awake and enjoy every moment. I'm not going to ruin it and take you through the exact treatment but it is so much more than a facial. Note to future users shave legs and armpits! Luckily for both Keira and I, I treated myself to a ten minute shower this morning so both the above were achieved! Hooray!

So of course after the treatment I went for a lovely lunch alone and made sure I picked somewhere that didn't have highchairs! Ate lunch with two hands, drank a hot cup of coffee and was able to enjoy the rest of the day shopping for big stretchy tent like clothing without navigating a pushchair around central London. Today I definitely feel like I'm winning at life. Now i just need to uncover a big stash of cash so that I can make this a weekly pick me up!

So this week on a very busy tube my three year old asked me " Mummy why are you wearing your bedtime trousers?"

I wasn't! I was wearing what I thought were very cool trousers! Clearly not and my embarrassment was met with smirks from other tube users. I don't blame them there is nothing funnier than the brutal honesty that children can throw out there. It was just a shame it was my child throwing me shade in such a public arena.

Sadly my son will never know that I haven't always looked like this......I used to be able to take longer than ten minutes to shower, get dressed and apply makeup. The makeup recently has been slipping in fact I ran out of foundation three months ago but haven't had a chance to replenish. Nareece circa 2012 would laugh at the thought of this. Never would she have seen a foundationless face as an option. Never would she have be seen in public without makeup, let a lone in a pair of trousers that resembled PJ's! In fact I'm sure my husband only saw my actual face 9 months after we got married when I gave birth to said verbally abusive child. Ahhhhhhhh motherhood you are a bitch sometimes!

The forgotten me