One of the side effects of turning 50 is that your eyesight – that is, seeing things up close, goes haywire. Suddenly, the dimly lit restaurant is the worst light and you can’t read your menu. Then you try to look closely in your regular mirror and you feel slightly nauseous because you can’t see where your eyebrows need to be plucked. Even worse is when your 13-year-old son tells you that you have a long black hair growing out of your chin! That was when I decided to buy a magnifying makeup mirror. A quick trip to Bed, Bath & Beyond led me to discover there is not only the 1x and 5x but one that magnified everything 15x. I bought the 10x with a small 15x insert thinking I needed to see everything … until I didn’t.

Don’t get me wrong, my new mirror and I were happy partners. Whenever I came in, it lit up, happy to see me. I was shocked at what I’d been missing! All the clogged pores, all the errant hairs both in the eyebrows and on the chin. YIKES! I imagined that every person that ever talked to me face to face was seeing what I saw in that mirror. We met up every morning, and it revealed everything that happened overnight when I slept. At night, we battled all the day’s damage. How could I have missed so much? Soon, I dropped in during the day, just to check again. Inevitably, I always had a pimple to deal with, a hair to pluck or something to address. I was completely addicted to that mirror and didn’t even know it. I would come to bed with my face looking like a war zone. I would have to give myself time in the morning for the redness and swelling to go down. 

My face, which should have been clean and clear with all that extracting, was actually worse. I had breakouts galore, and old bumps weren’t healing the way they used to. Now, admittedly, I do have rosacea and have always had a few bumps, but I realized that something new was going on and I needed to fix it fast! Instead of looking like a 50-year-old, I was looking like a 15-year-old….who needed to go on Accutane!

Then it came to me, as I was driving down the road one day. It’s the damn mirror’s fault. This little partnership was no longer healthy. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been told by my dermatologist, my aesthetician and the internet to not  pick at my bumps. I know  not to touch my face with my hands. But  that wasn’t stopping me..

I decided to set up some boundaries with the mirror. I can only look twice a day and only for a minute or two. I’m only allowed to address glaring issues, and if I abuse my rules, the mirror has to go under the counter or risk being donated. 

It’s been a few weeks, and I have to say, my face looks a million times better. I didn’t change anything except my obsessive touching and plucking. . But I feel free. I feel like I gained back a chunk of time, and I learned a good lesson. Whether it’s my face or anything else, if I pick too much or give something too much time and attention, it will rebel! So friends, if you notice a stray hair or two, tell me gently. And before my son spots it.  

Oh by the way, if you feel like you will have better self-control than me, here’s the mirror and a few other goodies to love sparingly!