Monday, July 20, 2009

Bond Girl Opportunity


You know the Bond film, Goldfinger? Remember how the love interest meets her demise by being dipped and drowned in gold? 

Well... I got to experience a little of that myself recently. Not the dipping or the drowning-- but the gold part-- and with a much less dire outcome. 

It all started about a week ago when driving one day, I noticed this sign on the road.


This beauty salon specializes in Gold facials. Yes, you read correctly,  gold facials. Apparently, they are yet another beauty craze in Japan right now. So, always up for new experiences, I went inside and scheduled one. They were also having a promotion of 50% off, and since it's a little bizarre and off the beaten track, how could I refuse?

When I got home, I easily found this video about gold facial frenzy online. It's pretty funny how far women will go for beauty!

Was the gold facial worth its weight in gold?
Overall, I found it to be very relaxing. Ninety minutes of cleaning, steaming, moisturizing, and face, neck, and shoulders massage. Then they pressed 24 karat gold leaf onto my face and left me in that metallic crinkly state for about 15 minutes.  

Though I enjoyed the massage part, I felt when it came to the most important part, they were a bit cheapy cheap with the gold on me. They didn't put nearly as much as the model in the you tube video.  I only had little strips across my forehead and cheeks, but weren't they supposed to be doing something about my crow's feet too? 

For the cost even with the discount, I thought the whole experience was more gimmick than anything else... not surprised really. They usually are.

At the end, they let me wipe all the gold off, which wasn't actually all that easy to do. I kept finding little flakes of gold in my hair, in my clothes, and on my pillow all week. 

They also served me green tea with gold foil floating in it, which I did enjoy drinking quite a bit.


Okay, but here's the funny opportunity part of the whole story. They asked me if I would be their model for an upcoming ad campaign. They invited me to come back again this week and do the whole thing over with a photographer. They will publish the story and pictures in several English publications here including Okinawa Living and Japan Update

So, look for the stories in the September issues. I'll be the one doused in gold!

5 comments:

Liza said...

Looks fun! Can't wait to see your article, or I mean, your pictures in the article!

If you ever need someone to do any of your adventures, I'd love to join you!

Carrie Stuart said...

Wow, who ever would think of that? I can't wait to see your magazine pics! And I LOVE your new "linkwithin" feature! I'm going to try to see if I can figure out how to do that.

mina said...

That's awesome! It totally sounds like a gimmick, but that shoot sounds like fun!

Mary and Sean said...

Liza,
Anytime! I'm always looking for partners in crime and I think you'd be perfect!

Mary and Sean said...

Carrie,
It's super easy. Just do a search for linkwithin online and it will pop up and you can register for this feature. The only disadvantage is that we don't get to choose the related stories...

LinkWithin

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