the yonka incident
When I lived in Houston and wanted to get into the beauty world, I took a job working front desk at a brand new spa. By brand new I meant hadn’t yet opened, in the construction building stages and still recruiting for therapists, estheticians and nail technicians. I remember feeling pretty darn special that I was able to be a part of something so new.
Since this spa was going to be in the “uppity” area of Houston, they wanted the staff to be as informed as possible of the exclusive lines they would be caring: Yonka and Jurlique. Thus began my obsession with the spa beauty world. We had seminars, workshops, volunteered to be testers for spa facials using these lines and of course, we got samples of everything, Glorious full size samples!
After the spa was built and I got in knee-deep in the spa world, I decided I would rather get these treatments instead of work in the industry, so the spa working world for me came to a close. I did of course, keep all the samples I had been given and saved one of my very favorite ones and only used it for special occasions or when I just had a killer of a day.
Yonka and Jurlique are very different lines in terms of fragrance and story line. Yonka has a very spa-like fragrance, with notes of rosemary, herbs and mint. Jurlique is much more calming with notes of lavender and rose. To this day, the Yonka Clay Masque and the Jurlique Rosewater Facial Spray are two of the best facial products I’ve ever tried.
One of the Yonka samples I kept was the Phyto Bain, which was a shower and bath oil priced at $48 for a 3oz bottle. One drop of this and you feel like you’re at the spa at the Four Seasons. It fills up the room with amazing notes of rosemary and mint and you are instantly in a good place. I LOVED this stuff and my little .1 oz sample I carried with me all throughout the years. I kept it safely hidden away to bust out for that special occasion or when I had a garden tub 🙂
Now that you have some background of my little sample and the attachment I had with it, I hope you can have a better understanding and sympathy for what happened next…
Last week I was cleaning out the bathroom and getting rid of old makeup, skin products, bath products and fragrance that I had kept for years. It was time to let go of the old and bring in the new. As I was cleaning my shelf that little sample of goodness made its appearance and I carefully put it to the side. As I was throwing away an empty Kenneth Cole Black fragrance that I had for years and stopped using a long time ago, I accidentally knocked over the sample. Down it went, hit the floor and shattered into a million pieces of rosemary and mint oil.
My heart and mouth yelled out a “NOOOOOOOOOOOO!” as I dropped to the floor to see if anything was still salvageable. Nope, none. The little bottle that I have been safely keeping for 8 years was gone just like that.
My husband came home and his first words were “wow, it smells good in here!”
I looked at him with sad, disappointed and heartbroken eyes. “Yep, I spilled my sample before you walked in the door, a sample I’ve been keeping for a very long time.”
His response was to say “well, I guess it’s time to get another bottle”, as if it was no big deal.
Alas, my little sample is no more. Sure you could say that I shouldn’t hold on to material things, that it’s no big deal and I could always get them online, but that’s not the point. The point was I had held on to this thing for 8 YEARS.
I have kept the cap in my bathroom though, once in a while smelling it and getting a whiff of that luxurious fragrance. If you ever get a chance to smell one of these products or get a sample, take it. Once you have it, guard it with your life, don’t make the same mistake that I did 🙂
I did find a spa that does Yonka Facials- Riviera Spa I’ll be seeing you!
