162. Talking About Skincare

Marco: Hello, everyone! And welcome to EnglishPod. My name is Marco.

Catherine: My name is Catherine. And today we're going to a very special place, Marco, a place where men and women like, but usually women are associated with it. Anyway, these women like to go, what is this place we're going to?

Marco: That's right. Today we are going to a beauty spa.

Catherine: Right. Let's check that out in today's 'vocabulary preview'.

Vocabulary preview

Marco: All right, so, this place, a beauty spot. It's interesting because it's not just a normal spot.It's a particular spot where you get treated for somethings.

Catherine: That's right. So, a beauty spa is a place where you go to feel good. So, women and men like to have their nails and their faces and their skin taking care of, maybe their make-up and hair as well. So, it's not just a place where you maybe go from massage, but you get a lot of other services that make your skin nice, make you look and feel good.

Marco: All right, so, that's where we're going today. We're gonna go to a beauty spa. And we're gonna talk about all the different things that you can do there. So, let's listen to our dialogue for the very first time.

A: You wanna go get a facial with me today?

B: Dude, what are you talking about? Only girls do that.

A: Not at all, guys also get facials, manicures and pedicures. There is nothing wrong with looking after your skin and looking good.

B: True. So, what do they do to you at your beauty spa?

A: Well, first they exfoliate my face, getting rid of all the dead skin. Then I get a face mask with nutrients that keep my skin healthy and young. Afterwards, they applysome moisturizer and you leave feeling like a million bucks.

B:That doesn't really sound like something I would be interested in. In any case, Ijust wash my face every night and use sunscreen during the day.

A: Well, you should come with me one day, I'm sure you'll love it.

B: Uh...no.

Marco: All right, we're back. So, now let's take a look at 'language takeaway'.

Language takeaway

Catherine: We got a lot of great phrases and words in language takeaway today. The first one, though, is from the very first line of dialogue. You wanna go get a facial with me today?

Marco: That's right. We are asking our friend if he wants to go with us to go get a facial. Now, what exactly does it mean to get a facial?

Catherine: All right. A facial here is a thing, in this case,a service that we would pay for. And basically a facial is just a skincare treatment or a treatment for your face. So, maybe you'll get some cream and cleansing. And you know,in the advertisements, you often see someone getting a facial with like cucumbers on their eyes. And so it's just a way to make your skin feel really good.

Marco: Okay,particularly on your face.

Catherine: Yes, your face. The verb here is to get, so I'm going to get a facial or I got a facial yesterday.

Marco: Okay, very good. Now,apart from getting a facial, getting a special treatment on your face, you can also get a manicure and a pedicure.

Catherine: That's right. So, manicure, pedicure,these we're gonna keep together because they're very similar, but they're a little bit different. Mani, manicure, mani, that means something to do with the hands. So, manicure is actually when you have your fingernails kind of cleaned and taken care of, and then they will apply some paint, so nail polish, so basically having your nails treated and then colored.

Marco: Okay. And then pedicure,I imagine is the same thing, but for your feet.

Catherine: That's right. Pedi refers to feet, so pedicure is the same treatment, the same service,but for your toes. And in this case, you'd have very, you know, nice nail polish on your toes.

Marco: All right. Now going back to skin treatment, because, well, manicure and pedicure for your fingernails and for your hands and feet, we are talking about getting your face exfoliated. Or he says "Well, first, they exfoliate my face."

Catherine: So, exfoliate. You think EX means taking something away. In this case, to exfoliate means to take the dead skin away. And sometimes this can be a little bit painful, because you think at first you have some dry skin, some dead skin. They have to take it away, they have to use something rough. You can do it on your feet as well. But when they exfoliate your face, they use some kind of cleanser or some kind of maybe sponge to clear the dead skin. And then afterwards you have the fresh new skin, and it's very smooth and nice-looking.

Marco: Okay. So, that's what it means to exfoliate the skin. It can be on your face, your feet,pretty much anywhere in your body. Lastly, we also are just using sunscreen during the day to protect our skin and to keep it healthy.

Catherine: That's right. So, sunscreen is a kind of cream, do you use sunscreen, Marco?

Marco: No.

Catherine: No, you don't have to. Well, I often use sunscreen because I'm very very pale. And so when I go in the sun, maybe at the beach,it's very easy for me to burn my skin to turn red. And so, sunscreen helps me protect my skin.

Marco: So,that's exactly what it does. Sunscreen is a specific type of lotion that you put on your skin, and it prevents you from getting sunburn or from darkening your skin.

Catherine: That's right. So, those are the words we have relating to skincare and some of these services at the beauty spa, but we've got some more phrases for you. So, let's first listen to our dialogue again, and we'll be back in a moment.

A:You wanna go get a facial with me today?

B: Dude, what are you talking about? Only girls do that.

A: Not at all, guys also get facials, manicures and pedicures. There is nothing wrongwith looking after your skin and looking good.

B: True. So, what do they do to you at your beauty spa?

A: Well, first they exfoliate my face, getting rid of all the dead skin. Then I get a facemask with nutrients that keep my skin healthy and young. Afterwards, they applysome moisturizer and you leave feeling like a million bucks.

B:That doesn't really sound like something I would be interested in. In any case, Ijust wash my face every night and use sunscreen during the day.

A: Well, you should come with me one day, I'm sure you'll love it.

B: Uh...no.

Marco: All right. So, now it's time for some 'fluency builder'. Let's check out three key phrases.

Fluency builder 

Catherine: So, we've got this first phrase here, not at all. So, one person says only girls go to the beauty spa, and what does the other person say? Marco: Right. He says "No, not at all." Not at all. So, it basically he's responding by saying "No,that's not true." Now you could have said no, but why do you say not at all?

Catherine: You could say no, but no is almost rude. "Not at all" is a way to say "Actually, in reality, this is different." So,it's a more polite way of disagreeing with what the person just said.

Marco: Okay. So, you can say "No, not at all." I guess you can say both, right? Not at all or together..."no, not at all".

Catherine: No, not at all You could say... Women don't like to watch football.

Marco: And you can say "Oh, not at all".

Catherine: You could say only men like to watch football.

Marco: Right. And then if I disagree or you say...actually... I can say "No, not at all. Actually girls like to watch football as well."

Catherine: That's right.

Marco: Okay. So, now continuing on with the skincare topic, we saw this interesting verb,to apply some moisturizer, so the verb here is to apply something on your skin.

Catherine: All right, so, the verb to apply means to put on, okay? Or to use. And this is a verb we often use with beauty care products, like apply the shampoo to your head or apply some fingernail polish means that you're going to put it on yourself.

Marco: Right. So, when we say apply some moisturizer is to use moisturizer...

Catherine: Yeah, to put it on your skin, like I apply my makeup, that means I put the makeup on my skin. In this case,moisturizer is a great cream that we use when our skin is dry and we want it to be more healthy. We want it to be less dry and we add this.

Marco: Okay. Lastly, after you exfoliate, you apply moisturizer,you do everything. He says that you leave the beauty salon, feeling like a million bucks.

Catherine: All right, to feel like a million bucks. This is a phrase that we often use to say you feel wonderful...

Marco: You feel great...

Catherine: You feel really good. And so this is the main reason to go to the beauty spot, right, Marco?

Marco: Right. So, you go there because you wanna feel like a million bucks, so you feel very very very good.

Catherine: Sometimes when I buy a new outfit and I try it on, I'm really excited, I say "Oh, I feel like a million bucks."

Marco: So, I guess the other form of this word will actually be "you look like a million bucks", someone can look like a million bucks.

Catherine: Exactly. So, I see my friend coming from the beauty spot and I say "Wow, you look like a million bucks! You look great!"

Marco: All right, so, let's listen to our dialogue one last time. Let's review everything and we'll be back in a bit.

A:You wanna go get a facial with me today?

B: Dude, what are you talking about? Only girls do that.

A: Not at all, guys also get facials, manicures and pedicures. There is nothing wrongwith looking after your skin and looking good.

B: True. So, what do they do to you at your beauty spa?

A: Well, first they exfoliate my face, getting rid of all the dead skin. Then I get a facemask with nutrients that keep my skin healthy and young. Afterwards, they applysome moisturizer and you leave feeling like a million bucks.

B:That doesn't really sound like something I would be interested in. In any case, Ijust wash my face every night and use sunscreen during the day.

A: Well, you should come with me one day, I'm sure you'll love it.

B: Uh...no.

Marco: All right, so, facials,this sort of thing is commonly mostly associated with women, but as we saw in the dialogue,more and more men are actually taking care of their skin and their appearance.

Catherine: That's right. So,while this might have been traditionally a woman's event, going to the spa, having a girl's day at the spa. You're right, Marco. A lot of men like to do this just because you get a manicure doesn't mean you have to have pink fingernails, you can actually just have your nails taken care of and cleaned and cut and your cuticles taken care of. So, feels really nice.

Marco: That's right. Actually it's a common new trend that we've even heard in the news about and the term that men are labeled with when they take excessive care of their skin and their appearance. They say they're metrosexual.

Catherine: Metrosexual. Now, this is a man who, like you say,likes to dress nicely, takes care of his hair, has nice skin, someone who really takes care of their body and it's different from being a homosexual, for example, where maybe that's a stereotype that we have...where we say oh, well, you know, some people who are homosexual like to dress very well and take care of their skin, metrosexual people, men are straight, they're not gay, but they still like to do these things to go to the spa or to take care of their appearances.

Marco: Right. So, a it's a very interesting topic,specifically nowadays where this type of thing is more and more common and yet still in many places and cultures, it's very much, uh,taboo. Obviously being a manly man associated with that is, you know, you don't really take care of your appearance.You wake up and you still look kind of messy and half asleep or, you know, guyhas scars and beards and stuff. So, you don't really associate it much, but it's very interesting to see these types of differentcultural aspects. So, we would like to know if in your culture, your country, this is a common practice?Is it is it acceptable or is it very very rare?

Catherine: And if you go to the beauty spa, whether you're a man or a woman, what's your favorite service? Do you like the facials? Do you like the pedicure? Let us know. Our website is englishpod.com.

Marco: All right, we'll see you guys there.

Catherine: Bye!.