IPL Laser Hair Removal or Why I'll Never Be Married

With the advent of pre-date google stalking this blog has become a bit a liability. I've dated a few dudes this year and it's kind of awkward when on the third date or, occasionally, the first - he says something like, "So you're kind of addicted to pedicures, huh?"

It's mid 2009. Said dude can go back almost two years and know what I was thinking, how my skin was freaking out, exactly which stretch mark I was obsessing over and the miracle product that solved my conundrum. How any of them make it to the third date after all that reading is beyond me but I have two resolves....1) The guy truly worth dating really won't care what I say on the internets (and, perhaps, may even love me enough to find it endearing?) and 2) Henceforth I'm lying about my last name so that I may avoid the convergence of courting and beauty blogging.

Still, despite all of my best efforts at anonymity, occasionally there is a find so fantastic I must share it with you no matter how potentially uncomfortable my next first date will be. Today this liability is IPL Laser Hair removal. I'm Italian which in terms of skincare means two things. 1) When I walk across the street my skin travels across the ethnicity rainbow and 2) The older I get, the hairier I get. (I'm so never getting married. Dudes, I beg you, stop reading here.)

This is why my IPL Laser experience with the south's most brilliant beauty maven is changing my life. First, I no longer have hair underneath my arms, on my face, belly or in my nostrils. Second it hurts, so good. As in the pain isn't that bad. Third, if it works for my stubborn, Italian hair it will work for almost anyone. Also without me knowing it a decade of shaving and razor burn made my armpits ugly. They are now airbrush pretty and smooth. No bumps.

Terri, aesthetician and laser technician extraordinaire, has been running the laser for over ten years. She has a relationship with it in the way that only an intuitive southern woman can. She knows when it needs water. She knows when it needs a break. She knows when the laser head needs replacing. And she knows all of these things with no related indicator light on the actual machine alerting her to such conditions. She will give you a consultation for free (as most good laser technicians should!) and predict with alarming accuracy how effective it will be for you, how long your course of treatment will take, and how much she will charge you. Even if you live in another state you should come see Terri, get her expert opinion and measure all other laser technician's advice against it. Or you know you can spend a ton of money on razors, creams, razor burn, waxing, and the like for the rest of your life.

Ms. Terri works for several different plastic surgeons (cause she's in demand like that), has her own organic spa where she does the world's most relaxing facials, and has a few brilliant online outposts which she will tell you all about as your beauty needs arise.

If you still aren't convinced Total Beauty has prepared this lovely hair removal 101 for you.

Hair Removal 101

Use our expert tricks to get your smoothest skin ever

Razor burn. Ingrown hairs. Those ouchy little nicks you get on your kneecaps. Does hair removal have to be such, like, medieval torture? Turns out no. So here's our guide to getting better results with shaving and alternative hair removal. See tricks

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The Perfect Back Facial at Spa Physiog

Yes, there is such a thing as a facial for the back. It's true name is a backacial or bacial. Every spring I get obsessed with making my back acceptable for my bathing suit. Mostly because it makes me want to vomit when I spend the first month of summer looking at everyone's white, pasty, pimply backs just laying unapologetically around the pool. (Yes. I know, I'm a horrible, judgmental person.) I understand we are all just human and God made us all this way for a reason but I'm a visual person and I happen to love beautiful things. So I usually spend the first month of summer with my eyes buried in the pages of enormously weighty fashion magazines until everyone's skin gets that perfect tint of brown which reflects the sun so beautifully. By that time it's usually too hot to think about clothes anyhow.

This winter is lasting longer than any other winter I have experienced in North Carolina. So I have had a little extra time to obsess over the condition of the skin I can't see without smoke and mirrors. During my recent playdate with Terri at Spa Physiog I was mentioning the poor condition of my back and she said plainly, "We'll fix that." When Terri says things like that I know it's true. The truth has a very certain ring to it and Terri's truths are especially harmonious and pleasing to my ears. Whether coming from my aesthetican or a boyfriend, the truth's voice is singular, like the sound of rain on a tin roof. I can also audibly identify the truth because its opposite is so vague and requires hours of thought and kneading in order to rise into a loaf of something truth-like rather than into a loaf of something BS like.

So anyhow when I got home tonight after my back facial at Spa Physiog I wasn't surprised to see instant results. After Terri applied numerous Eminence products to my back, my problem areas turned from nasty, pasty, white remnants of winter pimples and parched skin into a very specific beautiful shinny result. That specific result being the reduction of problems areas to only two discolorations which have become so slight that they will be invisible after the first tan. I know this from years of experimentation and mental documentation of results. I don't know how Terri works such miracles but she does. In years past I have had to suffer through the first ugly skin month with everyone else. This year I'm grateful to be able to turn that energy elsewhere, knowing my skin is lovely and ready for the sun. Now I'll just wait for the rain to stop falling.

Teri was kind enough to give me the recipe (save a few secret ingredients) for her perfect back facial. But I have to let you know that if you have not yet been lucky enough to meet Terri Exum, you are really missing out. Terri is bit more than an aestheticain. I venture to say she is healer of sorts, curing whatever ails you. And she tells it like is, in skin care and in life. I hope one day you all get to meet her. However if you live in say, California, the items with links below are available for purchase online and will be shipped right to your door in case you'd like to perform this spring ritual at home.

Terri's Perfect Back Facial:
Eight Greens Phyto Masque
Stone Crop Masque
Blueberry Soy Sugar Scrub
AHA Fruit Pulp Treatment
Hungarian Herbal Mud Treatment
Mandarin Grapefruit Body Butter
Paprika Herbal Treatment
Stone Crop Serum
Citrus Exfoliating Wash
Stone Crop Hydrating Mist

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Eminence Organic's Mandarin Grapefruit Body Butter

When Spa Physiog supplied me with Eminence's Mandarin Grapefruit Body Butter I was thankful but couldn't imagine the serendipitous gift it would provide later that day. Tonight, I got out of the shower after a long nap, which followed a long week, and a longer, loosing battle with a stomach illness, I was in dire need of some levity in my life. I applied it generously to my thighs and calves and was instantly transported to a sweeter, tropical world. If you ever wonder what it would have felt like to be an Egyptian Pharaoh bathed only in natural products derived from the land's finest fruits and vegetables, simply buy a few Eminence products from Beauty Gone Green, wait for them to arrive in your mailbox and be thankful you get the best of both worlds: richly nourishing concoctions derived from the earth for the benefit of your skin and indoor plumbing. Really, we have it made. I felt as if I was absorbing all the health benefits of eating a grapefruit but applying said nutrients and vitamins directly to my thighs. The result is skin that feels nourished and smells like absolute heaven.

Ingredients:
• Grapefruit: rich in Vitamin C, antioxidant, uplifting, stimulates and tones skin
• Mandarin: high in Vitamin C, stimulates circulation, helps clear skin impurities
• Shea Butter: High in triglycerides and fatty acids, it is an excellent emollient for skin
• Cocoa Butter: excellent emollient for skin, relieves irritation, heals skin
• Jojoba Oil: nourishing and hydrating with one of the best absorption rates
• Aloe Extract: healer, moisturizer, calms irritated skin, alleviates the effects of UV radiation

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Clarisonic Skin Care Brush: Beauty Gone Green's best kept secret!

I had a playdate today with my lovely friend Teri of Beauty Gone Green and Spa Physiog. I got to try out the Clarisonic skin care brush and I have to say that it's now one of my favorite things. (I think Oprah said something similar recently.)

There is no longer any point to washing my face with out this brush. In fact I have one on order and will be updating you periodically on its long-term effects. Three years ago when I started seeing Teri at Spa Physiog my skin had every ailment that the Clarisonic treats: rosacea, breakouts, blackheads, large pores, and fine lines. We noticed today that in three years, with regular facials, peels, and use of high quality products, my skin has totally changed. But it's far from perfect and I'm looking forward to further improvements (reduced pore size and no more blackheads!) from the Clarisonic. The brush uses sonic vibration to remove 6 times more makeup, oil and dirt, as compared to a regular facial cleansing. After using this brush for a minute and half my skin was as soft as a baby's bum and it absorbed product like an actual sea sponge. With all the money women spend on product, we might as well be getting the maximum benefit available and that's not possible until after using this brush. I wouldn't have really believed that unless I tried it today but it's true. All the moisturizer, cleanser, toner, and masques could be doing a lot more for me if I just let the Clairsonic remove the junk that's in the way first. It reminds me of a metaphor I once heard. If I try to paint a new painting on an old canvas, the old paint will always eventually bleed through. The Clarisonic makes a new canvas out of every face. Mine was glowing and healthy all day.

AND Beauty Gone Green has a batch of pink Clarisonics to benefit breast cancer research (just in time for Mother's Day)! The cost is $195 but like the sonic care tooth brush, it comes with two brushes for use by multiple family members. (Apparently the Clarisonic is brilliant for clearing up skin and shaving problems for men too!) Beauty Gone Green also sells the individual replacement brush heads for sensitive and normal skin, Which means you can add a brush for each newly luminescent family member;) Click on the picture below to order one and Teri will throw in one nii-kii's divine lip balms for free!

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Exhale Massage: I have a new favorite!

One of the best things about being in love with beauty products is getting to meet other people who find themselves oddly compelled to make or obsess about beauty products. One day while sitting in my lovely friend Teri's little slice of heaven known as Spa Physiog, a small attractive dark haired woman popped her head in the door and introduced herself, as Monique. Soon she told me how she used to have a normal job but eventually found herself obsessed, even called, to do massage and make her own products. (She is currently compiling the most brilliant collection of massage products, soaps, and lip balms and has promised to let Beauty’s Spot readers be the first to know when her line nii-kii is on the market)This is the kind of creative preoccupation that fascinates me. Monique finds herself up all hours of the night inventing new lip balm recipes like mad a French chef, unable to rest until perfection is reached. Indeed her lip balm is the most perfect lip balm I have ever tried and now, unbelievably, I have a new favorite: her massages. They are heavenly. For days afterwards I could only ponder the question, "Why are massages not an essential element on the list of human self care rituals? Massages like this need to be right up at the top with flossing and teeth brushing.”

Monique's exhale massage is deep and therapeutic. She is a petite woman and I worried (completely unnecessarily) that she wouldn’t be able to muster the strength I usually require from a good massage therapist. Luckily for me her unexpected strength could manipulate the muscles of a heavy weight prize fighter as if they belonged to a cherubic toddler. She used only her own products which are packed with aromatheraputic scents, but not greasy. I swear no grease. I went out with friends to Chinese later that night and I in no way resembled the greasy mess that usually leaves a massage therapist's office. Slowly but surely she kneaded away the tension in every single one of my body parts. I had so many favorite moments in this massage it is difficult to list them all. When she used her forearm to manually distance all the muscles which grab onto my spine (mostly out of habit and desperation) she physically reminded me what relaxation felt like. At this moment, I knew she was my new massage therapist. I have to admit during the last ten minutes of the massage I am not sure what happened, I went to that strange lovely place before sleep and after consciousness. Very few people have ever allowed me the love and care to reach that space in the prescence of another human being. Monique is gifted and I only hope you all get to experience her gifts. (and she is right next to Spa Physiog!)

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hadaka no tsukiai: banishing winter skin blues with Eminence Organics

The Japanese have long-standing, deep cultural traditions surrounding health, healing, and hot springs. The term "hadaka no tsukiai" translates to "naked companionship" but refers to the bonding that happens between two people when they share in the ritual of submerging their worn injured bodies into to thermally heated water that erupts from the earth's surface. My in-house spa treatments this weekend called for another person. Luckily for me I have a dear friend who was a willing volunteer and I am happy to report that Japanese hot springs are not the only place where healing self care rituals invoke this kind of bonding refered to as "hadaka no tsukiai".

Tonight I am ready for summer to arrive. I spent parts of the day and evening walking around the new path cut by a lake in my neighborhood. The warmth was teasing me, whispering that summer is close but not here yet. Last year I was laying out by the pool in March. Then the terrifying thought came to me...."Oh god! Laying out - winter skin. I have winter skin” My skin needs a tune up badly. On returning home from my walk I dug through the growing pile of beauty products that crowd around my laptop like stuffed animals around a child’s bed pillows and found the perfect remedies. Eminence's Pear and Poppy Seed Microderm Polisher and Lime Stimulating Masque. I can not think of two better tonics for dreary winter skin. After applying both of these masques I am confident that if I were suddenly forced into a bikini, my skin does have the ability to go from winter blah to summer stunning in about 15 minutes. The wonderful ladies of Beauty Gone Green warned me that these two products act as intense exfoliating agents. This confirmed my hunch that I should try them out on my back before my face. I really still only trust Teri with my face. So products in hand, I wrangled Gigi out to my country abode for some Hadaka no tsukiai (John we are waiting for you and Alan to start Beast's Spot and tell us all about your male bonding adventures ;). With Gigi as my esthetician for the night we bravely set out to say goodbye to the winter skin blues. First she washed my back with Jason's Organic Citrus Soap. Then she applied the Pear and Poppy seed Microderm polisher. I could feel the dead skin being scrubbed away. The gel like substance is packed with actual pear and poppy seeds. After two minutes of scrubbing we put a hot towel on my back and left it in place for five minutes.

Beauty Gone Green accurately lists the benefits of the Pear and Poppy Seed Microderm Polisher as: • Natural microdermabrasion action • Perfectly exfoliates uneven, dry and rough skins • Minimizes fine lines and wrinkles • Relieves congested skins and prevents breakouts • Helps to increase micro-circulation and stimulates cell renewal • Supplies nutrition to the epidermis

The ingredients that make this incredible organic exfoliation possible are: • Pear: bioflavonoids, hydroxycinnamic acids (antioxidant) • Green Apple: Vitamin C, fruit flavonoids, quercetin (anti-inflammatory) • Poppy Seed: gentle exfoliation • Fine Walnut: Vitamin E, gentle exfoliation • Green Tea: antioxidant, phenol and Vitamin C rich • Apricot Kernel Oil: softening and soothing • Alfalfa: vitamin rich nutrition

Next Gigi applied the Lime Stimulating Masque. The label, not unlike infamous red chili based hot causes, cautions this product is hot. It's not heart attack warning label hot but it is in fact Vietnamese red chili sauce hot. It tingles and almost instantly turned my skin bright red but it is refreshing and I like instant gratification so for me this is a top notch product. You can actually see in this picture where the product was applied and as Gigi remarked as she left just now: It's incredible my skin really does feel like a baby's.

Benefits include: • Deep active stimulant for cellular renewal • Detoxifies the skin • Assists in increasing oxygenation in the skin • Clears blemished or acne skin • Reduces fatigue in the skin • Increases the absorption rate for other products

Ingredients include: • Lime & Lemon: supplies Vitamin C, antioxidant agent • Thermal Water: supplies minerals to the skin, softens and nourishes • Nettle: assists in increasing stimulation and oxygenation of skin • Biocomplex™: an antioxidant booster of Vitamins A, Ester-C, E, Coenzyme Q10, Alpha Lipoic Acid

The combination of the two has left my back shinny, bright, smooth, and suntan ready. Now I'll wait for the weather to catch up.

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Eminence Organics at Beauty Gone Green: Cucumber Eye Gel

My dear friend Teri Exum of Spa Physiog has gone and made every "green" beauty product I adore available for purchase online at any hour of the day. Beauty Gone Green is her latest venture and it’s brilliant. Accordingly, I have developed a minor obsession with a million and two of her products. So I've decided to take them one at a time and tell you why they are now indispensable. We’ll start with Eminence Organics' Cucumber Eye Gel. First, I am tempted to eat the cucumber eye gel every time I open the cap because the smell is peculiarly pleasant. If nymphs or fairies or any other sublimely beautiful creatures are real I am certain they smell like this romaine-lettuce colored gel. I am also investigating the possibility that a five-star Parisian chef has created this concoction and, wanting to keep its exquisite taste all to him self, pawned it off as beauty product. It just feels and smells too good to not be edible. In fact most of its ingredients are edible: Cucumber Juice, Wild Hops, Bearberry, Ginseng, Vitamin A, E, B, K, and Zinc. Unfortunately for those of us with inquisitive appetites, it also counts Shea Butter, Eyebright, Evening Primrose Oil & Almond Oil, Atlas Cedar and Co-Enzyme Q10 as ingredients. Bad news for the taste buds - good news for our eyes, ladies. I may be 27 but my eyes are now only 17. The embryonic wrinkles that were gestating beside my eye sockets are now ironed out. Morning puffiness and computer eye disappear almost instantaneously upon application and I think my eyes may actually be starting to have a healthy glow all their own. All in all, this gel is as comfortable as Christmas morning.

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"Fun Betty"

It's time to talk about some other hair. They are making hair dye for the hair down there. I have yet to feel compelled to dye my hair down there hot pink, or black, or blond, but if I did I could order "Fun Betty" from Beauty Gone Green. I'm single. I've been single for a while and I'm looking forward to being single for another long while. I may get to try this out and no one else will ever know.

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Heavenly

Today one of my long standing fantasies came true. Teri let me behind the scenes to check out the genius that is Beauty Gone Green and get some pictures of my favorite stuff at Spa Physiog. Now when I tell you all how heavenly Spa Physiog is, you'll have a visual reference. I also found out Eminence is making Chocolate. This could be very dangerous.

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Pacifica Candles: Mmm, mmm, mmm for the smell of it

I like bringing the day spa home. In order to this in most luxurious, simple, speedy way I can think of I light a candle that smells exotic and heavenly and is good for me. Once I found Pacifica candles at Spa Physiog, I have honestly never tried anything else. Their floral, spicy, aromatic scents are created by a woman who travels the world looking for new ways to bring ol' factory pleasure to my apartment. I think for me, this indulgence is also a celebration of being able to smell. December 31 marked 3 years of not smoking and after a very long career of over a pack a day I simply had not smelled in a very, very long time. For Christmas this year I asked for Candles from Pacifica and Santa filled my stocking abundantly. Tuscan Blood Orange, Moroccan Chamomile Apple Blossom, Tahitian Gardenia, Tibetan Mountain Temple, Sandalwood, and Spanish Amber promise to fill my apartment and help me celebrate the use of all my senses the whole year through (let's hope). Ah yes and the candles are made with Natural and Essential oils, cotton wicks and soy wax. So they are actually good for me (and the planet) too.

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27 is stunning, it enters through Spa Physiog

It's been a while since I have written. December was a busy month. The holidays, new car, new job, two trips to D.C., and one trip to the beach. By the end of the month I was haggard. I needed a facial and I was dangerously low on funds. I was one of the only people in my building on the official work days of Thursday December 27 and Friday December 28. I was so exhausted I was beginning to feel completely insane. I knew my funds were limited but I also knew that a call to my dear sweet earth angel, Teri Exum at Spa Physiog, would remedy every frazzled nerve and help me welcome 27 with beauty strength and confidence. I left her a message Thursday night and she agreed to see me Friday immediately after work. Dear woman. We covered the usual ground: the holidays, family, a mutual friend's wedding. Teri is excellent at the unofficial part of her job (and perhaps the unofficial job of every service provider in the beauty industry): emotional care taker. Teri understood immediately what I needed. My 27th birthday was coming up. I had just finished interacting with the monstrosity I loosely refer to as family and I was going to yet another friend's wedding. She could also tell because in the last year I had only scheduled working appointments, meaning that there was some painful but essential function to be performed such as a chemical or glycolic peel. This time I asked for just the facial, "just the fun stuff", as we call it. The pure and absolutely indulgent pleasure of a Teri Exum facial is like visiting a lush tropical garden, a shrink, and a massage therapist all in the very same hour.

She put no less than 15 different Eminence organic creations on my face each one carefully applied and infused into my face with two hot towels. My favorite this time was a new product by eminence called Raspberry Eye Masque. A week later, I still feel like it took 8 years off my eyes. I am finally at the age where a special eye cream is a necessity and I think I have decided on the Herbal Eye Contour Cream. If you try only one eminence product in your life (which would be an incredibly foolish mistake given the tremendous amount of pleasure offered and the fleeting nature of life and joy) try this one. I do not know how they make an eye treatment product (of which you put only a minute amount around your eyes) that makes your entire body smile like a confident super model, but they do. At one point I was so relaxed my body began twitching. If it weren't for this twitching I wouldn't have woken myself up thus missing the remaining 45 minutes of this ultimate sensory pleasure. This has happened to me before and I imagine it is the equivalent of a junkie buying a bag of baking soda with their last pile of cash. It is not pleasant and I recommend doing whatever necessary to avoid falling asleep on Teri's table.

That night I was a completely different person with no trace of insanity left. I ran into an old friend at the market and happily gave her and her groceries a ride home. Everyone I encountered that evening commented that I seemed to be glowing. I knew the facial was going to leave me financially broke. That seemed a small price to pay for a complete lobotomy that left me smelling of blueberries, raspberries, Jasmine Flower Petals, Evening Primrose Oil, Stone Crop, and any other fruit, spice or heavenly essence that Eminence adeptly packs into their facial treatments. Over the course the beach vacation that followed my facial it increasingly came to my attention that my day spa affinity is more accurately described as an addiction - seeing as how I am completely willing to spend my last metaphorical dime on a number of "necessary" treatments. And at the suggestion of friend I have changed the title of this blog to reflect this admission. It also seems more fitting to rename the blog as I am obsessed with day spa treatments and yet am completely willing to spend the three days immediately following said pricey treatment dressed in torn jeans and fleece pullovers with a massive knot of curly unwashed hair piled atop my head. These are not so much the habits of a beauty queen. I suppose since I was little grooming and hygiene which allowed inner beauty to shine interested me much more than loads of makeup and hairspray which somehow seemed to negate any feeling of glamour. At least that's how it was, and is, for me. And at 27 it's so nice to be me.

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Organic SPF 30 Minerals at Spa Physiog

Spa Physiog is an organic skincare goldmine. In fact the term goldmine is limiting because it would imply there is only one valuable ore to be found in Terri Exum's 2nd story lair. In truth ores worth more than their weight in gold abound. Hawaiian Ruby Guava Body Butter, Blueberry Soy Massage Soufflé, Sugar Plum Whip Moisturizer, and Yam and Pumpkin Enzyme Peel. It's all organic. It's all handmade in Hungary. An hour on Terri's table for her Mini-Facial proves you've never truly known the extent of pleasure that can be derived from the human senses.

This mine is large, and as such will take numerous posts to cover. I'm going to go straight to the Blood Diamond for this first post and reveal the product that I can no longer live with out.

Eminence is Terri's primary line, although she also carries Pacifica, CosMedix, and Chinese Herbs. In fact Terri has so much to offer she has recently created a virtual mine which you can shop freely from home right now - Beauty Gone Green. Back to the Blood Diamond... at some point in the last year Eminence delivered Organic Sun Defense, Water Resistant SPF 30. It's not a lotion. Its an organic mineral powder, dispensed through the brush that contains it.

Here is what it has done for me: it has cured my 15 year battle with Rosacea. I could end this post right here. As anyone who has had Rosacea and knows the embarrassment of being the only red-colored human at the party is most certainly calling Terri right now to get their hands on this, the only effective treatment I have found for the embarrassing “I have a red face” disorder. For those of you lucky enough to have been born without Rosacea, the organic mineral sun defense has also prevented an ounce of sun from over coloring my skin while gradually allowing a slight tan to soak through. It has covered every hormonally induced pimple that has appeared since I began using it. Although a chemical peel of Terri's eliminated all of my twenty something breakouts about six months ago, I do still get about three pimples a month right before my period. But you will never see them. It also completely erases any old zit scars while it’s on. Oh yes and unlike SPF lotions, it has never ever caused a pimple or anything resembling a pimple. In short it has made me willing to use SPF 30 everyday, aided the clearing of my skin and cured previously untreatable rosacea. I would like to give this product to every 15 year old I know and spare them those painful pimply sun burned years. Since I can't do that I'll have to settle for being able to point you all in the direction of skincare serenity and hope you follow the mile markers along the way.

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