Saint Valentine and the flying baby with a bow. On the 14th February, they cast a spell to free us of the stresses, inhibitions and complacency that weighs down one’s typical daily love life. Awkward teenagers muster up the courage to show their hand. Loveless marriages are taken on a nostalgic evening of courtship and romance. In theory anyway.
The reality of Valentine’s Day is that you’re probably sitting in one of three camps. Camp one, Slytherin. Cynical about Valentine’s day, believe it to be corporate nonsense. You might see me in camp one right now (I’m actually just here to entertain and maybe sell some gradual tan). Camp two, indifferent. Love, or at least like their partner. Will do something for them because they probably should.
Camp three, absolutely LOVE Valentine’s Day. Extravagant displays of affection. Think rose petals jizzed all over hotel rooms to be later cleaned up by minimum wage workers. Be aware of camp three – all that glitters ain’t gold. Lavish celebrations between couples are a desperate sell, even more so if they’re trying to sell the dream to a wider audience on Instagram.
Regardless of which camp you fall in to, the main issue I take with Valentine’s Day is that choosing one day in a year to rev up the romance is too much pressure. There is nothing wrong with a day dedicated to a loved one, but the expectation of perfection on any single specific day, in advance, seems too big a burden to bear. Valentine’s Day is to your love life what New Year’s Eve is to your social life, summed up beautifully by Mark Corrigan below. No wonder so many have sacked NYE off as well.
The truth is that the health of a relationship is not measured on a single night. So if Valentine’s Day feels unnecessarily performative to you, you could always unsubscribe. And if you feel like you HAVE to pull off something special for the sake of your relationship, you should probably take note of the big red flag slapping you in the face. I’ll probably still go for a dinner, but then again, I do love dinners.
Now for the big sell – if you are doing something on the 14th, like me, you’re going to want to look your best for it. That means a bit of gradual tan to give you a subtle, natural colour for your date. We’ll chuck in free next day delivery with code ‘SHIPFORFREE’ to make sure you’ve got the goods and are looking your best by the end of this week.
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