"Make your choice, my prince," said the queen, "from these beautiful maidens we've brought you."
The prince gave them each haughty glances as he scrutinised their physical asset. He wore no expression that spelled hope. Instead he tossed the ones he rejected aside and moved onto the next one.
Adaora sighed.
She really wanted to be the prince's bride but everyone else said she wouldn't succeed because her skin wasn't succulent but dry.
Many a time, other maidens discouraged her from trying. They said the prince would rather remain unmarried than spend his life "touching the bark of an Iroko tree".
Her skin was as tough as the bark of an Iroko and she knew it. But she really wanted to be the next Lolo. And voodoo wasn't an option lest she should be exposed. She couldn't even afford to patronise Eze nwanyi, the old woman who made beauty concoction. She was too broke to be a queen.
Nonetheless, she tried something and she silently hoped it worked...
"What's your name?" The Prince's voice interrupted her reverie and for a second she stared blankly at him.
"Don't tell me you've lost your voice, young maiden. What is your name?" He reiterated and she stuttered.
"Adaora, my prince. Adaora, the daughter of Ike, the hunter who killed three bears and wrestled with a crocodile in the middle of nowhere."
"I see...no wonder your skin oozes such strength and beauty," he paused then continued. "I like you." And to his mother he added, "I have found her."
Adaora could only gasp in surprise.
It worked!
On the eve of her marriage to the prince, one of those naysayers who said the prince would never be with a woman whose skin was as tough as the bark of an Iroko, asked for her secret in capturing the prince's heart.
What Adaora said to the maiden, I have curated into an article.
If your skin is dry like Adaora's, make it glow and look better by using some skin glow oils
