The Skin You're In

Okay, I need to stand on my soap box for minute. Skin 101.....

In order to properly care for your skin, hair, and nails, it's very important that you understand something about their structure and purpose. Knowing how, why, and when to care for them and identifying the best formulas for their needs will help them remain healthy and beautiful regardless of the climate you live in or your age.

Your skin:

• Protects you from physical, chemical, biological, thermal and electrical damage
• Helps the body maintain a steady temperature
• Acts as a moisture regulator
• Prevents excessive loss of minerals
• Converts UV rays into vitamin D3
• Serves as a highly sensitive organ, responding to heat, cold, pain, pleasure and pressure
• Metabolizes and stores fat
• Secretes sebum, used for lubricating
• Assists in the excretion of salts, urea, water and toxins through sweating

So, with that being said.....people we must take care of our skin. Cleansing, toning, exfoliating, moisturizing and applying sunscreen is the only way to maintain our satin smooth skin.

Dry Skin: What's A Girl To Do

Moisturize, Moisturize, Moisturize is my motto!
Here are some tips to keep your skin soft and moisturized.

*Towel Dry Well
Dry off well and immediately so that you will stop the evaporation from drying you out.

*Moisturize After Washing
After you towel dry, apply a hydrating cream or lotion.

*Add Bath Oil
If you take a bath, add bath oils to the water. Don't use bubble bath unless it contains essential oils. Be careful and watch your step because things can get a little slippery.

*Moisturize All Day Long
Don't wait until your skin is dry and cracked to apply lotion or cream. Numerous applications are needed daily. This will help speed up the healing and hydration process.

Remember, if you do these things all year long, you will see a significant and rapid improvement in your skin.

Artificial Eyelashes

What can I say? Love them! Love them! Love them! There are 3 different types of lashes. They can come in all lengths, colors, accents, feathers, etc. You have your strip lash in which you can wear one day but i do have a few clients that can get a week out of it. Then you have individuals or clusters. These lashes can be worn up to 6 weeks depending on the care, the glue that is used and your own hair cycle. Normally a person's natural eyelash falls out every 60 - 90 days and a new lash grows in immediately. Therefore, it is necessary to get touch-ups to fill in the fallen lashes. About every 2 to 3 weeks is recommended, however, this will vary from person to person. Your natural lash cycle as well as how you take care of your lashes will affect how long they last.

Then you have extensions. The extensions are single strands of synthetic eyelashes that are curved to replicate a natural eyelash. They provide length and thickness to your own lashes and are available in varying lengths and thickness. They are applied to your individual eyelashes, one lash at a time. There is no need for mascara even though a water based mascara is fine to use. The result is thicker, longer, eye opening eyelashes that are safe in the shower, while swimming, sleeping or exercising.

Eyelash extensions are great for everyday wear or special occassions. Eyelash extensions have gained a tremendous amount of popularity in the last couple of years because the look acheived is so natural. Whether you are looking for an everyday look, lashes for your wedding day or just a weekend away artificial eyelashes will transform your look to WOW!

Body Scrubs

Using salt scrubs as a body treatment can help to exfoliate, moisturize, and smooth dry and damaged skin, leaving it feeling soft and virtually glowing. You can easily turn your very own bathroom into a relaxing spa experience by adding luxurious, oil-free salt scrubs with natural extracts to your bath or shower a few times a week. Whether you have a problem with dry or oily skin, or you’re just looking for some added bliss in your beauty routine, you’ll find that a salt scrub can help make your skin feel smoother and silkier. Have a summer-ready body all year long. Get your skin ready for shaving or for tanning by exfoliating first with a salt scrub. Follow up with a good moisturizer and you’ll have that smooth, silky feeling last for days!

You choose the natural ingredients to exfoliateMake your own body polish! Choose your favorite fragrances, control the granularity of the scrub, avoid ingredients that you may be allergic to, and create a big potful of body polish with about $10 worth of ingredients. Or you can make a cupful for under a dollar and decide if you like the recipe. It's a breeze: you'll need a spoon, a bowl, and a container for storage.

Sugar as the Exfoliating Ingredient
Try it sweet. Sugar isn't as harsh as ground nut shells: it melts fast when it hits moisture, so if your skin is delicate, you're probably not going to over-scrub it. The other benefit is the fact that sugar, unlike pumice, ground shells and other insoluble ingredients, will melt instead of sticking in your bathtub drains. Here's what you need to make a large batch:

Salt to exfoliate your skin
Salt recipe. In this body scrub, you can substitute 8 cups of coarse or kosher salt for the sugar in the recipe above. The nice thing about do it yourself scrubs is that you can then vary the ingredients to make your own favorite scents. Instead of essential oils, you may decide to add cocoa or coffee for a chocolate or mocha body scrub. Add vanilla; your scrub will smell fantastic.

When you make your own scrubs, you can afford to use the best ingredients. Add a handful of ground dried white tea leaves to your body scrub and follow it up with natural cucumber extract for a soothing, summery fragrance. With some practice, you'll understand how to make practically any scrub you want. And they make terrific gifts: buy some pretty jars and labels and package your own recipes for your friends!

Daily Skin Care Regimen

A daily skin care regimen is very important to your skin's overall health. Our skin is constantly exposed to dirt, dust and pollution. Also, the makeup that we wear clogs our pores as well. Finding the right products can be frustrating and time consuming but it is necessary. First, you determine your skin type and then find the product that works for you. Personally, I have combination/dry skin(I'm dry in my t-zone area) and the cleanser that works for me is for dry skin only. The cleanser that I should use causes me to have an allergic reaction. Find what works for you and your skin!

Cleansing
Cleansing your face twice a day(morning and night) will remove any dirt, debris, makeup and other junk your face may come in contact with. Now, the hard part is finding a cleanser that works for you. There are several types of cleansers: bar soaps, liquid and foaming cleansers.
Most bar soaps are too harsh and can irritate and dry out the skin because it contains sodium lauryl sulfate. If you must have a bar soap, purchase one that does not contain sodium lauryl sulfate and it should contain moisturizing ingredients such as glycerin and plant based oils. Liquid or foaming cleansers containing ceramides(ceramides are lipids that helps the skin retain moisture) is a great choice when trying to find a daily cleanser. For those who are oily or have acne, choose a cleanser that contains salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide.

Exfoliation
Our skin has many layers of dead skin cells. Those dead skin cells gives us that unpolished and dull look. Exfoliating 2 to 3 times a week will diminish some of those dead skin cells. Make sure that the exfoliant that you use is a fine micrograin because some of the "scrubs" that are out there are very abrasive and can be damaging to your skin. If you want a deeper exfoliation, you can get a chemical peel, microdermabrasion, dermabrasion or laser resurfacing from a licensed professional.

Tone
A toner is VERY important to your skin care regimen. Toning balances your skin back to it's normal pH. It also refines your pores and remove any makeup or dirt that was missed by the cleanser. You would need to tone after your cleansing and before your moisturizer.

Moisturizer
Everyone needs a moisturizer! If you are oily, you will need to find one that is oil free. Moisturizers hydrate the skin. Also, if you apply a moisturizer before you apply your makeup, your makeup will go on smoothly.

Sunscreen
What can I say? Sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen! You must protect yourself. That goes for everybody!!! You need sunscreen to protect yourself from the sun and pollution. You will need a sunscreen with a SPF of at least 15 and it must protect you from UVA's and UVB's.

Change your pillow case
I know that this may be far fetched, but have you ever wondered why you have break outs even though you are not acneic? Try changing your pillow case more often. Think about it. You cleanse your face before you go to bed and then lay on the pillow case that has debris from your hair, makeup, drool and sweat. Cleansing your face defeated the purpose. You should change your pillow case nightly but let's be serious. If you can't change your pillow case every night, try every couple of days and protect your hair as well.

It's Summer and Yes You Need Sunscreen

Many dark skinned people do not wear sunscreen. There are many misconceptions as to why we do not use sunscreen. Some people believe that just because they are darker skinned, they can not get sun burned. Seriously? That is NOT TRUE! At any time, when you are exposed to the sun, unprotected skin will start to tan, burn or peel.

Now let's get to a little skin science(just a lil bit). Darker skinned people have more melanin (this is what makes us darker) and this allows us to have a little bit more protection form the sun's UV rays than lighter skinned people. Dark skin people can tan easily and we can BURN! Also, people who have dark skin, tend to be sensitive.

So, now what? First and foremost, WEAR SUNSCREEN! You need to select a broad-spectrum product with a SPF of at least 15 that provides protection against UVA and UVB rays. Second, apply 30 minutes before going outside and reapply at least every two hours. Please note that UVA rays are constant throughout the day and can penetrate through windows, clouds and clothing. In addition, UV rays are emitted from fluorescent and halogen lights which are found in our homes and offices. This is why you must wear sunscreen daily regardless if you are going outside or not. Besides wearing sunscreen, you need to wear protective clothing, sunglasses and hats which increases your protection.

Have an awesome summer and don't forget your sunscreen!