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!