Entries Tagged 'Skin Care' ↓

HOLY COW Las Vegas is hot! If you want to know what being inside an oven is like, then come to Las Vegas in summer. This is my third day on holidays in Vegas and I’m still not used to the searing 40ºC (104ºF) dry heat.

I think my skin is cranky with me for being in this oven. And it doesn’t like the constant drying air conditioning either. It’s rebelled by stopping all production of natural moisturizer. Well at least that’s what it feels like anyway. I feel as though I’m slowly drying out to a prune. The worst areas affected are my hands, shoulders, back, elbows, upper thighs and feet. Thank goodness my face isn’t too bad [yet], but my chin this morning has become unusually dry. So much for that ditching my moisturizer idea I had in humid Toronto.

Here it’s dry everywhere. The heat outside is so incredibly dry, and everywhere indoors is heavily air conditioned. No amount of moisturizer that I slather onto my body is doing the trick. Last night when I went to bed the driest bits were actually a little sore. And my shoulders and back hurt in the shower as if they’re burnt!

If you live here I guess it’s different, your body just must be used to it. I also have very dry skin anyway [my skin has always been dry] so these hot and dry conditions are just making it worse. If you have oily skin, you’ll probably love it here. Continue reading →

I felt like a rebel last night. After I had cleansed my face then applied my BHA, I didn’t moisturize. I didn’t feel like I needed to. When I stepped out of the shower my skin did not feel dry or tight, and after I applied the BHA it felt as though it had been moisturized already. So it got me thinking, do we really need to moisturize our skin? Or is that just something the cosmetics industry tells us that we need to do?

I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago about not moisturizing my T-Zone, so I guess I’m now just taking it one step further. I had such good results with not moisturizing my T-Zone that I thought …why not just skip that whole step altogether. I’m still moisturizing my face in the morning, but not at night.

I’m leaving tonight for a trip to the U.S for two weeks, spending most of my time in Las Vegas and Sedona. I’m wondering if the dry hot air will send me back to moisturizing at night? So is this just a humidity thing or if we’re eating well, exercising, taking supplements and looking after our body, then perhaps our skin just balances out to ‘normal’ - as in not oily and not dry and we no longer need to moisturize?

Dr. Hauschka’s say on all of this

I remember reading a while back on Dr. Hauschka’s website that we actually shouldn’t moisturize our skin at night at all. I thought this was a load of bollocks at the time because I had quite dry skin …but now I’m wondering if there’s some truth to it. Continue reading →

I typically have very dry skin, so you can imagine my horror when the weather in Toronto turned steaming hot and humid (literally overnight), and the skin on my face turned into a greasy mess.

It wasn’t so much that my entire face went oily, it was more the T-Zone area. If you’re not sure where the T-Zone is on your face, here is a pretty diagram I’ve made for you. Just imagine a T shape on your face. The top part of the T is your forehead, and the bottom is a line drawn down your nose and chin.

And it wasn’t just oily skin either, I broke out with some small pimples, with two on my nose, one on my chin and a small scattering on my forehead. Not a pretty site and very unfortunate after I’d only recently be celebrating completely clear skin.

I don’t think I helped matters much either by using my ‘usual’ amount of moisturizer on the first humid morning. I slathered on a decent amount of my Olay moisturizer which my skin usually needs in the cold and dry weather. On this very humid day it just made my skin greasy and shiny. So much so that my house mate even made a comment at how greasy my face was looking! Eww.

So the first thing I knew I needed to do was to use less moisturizer. In fact, I’m of the belief that if your skin is oily or you feel as though you don’t need any moisturizer, then why bother even putting it on. I’m sure there are beauty therapists out there groaning and shaking their heads, but I’m positive that moisturizers only work on the top layers of the skin, so they’re more for aesthetics and making your skin feel better rather than being a ‘cure all’. So if you already have plenty of natural moisture on your skin, why bother?

As soon as I started using significantly less moisturizer, and leaving my forehead out completely, my skin began to recover. I also used my Paula’s Choice 2% BHA once a day (at night), and used my Miessence Purifying Blemish gel on the small spots that I had. It took about a week for the blotchiness and pimples to go away, but they did! And now I’m happily pimple free again.

So for those of you with oily skin or oily t-zones, consider perhaps how much moisturizer you’re using on your skin. If it’s making your skin feel oilier or greasier then do you think you’d be better off with no moisturizer at all?

Here’s a video I recorded about my oily T-Zone:

Fran

Okay, so this post IS about natural bubble baths, but I found this not-so-natural product on the net from Me!Bath that I just had to show you first because it looks yummy enough to eat. It’s a bubble bath bomb, that looks exactly like ice cream!!! This is the most fabulous product I’ve seen in a long time.

I can’t believe this is not ice cream. I think I’d have to stop myself from taking a bite.

So this isn’t a natural product but I couldn’t find the ingredients listed anywhere so I can’t tell you exactly how bad it is. From what I’ve read so far though, it doesn’t seem that bad. It even contains jojoba oil, soybean (apparently quite hydrating to the skin) and Epson salts.

I love how pretty this is so much that I think it would be a fantastic birthday or Christmas present. Hmmm, friends and family, guess what you’re getting for your next birthday!

However, if you’re concerned about chemicals added to bubble baths and you don’t mind something that’s not quite as pretty, there are plenty of options available for toxic-free bubble baths.

If you remember my last post on chocolate, I talked about how I lay in the bath in our hotel in Vancouver reading a chickflik and eating chocolate truffles (HEAVEN!). What I didn’t tell you was that I had filled the bath with a natural bubble bath.

I’d like to say it was as good as the ‘real thing’, but unfortunately the bubbles were very weak. I definitely did not get that Pretty Woman bubble bath satisfaction. But I did have peace of mind knowing that I was enjoying a bubble bath without putting any chemicals or toxins into my body. I also enjoyed the gorgeous aromatherapy smell that the bubbles gave the bath water.

This particular bubble bath that I used (the one in the picture) was really cheap - only about CA$2.50 and I purchased it from Capers Whole Foods Store in Vancouver. I’ve since looked around on the net and found many other brands of natural bubble baths available. So if you enjoy a soak ever now and again have a look around next time you’re in your local health or whole foods store and I’m sure you’ll find a couple of great options.

Happy soaking,

Fran

I love Paula’s Choice products, and Paula’s website is awesome. She is one skin care expert that I know I can trust and her website is packed full of information to prove it.

So when I received this YouTube video in my inbox yesterday, of course I was excited to open it. It’s a video of Paula herself! demonstrating her recommended 5-step skin care regime.

Unfortunately my excitement manifested into disappointment. What bothered me about this video was the complexity of the skin care routine. I mean, FIVE whole steps. What happened to a simple cleanse and moisturize then letting your skin do what it’s good at - taking care of itself? I watched the video with curiosity but by the end I felt exhausted thinking of all the steps you’re ’supposed’ to do.

Here is the video if you want to watch it:

I think Paula’s video recommends way too many steps to follow. I honestly don’t think our skin needs this much stuff pasted onto it. I also don’t like the idea of using a deep pore exfoliant on my skin twice a day. I’d be so worried that my skin would get used to this and start to depend on it. I also don’t like the idea of having to buy so many expensive products, and I’m sure they’d be used up relatively quickly considering you’re supposed to use all five products TWICE a day.

Thank you Paula for all of your skin care advise and for your beautiful products, but do I really NEED to do all of these 5 steps? If these five steps would keep my skin beautiful and glowing and radiant and acne-free then sure …I guess I’d go for it. But do I really need 5 steps to do that?

Fran