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Wednesday 13 August 2014

Let's Talk Skin Care: Tips for Treating Acne Gently and Effectively

Acne is a sensitive skin condition and should not be over aggressed. Believe it or not cleansing too much isn't the best thing for your skin, but a proper skin care routine is key to treating any skin condition. These few tips are great for those who are treating adult acne or pre-pubescent acne in pre-teens and teenagers.

Tip #1: A proper skin care routine, obviously. BUT, cleansing in the morning isn't entirely a necessary step. Cleansing at night is most definitely necessary, but while you're sleeping your skin doesn't accumulate as much pollution and dirt as during the day, so a simple toner or astringent is all you need to use to start your day.

Tip #2: Herbal steam baths! To do this, you fill a bowl or your sink with scolding hot water and hold a towel over your head as you lean over the water allowing the steam to open the pores. This is effective on its own prior to using a clay mask or treatment mask. To make this more effective, add a few drops of rosemary essential oil, teat tree essential oil or even willow bark essential oil. Each of them have astringent, soothing, and hydrating properties. Steam the face for 5-10 minutes, pat dry with a towel and moisturize or follow with a treatment mask.

Tip #3: Instead of an astringent (toner with salicylic acid), use witch hazel, or the steam bath listen above. Witch hazel has great antiseptic properties and is an effective toner for hormonal acne such as pubescent acne or pregnancy acne, as salicylic acid should not be used during pregnancy.

Tip #4: Use a treatment moisturizer. Treatment creams and lotions usually contain salicylic acid or glycolic acid. For teenagers, I recommend a low percentage of salicylic acid because %2 and higher can be quite irritating and glycolic acid exfoliates the top layer of the skin which is very unnecessary for young skin. Treatment creams (such as Bioderma Sebium Al, Avene Cleanance K, La Roche Possay Effeclar Duo) are best used at night, but if used during the day they should be used with an SPF of 15-30.

Tip #5: Look for oil free (especially mineral oil because it is a pore clogger, same with petrolatum) and non-comedogenic. Oil isn't a bad thing for acne, however products on the market don't always have the highest of quality ingredients so they can produce large quantities at a low cost. Most often the oil in moisturizing products is mineral oil, which isn't the best choice and will clog pores. So look for oil free to avoid this, also non-comedogenic means that the ingredients in the product have been tested for quality and do not clog pore. This is important as acne is often caused by a build up of dead cells and over production of oil in the pores, we don't want to clog them more!

Tip #6: This goes with tip #1, don't use harsh facial scrubs too often. I recommend treating the skin condition as gently as possible and once it is cleared up, add a scrub ONE day a week to keep the pores clear of dead skin cells as a preventative measure only. Clay masks are great to follow up after a scrub because the pores are clear and can now be treated to prevent bacteria growth. And continue with the above treatments.

All these tips can be used together as a routine or you can pick one or a couple to try as treatments! I hope this was helpful for you all and good luck!

Presley Charlotte :)


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Tuesday 12 August 2014

Let's Talk Skin Types: Dry Skin

Dry skin is the complete opposite of oily skin. Oily skin is characterized by an excess of oil, dry skin is characterized by a lack of oil, flaking skin, and the tight, itchy feeling on the surface of the skin. People often confuse dry skin with dehydrated skin, but there are subtle differences.

Dehydrated skin is a lack of water, dry is a lack of oil. It's safe to say that most, if not all, skin types are also dehydrated because from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to bed we lose water. Always keep hydrated and use a proper moisturizer for your skin type to prevent moisture loss from happening quicker.

When dry skin loses oil, the surface of the skin becomes dry, flaky and itchy. The loss of natural oils also depletes the NMF (Natural Moisture Factor) in the skin causing more moisture loss (dehydration). Dry skin can be accompanied by sensitivity to climate change (hot and cold) and can have the tendency to be more red around the nose and cheeks.

There are some products that will help to exfoliate dry skin using glycolic acid to allow the active ingredients to absorb into the skin at a more effective rate. Sensitive skin should not use these products because it can further irritate the skin. People with dry skin should look for products with natural oils, such as jojoba, grape seed, essential oils. Shea butter and cocoa butter are two ingredients to look for to soothe dry itchy skin, they also are perfect to soothe eczema and psoriasis.

For cleansing dry skin, always use a milk or crème based cleanser that is soap free and preferably doesn't foam up, and a toner that doesn't contain any astringent (salicylic acid) but something that is soothing and more suited for normal to dry skin and even sensitive skin types.

Hopefully this was helpful and if there are an questions please comment below!!

Thanks for reading!

Presley Charlotte :)

Tuesday 5 August 2014

Let's Talk Skin Types : Oily Skin

I used to think that oily skin was like the plague, as did many of my clients and friends. The truth is, oily skin is the "golden" skin type, and here's why:

First and foremost, it ages slower than all other skin types because of the amount of oil produced and the thickness of the skin. Without this oil our skin would be dry and flaky and thin, which ages must faster because it lose moisture much faster. The oil on the skin is part of the skin's Natural Moisture Factor (NMF) and without that it will lose moisture quicker and turn into a dryer skin type.

The NMF is a product of the skins natural oils and sweat mixing together to create a protective layer that is acidic enough to disallow the growth of acne causing bacteria. Click here for my post in the importance of products with the proper pH. Without this NMF, airborne bacteria or bacteria that can be transferred from our hands, phones, pillows, and anything else that comes in contact with out skin (makeup brushes, be sure to clean those regularly!) can settle into the skin while it is trying to replenish the oil level, further clogging the pores and causing acne and blackheads. This is what gives sebum and oily skin types and bad name, and the products geared towards young skin and pubescent skin aren't making things any better, they're wreaking havoc on your skin!

Products like Clean and Clear and Neutrogena are products that are meant to strip away the oil on the surface of the skin to reduce "shine", however they are causing more damage than that "shine". Not only is it stripping the oils causing the skin to turn alkaline and allowing bacteria to enter it and infect, but after a few hours the effects of the shine reducing and acne cleansing products will be reversed.

The skin is a fully functioning organ, it does everything your internal organs can do, and I will have another post on that another time, but one of those things is secretion. The skin has sweat glands and oil glands, just like the body has a thyroid gland, hormonal glands, adrenal glands, etc. These glands become overactive when stimulated, same for the ones directly affecting the skin. The action of scrubbing the face too aggressively or using products to strip the oils will stimulate these glands to produce more. So, all that oil stripping is backfiring, because it will produce twice as much, if not more! The more oil is left on the skin and the more gentle the products used, the better your skin will react and there will be less oil produced.

So, if you have oily skin and you're looking for products that wont strip the oil, but help to hydrate and keep the NMF exactly where it should be, you should look for products are that based on natural essential oils. Essential oils and vegetable and plant based oils actually mimic our own oils produced and are readily absorbed into the skin. Essential oils should NOT be applied directly to the skin, they should be massaged into the skin with a carrier oil (any vegetable or plant oil, like grape seed oil or jojoba oil, or even avocado oils). Essential oils act as very good serums as well because most have healing properties that can help with excess oil or acne and even dry parts of the face without stripping the skin.

If you don't want to play the guessing game with essential oils and you would like a product that does it all for you, look for Phyto5 by Phytobiodermie, it is a professional product usually only sold in spas. It is based on essential oils and there are 5 different lines you can chose from depending on your skin type. If you have oily skin the product you should be using is the Phyto5 Wood element line. This product contains a lot of essential oils specific to the needs of oily skin and after using my night cream for some time now, I have noticed a huge difference in the amount of oil produced on my T-zone. This line also has milk cleansers and toners to gently cleanse the skin of impurities and leaving a healthy amount of NMF.

The proof is in the pudding, after a few weeks of taking care of your skin, using gentle products (click here for the skin care routine post), essential oils (if you want to) and properly moisturizing the skin, you will notice a difference in your complexion! But keep in mind, that change within the skin doesn't happen overnight! You have to be patient!

Thanks for reading, keep hydrated, keep smiling and have an awesome day!

Presley Charlotte :)