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One of my clients proudly told me she finally started wearing sunscreen everyday.
I asked her what motivated her.
She said she finally found a product that felt good on her skin.
Do you wear sunscreen everyday?
And, if you do, what brand do you prefer?
And if you don’t, why don’t you?
Wearing sunscreen is the best way to prevent aging, sunspots and skin cancer.
So, this is your friendly reminder to wear your sunscreen everyday.
Especially, in Boulder where we are.
A mile closer to the sun!!!!
I was riding my bike doing errands when I passed a sign that said, “Facial $79.49.”
Places that have low prices advertised add on for every item. But, in the end you end up potentially paying more for the same services; and, that gets under my skin (pun intended).
This dilutes the market and makes it so services that a nano-business esthetician or massage therapist is not valued.
I can do an excellent custom one hour facial for $95. That includes an enzyme exfoliant, facial massage, head massage and hand massage. I don’t charge extra for the extra TLC.
That’s my two cents! Take it or leave it.
Why support a local small business or better yet Nano-businesses?
Local businesses are more likely to utilize other local businesses such as banks, service providers, and farms.
For every $100 you spend at local businesses, $68 will stay in the community.
Independent retailers return more than three times as much money per dollar of sales to the community in which they operate than chain competitors. Independent restaurants return more than two times as much money per dollar of sales than national restaurant chains.
Small businesses employ 77 million Americans and accounted for 65% of all new jobs over the past 17 years.
Do you wash and moisturize your face every morning and night?
In the morning!
Cleanse: This is essential to keeping skin looking radiant and healthy. Cleansing the skin in the morning helps to wake you up and freshen your skin. Cleansing helps maintain proper pore size. This is because you are removing the oil and the pores are not getting as clogged.
Exfoliate: This can be as simple as using a wash cloth when you cleanse. This will remove the very top skin cells. Leave the deeper exfoliating for your facial treatments.
Serum: I always recommend a vitamin C serum in the morning for all skin types to prevent sun damage and increase collagen and elastin production.
Hydrate: Use the right moisturizer for your skin type. If you are unsure of what that is, ask your esthetician.
Protect: Use a sunscreen every morning even if you live where it is cloudy all day.
At night!
Cleanse: Cleansing your skin in the p.m. helps remove dirt, oil, sunscreen and makeup.
Treatment Product: This can be a retinol based product or a peptide serum. The retinol feeds the skin cells vitamin A which helps with anti-aging. Some peptides help anti-aging while others help with hydration.
Moisturizer: Use the appropriate moisturizer for your skin type.
What does self love mean to you?
It is a lifelong quest and its a hard practice.
Recently, I was meeting with my virtual assistant and I asked her what self love means to her.
And, she introduced me to this practice that brought tears to my eyes.
This is how she answered my question.
"When I was 18 or 19, I read a book that said the purpose of life was to learn how to love yourself. So, for years, I 'tried' to love myself. In a yoga class one time, the teacher invited us to think of something we love, cultivate that love and give it to ourselves.
Later another mentor, Katie Hendricks, taught the practice of love drops.
This is the practice:
Think of someone or something that you love without a doubt about it, with no strings attached, no baggage. Fill yourself up with that love and then drop it on yourself. Or, better yet, drop it on something you hate about yourself."
At age 7, I really wanted a spiritual practice. And, I didn't even know what that meant.
I always felt there was something else, something more, something bigger than me out there.
And at age 18, I also started reading books... buddhism and taking yoga classes as well as a meditation class. It was taught free at university at CSU.
Looking back on it, it was Buddhist. It wasn't called that... But it was focusing on your breath. Now I practice a Buddhist meditation.
My practices of self love are:
meditation and yoga
being outside
taking care of my skin
getting facials and massages
spending time with people I love and my animals
and being aware of the negative self talk
I'll be incorporating the love drop into my practice now.
Feel free to share your self love practices with me. I always love to hear what you have to say.
Please reach out and book an appointment.
As always,
Live in Beauty,
Sasha
PS Just for fun... the rest of the month of February I will be making a Chocolate Cherry facial mask! It will have dark cocoa powder which has high levels of anti-oxidants that help promote cell repair. The cherry comes from cherry kernel oil which also has anti-oxidants AND has oleic acid which improves dry skin. A couple of other ingredients I will add are Shea butter and hyaluronic acid.
I think it is interesting that all of the peels are called Chemical peels. They are made from fruit. The sugars from fruit make up the chemicals!
Chemical peels can be light, medium or deep. Differentiating between the peels depends on the ingredients and their percentage that are used. This is a method where a solution, usually and acid, is applied to the skin for a certain period of time. The solution penetrates into the upper most layers of skin creating the skin cells to peel off naturally. When you remove skin cells, the skin makes new cells.
By removing the upper layers of the epidermis you are creating small wounds that the skin repairs. By doing that, you are replacing old cells with new cells. When you slough off the old cells, it can help to remove sun damage, scarring, and fine lines. Of course, as with anything, one peel is not going to magically make everything go away.
I always use the analogy that working on your skin is like exercise for your body. The better you take care of it and the more consistent you are with getting facials and peels, the better results you will have.
There is a caveat to peeling the skin, one in Colorado in particular: most of us are outside all year round! So, that needs to be taken into consideration, if you decide you want to start receiving peel treatments. You do not want to do anything other than a light peel if you are going to be outside after.
Being an outdoor person, I will do light peels on myself and ride my bike a day later. But, I apply sunscreen every two hours.
I think that aggressive peeling can be done in short increments; but, you don’t want to be doing them all of the time.
Light peels can be “glycolic acid peels, AHA (alpha hydroxy acids) chemical peels, beta hydroxy acids, or salicylic acid chemical peels. Glycolic acid, an alpha hydroxy acid (AHA) that occurs naturally in sugar cane, is the most common ingredient of light chemical peels.” -https://www.docshop.com › chemical-peel › type-light.
The www.docshop.com also says AHA chemical peels often contain:
Glycolic acid (extracted from sugar cane)
Lactic acid (extracted from milk)
Malic acid (extracted from pears and apples)
Citric acid (extracted from oranges and lemons)
Tartaric Acid ( extracted from grapes)
“A medium chemical peel removes skin cells from the epidermis and from portions of the upper part of your middle layer of skin (dermis). It's used to treat wrinkles, acne scars and uneven skin tone.” -https://www.mayoclinic.org › about › pac-20393473
Medium chemical peels often contain:
TCA (trichloroacetic acid)
Higher percentage of glycolic acid, retinol and/or salicylic acid
Pumpkin enzyme
Practicing in the scope of my license, I can’t go any deeper than medium.
Think that brushing and flossing your teeth is only good for your oral hygiene?
According to most dentists, oral health affects the appearance and health of your skin.
The bacteria that builds up in your mouth affects your skin. If you are noticing breakouts around your mouth or lower cheeks, it could be related to your teeth and gums.
Imagine if you have a cavity or gum disease, and every time you swallow, where does that go?
Do you floss?
Flossing your teeth is proven to be beneficial to your skin. It can even help prevent breast cancer and heart attacks.
If you are concerned about aging, you want to have regular dental check ups and a flossing routine.
We all know Sugar is connected to cavities. It is also connected to inflammation and affects on our Good bacteria/ Bad bacteria balance.
P. acnes, propionibacterium, the bacteria most often found in pimples is Propionibacterium acnes is “a facultative anaerobic Gram-positive bacterium present on human skin as part of the normal flora, as well as in the oral cavity, large intestine, conjunctiva, and external ear canal,” according to https://journals.asm.org › ... › Vol. 54, No. 4).
So, go to your dentist twice per year, and brush twice per day, and floss everyday. See if you notice a difference in your skin.
I feel like people always ask me, “Did you have to go to school to do what you do?”
I started my college career at CSU thinking I wanted to be in the fashion world. As much as I loved fashion and clothes, the industry did not want to help people.
And, I always wanted to help people.
I have had this fascination with anatomy and physiology specifically the skin and why the skin does what it does.
In the 90s, I was working at the Oxford Spa as a massage therapist.
This amazing esthetician named Aya gave me my first facial introducing me to the world of esthetics.
And, I fell in love with it.
After six months practicing massage therapy, I realized I wanted to become an esthetician.
I went to Front Range Community College in Boulder for a year while working full time.
I did massage and esthetician work at Oxford. Then I got a job at Essentials and worked there for 17 years before I went out on my own.
Running my own business, I not only give facials, I offer lash extensions, lifts and tinting. I do sugaring. I am learning to make my own products. I enjoy coming up with new treatments to revitalize the skin and create a deep sense of relaxation for my clients.
Heated hand mitts with hot stones.
Why use Professional Products vs Over The Counter.
What is the difference between $40 moisturizers and $10 products?
The over the counter products are made in large batches.
This means they are made for the mass market and general consumption.
The products are intentionally made to have a lower risk of irritation and in doing that they have a much lower amount of actual effective ingredients in them.
In a nutshell, they have less active ingredients and more filler.
This reduces the cost but also reduces the effectiveness and quality.
For example, ULTA sells a hyaluronic acid serum where the hyaluronic acid is listed as the 11th ingredient. This means it doesn’t have a very high concentration. *Denatured alcohol is the 3rd ingredient.
One of the hyaluronic acid serums I carry has it is the 5th ingredient. And, it is way cleaner. With less preservatives and more hydrating ingredients. It has aloe and jojoba oil. And, it is also a plant based hyaluronic acid.
Having a licensed esthetician, who you see regularly, can help you choose the right products. A professional can also help you determine what product will help you address specific skin issues.
PS I am a skin ingredient nerd. If you have questions about ingredients and what they do, please email me.
We are in the height of summer and I don’t know about you guys; but, I start to get little lazy about wearing sunscreen.
“Most skin cancers are caused by too much exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light. UV rays are an invisible kind of radiation that comes from the sun, tanning beds, and sunlamps. UV rays can damage skin cells.” -https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/skin/basic_info/sun-safety.htm
UV rays are strongest from 10 am to 4 pm.
Protection from UV rays is important all year, not just during the summer.
Sunscreen is the obvious way to protect your skin from the sun.
I like to use the hydro-peptide, Solar Defense, tinted SPF 30 for my face. And, for my body I like ALBA sport 45, because I think you should save your money for your facial sunscreen and use the lesser expensive on the body.
Some other ways to protect yourself from sun exposure is to:
Stay in the shade
Wear UV clothing whenever possible
Wear a hat when hiking or walking
Use sunglasses to protect your eyes
Check the UV index especially in Colorado. Because we get a lot of sun exposure here. And, cloudy skies are not a free pass to not apply sunscreen.
Not getting enough VIT D is also NOT a reason the skip sunscreen.
And, don’t think you can skip the sunscreen because you are sitting inside working on the computer all day.
Our devices emit short wave blue light rays which are very damaging to the skin.
I’d like to end with some good news with skin cancer rates.
Coloradans can congratulation themselves. We have fallen to the bottom of the list for skin cancer.
So, we are doing something right.
MOISTURE VS HYDRATION
Everyone wants hydrated and moisturized skin.
But, what is the difference?
A lot of us think those words are interchangeable. They’re not. They mean two different things.
Water helps skin stay healthy, smooth and radiant. Drinking water is still the best way to hydrate the skin.
Hydration is also achieved by absorbing the water in your environment.
If your skin is dehydrated, it lacks water and must be hydrated.
If you have dry skin, it means it is lacking OIL and means it must be moisturized. (A facial can determine which one or possibly both that you may have.)
You may want to use a moisturizer and a lovely facial oil like the Blossom facial oil i just created.
Using a hydrator for the skin like hyaluronic acid, my favorite, or a product with aloe & honey are ingredients that pull moisture from the environment into the skin. These are called humectants.
Facial oils help to seal in other ingredients such as hyaluronic acid, when applied on top of serums and moisturizers.
Facial oils are not humectants… not mega face moisturizers, instead they seal the skin, forming a protective layer.
REMEMBER: Moisturizers help with hydration levels in the skin and Facial Oils help keep that moisture in.
A facial oil can be tremendously helpful for people living in dry climates such as Colorado.
As always.
Live in Beauty,
Sasha
Crabapple blossom in my neighborhood
