Old skin/Young skin

Today I met a lady who asked me if I sold creams for old skin and young skin. I explained to her that although the simple answer might be “yes,” how I classify skin is first and foremost by the oil content, not age. Without knowing how much oil your sebaceous (oil) glands are producing (or not producing), you could wind up with a skin care disaster.

If you have oily skin and are 50 or 60 years old (yes, this is possible!) and you are using creams for “anti-aging” and/or mature skin, you might create an oil slick, or at the very least blackheads and possibly whiteheads. And you conceivably could be 25 and have true-dry skin in which case you would want a product that puts oil on your skin, even at that young age.

To help you understand your own personal skin type, see:

• Determining Skin Type 

To get a better understanding of my opinion of this (mature) skin “type” and also the aging process, see:

• Mature Skin explained
• Ageless Beauty—Part I
• Radiance—what makes a woman radiant

Taking care of your skin when you’re sick

I remember when I got it—the “crud” as some call it: chest and sinus congestion with laryngitis. Oh happy day! Not your normal cold, this lasted well over 10 days; ten days I couldn’t go in to work. I was simply too sick to do much more than lie around, drink fluids, and take medications (both allopathic, mainstream meds and “non-traditional” herbal supplements).

Being down for the count also meant I wasn’t washing my face morning and night and obviously not doing an at-home facial or even simply exfoliating. How did my skin look? In need! Adding to this, I had gone on a camping trip (where I caught the bug) the weekend before I got sick, so I wasn’t able to take great care of my skin in that situation either. What this all amounts to is my skin needed some emergency care.

Don’t despair. Whenever you are temporarily unable to take care of your skin—for whatever reason—you can do a few things on the back end to help your skin look its best going forward.

• Drink a lot of water. It helps clear your skin and keep your organs moving toxins along. Even if you aren’t sick but just aren’t—or haven’t been—taking care of your skin, drinking more water will benefit your whole body, including your deprived skin.

• Get back into your twice daily cleansing routine as soon as possible. Without giving your skin a general cleanse morning and night, you are asking for trouble eventually. When your circumstances change (you’re feeling better after an illness, for instance), be sure get back into your skin care routine, which also includes using a toner and hydrating with a cream(s). 

• Give yourself an at-home facial. This involves exfoliating and using a (clay-based) mask. The addition of the mask after exfoliation will help to revive your skin and put moisture back on the surface. 

• Exfoliate 3 days in a row. My exfoliator of choice: Yonka’s Gommage. Although exfoliating just one time (one day) is fine, if your skin is in need and especially if it’s breaking out, exfoliating for consecutive days will help to snap it back into shape. Exfoliation improves circulation, gets rid of dead skin and excess oil, and improves texture—immediately. 

• Get a professional facial. For some, this may not be possible, but if you can, do. During a facial your aesthetician will be able to assess your specific needs and give your depleted skin everything it needs. Please don’t go in for a facial while you’re sick. Doing this puts the professional in a position to get your illness, and if you’re sick—you should be home in bed!
  

Getting your skin back in shape after a temporary absence from regular care isn’t so hard to do. It just takes a few steps; some every day (like drinking water and restarting your skin care routine), some weekly (like exfoliating and doing a clay mask). With this extra attention after an absence of care, your skin will be glowing again in no time!

UPDATE: 

Being sick and unable to clean your face is a perfect application for a wonderful Yonka product that came out in 2015. Read this article to get more information: New WATERLESS Cleanser from Yonka: EAU MICELLAIRE.

For more information, see:

• Help for a winter (or any time) cold
• At-Home Facials—A DIY How-To
• All About Exfoliation

Follow your intuition—that little voice in your head

How many times have you heard the “little voice” in your head, only to disregard it and perhaps regret that decision later on? I can say for sure this computer glitch definitely has me wishing I had listened.

A while back, my mom sent me this great little backup device for my PC that was totally easy to set up—even I could do it. I moved it from my kitchen to my office to right next to my computer in order to trigger my memory to use it. Still, I didn’t. Now my PC [was] at the shop, and hopefully the technicians will be able to retrieve all on my hard drive, all I haven’t yet backed up. [All was retrieved and rescued in the end.]

My point is: Listen to that voice. It usually if not always knows the right path to take. And if you hear a warning over and over: heed it! It might be that all-knowing part of yourself trying to alert you to something that may be blocking your path up ahead.

I wish I had listened, but lesson learned—again!

Also see:

• Life in Transition: Take this moment for You
• Accepting what is—or else
• The Webs We Weave

Hot water and lemon to the rescue

I went on a 3 ½ hour hike today up to Green Mountain in beautiful Boulder, Colorado. I ran into a few hikers who were feeling the effects of the night before. In other words, they were hungover. I wondered if they took any “hangover helpers” before they went to bed last night or if they did anything this morning to help their bodies—specifically their livers—recover from too much alcohol.

If you’ve had a night of drinking (too much) or even if you’ve just had one or two, the next day is a good time to treat your liver to a little pick-me-up. It’s simple and you can get it anywhere: Hot water and lemon. The lemon juice is a good liver tonic and can help it recover from alcohol consumed the night before. Water is obviously hydrating, and since alcohol acts as a diuretic, leaching water from your body, it is essential during and after drinking alcohol.

This lemon-water drink really tastes good too—if you like lemons! Simply squeeze ¼ to ½ of a lemon in a cup of hot water. Not only will you receive detoxifying benefits, but lemons are high in vitamin C.

If you can, drink one or two glasses of water in between each glass of wine, beer, or liquor. Also, taking evening primrose oil before you go to bed will help with the inflammation and dehydration caused by alcohol, helping to allay a hangover the next day. And do try to drink hot water with lemon juice to give your liver a pick-me-up the morning after.

For more ideas to help you after a night of overindulgence, see 

• A Quick Tip to have fresh lemon water at the ready—always
• Holiday Hangover Helpers
• The Many Uses for Evening Primrose Oil 
• Emergen-C—a little effervescence for your health

Summit marker with the names of the 12’ers, 13’ers, and 14’ers to the west of Green Mountain in Boulder CO.

The Webs We Weave

I was hiking up a trail this morning and came across a beautiful newly woven spider web. I assumed it was new because the night before we had torrential rain storms, something a delicate spider web wouldn’t have survived. It got me thinking about life and how we weave our web, making connections with people and things and building our world all encased in our personal web.

Sometimes there are events and turns in life that cause our web, our security, to get destroyed or otherwise disrupted. Being the strong, persevering humans we are we build and rebuild, and so it goes. We have this wonderful capacity to continue moving forward, even if we have to rebuild our web numerous times—just like a spider.

I want to remember this the next time a storm (a major life event) comes and takes out my web (causes angst and stress and disruption in my life and home). I have the power to rebuild—every day if necessary—and create another web and to create new connections in my life. And in this rebuilding perhaps create a stronger web than the one before.

Also see:

• Coping through tough times 
• Axioms for Life
• Moving Through Loss