Age-appropriate products?

A client wrote me asking if she should change her products:

I’m pretty happy with all of my products but I’m wondering if I should make a change. I turned 40 last year and I’m thinking that maybe I should get something more age-appropriate.

That’s a great question. My answer is: I don’t use age as a guideline for recommendations, not initially at least. Skin at any age can have any number of issues or needs. So, if your skin has changed (due to age or circumstances other than that) it could be possible you might need to readjust your routine. However, if your products still feel appropriate, I’d stick with them.

I always go by the condition of the skin first, not chronological age. This seems contradictory to what you may hear in the media, but it truly makes sense if you think about it. You could be 50 and still have oily skin. If that’s the case and you use an “anti-aging” cream with lots of oils, etc., you could develop an oil slick on your skin!

If your skin has changed, it may call for a change in your routine, otherwise stay with the products (appropriate for your skin type) that you’ve been using.

Just because you are racking up candles on your birthday cake doesn’t necessarily mean your skin is drastically changing.

For more information, see:

• Determining Skin Type
• Old skin/Young skin
• MYTH: You have to change products

To age or not to age: Is that the question?

Today I received a cold call from a skin care company promising a machine I could purchase and use on my clients that eliminates cell destruction, effectively stopping the aging process. Aside from the obvious invalidity of this (right?), I stopped the woman mid-sentence and said that I didn’t want to waste her time. I wasn’t interested in this or any kind of similar product. I told her that my philosophy is based on “anti-anti-aging.”

For those of you who know me, you know this is true. My analogy is we are all on “the train”—the aging train. We boarded at birth and the train is continually moving, however fast or slow, every day of our lives. We are all on it—this train. It’s how we choose to live on the train that I believe makes our life feel purpose-filled or perhaps a living misery. 

It’s not so much what you look like in the mirror but how you’re looking out the train windows and on to life, nature, and all there is to do “out there” that makes the biggest difference in how you feel about this process, the inevitable moving aging train we’re on.

So this phone call ended sort of abruptly, which is fine. I truly didn’t want to waste this lady’s time. I’m sure there will be lots of skin care professionals who will buy that machine and buy into the “anti”-aging philosophy, selling their clients on the idea that aging is bad. In my mind, aging is normal and—obviously—completely inevitable.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I should change my whole paradigm of “aging is cool and interesting and sets us apart as individuals.” And then again, maybe—definitely—not. There may be few people who agree with me, but when I look in the mirror I keep saying, “Hey—you’re almost 50!” That is what 50 looks like for me.

For more information, see:

• One Secret to Aging Gracefully
• Ageless Beauty—Part I 
• Trends & fads in skin care

Meandering through life on “the train.”

Puffy Eyes? Turn a negative into a positive!

Who among us likes waking up to puffy eyes? I don’t, and I’m sure you don’t either! The puffiness I experience isn’t severe nor does it happen all the time, but on a morning when I wake up and see the puff there—I tweeze my eyebrows! It’s the best time to do this. Why? Because the skin is—well—puffed out, which makes grabbing those stray hairs much easier. And if you are one of those women who tend to over-tweeze, removing the hair on a morning when you have some edema (puffiness) is a good solution to end incessant tweezing.

 

You always want to treat the area you just tweezed. For those of you who are Yonka-Paris skin care product users, Juvenile is a great product to apply where you’ve been tweezing. It takes away the redness and soothes the skin, and it has antibacterial capabilities as well. If you don’t own Juvenile, use your toner (hopefully you have Yonka’s). Just apply some of the liquid where you’ve tweezed. If you don’t have either of the above, take a small piece of cotton or tissue and saturate it in cold water, then apply to the area. I wouldn’t use ice—it’s too intense for that delicate skin. But using something to calm the post-tweezed skin is a step not to skip.

Try this technique and see if you have an easier time with your tweezing rituals.

For more information, see: 

• Will my puffy eyes ever go away? Help! 
• Eyebrows: Should you wax or tweeze?
• Ice & Skin?—Don’t do it!
• Yonka’s JUVENIL—purifying concentrate and spot treatment 

Blackheads or Enlarged Pores?

I am loving the Yonka products, and I’m really happy with my choices from you. I have been doing the clay mask at least once a week—sometimes twice—and taking really good care with washing, toning, and moisturizing every morning and evening. Overall my skin is doing really well but I still feel like my pores are visible. I don’t know if they would be considered blackheads or just enlarged pores, and I’m wondering if there is any other product you would recommend to work with this or if this is just the way my skin is? 

Once pores are enlarged, they remain enlarged. The good thing is by keeping your skin clean (and super clean through using a clay mask), your pores are less likely to become congested; congestion can and usually does lead to enlarged pores. Because pores don’t shrink (a myth for sure), you may just be looking at slight enlargement of your pores vs. actual blackheads. If you look really closely, you should be able to discern between dirt and debris in your pores, which looking like dark dots or blackheads, and clean pores that seem enlarged (bigger than the surrounding pores).

I seriously doubt you have much enlargement—it really is not that common, although many people think they have “big pores.” Based on your wonderful program (you are an “A+” client!), it is also doubtful you have much debris in your pores. The clay mask you’re using (good for you) will get your pores cleaned out whenever you use it.

During your next facial I’ll talk with you about what I see. In the meantime, it sounds like your skin is doing well and that any enlargement you do see is nothing to be overly concerned about. Easy for me to say, I know!

For more information, see: 

• Enlarged Pores: Can they shrink?
• WHAT causes Enlarged Pores? Plus Q & A
• Blackheads & Whiteheads explained

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