Let Bed Bath & Beyond save your skin!

Yes, you read it right: Bed Bath & Beyond can save your skin from sun damage! Let me explain:

I am sure you get those over-sized 20% off postcards from Bed Bath & Beyond. I get at least one per month. I keep them in the glove compartment of my car so I always have them with me in case I need to pop into that store. But now I have an even better use for them, or at least for one postcard.

Whenever you drive, your skin is subject to the sun’s UV light and radiation. Even with tinted car windows, some UV rays penetrate and go right to your skin. Sadly, visors on most cars do a poor job of shielding your skin from the sun. And rightfully so, really. If they were bigger and longer, it would impede your vision and you might get into an accident. But holding up one of the discount postcards is an easy way to get sun protection; you can move it around as needed, or simply drop it if you all of the sudden need both hands on the steering wheel.

Sometimes I fold one in half, sometimes I use it full length. But I always have one available for those times when the sun is hitting my face and the visor doesn’t do the trick. Using one of these postcards, and keeping it in your car, is an easy way to avoid more sun exposure while driving.

If you wonder how much sun you are getting sitting in your car, look in the rearview mirror at the driver behind you. You can see first-hand where the sun is hitting his or her face, and that means you are getting the same exposure.

I hope you will use this tip next time you see a Bed Bath & Beyond postcard in your mailbox. It can really save your skin!

Here are a few articles on sun protection:

• The Truth About SPF
• A Small Sunscreen Lecture
• Hats, Hats, Hats! Protect your skin in the sun

Coping through tough times

Have you ever watched a river or stream? In parts there is chaos, with water cascading over rocks and white water forming. Then the water calms and sometimes pools to the side, as if giving itself a rest from the ravages of the rocks.

If you were to just look at the water going over the rocks, you’d only see the rough water and chaos. But if you pull away and look at the river as a whole, you can see how there are phases of craziness and calm that the water goes through as it makes its way downstream.

Isn’t this true with life? If you concentrate on the rough water you may be encountering at the moment, it can feel insurmountable. Unending. Chaotic. But if you pull back and see the whole picture, you can see that there are always calm times after the rough spots.

If you simply look at nature to help you through tough times, you will see there are always calm periods after a storm. Sometimes just remembering this simple fact can help us get through the rough times. Calmer, happier days are ahead.

For more information, see:

• Moving Through Loss
• Life in Transition: Take this moment for You
• Follow your intuition—that little voice in your head
  
  

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