How To Cleanse your Skin!
Imagine a morning without coffee, a night without netflix or starting your car without keys. All of these scenarios have missing parts that just don’t make sense. That’s exactly how I feel about a skincare routine with no cleansing. It simply doesn’t work. Cleansing your skin is something that more often than not is done incorrectly. As the first step to your skincare routine it is often skipped over or done way too quickly. In order to have your skincare routine work effectively you must prepare your skin for success. This post is bringing it back to basics to bring you the proper education on how to cleanse your skin.
Physical and emotional scars
A common topic that has been brought up to me over the last few weeks has been scarring. Whether it’s a physical scar or just the emotional aftermath of a bad breakout, this topic is very difficult for anyone who has suffered from an inflammatory skin condition. Remember when we thought scars were cool when the rugged bad boys from the movies would proudly wear one? Scars have a bit of a backstory and most of them can be worn as a badge of honor. That is unless they are a painful reminder of a previous breakout or other skin imbalance. So many clients are concerned about potential scarring from their previous acne that they would literally do anything to make it go away. For the client whose main concern is scarring and I tend to ease their mind by reminding them that not all scars are created equal and with the right homework they will turnover their cells enough to smooth out their skin. In order to to do there are a few questions to be taken into consideration first:
Unsolicited advice from uber drivers
Not having a car in LA means that most of my days I have to take uber or lyft to get around. I tend to get car sick so I often sit in the front seat and this opens up an opportunity for my drivers to ask me many questions. I totally get it, most people treat these drivers like they would a taxi driver or bus driver and don’t dive into dialogue other than basic chit chat. The first questions are always related to what I do or where I’m going. Over the last few weeks I have been prepping for my upcoming wedding by taking classes at a local yoga studio (Set and Flow if you're interested! I highly recommend!) so naturally the conversation leads to why I’m doing yoga and how I like it. Throughout this dialogue I have been advised to try the “lemonade” diet (this is not a Beyonce diet either...it’s a version of the master cleanse I guess) and to download an “anorexia” app (not an actual anorexia app, but those were the words it was presented to me by). This is when I started paying attention, not because I was interested in the suggestions but because I was startled to think who else gets this kind of advice.
What to do: Your skincare rules for exercise!
One of the most common issues I have with my clients is their confusion with exercise and skincare. The statement that makes me cringe the most when I get done with a facial is “I’m going to go workout after this”. It feels wrong to tell someone no because I truly encourage everyone to live their healthiest life. There are a few reasons why exercise and skincare often don’t get along. Our initial instincts with it are sort of off. This isn’t anyone’s fault, there is just no clear information out there. Here are a few ways to avoid some skincare sins while implementing exercise in your daily routine.
Skin Care Elimination Diet
While having worked in many different spaces and places as a licensed aesthetician and skin guru for the past 9 years, the number one skin care problem I have seen is: FOOD ALLERGIES (or intolerances). It is incredibly common for people to not show signs of an allergy or intolerance to say sugars or gluten in their digestion since it has built up slowly over time. What happens is it slowly starts to make it's way onto your skin in many forms that can easily be mistaken for other skin conditions such as rosacea, cystic acne and melasma. Don't get me wrong, the root of all pesky skin conditions is inflammation and heat so it can be hard to differentiate without the proper guidance but here are a few tips and tricks that I give my clients in order to make them their own skin healer.