Tips for Winter Skin Care--Staying Beautiful throughout the Holiday Season!

Tis the season for holiday parties and face to face gatherings. In this era of cell-phone and digital cameras, your friends and family will capture and share your face again and again--with many candid, bare-faced shots included. Are you ready for your close up? If not, don't fret.  A few simple changes in your skin care regimen and your daily habits can help you navigate the festive weeks ahead and look great, with or without makeup, all season long!

Challenge:
Harsh winter cold and dry indoor heat can cause skin to feel tight and itchy.

Solutions:
Exchange your exfoliating cleanser for a gentle cleanser several times a week and splash with cool water after cleansing to make sure there’s no residue left on skin. If you already use a gentle cleanser, use it at night . AM – massage and rinse your face with cool water and apply your AM moisturizer.

Also, layer a serum under your regular moisturizer or change to a moisturizer with hyaluronic acid, the most powerful natural moisturizing ingredient known to science.



Challenge:
After work gatherings can be fun but late nights and alcohol can contribute to dark circles under the eyes. Sugar overload can make morning eyes puffy.

Solution:
Drink plenty of water with lemon throughout the day to help flush toxins from your system and take extra vitamin C to keep cells healthy. Use a hydrating eye and neck crème for sensitive skin.

Challenge:
Your big party is tonight but your make-up looks flaky and your blush is blotchy.

Solution:
Remove makeup and gently cleanse. Apply a 10 minute enzyme mask with HA to loosen dead cells, rehydrate and smooth skin. Remove, moisturize, reapply makeup and -you’re good to glow!



Challenge:
Lips are dry, chapped, cracked and sore. Lipstick and lipgloss make it look worse.

Solution:
Moisten the dead skin on lips, apply a gentle exfolient for 1 minute only. Gently wipe the loosened dead skin from lips being careful not to pull the skin. Apply a lip butter with hyaluronic acid and healing emollients to help heal lips and prevent dryness. Find some mistletoe and …pucker up!

Lifestyle Do’s and Don’ts for winter skin:

-Don’t take long hot baths or showers ..it increases moisture loss and dehydration. And reduce the number of baths or showers that you take.

-Don’t use harsh soaps or cleansers and reduce your use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers.

-Don’t use fragrance(the number one irritant) in soaps or lotions on dry, sensitive or cracked skin.

-Do hang hand-washed clothing in your bedroom to help increase humidity.

-Do treat cracked skin on hands and feet ASAP to hydrate and protect it. Left untreated it could become infected .

-Do turn down thermostat at night- and use a cool-mist humidifier in your home or office to maintain proper humidity.

Stay Beautiful & Happy Holidays,
Millie

Nurturing Your Skin Through the Changing Seasons

You’ll find major changes in your skin as the seasons change. Where sun-kissed skin looks tanned, toned and terrific, as cooler weather approaches, skin can become dry, flaky, rough to the touch and discolored.


Fall marks the start of nature’s renewal system. Like Autumn leaves, summer skin dries, loses moisture and its luster and needs to be removed. Oil and sweat glands that were overly active in summer’s heat slow, so oils solidify and block pores, especially in the T-zone. If you don’t have a trusted esthetician or skin care specialist to treat your skin professionally, you can manage by adding a couple of key products to your skin care regimen.



If your skin is dehydrated/mature:

Use gentle cleansers and add Vitamin C(known to help reverse sun-damage) and/or a retinol to your routine. A moisturizer rich in water soaked hyaluronic acid plus anti-oxidants like green tea, grapeseed extract, olive extract, vitamins and soothing botanicals will help protect cells and nurture new cells.

If you have oily/dry skin:

Start using a gentle cleanser in the AM and exfoliating cleanser PM for deep cleansing. Start using a mild exfolient like lactic acid, to remove dead surface cells 3 times a week and more if needed to help loosen clogged pores and smooth surface skin. Use your water based moisturizer AM and PM to keep skin hydrated.

For acne/oily skin:

Oily skin needs special care because as the weather cools, skin gets dehydrated and dead cells accumulate even more around pores. Oil can’t escape and solidifies causing plugs that combined with bacteria (which is found all over our body)cause blackheads, pustules and sometimes cysts. Drying out the oils in your skin with harsh over the counter products will further irritate the condition. Use a moisture balanced acne cleanser that contains 2% salicylic acid and AHA’s. The salicylic will help kill bacteria while working with the alpha hydroxyl acids to remove the surface cells and unplug pores.

If skin is not inflamed, add a topical exfolient or retin A daily to further exfoliate surface cells. A water based moisturizer will actually help suppress oil production and keep skin moisture balanced. Look for a water based moisturizer with ingredients like hyaluronic acid, calendula, arnica, and tamanu to help soothe and heal skin while keeping it hydrated and healthy looking.

Start now to get your skin looking flawless and fabulous before the start of the winter holidays. For more assistance or recommendations for dermHA products to meet your skin care needs, call: 1.877.9dermHA

Stay beautiful,
Millie

Women, Hormones and their Skin

Many of the changes you experience in your skin are a result of hormones. Hormones are crucial to the healthy functioning of your body. they fluctuate throughout your lifetime and are responsible for both physical and emotional changes that we feel. When your hormones are out of wack, skin problems can occur...most notable, acne.

During puberty, acne occurs due to an increase in oil production in glands. During menopause, the loss of estrogen results in the body having more androgens (the male sex hormone), so hair growth on the chin and jaw line along with adult acne becomes more common in women.

Breakouts occur when pores become blocked with a sticky combination of dead cells, sebum and bacteria. This accumulation can be as small as a pimple or it can become as large and painful as a cyst. The severity of the acne breakout is determined by a variety of factors including heredity, diet, environment, and the way that you care for your skin. No matter what the cause, acne can be a wake up call to take better overall care of your health.

Tips for improve your overall health:

• Exercise daily to stimulate circulation, healthy sweat and oil secretions, metabolism, as well as those feel-good hormones.



• Drink plenty of water so toxins can be flushed from your body through the kidneys and liver



• Eat a diet full of colorful veggies and fruits and switch to organic meat if you can afford it.



• Eliminate sugar and sweets, caffeine, and sodas.



• Dairy is a suspect in contributing to acne and should be eliminated for a month to see if the condition improves.



• Cleanse and hydrate your skin daily and exfoliate when needed.



• Look for a hyaluronic acid based moisturizer to keep skin hydrated without blocking pores. A hydrated skin functions better by keeping skin soft and allowing for the transfer of oils. Dry, tight skin constricts pores and solidifies sebum, trapping it and causing pores to become congested.
  

As we age, women lose precious hormones. Visible changes occur in the bones, muscles, hair and skin. Skin and hair may begin to thin and skin loses elasticity, gets dry and begins to form wrinkles. Aging skin also becomes more vulnerable to infection and often more sensitive. Irritants such as fragrance, alcohol, lanolin, dye and propylene glycol should be avoided in skin care products. Hyaluronic acid, found in dermHA products, is the most powerful natural moisturizing ingredient known to science and a key ingredient in keeping aging skin healthy and younger looking.

Understanding the affects of hormones as they relate to unwelcome changes in skin during puberty and menopause, and every stage in between, can help you make healthy choices in diet, lifestyle and daily skin care. Learning to incorporate proper skin care into your daily routine is essential for improving the health, appearance and integrity of your skin.

Stay beautiful!

Millie