July 13, 2011
Most of us are taught to cleanse the skin both morning and night. But, in reality, overwashing can lead to dryness and encourage a vicious cycle of breakouts and excess oil since too much natural oil is removed. “If the skin is cleansed more than twice a day, the natural oils will be stripped away. When that happens, more oil is produced to compensate for the dry feeling, which leads to more bacteria production,” says celebrity aesthetician Terri Lawton. Even if you are superoily, limit washing to just the morning and night. “If you have dry or sensitive skin, you may want to wash just at night so that some of the natural oils are preserved during the day,” she says. “You can splash with water or toner in the morning.”
Then there are some lucky women who are genetically blessed with near perfect skin and can get away with just splashing water on their faces and forego using cleanser altogether. But, for most of us, this method doesn’t work. “It’s pretty rare that you’re going to get a dewy, fresh glow with just water, especially since our skin is exposed to so much pollution on a regular basis,” says Lawton. “If you don’t use a cleanser, you can cause more congestion because the dirt and oil sitting on the surface of the skin, and in the pores, does not get removed.” For skin that’s extremely dry and aged, celebrity aesthetician Kate Somerville says that washing with water—as long as a cleanser is used once a day—may be OK.
July 11, 2011
If you’re a classic Lipton lover, it’s time to make the switch to a tea with benefits that are becoming too numerous to count. We’re talking about green tea, of course. Lipton even sells it now, too. So you don’t have to feel guilty about the switch.
Recently published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a study measuring the effect of green tea intake on cholesterol found positive results. For the study, colleagues from Peking Union Medical College in Beijing went through research from 14 previous trials involving green tea and determined that participants who drank green tea had lower total cholesterol levels than those who didn’t. Now, the results weren’t big enough to suggest that we no longer need other treatments for high cholesterol (it was a decrease of about 2 percent), but every little bit helps.
July 5, 2011
If you love the white stuff — we’re talking sugar, folks — your sweet tooth could be making your skin sag, crinkle, and wrinkle before its time. Blame glycation. That’s what happens when sugar hits your bloodstream, gloms on to proteins, and forms the aptly named AGEs, or advanced glycation end products. AGEs are bad news for your skin. They damage the collagen and elastin fibers that keep it strong and supple.
While scientists aren’t ready to say “sugar causes wrinkles,” docs know from observing people with poorly managed diabetes what out-of-control blood sugar does to skin — and it isn’t pretty. Bluntly put, it causes “premature” aging.
That should be extra inspiration to skip the cakes, cookies, and sugary drinks and fill your plate with wrinkle fighters. Here’s even more: There is plenty of scientific proof that certain nutrients help nourish the fibers that keep skin stretchy and healthy, says Manhattan dermatologist Amy Wechsler, MD, RealAge expert and author of The Mind-Beauty Connection. Step right up to the beauty buffet and serve yourself this way:
- Cover half — yes, 50% — of your plate with fruits and veggies. The antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals in plants act like a dietary highway patrol, pulling over speeding free radicals before they can damage your skin’s collagen and elastin. You’ll also get loads of vitamin C this way (brightly colored produce is full of it). That’s great because C is essential for making new collagen.
- Then add extra flavor or crunch by topping your fruits and veggies with nuts, seeds, or a drizzle of olive oil. Nuts and seeds are full of vitamin E, an off-the-charts antioxidant. Since sunlight depletes vitamin E in skin, you need to continually replenish your supply, and the more you get from food — not supplements — the better. While that’s true in general, if there’s any chance you could get pregnant, taking big doses of E is a don’t. It’s linked to heart defects in newborns.
As for olive oil, its healthy fats help skin cells resist wrinkle-causing sun damage.
- Fill 25% of your plate with lean protein. Think fish, skinless white-meat poultry, beans, chickpeas, lentils, and tofu. All give you the good proteins your body needs to make new skin cells and keep up with its own antiaging skin repairs.
- Fill 25% of your plate with 100% whole grains. As in whole-wheat pasta, brown or wild rice, barley, any breads made from 100% whole grains, and more. Unlike the simple carbs in sugar, the complex carbs in whole grains are the kind your body and skin crave. Instead of triggering blood sugar spikes and forming brigades of aging AGEs, whole-grain carbs are full of fiber, which steadies blood sugar. Plus, the selenium and zinc in whole grains help harness the collagen- and elastin-damaging free radicals.
July 1, 2011
Check out this blog posting from one of our instructors at Rizzieri Aveda School, Michael Thoder.
He writes about the ‘End of an Era’ – a hair era, that is! Click here for the full article via Michael’s blog.
To see Michael teaching here at the school, contact us at 856-988-8600 or 8200 Town Center Blvd. in Voorhees, NJ.
Although the summer is here in full swing, our students are still hard at work in our Student Salon at Rizzieri Aveda School. Check out a few images of our students working it!
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