This is Ashley our medical aesthetician with her handsome boyfriend Matt. While Ashley is a natural beauty, she does her best to keep her skin fresh and healthy.
It’s a fact, we are all busy and can’t always focus on ourselves, but a good skin care routine is important.
Ashley was kind enough to share her daily routine with us and openly admits that she too doesn’t always have time to do this each day. But she gives it her best effort !
The word "facelift" gets a bad rap. It conjures up images of over-done celebrities and of being "old". But that's not the case at all. Let's talk about what facial rejuvenation surgery really does and how you don't have to be a celebrity, or "old", to get one.
A question that our patients ask often is “Do I really need to use a toner in my daily skincare regimen?”. Well, have you ever washed your face and used a toner immediately following? Have you ever looked at the surface of whatever you used to apply the toner and noticed all the leftover makeup or dirt from your face, neck and chest? Do you think your other skincare products will be as effective if they have to make their way through all that leftover dirt or debri?
I personally don’t always use a toner in my daily skincare regimen but I find that the times I do use it on a regular basis my skin looks and feels more refreshed and better prepped for my other skincare products and even makeup. The only way our skin really benefits from the use of a toner is if we use the RIGHT one for our skin type/condition, it’s not high in alcohol content or does not contain alcohol at all and we use it on a regular basis. I always say that toner is pretty much going behind our cleanser and cleaning up what is left over because let’s face it cleansing isn’t always enough to really prep our skin for what’s to follow. Reality is a good toner can do so much more than that. Toner can help restore skin’s pH level, help the appearance of large pores, rid the skin of excess impurities and oil, help with discoloration, calm, hydrate, help reduce breakouts and more.
What really happens to our skin when we aren't getting at least 8 hours of sleep a night?
Getting only 5 or 6 hours of sleep can cause serious damage to your skin. A new study found that fine lines, wrinkles, redness, age spots, under eye bags and dark circles were all worse after less than seven or eight hours of sleep a night.
During this study participants were asked to come in for a scan of their skin after sleeping for only 6 hours for five nights in a row. Previously they had this same scan done after having slept for 8 hours a night so they could compare the effects.
Over that short period of time fine lines and wrinkles were increased by 45%, breakouts worsened, brown spots or age spots shot up by 11% and areas of skin were 8% more red.
These effects are minimal short term but if these sleep patterns continued your skin could become more sensitive, breakouts would continue to worsen and possibly scar, brown spots darken and ultimately you could suffer from premature aging.
Not only does lack of sleep have serious effects on mood, cognitive ability and concentration but also appearance and self esteem.
Sleep is the time when our body gets to heal, renew and eliminates toxins from the skin. Reduced sleep will reduce the body's ability to carry out these functions.
So instead of laying in bed for hours scrolling through Facebook or Instagram turn the phone off and get your much needed beauty sleep.
The verdict is in. Yes, you can wear bronzer year-round. In fact, bronzer is your best bet for warming up pale, sallow winter skin. There are two fundamental aspects of bronzing to always be mindful of, and in the middle of winter they matter more than ever: color and application. But don’t think the same rules of your July approach apply in January. With a few tweaks to the technique that gives you that bronzed goddess look during the summer months, you’ll be sporting a healthy winter glow.