Heard about the mineral makeup craze? By now, probably.

How it doesn’t block pores, how its great for acne prone, oily and sensitive skin etc. But before you go out and grab your minerals, here’s one thing to look out for before you fall for pretty packaging. Hey, if you’re looking, you might as well go for the good stuff.

Minerals are so popular now, it’s no surprise that half a dozen brands enter the fray each week. A bit like the organic craze.

The result is the same as with all skin care after a while.

Confusion and buying mistakes.

Here’s what really separates real minerals from cheap (or worse, expensive) copycats.

Bismuth Oxychloride, and here’s why its bad news for your skin.

We sell Jane Iredale Mineral Makeup, the only range till date that chooses to omit Bismuth Oxychloride from its ingredients. And that is what makes it a truly great mineral brand.

Sorry Bare Minerals and the rest of the mineral makeup gang!

accutane is banned

Remember our warning on Accutane? This latest worldwide move practically bans accutane.

If you’re looking for effective acne treatment, the good news is there are plenty to go with.

accutane is not a good acne treatment

We’re frequently informing our clients during our Skin Type program consultations, using Accutane as an acne treatment is a really bad idea.

Here’s why.

It doesn’t actually stop acne. Rather,  it reduces your skin’s oil glands and hence the amount of oil your skin produces. The acne causing P. bacteria needs this oil to survive so the logic is that less oil, the less likely P. bacteria is to thrive.

So what’s the problem?

Accutane works on hormones and they get told to stop producing oil by means of suppression. This “suppressive” nature has been shown to cause bouts of depression in teenagers and birth defects and deficiencies and fertility complications.

Accutane was invented in ‘79. Last century.

It just isn’t clever enough to choose how the hormones are suppressed hence the complications.

There are now easier and safer ways to treat acne, and we eliminate the guesswork by getting on the Skin Type program, it shows us what your unique Skin Type is and it shows you, what products and treatments you can do, very often without spending more than you would need to.

If you are looking to do a brazilian wax, make sure you pick a provider that uses hard wax.

Using strip wax is like doing a Tiger Woods.

It’s cheating.

Strip wax is for the legs, arms, back etc. The Brazilian area with all it’s nerve endings?

No chance.

We use hard wax, it shrink wraps the hair follicle and pulls from the roots, never at the skin.

And thats why places who use strip wax for their Brazilian have their clients hopping en mass to places where they do the Brazilian with hard wax and a fairer price.

Here’s a comparison, Strip’s Brazilian $65, Spahaven’s Brazilian $46.

Our regulars are more eloquent, “Strip 0 Spahaven 1″, and we couldn’t be more pleased.

From now till the end of dec ‘09, find out how our brazilians are going from half price to free, front desk at 6221-2203 has all the details!

Yes that’s how pleased we are.

Say bye bye raccoon eyes.

Who or what invented the concept of dark eye rings? Seems 90% of it is down to plain & simple lack of sleep.

Too little sleep ups cortisol levels, causing skin to retain fluid among other ‘nasties’. Combine that with poor eating habits , sun damage, and allergies, and eureka,  dark circles and eye bags.

Preemptive strike:

Here’s a tip that may run opposite to what you’ve heard so far. Drink a glass of water before bed, yes you heard us right;  this reduces puffiness by decreasing the amount of salt in the body.

Store an eye gel in the fridge and pat it around the eye area before bed.

Elevate the head of your bed or sleep on a thick pillow to prevent fluid from settling under the eyes.

In the morning, using  an eye cream that contains both antioxidants & light diffusing particles, such as Neutrogena Radiance Boost, or one that has cucumber extract as an ingredient, helps a lot.

If allergies are the ones contributing to the raccon effect, take an antihistamine.

Counterstrike:

Any eye cream that contains caffeine helps remove fluid from the skin.

Cold tea bags have tannins which also reduce puffiness.

Our favourite trick for circles would be to dab on vitamin k. Vitamin K is used in operations to reduce bruising after surgeries and it has been formulated for eye circles in a number of products. We also like the use of retinol, which makes lines less noticeable over time.

From there it is all about camouflage. We  like to cover rings with  light-reflecting concealer and if you finish off with a white eye pencil rubbed on the inner corners of the eyes, vavoom.

That trick alone makes you look alert even if you’re not.  Only Jane Iredale of course, the mineral makeup is best suited for sensitive skin.

Specials:

Vita K for dark eye circles now available in store at $79.90.  10% off for the first ten readers of this post.

You do not want to look like a lobster special.

Prevent: Chemical peels, waxing, and Rosacea can make you look flushed so use mild cleansers. Cetaphil or Peter Thomas Roth Chamomile Cleansing Lotion, with lukewarm water, helps a lot.

Also,  steer clear of Retin-A, glycolic acids and salicylic acids about 3 days before peels or waxing to reduce irritation. Any over-the-counter cortisone cream will also reduce redness, just don’t apply it to broken skin.

Counter Strike: Rosacea sufferers require more attention. Avoid spicy foods, alcohol, aspirin, and the sun, these vasodilators will trigger blood vessels to expand and you know what happens next! A longer lasting solution is a few rounds with a laser or Intense Pulsed Light to close blood vessels near the surface of the skin.

Specials: light treatment full session trials for reducing facial redness starts from $150, ask for a special trial price off the AFT laser if you’re looking to speed it up a little.

Spent $500 at our location in the last 3 months? Good on you, we’re give you another 10% off the Peter Thomas Roth Chamomile Cleansing Lotion. Go to www.spahaven.com.sg

Ingrown hairs are always the classic chicken and egg issue.

To get smooth skin, you need to devote all your time to shaving or waxing. But such treatments can create this beastly side effect where hair curls inward as it grows out. As it turns out, people who shave and those with curly hair are the most vulnerable.

Prevent:

Here’s a trick; use a good glycolic acid moisturizer, which helps release trapped hairs from the skin. The aim of this is to exfoliate dead skin so that hairs don’t get trapped under. You can also choose to scrub on less sensitive areas of your body like legs and arms and back. But for the bikini line and underarms, it really wiser to use glycolic or natural fruit enzymes to exfoliate as these areas are particularly prone to pigmentation for some people.

If you’re particularly prone to ingrowns no matter what you do, there’re always permanent solutions to think about.

Counter Strike: What you can do when it happens!

Raised, angry red bumps that look like pimples indicate that the hair follicle has started to burrow beneath the skin’s surface. The immediate thing you can do is to apply a topical hydrocortisone cream to bring the redness down.

If you can see the hair follicle that is causing this, you can opt to pluck it out yourself. Never start digging as this injures the skin and leaves a dark mark which can stay for weeks or months, go to a professional or to your regular wax technician, they will be able to extract it easily and harmlessly.

Sensitive skin that turns red at the slightest change in weather, sleep patterns, food or just about anything you do? Read our next blog.

Specials:

Permanent Hair Removal treatments up to 50% off usual prices. We now stock all the necessary products that prevent ingrown hairs as well as creams that bring down the redness when they do occur. Call frontdesk at 6221-2203 should you need assistance with this pesky issue, we’ll be glad to help!

There’s more than one way to deal with skin saboteurs like blemishes, puffiness and redness. Check out our top tricks to neutralizing the most persistent problems plus how to prevent them from erupting in the first place.

Acne

Breakouts aren’t caused by dirt or too much chocolate,  not at all.

They may accelerate the appearance of pimples, but the real problem starts when pores become clogged with a combination of dead skin and oil.

Breakouts don’t always stop even after our school days, although adults are more likely to get red bumps rather than black or white heads, and these usually develop on the nose or cheeks.

Prevent:

Pimples radiate pain to the surface of your skin as they start rising. Here’s a trick you may already know, once you feel it, use Benzoyl Peroxide on it, but keep the concentration to 5% or less.

This helps stops bacteria from brewing and will reduce if not prevent, eruption. Keep it to 5% or less, reason being any more may irritate certain Skin Types.

Use a salicylic or glycolic cleanser, the exfoliating features will also go a long way in reducing eruption by reducing the amount of dead skin.

We also like to finish that off with a light, oil free moisturizer, this is the step that a lot of people with acne concerns, skip and what it does is to only cause  skin to pump out more oil, and more oil means happy days for acne bacteria.

Counter Strike: What to do when they erupt!

Hands off.

Don’t pick, poke or puncture, this only makes the marks more noticeable, last longer and leave scars. All scars are resulted in this manner and it is always very expensive to treat acne scars.

If you must pick, learn to do it the right way with a sterilized tool but such things are really best left to the professionals.

Use spot treatments with a high dose of salicylic acid, sulfur, or even my personal fav, Retinol. Be careful, though, you won’t want to be using Retinol after the pimple has erupted, this usually worsens the redness that comes with the eruption.

Watch for the next edition where we give counter strike tips for Ingrown Hairs, you won’t want to miss this if you/re waing, shaving or epilating at the moment.

Wanna practise a little frugal economics and keep the pounds off at the same time? A study has shown that possibility and best of all, it’s free!

Apparently, as little as ten minutes of exercise increases growth-hormone levels, which helps prevents abdominal fat (nasty nasty things) and increase muscle mass.  A group of women were studied while told to perform aerobics exercise for either 10 minutes at 75% of their maximal heart rate (equivalent of a brisk walk). Blood samples taken after shows growth-hormones levels to be at least 500% higher than before they exercised.

If you’re reading this on your PDA while on the treadmill, set it to 10 minutes folks.

Someone had to figure this out; why does it seem like everyone around us is having loads of skin complaints at a time when there are more skin care products than ever before?

Well someone did, no not us but a dermatologist came with the Baumann system that we have been using to stunning effect at our location.

Have you noticed dark spots on your skin after sun exposure or as a cut heals? If you borrow a friend’s cleanser, will you end up with irritated skin? Great skin results from addressing those questions and  the four parameters that really define your skin type:

• Dry (D) vs. Oily (O)

Oily skin appears shiny, and those who have it may prefer gel- or powder-based cosmetic products, as moisturizers feel greasy. Dry skin may appear dull and rough; dry skin types find moisturizer soothing and gravitate toward creamy makeup.

• Sensitive (S) vs. Resistant (R)

Sensitive skin flushes easily and may become red and irritated at the slightest deviation from its standard routine; it may also be prone to acne and eczema. While resistant skin sounds like an unqualified blessing, people with this type often need to use stronger products to penetrate their skin and achieve the desired effect.

• Pigmented (P) vs. Non-Pigmented (N)

Some people believe that pigmented types are always dark-skinned, which is absolutely not the case. Anyone who experiences unwanted dark spots (melasma, sun spots, or freckles, for example) is a pigmented type.

• Wrinkled (W) vs. Tight (T)

Short of a crystal ball, this parameter is the best indication of how your skin will age, based on both genetic tendencies and lifestyle. You can’t do much about your genes, of course, but your daily routine can significantly affect your score on the wrinkled-tight scale: sun exposure, smoking, and poor nutrition, for example, all contribute to skin aging.

Put them together, and you get 16 skin types instead of three or four – a far more realistic picture that we can work with.
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Hi, I’m Deborah Chan, technical director of the Skin Type Solution programme at Spahaven. Like what you’re reading?

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