While visiting the spa for your monthly facial may be a thing of the past, letting your skin look that way doesn’t have to be. However busy your day is, you can always squeeze in a few tricks to keep your skin looking as though you’ve maintained regular visits to your esthetician.
My favorite remedy for tired/stressed/broken out skin is masking. A mask is a great do-it-yourself product to whip your skin into shape. When applying a facial mask, you create an occlusive seal on your skin which kick-starts your body’s natural response to produce fluids to push the mask off. This excess of fluids is going to plump and hydrate the (usually dehydrated) skin cells on the surface resulting in healthier skin. These fluids are also going to apply pressure on the pores to create a purging effect, thus eliminating any gunk in your pores that shouldn’t be there.
After an exhausting night, I love to slap on an energizing face mask and de-puffing eye mask first thing in the morning. My favorites are Guinot’s “Masque Energie Lift” with vitamin C to perk up dull, tired skin (click here for retailers). As an added bonus, vitamin C is a great antioxidant which helps with aging and sun damage. For tired eyes, Yonka’s “Phyto-Contour” with rosemary de-stresses and de-puffs (click here for retailers).
Phyto-Contour can also be worn as a regular eye cream morning and night to de-puff around the clock.
When I’m having breakouts, my favorite combo is a mask-scrub duo. After the mask purges your pores, follow it up with a scrub to slough off the dead skin cells and keep breakouts at bay. First I apply Only YouRx’s “Purifying Mineral Mask” for oily skin for 5-20 minutes (click here for retailters). It’s a great clay-based mask to absorb excess oil and calm down breakout-prone skin. Then I wash off the mask using Only YouRx’s “Pineapple Refining Scrub” for normal ski. It’s a fantastic blend of fruit acids and synthetic poly-beads to get that perfectly exfoliated fresh skin, plus it smells delicious! *Remember when using scrubs, natural is not necessarily better. Look for facial scrubs with synthetic perfectly round poly-beads to exfoliate vs. natural apricot/walnut shell-based scrubs which have irregular granules that can cause tears to your skin.
So when the kids go down, take advantage and give yourself a little naptime facial. You may look like the Wicked Witch of the West while you’re rocking that mask, but by the time the kids wake up you should be sporting good ole Glinda’s glow!
