Like facials, light based treatments go back nearly 100 years. The use of different coloured lights (usually red and blue) have long been known to help with acne and/or rejuvenation. Also daylight bulbs are useful for lifting your mood when there is little natural light (e.g. winter).
Another form of light therapy is infrared, usually in the form of a ‘dry’ sauna. There is no steam, just an infrared light that warms the body. Again this is helpful in cold climates or when you are feeling rundown.
These treatments are often reintroduced every few years as a ‘new’ innovation, but they have been around in one form or another for a very long time. Ensure you visit a salon that has experienced therapists for these particular treatments.
Microdermabrasion is, literally, a form of sandblasting the skin to remove the surface cells.
Originally inert crystals were used, followed by salt. Nowadays the salt has been done away with altogether and a rotating crystal is used instead. This eliminates the risk of contamination (some salons were reusing the old salt or crystals!) but it is still a very intense treatment.
Not everyone will find this a good treatment, and it’s probably not a good idea to have it on a regular basis. However it is good for buffing the skin when the weather changes, and can be useful for removing light pigmentation marks.
As with galvanic facials an electrical current is used for high frequency treatments. This is usually carried out on very oily or congested skin but can also be carried out on the body.
The treatment is very good at removing oil and leaves you with a fresh feeling that lasts several weeks. It’s particularly good if you travel by bus/underground tube or subway/train as you will have greasier skin than usual. Again make sure you have a therapist who is well experienced.
A galvanic facial involves the use of a direct current to ‘push’ the facial products further into the skin. What actually happens is that the application of either a negative or positive current via a metal roller makes the surface of your skin more receptive to products.
However the real reason it works is because a small amount of either lye or hydrochloric acid is formed around the roller, and in SMALL amounts these can either stimulate or soothe the skin a great deal.
Obviously great care needs to be taken so ensure you visit a therapist with experience, and if you feel a tingling feeling at any time then let her know. Galvanic facials are incredibly pleasant though, so don’t be scared off by talk of currents!
A standard facial is a salon treatment that is well over 100 years old, perhaps even more. It derives from Helena Rubinstein’s original categorisation of skin types (normal, oily, dry, combination, acne prone etc).
What usually happens is preparation of the skin (removal of products, makeup, cleansing), deep cleaning (extraction, unblocking pores) and, if required, moisturising or soothing and stimulation or massage. Products often used are witch hazel, calamine, kaolin, fullers earth and rosewater.
The facial is tailored to your individual skin type, so the first time you have one your beauty therapist will spend a few minutes examining your skin under a magnifying lamp.
After the first facial you may actually look worse(!) due to the deep cleaning and manipulation of the skin. However your skin soon recovers and after a course of several treatments you can then choose to have a facial less often to ‘top up’ the effects.
If you suffer from acne you may find a salon facial is better at treating the problem than prescription medicine.
Eyelash extensions are simply a step up from the old fashioned individual eyelashes glued on with traditional eyelash glue. The difference is that the glue used is more of a bond, and the extensions stay stuck until the actual lash naturally falls out.
If you look closely at the next mascara commercial on tv or at the movies you’ll often see in small print that eyelash extensions or ‘enhancements’ were used. Eyelash extensions are relatively new in mainstream salons (less than 5 years) and for that reason are still very expensive.
Eyelash enhancements are a simple but very effective way to alter your appearance.
Eyelash tinting. This is simply colouring the eyelash so that mascara is not needed. You can either use a home kit or visit a salon, however you must ensure you do a patch test first otherwise you may have a bad reaction to the dye. The tint is brushed onto the lashes (whilst keeping your eyes closed) and left on for about 10 to 15 minutes before washing off. The results last as long as the lashes, ie when they fall out you’ll need to retint the newer lashes.
Eyelash perming: Curls the eyelashes so that they widen the eye. This is done using very small perming rods which are sticky. The lashes are rolled and then perming solution is applied. This is left on for several minutes before removing and/or neutralising. The results are dependent on how your hair reacts to the perming solution, so it may ‘fall out’ quickly. This is an alternative to manually curling eyelashes.
IMPORTANT: Don’t do this if you have any blood pressure or heart problems, or any other health problems for that matter.
The bandages use for salon bodywrapping are just elastic adhesive bandages. You can purchase them very cheaply at any local drugstore.
To flatten a bloated stomach start at your waist and wrap firmly BUT NOT TOO TIGHT down to your hips. To flatten your hips start wrapping at the top of one thigh, move up to your hips, then across and down to the other thigh. Leave for 1 hour and remove.
If you feel uncomfortable at any time just stop. You are just trying to eliminate a bit of water and push out a little poop, not crush your internal organs!
1. Ditch all your lip products, including lipsticks, lipbalms, lip liners and absolutely anything else you can think of. Replace with brand new ones (get good quality brands or natural products). (If the cold sore is currently active then let it heal first before replacing your lip products.)
2. Ensure the corners of your mouth are well moisturised if they are cracked. Use Aveeno, cocoa butter or shea butter to do this.
3. Get your lips in good condition by steaming them (put a towel over your face and place a bowl of very hot water underneath. Wait until you feel your face break out in a sweat before stopping). This encourages the oil glands just inside the edges of the lips to work hard (yes your lips do indeed have oil glands, they’re just not uniform all over the lips).
4. Once your lips are healed and moisturised make sure they stay that way. You should very rarely get cold sores afterwards.
Green tea is a surprisingly good treatment for acne, especially the very aggressive type that flares up painfully.
Every day make a small amount of green tea (break open a green teabag and spoon half a teaspoon of leaves into an eggcup, then pour a few spoonfuls of boiling water over it. Leave to stand for 5 minutes). Just before putting on your makeup (if you wear any) dip some cotton wool or tissue in the cooled tea and sweep it over your face (just wet the surface, don’t have it dripping off your face), then allow to dry WITHOUT WIPING IT OFF. Repeat just before bed and throw away any leftover tea.
Do this for 5 days and if you don’t see any improvement then you can stop. However you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised. Try it on back acne too.
