Helpful Skin Care from 5 Baby Favorites

My sister is a new mom again to my beautiful niece. Like all moms she carries her baby supplies kit everywhere she goes. 

Looking through it one day I noticed she had 5 items on hand that are perfect for skincare emergencies. Today's Blog is: 

Your Quick Emergency Skincare From 5 Baby Essentials.

Bad facial? How to make your skin better NOW.

In part one we covered 3 ways to determine if you are having an abnormal post-facial reaction. With part two we will cover how to make your unhappy skin better with these super easy ways to calm and soothe. 

"How to make your "bad" skin better, quickly."

1. Use only a mild, gentle cleanser to cleanse your face

Your skin burning STILL? How to calm it, NOW!

You just had an amazing facial and peel. The peel brightened your skin and has given you a glow. Wow! Just, WOW!

Remember to follow your esthetican/skin care technician post-peel home-care recommendations for optimal results. Its worth investing your money in the right home-care. Your skin will thank
you. 

But now! (queue dramatic music *dun-dun-dun*) Relaxing at home you notice an annoying tingling or burning on an area of your face. It's not comfortable. It may be start to look red and feel irritated. What can you do when you can't reach your skin care technician? Worry not! I have the solution.

BEHOLD! The answer in your hands! Your recipe that stops: (queue spooky intro music *wuoo-uuu-ooo*)

"THE RETURN OF THE BURNING FACE PEEL!"

Save money, calm your skin! #1 quick, easy trick.

Soothe angry inflammed skin: quickly, easily and naturally

Recently, I was consulting with a client that wanted a more natural way to treat a red, inflamed patch on her skin. I recommended she start with the estheticans GO-TO, 1st step treatment, before she do anything else.
Can you guess what it is?

6 dry skin beauty hacks every woman should know

Since the California Santa Ana winds are back so is dry, flaky and dull skin. So these 6 dry skin beauty hacks are the perfect way to keep your skin luxuriously moist and beautiful.

1. Regular exfoliation keeps the dead skin cells at bay.  Scrubs are good only twice a week but the real benefit is with a nightly glycolic/aha cream. Just slap it on and go to sleep. Voila!
In the evening apply a glycolic face cream on face and neck and then a body lotion with glycolic  from decollete down to toes and fingers.

MGL: I love using our Pelasante Gly Facial Creme 15% every other night and then our Glycolic 15% Body Lotion nightly (my hubby uses it on his feet, much nicer when playing footsie). Both are rich in anti-aging antioxidants and leave our skin baby soft. 
Please Note: scrubs are used to remove excess dead skin cells which you create every 3 days. Using a scrub too often will leave the skin drier, irritated and with more breakouts from the excess friction.


2. My eye doctor recommended I increase my intake of healthy oils to combat my dry eyes. Avocado, coconut oil, flax-seed oil and olive oils were some of her recommendations. This makes perfect sense since I recommend the same thing to help combat dry skin, so ask your MD about increasing healthy oils in your diet.  

MGL: Do you think I can add real butter to my mashed potatoes and claim it as a health additive?

Want your own copy? Just let us know in the comments

3. A richer night cream in the winter months is a standard dry skin trick. Make sure it isn't too heavy to clog your skin, create congestion and breakouts, and that it also contains healing antioxidants. It doesn't need to be heavy or super thick to work well.  

MGL: My current favorite is the Overnight BioTherapy Night cream. My skin got drier so I alternate nightly with my glycolic to reduce rough, dry layer and the next night the BioTherapy melts into my skin and feels silky soft in the morning.

4. Drier air causes more of our natural moisture to evaporate so simply sitting with a humidifier turned on for 20 minutes helps replenish the moisture. Doesn't matter if its a cold or warm humidifier, either will work.

MGL: I like to set it up with distilled water, for 20 minutes while I am reading, since I am doing that often, or watching tv. Make sure to clean and dry your humidifier before you put it away for the next season.

5. Vaseline for your body. It creates a coating on the skin to seal in moisture, but you need to put moisture underneath it first. Gently scrub your skin, rinse, apply your favorite body lotion, then a thin layer of vaseline and leave on overnight.

MGL: For my hands and feet,  I scrub with mdf face and body scrub then apply Pelasante Critical Care Hand Creme for hydration, layer with Vaseline to seal it in and toss on an old pair of gloves and socks to keep the vaseline off my sheets and pajamas at night.

6. When all else fails play Cleopatra and take a milk bath. The natural lactic acid in milk will gently exfoliate your skin while the fatty acids in rich, fatty milk will hydrate your skin. While you luxuriate in your milk bath, rub some of it on your face as well. Afterwards either leave it on or rinse off then apply your favorite moisturizer.  

MGL: There are lots of lovely milk bath products you can buy but my client Seri pours real milk right into her bathtub and takes a some time for herself. Sounds so decadent.

Try a few of these dry skin beauty hacks and let me know which are your favorites. Do have other dry skin hacks that you've tried and love, leave it in the comments. Remember to book your facial and body treatment at Tuscany Spa, we a have a wide range of services to treat and nourish the dry skin on your face and body. With the holidays coming up remember to treat your hardworking skin to some TLC.

Thanks for reading, commenting and sharing the info.
Michelle G. Lathe

SKINCARE IN-A-PINCH: Acne solution

SKINCARE IN - A - PINCH

Everyday Solutions for Skin Care Concerns

Tuscany Spas' Skincare In A Pinch

Sometimes your skin flares up and you need to do something, anything, to take care of it. Alison, RN/Esthetician, and I were discussing the skin care "in the pinch" solutions that we've used when we are desperate. Hermina, Cidesco Esthetician and MaryJaye, Esthetician/Massage Therapist joined in the discussion and we had a slew of skin care "in-a-pinch"solutions. So this series of Skin Care"In-A-Pinch" skincawas born. Let me know what you think, leave me questions and suggestions. Enjoy!

Acne is a four-letter word and it inflicts itself on both male and female, from our teen years to adulthood, on women in perimenopause through menopause. So pretty much throughout our lifetime. Our first Skin Care In-A-Pinch blog addresses Inflammatory Acne, the red, swollen, pus filled breakouts that often hurt and cant be covered by makeup. Redness may be but you cant hide the bumps. So this "in a pinch" trick is thanks to Alison Fritchie, RN and Esthetician at Tuscany Spa.

Alison, RN,LE recommends a witch-hazel as an acne compress . She was not a witch-hazel fan, too stripping and irritating for her already sensitive skin. But a Tattoo changed her mind. This tattoo actually.


Cool Tattoo on Alison of Tuscany Spa

To care for her new tattoo, Jorrel, tattoo artist extraordinaire at The Monocle Tattoo, recommended gently wash it, then spray with witch-hazel and follow with lotion. The witch hazel did a wonderful job of controlling the inflammation and soothing her skin. Now she is a believer.

POTENTIAL BENEFITS OF WITCHHAZEL FOR INFLAMMATORY ACNE

•  It has anti-inflammatory properties so it can soothe the swelling
• It feels cooling on the skin
• Removes excessive oil (this is both a positive and a negative
• Although it isn't antibacterial, while it is on your skin it slows down the growth of bacteria

HOW TO USE WITCH-HAZEL TO TREAT INFLAMED, ANGRY ACNE 

by Alison Fritchie,RN,esthetician

1. Soak either cotton pads or tissues in witch hazel to make compresses.
2. apply compress directly on your breakouts, leave on 10-20 minutes.(Avoid your eyes and nostrils).
3. Remove compresses and apply your lightweight lotion directly over the residue.

How often can you use a Witchhazel compress

• You can use this witchhazel Compress twice a day for 3 days to reduce inflamation.
•  Then give your skin a rest, at least 3 days.
• Maintenance and Ongoing use should be once or twice a week and ONLY as needed.

NOT OVERUSING WITCHHAZEL is extremely important

1. Overuse strips the skins natural oils and acid mantle which leads to more irritation
2. It can make acne worse due to this irritation
3. It becomes less effective if overused.

 Witchhazel is usually alcohol based due to the way it is distilled. But the alcohol can be stripping and irritating which can make acne worse, so dont over use it. If your skin is not extremely oily  look for witchhazel with lower alcohol concentration or try the alcohol free brand. Note: we have not tried the alcohol free version ourselves to verify that it will work as well but we have no reason to think that it wouldn't. So it may be worth a try.

Let us know how this works for you. We always appreciate your feedback.

To really clean, clear and calm your skin remember to book your Tuscany Spa Detox/ Clarifying Acne Facial at www.TuscanySkinSpa.com or call 818-248-5500. I am not the only esthetician at our spa that loves clearing out an acne skin. So you cant blame me for adding this call to action.
Tuscany Spa Skin and Body Clinic

A Witch-Hazel Plant

Skin Cancer self check and mole map

Happy Spring,

After my 4 day cosmetic chemistry UCLA extension course, I was surfing the web for followup info. I happened upon this spa industry site with a wonderful skin cancer self check poster.

This is a great image on how to inspect and recognize a body mole.  It contains the ABCDE's of Melanoma and a visual representation, a how-to self exam for moles and potential melanomas and a self assessment chart. This is excellent info.

You can print out your own version of the mole map from the American Academy of Dermatology. Also check out their self exam How-to Video.


What it does not mention to check UNDER your breasts and your genitalia. Even if you never got UV exposure in those areas a mole can still show up. So remember to check those spots too.

With summer coming up, please apply your SpF liberally and every 2 hours when you are exposed. It is better to use and SpF 15 generously than an SPF 50 sparingly; you will actually get better sun protection.

Avoid tanning beds if at all possible - they are notorious for creating skin cancer. If you want visual proof, this blog shows how a tanning bed user was first diagnosed at just 21 years old.

If you get a sunburn, stop all UV exposure; if you have to be out and about you must slop on your SPF, cover up and slap on a hat to minimize further injury. Apply cool compresses or gels, and as soon as possible use a vitamin c toner to minimize the UV damage.

Tuscany Spa offers post sunburn cooling facials to calm the burn, soothe the discomfort and help minimize the UV damage. Another shameless plug: we have a fantastic long wearing (8 hour) sunscreen that is also waterproof for 6 hours. Contact us for details.

Take Care,
Michelle