Why Change from Over the Counter Cosmetics to Medical Grade?

Our clients as the best questions!  The other day, a client asked me:

I am looking to change and am not sure if Arbonne, Prescriptives, Lancome, Estee Lauder, Clinique, etc….is the best one.  I am running low on my cosmetic products and wanted to ask you before I buy all new stuff.

At Associates in Dermatology we carry makeup products superior to other brands for about the same cost.  Medical grade brands do not contain fragrance, dyes, chemicals and parabens which are all harmful.  These are found commonly in the over the counter brands or department stores. I previously sold cosmetics and have experimented with over 20 brands over the past 20+ yrs.  I recommend and currently use the following:  ColoreScience, Oxygenetix, Glo Minerals, Priory, & Jane Iredale. 

I do not subject my skin to anything less than pure healthy products that provide benefits and protect my skin and neither should you.

Three Favorite Medical Grade Cosmetics Picks

Here are favorite medical grade cosmetics picks for skin screen protection and reducing facial imperfections are:

SkinCeuticals  Sheer Protection UV Defense SPF 50

An amazing feather weight physical sunscreen that provides maximum protection and a bit of sheer color.  Pitch those pasty white thick chemical sunscreens & try this one!

ColoreScience Primer – About FACE

It’s a combination of protection with a SPF 20 plus moisturizing ingredients and a hit of color!  For me it’s three products in one.  The combination saves me application time and money.  That’s what I like!

ColoreScience Pro Sunforgettable Mineral Powder

Finest mineral powder has an SPF 50 that is water and sweat resistant without the heavy pressed on makeup look. Comes in a handy retractable tube with brush that fits easily in any handbag.  Here’s the crazy part, did you just run out?? No problem don’t throw away the container because we have REFILLS available for half the price! In addition, we carry the brush cleaner too!

Note:  While we do our best to keep the Colorscience products, if you need one we don’t currently have, please leave your name, number & item requested. Our friendly staff will call you the moment it arrives.

Nordic Beauty Secrets

Pernille Sporon-Boving, a Danish artist based in State College, Penn., has never done anything special to take care of her skin. She doesn’t use expensive creams, she doesn’t get facials and she doesn’t wear any makeup.

And yet in her mid-40s, she needs no enhancing. The skin on her face is tight and glowing, with enviable smoothness and sheen. She is fit and healthy and a living example of the no-frills approach to beauty that’s common to almost all Scandinavian and Nordic women, from Copenhagen to Reykjavik, and from Stockhlom to Helsinki.

Theirs is a seemingly effortless and natural look that’s admired and coveted by women the world over. But ask an expert like Annica Joensuu, head of the Swedish Organization of Skin Therapy (Sveriges Hudterapeuters Riksorganisation), a trade association for beauty schools and skin therapists in Sweden, what the secret is, and she’ll laughingly chalk it up to just a thick moisturizer and “good genes.”

Those good genes, though, are bolstered and perpetuated by two key ingredients: a healthy diet and an active, on-the-go-lifestyle, both of which contribute greatly to natural beauty and are just a part of life in the Nordic region.

It’s true: Although many women in the Nordic region arguably make a conscious choice not to be bogged down by the trappings of beauty—makeup, hair products and skin care regimes that require time and effort—their day-to-day lives in a part of the world where winters are long and hard just don’t afford them the time and the space for excessive pampering, Joensuu says.

“We’re lucky not to get sun most of the year here, so our skins are not exposed as much to its harshness,” she says, but in a region where the winters are tough and long, where the balance between comfort and discomfort is tenuous at best, the primary focus is on “getting out and getting on with things by embracing nature and integrating it into our lives.”

And that means applying a thick moisturizer on the face, bundling up in layers of warm clothing and grabbing a pair of skis, a sled or a bike (yes, even when it’s snowing) and heading out the door, no matter the cold and the dark. “Sitting here now, I can’t imagine just how much I did outside,” says Sporon-Boving, who has lived in Denmark, Norway and Greenland. “I had two small kids and I dragged them everywhere with me in the coldest of weather. That just wouldn’t happen here in the U.S., and if I think back it seems crazy, but that’s just the way of life over there and you get used to it. You even start to enjoy it.”

There’s little doubt that living an active, outdoorsy life—particularly in the winter—does wonders for the metabolism by quickly burning unwanted fat. But taking a Nordic winter by the horns and reaping its benefits is not for the faint of heart, and it requires, above all else, a strong body. That’s why healthy eating is all-important in that part of the world, and it’s so much a part of the culture that it requires no special effort at all. The typical Nordic diet is rich in fiber and bursting with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants found in a range of leafy and root vegetables like carrots, beets, rutabagas and artichokes, all of which are everyday fare, Joensuu says. All those nutrients do wonders for the skin and body. For instance, vitamin A in carrots helps skin cells renew themselves and the surprisingly high vitamin C content in rutabagas (also known as Swedish turnips) is shown to prevent wrinkles.

“No snacks for us,” says Joensuu, but rather three full meals a day made up of whole grain cereals and breads, low-fat dairy products and lots of fish like herring, salmon and mackerel that are plump with Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids to help fortify the membranes of the skin cells and guard against the formation of wrinkles.

And then of course, there are the berries. Not just any berries, but Nordic berries—super fruits that grow in a part of the world where the sun doesn’t set in summer, and that are plumper, richer and exponentially more powerful than any berry anywhere else in the world. “They’re soaking in sunlight around the clock for 24 hours straight,” says Joe Pastorkovich, VP North America for Finnish skincare company Lumene, “and this makes their vitamin and antioxidant properties a full 81 percent richer than any cultivated berry.” Those vitamins and antioxidants have anti-inflammatory effects, which help keep skin young and plump and can even prevent heart attacks.

In the Nordic region, berries—blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, lingonberries, cloudberries, to name but a few—are ubiquitous. They’re eaten plain or atop breakfast cereals, and they’re mixed into desserts, cooked into jams and pressed to make juices and liqueurs.

Companies like Lumene have been harnessing the powerful properties of these berries, in particular the yellow Arctic cloudberry, which grows between August and October in the bogs and swamps of Sweden, Norway and Finland, to integrate them in a sustainable manner into various creams and skincare products. Lumene’s flagship creams are made from the seed oil extracted from cloudberries when they’re pressed into juice, says Josefin Backman, the company’s Helsinki-based head of research and development.

“The oil contains high amounts of Omega-6 and Omega-3, vitamins A and E, plant steroids and fatty acids, all of which are essential for keeping your skin barrier intact and in good condition,” she says. “The cloudberry nectar that we use has phenolic compounds that contain detoxing properties to brighten and lighten the skin and keep it soft and supple.”

To the extent that products like Lumene’s are available on store shelves in the U.S., more women may have a chance to avail of the raw power of the Nordic region’s natural bounty, in the hopes of cultivating the beauty of the women from there. Today, the Nordic diet is high profile, almost on par, studies have shown, with the Mediterranean diet for its health quotient.

But no matter the skincare options and the diet and the lifestyle choices that women may make or have available to them, there’s one very important quality that Eric Post, Sporon-Boving’s husband and a professor of biology at Penn State University, believes is key to the beauty of Nordic women: their strong sense of self-reliance. In a part of the world where women do everything that men do, where gender equality is barely an issue (in 2003, for example, Norway passed a law that would require 40 percent of directors for all public companies to be women, and the Nordic countries top global averages for the number of women in government), “these women are inherently independent and self-confident,” Post says. “Beauty is an emergent property of this feeling, not, by contrast, something that can be contrived by adding to one’s appearance.”

Anyone who can find a way to harness and package that unique quality may well have found the secret to true beauty.

Article by By Savita Iyer-Ahrestani taken from YouBeauty.com  http://www.youbeauty.com/skin/nordic-beauty-secrets#7

Why You Will Love the Benefits of Facials

No matter your age or gender, your body’s largest organ is your skin. If you want your skin (especially on the face) to look its best and stay healthy, you need to take care of it.  Healthy, good looking skin begins with skin care. Facials are an essential ingredient of your overall skin care program.

What is a facial?

A facial is a spa therapy and massage that leaves your skin cleaner, softer, younger, and truly transformed. Facials can help clear clogged pores, quench parched skin and remove dead cells. Facials involve some massage which aids in blood circulation and lymphatic drainage.  The facial massage also helps to relax facial muscles which can slow the onset of wrinkles on the face. Puffiness reduction, sagging in the face and skin cell renewal are additional benefits from these massage techniques.

What are some benefits of a facial?

• Facials help reduce the impact of sun exposure, smoking and other environmental factors as well as incorrect product use.
• Women are more susceptible to aging due to stress. Facials help reduce stress. While stress is quickly rising to number in the premature aging process, it can also act as a rosacea trigger, shorten the life span of your skin cells, aggravate acne and other skin inflammations.
• During your facial, your licensed aesthestic, will recommend appropriate skin care for home use to help you continue the benefits of our facial and correct ongoing skin care issues.

A transforming experience, getting a facial is an absolutely enjoyable skin treatment. You will feel relaxed, pampered and your skin will feel simply amazing after your facial.

You will certainly reap the benefits of a facial during the change of seasons. At a minimum, you should receive a facial treatment four times per year, as the seasons change. Regular facials are the key to clear, smooth and radiant skin throughout the year.

Beaute Pacifique Introduces Helena Christensen as New Goodwill Ambassador

The fall is loaded with news from Beaute Pacifique. Today, on a press conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, Beaute Pacifique introduced world renowned supermodel Helena Christensen, as our new Goodwill Ambassador.

As a Goodwill Ambassador Helena Christensen will help increase Beaute Pacifique’s brand awareness world-wide. At Beaute Pacifique we are deeply impressed by the delicate way Helena Christensen has made both herself and home country Denmark well-known throughout the world. We respect Helena Christensen as a person with a very cosmopolitan outlook on life and business and are proud to have her on board as our Goodwill Ambassador.

Loyal Beaute Pacifique user
Helena Christensen learned about Beaute Pacifique through her best friend:
“She told me she had finally found a skin care line that visibly changed her skin. I, of course at once, had to try these products myself – and they really changed my skin to the better. I am happy to let you know that my mother, my father, and my grandmother love the products too” says Helena Christensen.

Defining new products together
The new teamwork has another primary advantage. In addition to increasing the brand awareness -Beaute Pacifique and Helena Christensen join efforts to define and develop new and more advanced skin care products – Science and Beauty are brought together. ”I look forward to the launch of some of the ideas for new skin care products we define together. I am sure that it will be a new exciting learning process for me too” says Helena Christensen.

 

Article  from Beaute Pacifique

Starting Skin Care

The market is so saturated with the newest or best product out there. Many patients and clients have asked me over the years, “how do I know what to use on my skin?”  Unfortunately I did not know anything about product ingredients at age 25.  Years ago I worked at the mall at one of those fancy cosmetic counters. Glossy high print models all paint the scene.  You can see  fancy packaging, conveniently located where you shop for clothes. The products themselves have merit, however you pay extra for all those dollars spent on promoting and marketing. Trouble is, the general public has to rely on the pretty gal behind the counter for guidance.

Good skin care does not need to be fancy or cost an arm and a Gucci handbag. Nor does it require dyes, fragrance, formaldehyde or harmful parabens to be effective. After several years of education and many years working in the industry, I have become a very savvy consumer.

On the flip side, what about those inexpensive over the counter cosmetics?  You can’t try it before you buy it, can you?  So you make a purchase because it was a bargain.  Did you ever use it more than once and what is in it anyway?  My guess, mineral oil, lanolin, animals byproducts, and petroleum? You hear about toxins more and more and the harmful effects it has on we humans. Why do we do the things we do?  Or make the wrong choices?

Next time you need some help with finding the right cosmetic makeup or night cream for your skin, ask a professional licensed skin care specialist to help.