Let's Talk Sunscreen and your YOUTH RECOVERY

As summer approaches here are your essential tips for YOUTH RECOVERY to maintain a healthy glow and help you minimize sun damage.

- Remember that an SPF30 blocks 96.6% of the suns rays, with only 2% more if you use an SPF100. . . High SPF creams contain a higher level of potentially irritating chemical ingredients. By choosing to wear GUINOT’s SPF30 daily you have the perfect level of sun protection without irritation.

- Your YOUTH RECOVERY program recommends that you limit sun exposure 365 days a year, rain or shine. Apply a full spectrum screen that lists both UVA&UVB protection.

- Here is your checklist before you head to the park, the beach or the mountains: (1) Is the tube of sunscreen more than 6 months old (if open)? (2) Does it offer UVA and UVB protection? (The UVA rays are the ageing rays that secretly damage.

- Using sunscreen daily helps to slow down accumulated sun damage and consequential photaging.

Looking beyond a tube of SPF to protect your skin is a new avenue being explored. Pomegranates are thought to offer amazing sun protecting abilities (maybe thats why they grow in sunny regions around our globe). Other foods that offer sun protection include: green tea, fish oil Vitamin C, E and beat-carotene. These NATURAL anti-oxidants offer natural protection but also reduce inflammation and wrinkles and BRIGHTEN the skin.

Modern skincare now includes an essential new step in your beauty regimen that nestles right in between cleansing and moisturizing.

Vital ingredients that rejuvenate your skins health are found in today’s revolutionary skin care products called serums. These special treatment products provide a boost of anti-ageing ingredients that are quickly absorbed by your skin. They are designed to deliver a high concentration of active ingredients, such as Vitamin C, hyaluronic acid (plumps skin), antioxidants and hydrating vitamins.

Does your skin need a boost of anti-ageing ingredients?

In Europe, skincare serums first became popular back in the 80‘s, but our new skincare revolution has introduced both new ingredients and delivery into the skin for maximum results. Serums provide an extra layer of protection to the skin from UV damage and free-radical generation, both of which we know are ageing factors. High amounts of active ingredients really can help improve certain skincare concerns: Vitamin C for pigmentation and to increase collagen production, antioxidants to counteract environmental stress and damage and ATP to reverse cellular ageing.

Key ingredients:

• Retinol & Vitamin C are powerful regenerative active ingredients, Retinol stimulates cellular functions to renew the epidermis. Vitamin C promotes the synthesis of elastic fibers by creating a new natural support tissue.
• Dimethicone reinforces the hydrolipidic film (moisture level) and protects the skins surface.
• Vitamin E is renowned for its ability to neutralize free radicals.
• Hyaluronic Acid which holds up to 300 times its weight in water, rehydrates the cells to leave skin soft and plump.
• ATP is a new high tech ingredient, a biological molecule that is filled with energy to stimulate the activity of skin cells which have become lethargic over time.

I recommend a serum as part of your daily routine, not just for the winter months, they are an investment for the health, rejuvenation and youth of your skin.

Your Beauty Prescription:

Cleanse, Tone, Eye Cream, SERUM, Day Cream and SPF/ Night Cream

Ask your beauty expert for a serum that suits your skin care concerns.

Beauty in Paris

Oh! la La! What beauty means for the Parisienne Woman

Classic Parisienne beauty comes without fuss: their fresh youthful skin adorned with very little make-up glows with austere beauty. A touch of blush, mascara and a lip color are as much as French women will apply. Skincare rituals have been part of their daily lives since they were young, instilled by their mothers and grandmothers.

Frenchwomen love to invest in their skincare and beauty products. With simplicity, and regularly visits to her beauty therapist for facials she knows will maintain her dewy fresh complexion today, but also for many, many years to come. Facials are not deemed a luxury by Frenchwomen, they are considered essential, to keep that clear, natural and youthful complexion.

Did you know that Guinot has 1,680 spas in France, and is THE undisputed leader with over fifty percent of the professional skincare market? Guinot also has an award wining lab in France, and ensures verification, monitoring and traceability of all products. This is one of the many reasons that I have worked with Guinot since the early eighties.

Here are a few ways to bring out that inner Parisienne woman in you:

French women take of themselves first, and are more aware of their elegance and femininity. Take care of YOU, then it’s so much easier to take care of others, honestly! Just ask a French woman.

Wash your skin twice a day, and avoid soap, always. French women prefer cleansing lotions, hydrating creams for the face and body and would NEVER go to bed with make-up on. Never.

Famous for their slender appearance the French woman’s diet is always fresh. Fruits and vegetables in small portions, processed foods have no place on their dinner plates.

Exercise: why? When you can go to a spa instead. (love this one!)

The top 5 beauty foods this autumn

Autumn brings a gloriously rich array of color to our lives; ruby red, golden orange and warm earthy browns and yellows are everywhere you look. Mother nature truly spoils us with all these amazing colorful foods, each color in your basket of fresh produce represents the different vitamins and minerals that are essential for youthful skin.

Here are the Top 5 colorful autumn foods to add to your youth recovery program, packed with nutrients essential to maintain a glowing radiant complexion:

1. Pomegranates

Known as ‘the fruit from heaven’ in its place of origin - ancient Persia, this extraordinary fruit has been extensively used as a source of traditional health and beauty remedies. Herbalist James Duke recently published a study where he concluded that a pomegranate is “one of the most promising of health foods” with “a dozen known anti-inflammatory phytochemicals and some 3 dozen antioxidants”

Q: Can you guess how many little ruby red seeds there are inside an average pomegranate?

SKIN HEALTH: Pomegranate seeds provide powerful antioxidant benefits that fight free radicals that ravage and age the skin. Application of pomegranate oil on the skin can also help significantly reduce the incidence of skin cancer, promote cell regeneration of the epidermis (outermost layer of skin), and reduce pigmentation from sun exposure.

There are an average of 613 pomegranate seeds in an average pomegranate.

2. Cranberries

Can I encourage you to think of them as more than just a traditional holiday side dish? These little red berries are a rich source of vitamin C and dietary fiber and are packed with healthy antioxidants.

SKIN HEALTH: Cranberries are high in antioxidants (essential for an anti-inflammatory response). One of the reasons inflammation occurs in the skin is from a rapid rise in blood sugar, which causes biochemical changes in skin cells, the result of which is accelerated aging. Vitamin C is anti-free radical and an antioxidant, and stimulates the production of collagen and reduces surface pigmentation

3. Red and Black grapes

Grapes contain phytochemicals, specifically resveratrol, one of the most potent anti-oxidants. A diet rich in phytochemicals (plant compounds that affect health) and antioxidants are essential for our well-being and to keep the skin youthful and radiant.

Q: Why are antioxidants so important to your youth recovery program? Simply, because they help prevent free radical damage, free radicals are ‘toxic’ and cause skin cells to mutate and slow down cellular growth. Vitamin E is anti-free radical, antioxidant and re-hydrates the skin.

4. Blackberries and Raspberries

Late harvest berries are known as the ‘super’ fruits, blackberries, raspberries and wild blueberries are packed with antioxidants specifically the polyphenolic compound ellagic acid which helps prevent collagen destruction.

SKIN HEALTH: Blackberries and Raspberries are among the most protective nutrients you can feed your body and skin. Simply think of them as an anti-wrinkle fruit.

5. Root vegetables

A basket full of dark colorful root vegetables; beets, squash, tomatoes, broccoli and immune-boosting mushrooms, provide an array of nutrients that are essential for overall health. Deep red beets protect against carcinogens, tomatoes contain the powerful antioxidant lycopene and broccoli is a great source of vitamin k and calcium.

SKIN HEALTH: Root vegetables are effective in regulating blood sugar levels, steaming, baking or eating them preserves their nutrition value and will effect your skins health and appearance.

Guinot-Paris has incorporated an abundance of essential vitamins into the youth recovery treatment Age Logic Cellulaire. Vitamins C and E offer increased antioxidant capabilities for collagen and elastin (dermal proteins) production. Guinot uses other key natural ingredients; AHA, vegetal extracts, essential oils, vitamin C, hydroliposomes, as well as DNA and collagen from marine sources.

Sweet surrender

One of the most popular questions I am asked in the spa is which foods are the ‘enemy’ for the health and appearance of your fragile skin. The skin is your bodies largest organ, and will readily reflect a healthy and balanced lifestyle: eating a nutrition-rich diet, getting plenty of sleep (eight hours), regular exercise and keeping stress to a minimum.

The foods you eat fuel the regeneration of your skin cells, which renew themselves every twenty-eight days. Your skin reflects the nutritional quality of your diet (a diet deficient in Omega-3 fatty acids is more likely to make you appear older than your age).

For a radiant complexion during the holiday season be strong and stay away from those sweet temptations that will leave your skin a little less youthful.

Too much sugar (refined sugar especially) and high-glycemic foods cause unnecessary wrinkles due to a process known as ‘glycation’ (where sugar molecules attach and bind themselves to collagen and elastin proteins). The skins collagen is the first to be affected by the glycation process, reducing the collagen fibers ability to regenerate, thus leading to wrinkles, creping and sagging that characterize skin ageing.

The glycation process degrades type III collagen (the strongest, plumpest kind that we have), leaving only type I, the final stage of a collagen cell’s life. Advanced glycation end products (AEG’s) are harmful molecules that cause inflammation and effect every cell in your body, known to be major factors in ageing as well as age related chronic diseases.

Blueberries enhance skin renewal

Cosmetics and foods rich in Vitamin C help to overcome skin glycation, leaving you with firmer and more youthful features. Blueberries possess supercharged antioxidant and anti-inflammatory powers and are packed with phytonutrients called anthocyanins (responsible for their deep color). Recent scientific studies have revealed that these anthocyanins naturally avert glycation-induced damage by stabilizing the collagen matrix.

Research also suggests that topical nutrients - blueberries, pomegranate, vitamin C, tea blends, and hyaluronic acid, help to protect against the damaging effects of glycation and oxidative stress on the skin.

I know it’s a challenge (but not impossible) to give up your favorite sweet treats, try replacing rice, pasta and bread with a whole-grain equivalent (brown rice, quinoa) and keep a bag of seeds (organic sunflower, pumpkin) nuts (almonds, brazil) or pre-sliced fruit at hand for a quick healthy snack - for the sake of your skin.

Party Season Preparations

With the party season looming here are some skincare tips to boost your skins radiance in just a few weeks:

This time of the year we encounter a variety of new concerns with our skin, 59% of women comment that their skin is dehydrated and dry during the cooler winter months. Face, body, lips and hands become flaky, chapped and appear dull due to fluctuations in our environments (warm heating inside, cool and ‘crisp’ outside).

There are two areas to address: your home-care regimen and spa treatment choices. Together with your beauty therapist you can have a productive winter-radiance regimen, so that your skin is silky soft and beautiful, from head-to-toe.

HOME-CARE

1. Start at the beginning, by choosing a milky cleanser (a foaming wash is fine for summer) to soothe and hydrate the skin as it removes the days impurities. Massage the face and neck for 2 minutes with gentle circular motions. Rinse with tepid water (hot water ages the skin), and then wipe up and out over the skin with a cotton pad soaked with a moisturizing toning lotion (skipping your toner is like only half-rinsing your laundry) to leave your skin clean and comfortable.
2. Exfoliate. Removing dry surface skin cells will reveal smooth skin, the ultimate boost to your skins appearance. Choose a product that is not aggressive (even natural ingredients can scratch and weaken the skin), I recommend using a cream that rolls off dead skin cells. Modern ingredients; fruit enzymes, fruit acids, gylcolic and retinol based products, offer great results to renew the skin and leave it fresh and radiant.
3. If there was ONE product that you should buy this season, it is Guinot’s Radiance Mask Essentiel. Why? It is pure bliss for your skin in the winter due to Primrose oil (rich in vitamins and anti-free radicals, to regenerate skin from the inside); jojoba oil (repairs the hydrolipidic film to protect and moisturize), essential oils of thyme, rosemary, and lavender (provide skin with a new energy and vitality). Result: instant healthy radiant complexion. In my 30 years of beauty therapy I have yet to find another mask that is more effective, I love it before a big night-out and always use it after flying. Skin heaven!
4. Nourish and protect your skin from dehydration and protect against external aggressions, free-radicals and ageing with a daily intensive moisturizer that enriches the skin with the precious nutrients it needs for suppleness and softness and a more youthful complexion.
5. You can wake-up in the morning with a refreshed complexion. Whilst you are dreaming, NEW modern skin care treatments applied before bed can stimulate your skins function and reverse the skins logic of ageing. Revolutionary night creams recreate the cellular life of dormant skin, compensating your skins deficiencies to slow the ageing process.

AT THE SPA

1. The ULTIMATE facial for the pre-party season is a micro-current facial toning treatment that will address your concerns with lack of muscle tone, fatigue, stress and ‘birthday’s’. Visible results form the first treatment thanks to the rejuvenating benefits of a facial workout to lift and tone your features, see sharper cheekbones, glowing skin and reduced puffiness.
2. Entrusting your skin and skincare regimen to a professional is a productive step in your skins health, Beauty Therapists are your beauty equivalent of a personal trainer and spa facials your beauty checkup. A thorough dermal analysis and consultation will help address your concerns along with custom-designed
3. Hands, feet and back are often on show during the holidays. A back facial tailored to your skins needs boosts circulation, giving you silky glowing skin. A spa hand and foot facial is more than a mani-pedi, opt for a paraffin wrap to soothe your aching joints, nourish the cuticles and leave the skin smooth and soft.
4. Even the most un-metro of men can’t resist a touch of beauty therapy. Brow grooming (and ears), deep cleansing, exfoliating peels, facial massage to release tension combine to leave your man refreshed and polished. No shaving before a facial, wait until after a spa treatment then the shave is closer than close.
5. Brighten the skin with a renewing facial. Renewing the skin with fruit enzymes and fruit acids via a Double Peeling Treatment that exfoliates, resurfaces, moisturizes, and renews your skin with glycolic, citric, malic, and tartaric acids. These natural elements combine to leave your skin healthy clear and bright.

Together we are beautiful.

Merci!

Sarah

Your Beauty Concerns

The first signs of ageing

In our thirties we begin to see the first signs of ageing: pigmentation, crow’s feet and maybe even a few non-pigmented hairs. Fortunately there are new modern spa treatments and products that can make all the difference to help slow down mother nature’s ticking clock.

EYES

Concern: Crow’s Feet are the first area that we notice signs of ageing (according to 84% of women) due to the skin around the eyes being so fragile and thin. With less collagen and elastin the suns ageing rays cause the first signs of ageing around the delicate eye contour.

Therapy: Gentle eye care, using eye cream twice a day, an eye mask and only using an eye make-up remover to remove eye make-up, applied with your ‘ring’ finger pads. Modern eye cream ingredients repair fine lines, stimulate cell renewal, increase collagen production and contain anti-oxidants to neutralize the damaging free-radicals. Remember to wear sunglasses (squinting creases the skin) and apply sunscreen daily to protect as part of your anti-ageing eye care.

SPA Treatment: Firming Eye treatment

Concern: Dark circles under the eyes are the result of slow circulation and the tiny capillaries that crisscross in layers beneath this thin skin thus creating a dark hue.

Therapy: Stimulate the circulation to flush away the purplish hue of stagnant capillaries and reduce the puffiness of slow-draining lymph drainage. Apply decongesting eye gel, try cool eye compresses (cold used tea bags) and gentle circular motions when applying eye cream.

SPA Treatment: Eye treatment with lymph drainage massage

Concern: Red/blue veins (telangiectasia) that appear on the face are a result of expanded blood capillaries that have squeezed through to the skins surface and leave a reddish appearance. They occur in about 25% of women.

Therapy: A dermatologist can treat the area with the IPL laser. For less invasive treatments, Europeans have used Horse Chestnut extract, the seeds' active compounds appear to inhibit enzymes that can damage the capillary walls, and thus help strengthen the capillaries. Guinot’s new Crème Red Logic promotes microcirculation through a proprietary Guinot complex called Veinoderm, which contains anti-redness Arnica Extract and toning Esculoside. Veinoderm to help erase and diffuse redness. White spots appear on areas where melanin producing cells have been destroyed by sunlight.

A final note: Dietary choices effect the health and appearance of the skin, an anti-inflammatory diet (such as the one highlighted by Dr Weil) can significantly help reduce redness and inflammation in the skin and restore a natural radiant complexion.