Avoid harsh astringents and toners: Both astringents and toners can contain high amounts of alcohol. Alcohol is drying, so on top of winter (with naturally drying air) your skin can suffer.  Instead of conventional toners try a non-alcohol based homemade facial toner, buy a non-alcohol toner, or simply wash your face with a gentle non-drying organic or natural soap once a day.

Scrub naturally: To sooth dry skin and get a silky smooth feel try a facial scrub made with simple ground oatmeal and strawberries – which will exfoliate without drying your skin if you don’t want to grind oats in your blender try my favorite natural facial grains from Manor Hall. For your entire body try making a super awesome homemade organic sugar scrub or for an easy fix try Mango Body Scrub.

Ease winter lips: Lips are easily chapped during the winter. To avoid this take a dab of honey and a dab of white table sugar and gently use this to exfoliate your lips a few times a week. When you head outside make sure you slather on a good eco-friendly lip balm.

Get some moisture: Long baths and showers zap skin moisture, so avoid both. Keep a humidifier running in your bedroom at night – but keep it clean or it’ll breed mold and other icky stuff. Most of all, drink plenty of good ol’ H20. In the winter our water intake can go down, but that’s a great way to dry out your skin. Keep your reusable water bottle handy at all times. As for added moisture, use a thick cream vs. a lotion. There’s more moisture content in a cream vs. squirt-ready moisturizer. I like Yes To Carrots Deliciously Rich Body Butter, which includes Shea Butter, vitamins A and E, and zero parabens.

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Blisstree

Winterproof Your Skin Naturally

Today’s giveaway is for both the AminoGenesis Wrinkle Arrest and HealthDropz.

AminoGenesis, known best for their advanced amino acid skincare products, is introducing their newest creation, Wrinkle Arrest, which has earned the AAD SEAL OF RECOGNITION® from the American Academy of Dermatology for its sun-protection benefit.

Wrinkle Arrest is a new moisturizing day cream with SPF 18 and broad spectrum sun protection. Wrinkle Arrest contains the groundbreaking AminoGenesis DermaScyne formula which helps reduce the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, discoloration and other signs of aging. These precursors help support proteins like collagen and elastin as well as many other key proteins found in the skin. Price: $59

healthDropz Energy: The Kick Without the Can
Unlike other specialty beverages, healthDropz Energy is not a caffeine laden formula. Instead, the secret in these drops is small amounts of caffeine, the amino acid taurine and lots of B vitamins, especially B12.  The lack in vitamin B12 can cause people to be sluggish. Because healthDropz Energy is sugar-free, there is no potential for a sugar crash.

healthDropz Focus: A Difference in Minutes
healthDropz Focus is a fast-acting blend combining vitamin B6 with four scientifically tested, brain support nutrients, rhodiola rosea, DMAE, huperzine A (an extract from Chinese club moss) and citcoline. In as little as 10 minutes healthDropz Focus users have noted benefits. Unlike the Omega-3 brain supplements which have a fishy after-taste, healthDropz Focus adds no flavor to a glass of water.

healthDropz Green Tea: A Drop Full of Antioxidants
The active antioxidants of green tea are called polyphenols, the most powerful of which is ECGC (epigallocatechin gallate). Unfortunately, avid tea drinkers are constantly brewing pot after pot of green tea for the desired six cups a day. healthDropz Green Tea is an easy solution; providing a full cup of green tea polyphenols in just six drops.

All you need to do to enter the giveaway is write a quick comment and fill out the form below this post. One winner will be drawn at random after 5 days, so don’t delay! Enter only once to be eligible.

This giveaway is now closed. Congrats to the winner – Elizabeth.

Post from: Blisstree

Giveaway: Wrinkle Arrest

From the CHELLA website: “Replenishing hydrator for normal to dry skin A rich, hydrating peptide based day cream that revitalizes and protects the skin from UV damage and environmental assault. SPF 15 UV protection helps prevent premature aging and the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.”

So all of you hard-working moms out there, pamper yourself with CHELLA this Mother’s Day! It’s a gift to yourself that will last far beyond the month of May!

This giveaway is CLOSED.

Congrats to Jennifer W for winning!

Post from: Blisstree

Giveaway: CHELLA Anti-Aging

From the CHELLA website: “For all skin types This dual-action serum contains two new and innovative formulation concepts to our family of Chella products: the Hyalo Hydration and Tri Amino Complex. This combination moisturizes deep within the surface of the skin to plump it up and help smooth away fine lines and wrinkles while also working on the surface to maintain the skin’s natural hydration levels where it is needed most”

You work hard, so while your family appreciates you double-time this month, appreciate yourself by getting pampered by CHELLA!

This giveaway is CLOSED. Congratulations to the winner — Cyndi.

Congrats to Cindi for winning this fabulous prize!

Post from: Blisstree

Giveaway: CHELLA Skin Care

I have this skin condition called Melasma or Pregnancy Mask. It’s a condition that often develops during pregnancy or while taking birth control and it brings hyper-pigmentation to the skin, generally causing brown splotchiness. Some dermatologists say it’s caused by sun damage.

I wrote this cool little article on melasma last year called Can a Leopard Change Her Spots? That article has transformed into something I never expected – becoming a board where women from all over the world can share what they know about melasma with 500 comments. The ladies report on which products work to fade the melasma or which products or regimes, laser treatments they try which didn’t work. The participants save their fellow melasma sufferers some money and share their frustrated body image issues with each other.

It is to these sisters of mine that I want to talk to today.

“That’s not melasma,” my doctor recently told me. “That’s bronzing of the skin caused by too much iron in your liver, that’s a symptom of hemochromatosis. It should go away when we bleed you.”

“Really?” I asked.

“We’ll I can’t promise. It should. We’ll see.”

{{{{{Perception shift}}}}}

The symptom of my condition was staring me in the face every time I looked in the mirror – I missed it. My doctors missed it. We all knew I had it.

I have hemochromatosis. I’ve known I had hemochromatosis for 10 years. I’ve had hemochromatosis the whole time I’ve been treating my melasma that coincided with my pregnancy, which coincided with my not treating my hemochromatosis. My OB/GYN, the doctor I was seeing during pregnancy and right after, called my skin condition pregnancy mask (which is the layman’s term for melasma). The timing and symptom seemed right. He knew, of course, that I had hemochromatosis, but he did not know that a symptom of hemochromatosis looks very much like melasma. I haven’t seen my hemochromatosis specialist since before that pregnancy.

So here is what I want to say to my sisters out there who are treating their melasma, spending tons of time and money and emotional energy, and not seeing results – get tested for hemochromatosis.

You may have hemochromatosis. You may be treating the wrong condition. Your skin may be a symptom of something that may, in fact, be life threatening.

What is it?

Hemochromatosis is a mutation of the HFE gene. It’s an inherited disease. There’s nothing you can do to prevent it, nothing you do to cause it, and there is no cure. Around 8% of the population has this genetic condition.

By definition hemochromatosis is iron saturating the liver. Iron doesn’t leave the body properly in patients with hemochromatosis.

Iron is necessary for a healthy life, but too much of it sits in the liver and poisons it and other organs.

There is treatment.

The treatment is to remove blood from the body, giving blood.

They used to use leaches, now they use needles.

Untreated, hemochromatosis can be life threatening.

Women rarely find out they have hemochromatosis prior to menopause because they naturally rid themselves of just enough iron to mask the disease through menstruation, pregnancy, birth and lactation. That’s also the reason I hadn’t been to the doctor in a while – my body was using gestation, birth and lactation to rid itself of iron. Now the baby is over 2 and it’s time to start being bled again.

If you do not discover you have hemochromatosis and it goes untreated there is a high risk of liver disease, heart disease, diabetes, and others.

If you find out you have it early enough and it is properly treated, those who have hemochromatosis will live a long and healthy life.

I found out I had it in my 20’s. I am lucky. I found out in such a lucky way, after being misdiagnosed with both depression and mononucleosis. My doctor was trying to get me to up my anti-depressants.

“I am not depressed, I’ve got a great job and I’m happy about my life. I just can’t stop sleeping. I am so tired I could sleep 20 hours a day,” I told him. “Maybe I’m anemic, I read about exhaustion from anemia in a magazine,” I told him.

“If you rub real gold on your arm and it makes a black mark it means you’re anemic,” I explained as I showed him the black marks from my ring.

“That’s an old wive’s tale,” he said.

“Let’s bet on it. Test my iron levels. I bet I’m anemic,” I challenged.

The quirky bet with my doctor saved my life. I was not right. I was not anemic. But, I somehow, someway – by a miracle really – had asked for the right test after reading an article and illustrating an old wives tale. The test I requested showed dangerously elevated Iron & Ferritin levels. My liver biopsy tested positive for hemochromatosis.

This could be your quirky moment and this quirky moment could save your life (and treat your skin condition).

If you have melasma that doesn’t seem to respond to treatment, please, get a test for hemochromatosis. What you have previously seen as an emotionally frustrating skin condition – could shift into the symptom that points to a diagnosis that saves your life.

Wouldn’t that be a miracle – a shift in perception?

The best way to find out if you have hemochromatosis is to test for the HFE gene. You can ask your doctor to order this lab test if you have great insurance.

The American Hemochromatosis Society website recommends finding out you have this at home, without involving your insurance company. This is a serious diagnosis that could adversely affect your future insurability, they warn.

You can do the lab test from your home through a company like HealthCheckUSA. Just take a sample of your own cheek with a swab and send the results in to find out if you have hemochromatosis. It costs around $200.

If you have hemochromatosis you’ll need to find out your Iron and Ferretin levels with another lab test, Iron Profile, for around $50.

If your lab results come back with dangerously elevated Iron and Ferritin levels you’ll need to be monitored by a doctor and undergo more tests to make sure your vital organs are undamaged.

Post from: Blisstree

Miracle Skin – A Perception Shift

When I was pregnant with Ainsley my lovely, clean, smooth skin turned into a gigantic, painful zit. On my face, neck, chest, stomach, back, butt, thighs I had terrible, painful, ugly cystic acne. I was going to some stupid midwife who said the less medication I used the better. It was so bad I got a facial and I could tell the lady was simply disgusted by my skin. It was humiliating. I figured it would go away after the pregnancy. Wrong.

Finally, I asked my regular internist for something and he gave me Benzaclin. It’s a topical gel or cream with benzoyl peroxide and clindamycin, a topical antibiotic. It worked and if you follow the link the company will give you a $15 rebate on your prescription.

My current OB/GYN, not a crazy no-medicine-allowed midwife, said Benzaclin was perfectly safe to use during pregnancy and breast feeding so I was spared the trauma of turning into a gigantic freaking zit this time around.

I’ve run out of my prescription though and am using a salicylic acid toner, salicylic acid apricot scrub face wash, Noxema Deep Cleansing Cream and a Burt’s Bees Parsley Blemish Stick. Add to that I’m spending WAY too much money on moisturizer cause I bought the new Olay Definity, which is like $30, to repair 10 layers of damage including the brown spots and acne scars. If it helps it hasn’t worked as quickly as I would like. But, we shall see.  You can get a $3 coupon on the Olay website.

I’m making an appointment with a dermatologist for heaven’s sake. I have insurance. I’ve spent entirely too much time and money trying creams and potions that may or may not even work.

Post from: Blisstree

Zittier Than An Adolescent