ms.chief kamikaze

As an esthetician, beauty and well-being is not only my passion, it’s my chosen profession.  My love of skin care and make-up has always made me an advocate for self-maintenance, not only for aesthetic reasons, but for health reasons as well. “Health before beauty” I always say, and it’s a motto I live by.  With that said, this post isn’t so much about vanity as it as about taking care of yourself.

The skin is an indicator of your state of health..did you know that? A trained eye can tell certain things about you just by looking at the state of you skin (and make-up may mask it but it will not fix it).

Chronic puffy eyes?  You may need to lower your sodium & alcohol intake..alcohol bloats your face, salt makes you retain water.  The 2 combined are an ugly cocktail. Severe puffiness? Opt for a facial w/a concentration on lymphatic drain massage. Get that fluid out of there!

(TIP: for a quick fix on-the-go start lightly tapping the inner corner of the eyes- by the bridge of the nose- and keep tapping lightly towards the outter corner of the eye -by the temple- repeat 3 or 4 times to help drain the eye of the excess fluid) 

Dark circles under eyes? YOU NEED TO GET MORE SLEEP! The darkness is caused by blood coagulated in the area. It may also be a sign of a vitamin K deficiency…step up your vitamin K consumption. A lot of times the dark circles are hereditary, if that’s not the case, still step up your vita-K game and there are many treatments out there to help reduce the darkness.

Dehydrated skin? Is it dull? Do you have that “glow”? that may be a sign that you need to drink more water..and if your skin is showing dehydration guess how your internal organs must feel?  Drink up! It’s the elixir of life. I can’t emphasize that enough ..and if you like having cocktails frequently, guess what? Drink even more h20.. Alcohol is diuretic. This means it encourages the body to lose more water than it takes on by halting the production of the body’s anti-diuretic hormone, resulting in you needing to go to the toilet excessively and so speeding up the loss of fluid from your body, leading to dehydration. Caffeine is also a diuretic so the same rules apply to all you coffee lovers…up your ante.

As for aging?

If you’re a woman, it doesn’t hit you until you see your first wrinkle or fine line. The visible signs of aging. The tell-tale sign of all those late nights partying and sunny days at the beach, a mark you should wear with honor..right? lol. Negative.

Here are a few things you should know about wrinkles:

Dermatologist Ellen Marmur advises that in your 20’s skin should largely be wrinkle-free. “If you have wrinkles before your age 30, you’ve had too much sun, period.” Sun damage (caused by UVA rays) account for as much of a staggering 90% of aging.

Sunscreen cannot be emphasized enough. Summer, fall, spring and winter; it should be used  every day,  rain or shine, hell or high-water. Photo damage can usually be corrected by peels and treatments but the loss of collagen caused by sun-bathing cannot be replaced and surgery is the only lasting option.

As a side note, and as a true Miamian, I’m not saying to not go out and worship some sun..sun is healthy in small doses, HOWEVER, I am saying that before you get happy with the Hawaiian Oil, slather yourself in sunscreen of SPF 30 + a good 25 minutes before sun exposure and reapply often and frequently (especially after sweating or swimming). Don’t forget those hands, neck and décolleté!   Those areas need special attention too because, aside from you face, the skin in those areas are very thin and sensitive to sun damage.

As for tanning beds??? I have never met one in my life but lets just say this…as per an article in Glamour Magazine , Using a tanning bed just once before age 30 increases a woman’s risk of melanoma by 75%…hear that? 75%!

Tanning beds are so dangerous you can call them deadly, even. The FDA is in the talks of banning them altogether because of the high risk of cancer they cause…think about it..Sun damage has a culminative effect, meaning  that it builds up with the years (in never leaves your system..kinda like mercury). So a  bad sunburn or years of sun-damage won’t show up until your late 30’s-40’s + ..do you really want to risk losing your family, health and life due to some tan you wanted to maintain in college?

And if you’re over the age of 25 and still use tanning beds?..might as well pick up smoking (if you already don’t) and snort some asbestos and get the cancer thing in motion…because, well, its just that stupid.

I know that when you’re really young and/or really busy with work, school, kids and life in general, these things don’t seem to take very much priority, but as the old adage says; “You don’t know what you’ve got until its gone” reigns true in this area. Don’t ever be too busy that you let yourself go. Growing older is inevitable, but aging is optional. Keep your health and your beauty alive. I’m no talking radical surgury or toxin injections, I’m talking aging gracefully…if you take care of yourself today, those things may no be required tomorrow.

Don’t believe me?

This is Bernadette Peters…how old would you guesstamate her? 40s?..50s?

Try 62. She’s a beautiful 62 years old.

Judging by her fair skin tone and lack of sun damage, she doesnt seem to have been much of a tan junkie..

Brigette Bardot on the other hand…

A stunning beauty in her day, with a well known love of tanning hasnt aged as gracefully.

Stay gawgeous, loves and lovers <3