Another
kitchen fav post! This time it's about my love for cinnamon and honey
paste. I use this paste any time I have any kind of breakout including
cysts and it works like a charm! Check out some of the great skin
benefits of honey and cinnamon:
Honey
Humectant
Antioxidant
Antibacterial
Soothing
Cinnamon
Antibacterial
Anti-inflammatory
Astringent
Stimulant
I swear by this stuff and hope you'll try it if you haven't and enjoy it as much as I do! You can also use this mixture as a face mask but be careful if you have sensitive skin or severe acne as the exfoliant effect from the cinnamon could aggravate your skin. Check out the video above to see how I use the paste.
CVS/pharmacy presents Nuance Salma Hayek: An Introduction
So I'm pretty late in discovering Salma Hayek's NUANCE beauty line but hey, it's better late than never eh? Nuance, which was created by Salma Hayek with CVS in 2011 offers a wide range of beauty products from eye make-up remover to body scrub. The idea behind the brand is to offer great quality products at pocket friendly prices. Unfortunately the line is still not available in the UK so I'll just have to keep lusting over the products until something is done to make NUANCE Salma Hayek available to UK customers! Here are just a few of the products that caught me eye:
As I mentioned in my last post I've never worried about anti-aging gimicks before until the whole sleep line thing started to make me slightly obsessive! I've seen pretty good reviews about this and would really like to try it. This is what CVS says about it: "Nuance Salma Hayek Anti-Aging Wrinkle Filler Eye Serum is a rollerball with acacia senegal gum & vitamin C. Instantly improves the appearance of skin firmness, while diminishing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Acacia senegal gum helps tone, tighten and firm the delicate skin around the eye area for a more youthful-looking appearance. Vitamin C helps revitalize the skin. Lumisphere, an instant skin brightener, gives the skin a healthy-looking glow. Clinically tested. Dermatologist tested. Fragrance free. Paraben free. Not tested on animals."
Nuance Salma Hayek Wild Lime Exfoliating Facial Gel
This sounds like a treat to use! Packed with natural ingredients it contains fruit acids to gently exfoliate the skin so should help with annoying skin complaints like blackheads and whiteheads (not to be confused with pustules!). What CVS says: "Nuance Salma Hayek Wild Lime Exfoliating Facial Gel is made with fruit acids, neem leaf extract & green tea. Gentle enzyme exfoliation enhances tone and texture for a smooth, radiant complexion. Wild Lime fruit blend, rich in vitamins, minerals and amino acids, helps restore skin''s balance. Fruit acids gently exfoliate to enhance skin tone and texture. Neem Leaf Extract''s cleansing properties help maintain a smooth, clear complexion. Mushroom extract promotes gentle exfoliation for a brighter, even skin tone. Green tea helps retain skin''s youthful glow. Dermatologist tested. Paraben free. Non-irritating. Not tested on animals. Allergy tested."
Nuance Selma Hayek Passion Fruit Nourishing Body Cleansing Cream
This must smell gorgeous! I imagine it must feel lovely and luxurious to use. CVS says: "With acai, shea butter & rice bran oil. Moisture rich lather helps condition and soothe for soft, silky skin. Passion fruit, acai & rice bran oil help moisturize and strengthen, and restore skin's vitality. Shea butter helps smooth and soften skin for a healthy-looking glow. Non-irritating. Paraben free. Allergy free. Not tested on animals."
I imagine this scrub smells just as gorgeous as the Passion Fruit Nourishing Body Cleansing Cream probably smells! With walnut shell powder, açaí, annato seed and rice bran oil in the ingredients this body scrub must leave your skin feeling amazing after using it! CVS says: "With acai, annatto seed & rice bran oil. Rich exfoliation designed to smooth skin's texture and add moisture. Walnut Body Scrub. Crushed walnut shells help remove dead skin cells, leaving skin clean and smooth. Acai & passion flower seed oils soften, nourish and help retain moisture. Annatto seed & rice bran oils condition, soothe and calm dry, itchy skin. Caffeine helps firm and tone skin. Non-irritating. Paraben free. Allergy tested. Not tested on animals."
Nuance Salma Hayek Raw Honey Color Protect shampoo
OK, so I don't have coloured hair but anything with honey in it automatically grabs my attention! I love honey, it's AMAZING. This shampoo also contains soy protein for manageability which is a plus for dried out hair. CVS says: "With soy protein, cornflower extract & acai moisture complex. Rich moisture and nutrient protection for strong, healthy-looking hair. Honey helps condition hair for intense moisture and shine. Soy protein helps add body and manageability. Cornflower extract helps enhance color-treated hair. Acai, passion fruit & rice bran oil help prevent split ends and dryness for soft, silky hair. Paraben free. Not tested on animals."
With evening primrose oil and shea butter goodness along with lots of other natural moisturisers such as beeswax and jojoba oil this must be a real treat for the lips while providing a bit of colour at the same time. Could it be a match to the Korres lip butters?CVS says: "Nuance Salma Hayek Hydrating Balm Rose Petal is made with evening primrose & shea butter. Rose Petal Hydrating Balm Evening Primrose, rich in essential fatty acids, helps condition skin and ease irritation. Shea Butter helps provide long-lasting nourishment for soft, smooth skin. Paraben free. Not tested on animals.
Beauty Secret: For centuries, Native Americans extracted the oil from the Evening Primrose wildflower to help heal skin all over the body. The first American settlers shipped the oil back to their native England to share its abilities to soothe dry skin. Made in Taiwan, ROC."
Ingredients: Medica Limonum (Lemon) Peel Extract, Carum Petroselinum (Parsley) Extract, Calendula Officinalis Flower Extract, Althaea Officinalis Root Extract, Beeswax, Centaurea Cyanus Flower Extract, Oenothera Biennis (Evening Primrose) Oil, Tocopherol, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Sodium Hydroxystearate. May Contain: Mica, CI 77891 (Titanium Dioxide), CI 77491,77492,77499 (Iron Oxides), CI 15850 (Red 6, Red 6 Lake, Red 7 Lake), CI 17200 (Red 33 Lake), CI 19140 (Yellow 5 Lake), CI 15985 (Yellow 6 Lake), CI 47005 (Yellow 10 Lake), CI77861 (Tin Oxide).
These are just a few of the products I'd like to try, everything else in the NUANCE Salma Hayek line looks just as inviting! The line also has make-up for the eyes, lips and face including primer, tinted moisturiser, eyeshadow quads, a nifty three in one "creamy eyeshadow, shimmery highlighter and eyeliner" product and so on. As I mentioned above none of the products are available in the UK as of yet so hopefully they're working on that and the line will be available at some point at a UK supplier. Do correct me if I'm wrong! What do you think of the products I've mentioned? Have you tried any NUANCE Salma Hayek products?
This post is going to about a technique I use in my skin care routine to get amazingly soft and deeply cleansed skin. You'll feel like you've had some sort of top notch facial treatment at some top notch spa once you've tried this technique. Yes, really! So what am I raving about? The oil cleansing method baby! (OCM for short). This method works for all skin types including oily and acne prone like mine. So how does it work? Well, you massage your dry skin with your chosen oil mixture and then remove the oil with a damp hot washcloth while applying pressure so as to exfoliate your skin while you remove the oil. You remove the oil from you face as many times as you feel necessary wetting the washcloth with hot water (as hot as you can handle without burning yourself) and ringing out the water to leave the washcloth damp and not too wet each time you use the flannel on your face. It's as simple as that but it is so effective. It's the same principle as the Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish system and the Eve Lom cleanser. I actually tried the Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish as it looked amazing the many times I saw her promoting it on QVC but unfortunately it didn't work for me. It didn't improve the appearance of my skin in any way, in fact it made the acne I was suffering from at the time slightly worse. I realised why later - it has cocoa butter in the ingredients! The Eve Lom cleanser also has cocoa butter in it's ingredients so I didn't even want to go there. I was disappointed because I was really looking forward to the Cleanse & Polish system working for me as I had heard so many great reviews about it. But everyone's skin it is different. Mel at Wall of Mirrors did a review of Cleanse & Polish and she got on great with it. I think it is better suited to people who do not have acne prone skin. Both of these cleansers are used with a muslin cloth rather than a washcloth/flannel.
I haven't tried any of these but seeing as I'm quite the cosmetics junkie I'll probably want to give them ago as soon as I get get my hands them! (Except the Carrot Butter - it's got coconut oil and cocoa butter in it)
However, these options tend to be a bit on the pricey side. You do not need any of these products to get the great results the OCM offers at home with your own oil concoction. Plus, the great thing about the OCM is the oil mixture you chose to use will be 100% natural and pure meaning no ingredients used to bulk up / fill out the product such as mineral oil. To begin with, the base oil you can use is castor oil. Castor oil helps to absorb the excess sebum on your skin so the oilier your skin the more castor oil you will use and the drier your skin the less castor oil you will use. Your main oil as an example could be something like jojoba oil. So, someone with oily skin can mix 1 part castor oil and 1 part jojoba oil while someone with dry skin may mix 1 part castor oil to two or three parts jojoba oil.
You do not have to use castor oil and jojoba oil. I'm merely mentioning these as examples. That's the beauty of the OCM. You tailor the mixture to however you think best suits your skin. At the moment I am using just plain sunflower oil without castor oil as a base. I chose sunflower oil as it's non-comedogenic and contains high levels of vitamin E. So choose an oil that you think works well for you. It might be jojoba oil for it's lightness, olive oil for it's moisturising properties or grape seed oil for it's vitamin C and vitamin E content etc. There are various oils to chose from. I don't use olive oil as it breaks me out. Sunflower is my favourite so far. Definitely do not use coconut oil!! It is highly comedogenic, I found this out the hard way! Though if you do try it you may find you like it and doesn't cause you to break out. Everyone is different. But I definitely do not recommend it. The Sage Advice website has an extensive list of commonly used cosmetic ingredients (which includes some natural oils like castor oil and olive oil) and their comedogenic levels and SavvyHomemade lists oils and their benefits so take a peek to see which oil may work well with your skin. If you cannot find the comedogenic level of your chosen oil on Sage Advice then just do a quick search on your preferred search engine.
To tailor the mixture even more to your skin you can add essential oils. For my acne prone skin I use tea tree oil and lavender oil (about 10 drops of each essential with 100ml of the main oil). I also like to use rosemary oil for it's revitalising properties. There are so many options available to meet whatever requirements you have such as fennel essential oil for toxin removal, melissa essential oil for eczema and sandalwood essential oil for dry skin. The AromaWeb website has an extensive list of essential oils and their benefits, check it out to see which essential oils appeal to you.
So once you've mixed up all your choices you are ready to get the cleanest and softest skin ever! I recommend using a pump bottle for your mixture. It's extremely practical. My OCM routine is as follows:
I briefly shake my pump bottle to make sure all the oils are blended, then I massage my face with about 2-3 pumps of the oils for about 10 seconds to loosen all the oil and dirt on my skin.
I wet my flannel/washcloth with water as hot as I can handle without burning my skin and ring the water out leaving the washcloth damp. I then place the washcloth on my face for a few seconds to help expand my pores a bit, after this I begin to to remove the oil from my skin applying firm pressure.
I repeat the second step as many times as I feel I need to remove all the oil from my skin which is usually about another two times.
Last but not least I splash my face with cold water.
An important point to remember is that you should change and wash (hot water cycle) your washcloth frequently so as not to spread bacteria.
Easy peasy right? Definitely give it a go if you want to try a cleansing technique that gives you a deep clean, good exfoliation and is very moisturising at the same time. I love the OCM and I don't know what I did without it! It's the perfect makeup remover as it gets every last bit of makeup off and it helps keep your skin clear due to how deeply it cleanses and exfoliates your skin so no old sebum and dirt getting lodged in your pores, or at least a good amount of old sebum and dirt. I use the OCM about 2-3 times a week, no more.
The beauty of the OCM is that it easily moisturises your skin very well so you do not need to use a moisturiser after you've cleansed your skin. It works for both oily skin and dry skin because while it removes all dirt and excess oil it does not strip your skin. Therefore your skin doesn't feel tight or uncomfortable once cleansed causing your skin not to over produce sebum. All in all, I hiiighly recommend the OCM!
