Health Bit - What Avocado & Pears Mean to Women

Health Tip of the day:

What immediately comes to mind when you look at an avocado or a pear? Think deeper and look harder: you might see a resemblance of the human female womb and cervix (picture an upturned pear or avocado and compare them to the female reproductive anatomy in your biology textbook).

Reproductive organs of the human female

Avocados

A Pear

Coincidentally (or perhaps it was God's clue to us mortal beings), avocados and pears are very good fruits that specifically target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female. The latest research shows that when a woman eats one avocado a week, it balances hormones, shed unwanted birth weight and prevents cancers.

There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each of these fruits, of which modern science have only studied and named about 141 of these. So start munching on 'em avocados and pears for a healthier womb and cervix today! ^.^

The Dos and Don’ts of Using a Physical Exfoliant

So how is a physical exfoliant used? An exfoliant is used almost the same way as a cleanser, by wetting your skin before gently rubbing your skin with the exfoliant in circular motion, taking precaution not to be too overzealous.

Scrubbing too hard or too frequently will not do your skin any good contrary to what most people believe – it will only cause your face to be scrubbed raw. There are many cases of women (or men) getting red and irritated skin because of this.

Make this your mantra: too much of a good thing is bad for you. This applies very well for scrubs and polishes.

The eye area should be avoided while exfoliating. After that, the face is rinsed with preferably warm water and a moisturizer should be applied especially if a pulling sensation is felt on the skin.

The general rule is to use a body exfoliant for the body only, and not the face as usually body exfoliants are harsher, consisting of larger and sharper particles that might injure your cells.

A note to mention on the frequency of using a scrub – it should not be used as an everyday routine. Although scrubs serve to remove dead cells that give you a dry and dull look, your body system puts the dead cells at the surface of your skin for a reason – to protect the delicate living cells below.

Exfoliating done in moderation will reveal beautiful, softer and more radiant skin, and the best frequency to do this is once in every two weeks. This is about the period the cells on your skin take to turn over.

However, tolerance level to scrubbing differs among individuals, and it is best you work your way to a more frequent exfoliating if you desire. After a while of using scrubs, you might realize that more frequent scrubbing will not improve your complexion any further because there are no dead cells left on your skin’s surface. This is a cue for you to give your skin a break and let it heal some before you scrub it again.

Another myth to avoid is that scrubbing frequently and too excessively will clean your pores, reduce your skin’s oiliness, decrease your acne and give you a permanent healthy glow. It is even more of a folly to believe that exfoliants can physically remove blackheads, whiteheads or worse, pimples – it does not. In fact, it may cause your skin to break out especially if pimples or blackheads or scraped and not extracted properly, so for people with this skin condition, more precaution should be practiced while using exfoliants – choose them well and make sure your products are suitable for your skin type.

Here's a video of chemical/ physical exfoliating:


Facial Care: How To Exfoliate Your Face

Physical Exfoliants (Polishes & Scrubs) in the market – what they can do for your skin

Exfoliating your skin is an important step in your beauty regime, as important as cleansing, toning and moisturizing, in fact – this is a well known fact as it is crucial for removing dead skin cells on the surface layer of your skin that makes your complexion dull, scaly and lifeless. It functions to cleanse the skin pores and remove dirt from your face just like a cleanser in fact, except that on top of that, it also sloughs off cells.

Products with exfoliants

Exfoliants will also promote blood circulation, giving your face and body a soft, radiant and healthy glow. A good exfoliant also unblocks pores and stimulate cell turnover. Regularly exfoliating your skin can also help in reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles on your face.

Exfoliation can be categorized under physical exfoliation and chemical exfoliation, which includes chemical peels or treatments using certain chemical ingredients. There are a few types of physical exfoliants in the market today. This topic is specifically dedicated to them. I will touch on chemical exfoliation in subsequent posts.

Physical exfoliation can further be divided into scrubs and polishes. What are the differences between the two? Most probably would not know this and use both terms interchangeably, which is understandable since it is quite subjective and a matter of personal preference. What I mean by this is one person’s scrub may be another person’s polish and vice versa. Let me explain.

Salt Scrubs

Both scrubs and polishes serve the same purpose – to remove pore-clogging dead cells and dirt from your skin. What separate them are the sizes and the level of harshness on the skin of the exfoliants or abrasives.

Salt Scrub

Scrubs are usually deemed to be the product with the larger abrasives/ exfoliant. While they tend to be stronger in their ability to clean and exfoliate, they are naturally harsher than polishes and thus, are not very suitable for sensitive skin or problematic skin.

Fruit pulp scrubs

Examples of scrubs are such as sugar or salt scrubs, along with a range of other beads, which can be natural or synthetic in nature. The most popular synthetic beads would be the polyethylene beads, which are usually cheaper than the rest in the market, like wax beads. Natural plant-based exfoliants would be such as walnut shell powders, apricot shell scrubs, cocoa shell scrubs, rice scrubs, limnanthes (algae) scrubs, and a series of others.

Sesame Seeds

Almond scrubs

Walnut shell is a popular natural scrub in the market.

Polishes on the other hand comprise of smaller and softer exfoliants, or synthetic collapsible beads made out of cellulose or mannitol sugars. Examples of natural exfoliants in polishes are such as fruit pulps like cranberry, kiwi, rosehips and orange peels, as well as strawberry seeds.

Oatmeal scrub

Besides that, there is also another type of gentle exfoliant that can dissolve once you rub them on your skin. They are mannitol or cellulose-based and usually, active ingredients like jojoba oil or vitamin E can be encapsulated inside these beads for the added advantage.

Next: The dos and don'ts of scrubbing.

The power of gold in skincare – an unconventional royal treatment

Gold is probably the most well-known element in the world – it is a symbol of prestige, luxury and status. It is quite improbable to find a person who has not heard of gold in modern life, unless that person has been living under a coconut shell all his life. Gold has since time immemorial been used as a currency, to make jewellery, as well as for many other industrial uses such as in photography, dentistry and electronics due to its high conductivity in electricity.

Fair and well. But have you heard of gold being used in skincare? One of the trends that is beginning to make its way up the skin care market all over the world is a very extravagant treatment carried out with 24 karat gold, believe it or not. In fact, some of the most prestigious spas in the world have already long promoted this treatment befitting for a queen or someone of royal blood.

Even Cleopatra, famed to be one of the most beautiful women in the world used it as part of her beauty regime, reportedly sleeping with a gold mask each night. In ancient China, the queen of the Ch’ing dynasty was said to have used a gold massage roller on her face everyday as the key to a youthful appearance.

Such a treatment of course comes with a very hefty price tag as can be expected. It is said to have started in China by a skincare manufacturing giant. It has since spread to many other parts of the world. The treatment is carried out by applying sheets of 24 karat gold directly onto the person’s face.

I think my grandmother, had she been alive, would have thrown a fit at such wastefulness. Even I had a hard time believing my eyes when I first saw the treatment at a beauty expo about a year ago, when the trend was first taking off. My initial reaction was to wonder whether the gold sheets can be reused after the facial. If so, then at least it would have been worth it, no? Unfortunately, I was told that the dead cells from the person’s skin would stick to the gold and recovering the element again would be a messy business.

See the video to convince yourself this is not merely a prank.

So what is the benefit of using gold in your skincare treatment? To glitter, well, not literally though. Using gold jewellery is capable of making you the centre of attention, being closely related to a woman looking beautiful and elegant. Using this treatment is said to produce the same kind of result by making your skin so radiant and youthful you’d be sure to turn heads.

Gold is known to be a very good anti-ageing and healing ingredient that is capable of reversing oxidation damage to the skin, enhancing skin elasticity and accelerating cell renewal. The concept is being touted to have originated from Ayurvedic teachings, which is an ancient Indian healing art. The Gold treatment will leave your skin feeling smooth, wrinkle-free and baby-soft.

Because it is the softest known metal, it is said to be easily absorbed into the skin. Thus, it is exploited to reduce fine lines by penetrating the skin, rejuvenating and revitalizing it. Besides that, it facilitates the removal of toxins and wastes from your body as well as promotes lymphatic drainage. Gold is also known to slow down collagen depletion as well as the breakdown of elastin in the skin, preventing sagging and giving a firming effect. It also reduces the appearance of sun damage and age spots by being anti-inflammatory, therefore slowing down melanin secretion and reducing age spots.

Luxurious and extravagant ingredients have often been used to fuel beauty trends, notably when caviar and champagne were introduced to the market sometime back. They catered to the more pampered and privileged class. This is no longer the case as market leaders continue to use traditional treatments to design more convenient products for the modern women today. The gold trend is probably set to continue for a long time more, bringing the world the utmost lavishness for the skin, health and wellbeing.

Seaweed/ Algae in Skincare & Bodycare – The Thallasso Concept

For a long time now, the Thallasso or Oceanic concept surrounding seaweeds and algae has been percolating in the skincare and spa market, appearing in products like masks, creams, gels, scrubs, serums and even washes. History has it that in the Greek mythology, Aphrodite, the goddess of love, who rose from the sea waters, owed her beauty to the plants of the sea. Her famed dewy complexion and beautiful skin bears testament to the nurturing and pampering treatment of seaweed and marine algae.

Green algae

Brown algae

Just like other ingredients that originate from the sea like Dead Sea Mud and Dead Sea Salt, seaweed and algae-derived products are very popular choices today for the exact same reasons – that the sea provides us with a multitude of trace elements, amino acids and minerals as well as vitamins that bode very well for our skin and wellbeing.

A mixture of species of seaweed

Blue green marine algae

Seaweed and algae are known to be multifunctional – they promote anti ageing of the skin cells by toning, moisturizing, revitalizing and oxygenating the cells of the body and skin. They are fortified with vitamins like A1, B1, B2, B6, B12, C, E, K, pantothenic acid, folic acid, and niacin, and they contain 60 trace elements, along with at least 12 minerals, some of which are such as sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, zinc and manganese.

In fact, seaweeds and algae actually absorb and concentrate all the minerals present in sea water and make them into a form that can easily be assimilated by the human body (the concentration of the minerals in the seaweed/ algae are nearly identical to the concentration of the minerals found in human blood).

Seaweed/ algae derived masks are very popular in the skin care market

Some products that abide to the Thallaso concept using seaweed/ algae/ their derivatives.

Recognizing the unique properties of seaweed, Japanese and Korean absorbed this sea vegetable into their daily diet. It is naturally better than land vegetables because it contains vitamin B12, which is rarely found on the latter. Also, a constituent called alginic acid present in the cell wall of brown algae is a natural cleanser for the intestines. This alginic acid is largely responsible for the tensile strength and elasticity and is an essential defense for the plant’s survival in turbulent seawater.

Another product using seaweed/ algae.

It has been researched that in combination with other Thallaso ingredients like sea salt, the seaweeds and algae are able to revitalize the body’s metabolism, breaking down cellulite deposits and dispersing local fatty cells to improve the body’s general health and appearance. The special combination of minerals relieves muscular spasm and increases the circulation - leaving your skin soft and glowing. There are also studies on the positive effects of seaweed on other health conditions, including menopause relief and prevention of birth defects.

Seaweed and algae are also able to stimulate the production of collagen in the body, having purging, draining, metabolism-accelerating and re-mineralizing properties. It can enhance the immune system, increase vitality and also protect against damage from free radicals.

Seaweed/ marine algae in the spa industry