Love is in the air!

Valentine's day is a week away. It got me thinking about self love... which I have talked about before.

Self love affects our skin health, our emotional health and our overall sense of well-being.

If you are stressed out or having a lot of emotions come up, it can show up on your skin a week later.

It definitely does for me.

I'll get a break out and I know it is directly related to how I was feeling the week before.

Which is a good reminder to know that even in the moment the uncomfortable feelings and pain might seem like it is going go on forever. But those feelings DO pass.

What would make you love your skin?

A new facial product?

A nice long facial massage?

A hot bath with a facial mask on?

I give you permission to have some chocolate and red wine for your skin. They are anti-oxidants after all!

As always...

Live in Beauty,

Sasha

This or That?

If you asked me to choose between Lymphatic Drainage Facials and Microdermabrasion, I would say, "Why not both?"

So, instead of having to choose between one or the other, I invite you to give yourself the gift of ALL of the choices that feel good to you.

You can have it all.

Can't decide between a massage or facial? Book me for both.

But if you DID have to decide, reply with which self care choices you would make from the image below.

Book an appointment, to have it all.

Summer Reminder to Wear your Sunscreen

One of my clients proudly told me she finally started wearing sunscreen everyday.

I asked her what motivated her.

She said she finally found a product that felt good on her skin.

Do you wear sunscreen everyday?

And, if you do, what brand do you prefer?

And if you don’t, why don’t you?

Wearing sunscreen is the best way to prevent aging, sunspots and skin cancer.

So, this is your friendly reminder to wear your sunscreen everyday.

Especially, in Boulder where we are.

A mile closer to the sun!!!!

Support your Local Nano-Business

I was riding my bike doing errands when I passed a sign that said, “Facial $79.49.”

Places that have low prices advertised add on for every item. But, in the end you end up potentially paying more for the same services; and, that gets under my skin (pun intended).

This dilutes the market and makes it so services that a nano-business esthetician or massage therapist is not valued. 

I can do an excellent custom one hour facial for $95. That includes an enzyme exfoliant, facial massage, head massage and hand massage. I don’t charge extra for the extra TLC. 

That’s my two cents! Take it or leave it.

Why support a local small business or better yet Nano-businesses?

• Local businesses are more likely to utilize other local businesses such as banks, service providers, and farms.

• For every $100 you spend at local businesses, $68 will stay in the community.

• Independent retailers return more than three times as much money per dollar of sales to the community in which they operate than chain competitors. Independent restaurants return more than two times as much money per dollar of sales than national restaurant chains.

• Small businesses employ 77 million Americans and accounted for 65% of all new jobs over the past 17 years.  

Support Local Small Businesses

How to Keep your Skin Routine Simple and Effective

Do you wash and moisturize your face every morning and night?

In the morning!

Cleanse: This is essential to keeping skin looking radiant and healthy. Cleansing the skin in the morning helps to wake you up and freshen your skin. Cleansing helps maintain proper pore size. This is because you are removing the oil and the pores are not getting as clogged.

Exfoliate: This can be as simple as using a wash cloth when you cleanse. This will remove the very top skin cells. Leave the deeper exfoliating for your facial treatments.

Serum: I always recommend a vitamin C serum in the morning for all skin types to prevent sun damage and increase collagen and elastin production.

Hydrate: Use the right moisturizer for your skin type. If you are unsure of what that is, ask your esthetician.

Protect: Use a sunscreen every morning even if you live where it is cloudy all day.

At night!

Cleanse: Cleansing your skin in the p.m. helps remove dirt, oil, sunscreen and makeup.

Treatment Product: This can be a retinol based product or a peptide serum. The retinol feeds the skin cells vitamin A which helps with anti-aging. Some peptides help anti-aging while others help with hydration.

Moisturizer: Use the appropriate moisturizer for your skin type.

What does self love mean to you?

What does self love mean to you?

It is a lifelong quest and its a hard practice.

Recently, I was meeting with my virtual assistant and I asked her what self love means to her.

And, she introduced me to this practice that brought tears to my eyes.

This is how she answered my question.

"When I was 18 or 19, I read a book that said the purpose of life was to learn how to love yourself. So, for years, I 'tried' to love myself. In a yoga class one time, the teacher invited us to think of something we love, cultivate that love and give it to ourselves.

Later another mentor, Katie Hendricks, taught the practice of love drops.

This is the practice:

Think of someone or something that you love without a doubt about it, with no strings attached, no baggage. Fill yourself up with that love and then drop it on yourself. Or, better yet, drop it on something you hate about yourself."

At age 7, I really wanted a spiritual practice. And, I didn't even know what that meant.

I always felt there was something else, something more, something bigger than me out there.

And at age 18, I also started reading books... buddhism and taking yoga classes as well as a meditation class. It was taught free at university at CSU.

Looking back on it, it was Buddhist. It wasn't called that... But it was focusing on your breath. Now I practice a Buddhist meditation.

My practices of self love are:

• meditation and yoga

• being outside

• taking care of my skin

• getting facials and massages

• spending time with people I love and my animals

• and being aware of the negative self talk

I'll be incorporating the love drop into my practice now.

Feel free to share your self love practices with me. I always love to hear what you have to say.

Please reach out and book an appointment.

As always,

Live in Beauty,

Sasha

PS Just for fun... the rest of the month of February I will be making a Chocolate Cherry facial mask! It will have dark cocoa powder which has high levels of anti-oxidants that help promote cell repair. The cherry comes from cherry kernel oil which also has anti-oxidants AND has oleic acid which improves dry skin. A couple of other ingredients I will add are Shea butter and hyaluronic acid.

A quick reminder about sun safety🌞

We are in the height of summer and I don’t know about you guys; but, I start to get little lazy about wearing sunscreen.

“Most skin cancers are caused by too much exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light. UV rays are an invisible kind of radiation that comes from the sun, tanning beds, and sunlamps. UV rays can damage skin cells.” -https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/skin/basic_info/sun-safety.htm

UV rays are strongest from 10 am to 4 pm.

Protection from UV rays is important all year, not just during the summer.

Sunscreen is the obvious way to protect your skin from the sun.

I like to use the hydro-peptide, Solar Defense, tinted SPF 30 for my face. And, for my body I like ALBA sport 45, because I think you should save your money for your facial sunscreen and use the lesser expensive on the body.

Some other ways to protect yourself from sun exposure is to:

• Stay in the shade

• Wear UV clothing whenever possible

• Wear a hat when hiking or walking

• Use sunglasses to protect your eyes

Check the UV index especially in Colorado. Because we get a lot of sun exposure here. And, cloudy skies are not a free pass to not apply sunscreen.

Not getting enough VIT D is also NOT a reason the skip sunscreen.

And, don’t think you can skip the sunscreen because you are sitting inside working on the computer all day.

Our devices emit short wave blue light rays which are very damaging to the skin.

I’d like to end with some good news with skin cancer rates.

Coloradans can congratulation themselves. We have fallen to the bottom of the list for skin cancer.

So, we are doing something right.

Don't underestimate the healing power of facial massage

In our modern times, anti-aging is associated with the use of medical modalities. And, medical modalities have their place in the anti-aging umbrella. But, so does good ‘ole fashioned hands on healing massage.

Facial massage increases blood and lymphatic flow to the face to relieve muscle tension as well as increasing circulation in the skin.

Increased circulation helps with overall health and appearance of the skin as well as creating a deeply relaxing experience.

Booking regular facials can improve the overall functioning and health of the skin helping to slow down aging.

Top 10 Benefits of Facial Massage

1. Increases blood flow

2. Increases lymphatic flow

3. Relieves Muscle tension

4. Increases circulation

5. Feeds skin cells nutrition and oxygen

6. Improves functioning and health of skin

7. Deeply relaxing

8. Can reduce headaches

9. Can help with sinus pressure

10. Slows Down Aging!

Moisture Vs Hydration

MOISTURE VS HYDRATION

Everyone wants hydrated and moisturized skin.

But, what is the difference?

A lot of us think those words are interchangeable. They’re not. They mean two different things.

Water helps skin stay healthy, smooth and radiant. Drinking water is still the best way to hydrate the skin.

Hydration is also achieved by absorbing the water in your environment.

If your skin is dehydrated, it lacks water and must be hydrated.

If you have dry skin, it means it is lacking OIL and means it must be moisturized. (A facial can determine which one or possibly both that you may have.)

You may want to use a moisturizer and a lovely facial oil like the Blossom facial oil i just created.

Using a hydrator for the skin like hyaluronic acid, my favorite, or a product with aloe & honey are ingredients that pull moisture from the environment into the skin. These are called humectants.

Facial oils help to seal in other ingredients such as hyaluronic acid, when applied on top of serums and moisturizers. 

Facial oils are not humectants… not mega face moisturizers, instead they seal the skin, forming a protective layer.

REMEMBER: Moisturizers help with hydration levels in the skin and Facial Oils help keep that moisture in.

A facial oil can be tremendously helpful for people living in dry climates such as Colorado.

As always.

Live in Beauty,

Sasha

Crabapple blossom in my neighborhood

My new adventure in mask making: Not the fabric kind ; )

What do you do during a pandemic?

I think the term is "pivot."

My pivot is to go down the path of small batch hand made skin care.

I have started this journey with a shea butter, honey, and turmeric multi-purpose mask.

My goal was to make a mask that could be used not only on the face, but on the hands as well. I don’t know if your hands are dry and cracked like mine from the dry Colorado climate… AND the heavy use of hand sanitizer…

One night I was sitting on the couch with my thumb throbbing from the crack in it, and I kept thinking, “There has got to be something I can do to help heal this.”

And, then the lightbulb went on! “I am going to make a mask that can be used on my hands, but also used on my face. ”

So I did! I wanted to put honey in it because it has amazing anti-bacterial and wound healing properties.

And, I have been using it every night since and it is helping the skin on my hands heal!

I am also using this mask in the treatment room for a limited time. You can purchase it from me for $20.

But, please come in and experience it in your facial treatment.

This is my first offering. I plan to formulate a new mask every month!

With 5% of sales of facials and masks from Feb 8 to Mar 8th, I am going to adopt some bees. My goal is to adopt a BEEHIVE. I will be doing this through the https://karmahoneyproject.com/

Blue Dandelion Turmeric Honey Shea Mask