Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Rescue remedies for feet!

Today I am going to share a deep, dark secret. I have the worlds worst feet. I have tough,dry,scaly skin on my feet!
I hate feet, I hate how they look, I hate them being touched,they are for walking only.
I cant wear stilettos,I just wobble(although I own a couple of never worn pairs). Heels are painful so I stick to wedges,flats and sneakers.
But I realised my feet look awful so thought I'd try to get them into better condition.
I asked my husband if he knew what I could do for my feet,he suggested scrubbing with a pumice stone. So we went to the beach and collected a HUGE bag full of pumice.
So first I'd soak them to soften the skin then scrub. After a few weeks I realised I needed something more effective.
So months later after trial and error my feet are in better (not great) condition but Im on my way so thought I'd share a few things that you can do to keep your tootsies in good condition or things you can do to help improve their appearance!
So here is a routine for people with rough,tough,dry,scaly feet. If you have nice feet already you may just want to follow the maintenance routine!
 


Fixing the problem
First off you will need a few things before you start.
You do not need to follow every step,it all depends on the condition of your feet.Mine are BAD so what I do is pretty extensive and time consuming

-Olive oil
-Cling wrap or an old pair of socks
-A tub or foot bath of warm-hot water
-Towel
-Pumice Stone(or if you have something like a foot file you can use this,pumice can often be found at the beach)
-Honey(you could also use vaseline)
-A foot moisturizer or one designed for dry skin



Step One

Massage olive oil all over your feet,focusing mainly on rough,hard,dry parts of your feet. Wrap in cling wrap or pop on an old pair of socks and leave for 20-30mins. This helps soften the skin.
 




Step Two


 
After the olive oil treatment remove the cling wrap or socks and pop your feet into warm-slightly hot water.  This helps to remove the olive oil and further soften the skin. Use a cloth in the hot water to wipe the olive oil off of your feet. After 10 mins remove your feet from the water and dry gently with a towel







Step Three
 
  
Warm up those arms,hands and wrists and get ready for the hard work! Take your pumice of foot file and firmly buff/scrub the dry,tough areas of your skin. If your feet are really bad you wont be able to get rid of all you need to but its a start! Stop if your skin is becoming irritated or sore. Remember the condition of your feet could be due to years of neglect so you cannot expect to fix it in one go.


Step Four

After scrubbing your feet put them briefly into some warm water for about a minute and rub your feet gently to get all the flaky dead skin from scrubbing,off.
Dry your feet


Step Five

This step is more of a luxury step,helpful but you can live without it.
Take some honey(which is a humectant,drawing and retaining moisture into the skin)and smother your feet in them! Take cling wrap or old socks and cover your feet. Alternatively you can use Vaseline. Put your feet on a towel(honey runs when warmed up,it can be a tad messy!) and leave for any amount of time you desire(usually over 5mins!).
Once the time is up,rinse off



Step Six

Take a generous amount of moisturiser and massage into feet
 Voila!Fini! Complete!
Do this twice a week and reveal beautiful feet!



Maintenance

Now for maintaning beautiful feet you can chop and change what you use. Below is a basic guide. You can add your own steps,remove steps. This is purely to keep beautiful feet just that,beautiful

Step One

Soak your feet in a tub or foot bath of warm water. Add essential oils if you desire. Soak for 10 mins,and gently dry with a towel

Step Two
    Slightly dampen feet and use an exfoliator,focusing on drier parts of your feet. If you still need a bit of a heavy duty scrub on your feet,gently use a foot file or pumice stone. Rinse off

Step Three 

This step is more to keep feet feeling soft. Take honey,vaseline or even oil oil and apply to feet. Wrap feet in cling wrap or a pair of old socks and relax for 15 mins then rinse off and dry
Step Four

Take a good hydrating foot or body moisturiser(you could even try hand cream) and massage into your feet.
Voila!Fini!Complete!
 
 Do this once or twice a week to keep feet looking beautiful!

I hope this has helped,till next time stay simply stunningly gorgeous! xoxo



Saturday, February 18, 2012

How to choose a facial mask

Choosing the best facial mask for your skin type

Hello lovelies!

Today I'm just briefly covering the topic of face masks! I don't know about you but hair masks and face masks are a necessity in my beauty regime.

Facial masks are wonderful,they reduce dullness,improve skins texture,clean,unclog and treat your skin. They can help with skin discoloration,increase cell turnover, and boost collagen production. 

Long term use can also help with blemish or acne marks.

One way to feel like your looking after yourself and giving yourself a little pampering is to use a face mask,but sometimes its hard to know what to use! I'm going to cover here a basic simple guide for what you should choose,so rather than blabber on like I have a tendency to do lets get to it! Do remember a lot of masks will specify on the packaging or instructions what type of skin it is intended for

If you have skin prone to blackheads or if you have large pores  a clay mask is a great choice.  Keeping the pores clean is essential in reducing the occurrence of blackheads,clay masks efficiently clean out your pores. The larger your pores,the more room there is to trap oil. Clay masks can also help dry up acne. Look for the ingredient kaolin or bentonite


If you have oily skin, clay masks again are a good choice ,also mud masks will be beneficial.Both  help absorb excess oil and grease,close up pores,clear up blemishes and reduce shininess which oily skin is prone to. Look for the ingredient kaolin or bentonite. Look for something that cleans and moisturizes because even though you have oily skin,you don't want to strip all the oil from your skin as you will be left with dry skin

 
Dry or mature skins have very different needs. When looking for a mask look for anything that is moisturizing. This is important because we want to restore moisture into our skin. A good cheap alternative for dry skin is untreated,unprocessed,unfiltered honey. 
Honey is a humectant and helps the skin draw in and retain moisture(apply evenly to the face and leave for 10 mins,this can get a tad messy when it melts but the benefits are amazing)


Combination skin can be tricky.If you have an oily t zone and dry cheeks you could use two different masks for each area. Use a mud or clay mask on the t zone and a moisturizing mask on the cheeks. You may need to use more than one mask on different areas of your face.
There are "universal" masks available,you really have to shop around

Acne prone skin can benefit from clay and mud masks . Some claims say that honey can help with acne due to it containing antiseptic and antibacterial properties but this has to be unprocessed and unfiltered to get the true benefits as the more the honey is messed with,the less effective these properties are. There is also information out there that unsweetened,unflavored natural yoghurt can help with acne as it has good bacteria which destroy bad bacteria and germs present on your skin. Some masks will contain salicylic acid and benzyl peroxide which are known acne treatments. I wouldn't recommend using such a mask unless you have all over acne,if you only have a small acne prone area on your face then either keep that mask to that area as those ingredients are very drying to the skin.

Normal skin?HALLELUJAH you! You will still benefit from using a facial mask. Just look for a mask specified for normal to dry skin. You can also use natural methods like a honey mask or yoghurt as these will both help promote skin health

I hope you may have garnered some info from this.I haven't been overly informative as a lot of the masks today specify what skin they are suited for but if they don't, you have a little knowledge on what you are looking for

Till next time,stay simply stunningly gorgeous xoxo

Monday, February 13, 2012

Hair Mask Magic!

Hair Mask magic!!


Hello Lovelies! I really need to get my A into G(ass into gear) and do more blog posts!! Only problem is, because I feel no one is reading my blogs I feel like I'm spending time and energy talking to myself when I do a blog so if you read my blog and would like more blog posts,let me know!
Right onto Hair Mask Magic!

I recently started using a different hair mask but it's not as kick ass as I need it to be,so I got to thinking what I could do. Do I make my own hair mask(avocado,banana,olive oil and a tiny bit of conditioner) or do I think outside the box and make my mask work for me?
So me being me and not wanting to waste money I thought OK,I want to make this work,but how? I then spotted my small sample of Argan Oil. Now if you LOVE haircare(even if you dont) you have probably heard about Morrocon Oil and how fantastic it is. Argan and Morrocan oils are basically the same(as they both provide similar benefits),difference is they are blended slightly differently(please dont take this as gospel,this is what I have been told).

So anywho, I know that a morrocan oil mask retails for about $50-$60NZD,this was something I wanted to try but was NOT going to pay that kind of money.
Upon spotting my sample bottle of Argan oil and my mask I thought(you know where Im going with this!)MIX THEM TOGETHER! I took a small amount of my mask and a tiny drop of Argan Oil and mixed them together. I then massaged it into the ends of my hair and mid way up(and I do a lil on my roots) and left it for 10 mins. My hair was so AMAZINGLY SOFT! It was insanely soft,even after I blow dried my hair it felt incredibly silky.

The great part about mixing Argan Oil with a mask is that it is generally cheaper than Morrocan Oil. If you are wary about purchasing a full size bottle,see if you can get a sample(I bought my sample bottle for $5,you use so little it lasts AGES!!). Try it,you wont be dissapointed

Till next time Stay Simply Stunningly Gorgeous! xx


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