How do you take off your Makeup?
Different people take off their Makeup in different ways depending on what's available at their disposal and what products they can afford. The best way to take off Makeup is one that completely leaves your skin clear even before you proceed to Wash your face or continue with your regular cleansing routine.

When you use makeup, you have to be careful how you care for your makeup products, brushes, makeup area, how you take off your Makeup and how you store your supplies.
Never take of Makeup by washing it off with Water and Soap. You'd only be damaging your skin as this does not completely take off makeup.
Never take off Makeup with only a Baby wipe. Non makeup wipes do not have cleansing properties and as such you leave yourself open to having Makeup residue on your skin which would eventually lead to clogged pores and ultimately blemishes.

This is how I take off my Makeup, and my Skin benefits from the nourishing benefits of the products I use. What do I use?

1. VASELINE:
Yes! Good ol' Vaseline. The most affordable way to take off your makeup. Not only does it completely remove foundation, Eye makeup, clumpy mascara and lipstick easily, it also leaves your skin extra supple like a baby's bottom.
What to do:

Simply roll your baby wipe in a jar of Vaseline till the wipe is coated all round. Proceed to wipe off makeup in small sections at a time. You might have to repeat this with a second wipe till all Makeup is off your face.

2. OLIVE OIL
I especially Love olive oil because it is packed with antioxidants Vitamins A and E, which can help repair skin damage from Sun exposure.

Not only do I use olive oil as a Makeup remover, it also doubles as my all over skin food! And my skin has never looked better.
Pour some over your wipe, just like in the case of Vaseline above, and take off your Makeup one small area at a time.

You could also use Coconut oil, Avocado Oil. But Olive oil is more readily available in most stores near you so this might be your best bet.

AFTER YOU WIPE:
When I am done wiping the makeup off, I then follow up with my Cleansing routine.
Exfoliating, Washing, and Toning. This ensures that my skin is completely free of dirt and grime and whatever makeup residue I might have.

What do you use? How do you take off your Makeup?

Ok so i realize that it seems like i have really good clear skin.. Actually i don't. Or should i say i never exactly had it all rosy. Being a severe Acne and pimples sufferer for a long period of time, i still have blemishes here and there from old acne scars. Plus my skin hasn't exactly become Perfect.
Not like that is ever going to happen. Hehe.
Over time, i have researched and learned several ways to care for my skin without breaking the bank. Everything from Honey, Lemon, Green tea, Vitamin E and my favorite of all, Shea butter! You probably already know the many benefits of Shea Butter already.

Now straight to my Shea Butter facial.. I assure you, you'd feel like you have the smoothest baby skin once you are done. What you'd need:
-Natural, raw (unprocessed) Shea butter
-Facial scrub (Preferably one with lots of scrubbing beads)
-Warm water
-Facial mask (Preferably a natural mask of Honey/Lime/Avocado/Egg white)

Here's what i do:
STEP 1. Apply a generous quantity of Shea butter on your face. The idea is to let it sit on your face, not get absorbed, so you'd need a much larger quantity than the regular application. Massage with your fingers in circular motions, applying pressure in problem areas of your face (spots, blemishes, scars). Let this sit on your face for 5minutes. (You could keep it on for as long as 20minutes if you have the time)

STEP 2. Now over the Shea butter, apply a good quantity of your facial scrub and scrub your face in easy circular motions. If you do not have a facial scrub with lots of beads, Sugar would be a good replacement here. Just take a level spoon of sugar and apply over the Shea butter on your face and scrub.

STEP 3. Do not wash off immediately. Allow to sit for another 2minutes just so the Shea butter and Scrub mixture can penetrate your already open pores.

STEP 4. Now wash off with warm water. This would help open up your pores even more.

STEP 5. This is the perfect time to have your Face Mask work its magic. At this point you have had a good does of vitamin E and moisture from the Shea butter and your pores are ready to accept whatever is given to it. If you do not have a facial mask, the natural route would be best!
Apply honey, or lime, or egg white, or avocado to your face and leave on for 5 minutes. These are all natural and work effectively on your skin. For best results, wash off mask with warm water.

Now tell me your skin doesn't feel brand new?
If you have done this right, you'd notice an instant difference in how your skin feels.

NOTE: Be careful not to scrub your face too often. When you do what i call "over-scrubbing" you'd be doing more harm than good to your skin. Ideally you should scrub only once a week, too much of that and you'd be doing quite the opposite of what you intend and ripping your skin of nutrients that it needs to heal or stay vibrant.

The Shea Butter facial can be done every 2days for a start and then gradually reduce to twice a week.
Ensure to incorporate Shea butter in your daily skin care routine. I use my shea butter 4 times every week as a nighttime moisturizer.
The best Shea Butter is the raw unprocessed kind with the natural nutty smell you might not like initially. You can get this easily from your local market.   Shea butter should be yellowish or ivory colored. White Shea Butter can be found, and usually has this color because it has been highly refined.

Just a quick reminder of how so good Shea Butter is:

Eating certain foods can dramatically improve the appearance of our skin, hair, nails, and eyes.
A diet rich in "phyto-compounds" can stimulate DNA repair, increased collagen production, reduce inflammation, and improve blood flow. This not only keeps you healthy but it keeps you looking younger longer.
Creams and lotions can do wonders for your skin, but your diet is by far the most crucial when it comes to having healthy skin.

Beauty is dependent on the overall health of your body. In order for your skin to look attractive and vibrant you need to make healthy lifestyle choices, and a great place to start is with the foods you eat.
So if you want your skin to feel soft and look firm here are a few foods that you can eat starting today.


Blueberries: These blue little balls are one of natures most potent anti-aging foods. They help keep the skins elasticity, strengthen the gums, and contribute to the health of our eyes.

Brazil nuts: Help protect our skin from UV rays and they help reduce dryness.

Strawberries: Help protect our skins collagen structures. Collagen is what keeps our skin firm. Wrinkles form when our collagen levels start depleting.

Salmon: Promotes soft smooth skin, free from dry itchy patches.

Avocados: These contain folate which helps blood formation. This is essential for cell regeneration.

Acai: This is the king of all berries. It has 50% more antioxidants than pomegranates, and twice as much as blueberries. They also contain omega 6,9 fatty acids, fiber, calcium, and vitamins.

Apricots: Very rich in fiber and phytochemicals like beta-carotene and lycopene. They also have vitamin C, vitamin A, calcium, folate, iron and potassium, making them very beneficial to our skin.

Broccoli: Also very high in fiber, vitamin C, and folate. There's a compound in broccoli called sulforaphane that protects our bodies cells from injury.

Beans: Jammed packed with phytochemicals, fiber, folic acid, protein, calcium, and magnesium. These guys can stabilize blood sugar as well as lower cholesterol.

Black currant: Has a high source of vitamin C and antioxidants. Also contains a high amount of calcium, potassium, and magnesium.

Carotenoids: This isn't a food, but it's found in fruits and vegetables. It's a fat soluble pigment which helps fight against cancer and cardiovascular disorders.


Carrots: Have lots of beta-carotene which is a powerful antioxidant.

Cruciferous vegetables: A.K.A.- cabbage, broccoli, kale, collard greens, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts. These guys release a compound called glucosinolates and an enzyme called myrosinase when chewed, which are known for their anti-cancer properties.

Cranberries: High in vitamin C, B vitamins, vitamin E, fiber, calcium, iron, magnesium, and citric acid.

Cucumber: A great source of essential vitamins and minerals necessary for increasing collagen production.

Camu-Camu: Very rich in vitamin C.

Dark leafy greens: A.K.A - Spinach, kale, and dark lettuce are loaded with vitamins and minerals like beta-carotene, vitamin C, folate, iron, magnesium, phytochemicals, and antioxidants.

Fish: Has lots of vitamin A, B1, B12, and B6. It also has omega 3 fatty acids which are very beneficial to the skin, as well as the heart and brain.

Flax, grapeseed, walnut, seaweed, spirulina, watercress: These are very high in zinc which is vital for the health of our skin. Plus they have been known to help clear up acne, and help keep us regular.

Grape seed oil: Has trace elements of selenium, zinc, copper, and iron. It's also a unique source for oligomeric procyanidine, which is known to improve our skins elasticity.

Honey: A nutrient rich alternative to refined sugar. Refined sugar is believed to contribute to aging.

Myrtle: Is known to slow down our skin aging process. Has been used in folk remedies for centuries.

Millet: A nutritious seed, high in silica, which is good for our skin, hair, and nails.

Oats: Very high in soluble fiber, and complex carbohydrates. High in iron, manganese, phosphorous, calcium, vitamins B and E, and silicon. Silicon is crucial for healthy skin by maintaining collagen levels.

Papaya: When applied as a paste on the skin, it's enzymes help breakdown dead skin cells.


Pomegranate: Very good source of polyphenol antioxidants. These antioxidants help neutralize free radicals that can damage the skin.

Water: Hydrated skin naturally looks younger.

If you are one of the millions of people worldwide that spend money on lotions and creams in an attempt to look better, then it only makes sense to incorporate these beauty foods into your diet.

It wont take very long to start seeing the major benefits these beauty foods will have on the health of your skin and the way it looks and feels.

Diet and acne... many people say that foods don't affect acne, some people say it does. Well, they are both right in my opinion. All depends how your body, your skin reacts to certain foods and what skin type you have - if you don't have acne problem, foods may not cause you problems, but for those with acne problem, certain foods can make it worst.

In my opinion, if you are reading this article I assume that you have acne problem, bigger or smaller, anyway it affects your life some way and you are looking for solution. My advice is - you should care what you eat, you should avoid certain foods, and you should have your eyes open and observe if your acne problem is getting worse after eating certain foods - because each of us may react different and what we can do is to observe our own bodies, simply to know our bodies like we know our favourite movie. Sounds strange? Believe me, so many of us don't know own body, especially how certain foods affect it.

In my opinion, foods are so important in our life and if we can, we always should care what we eat to make our internal systems stronger, it's hard to see how internal organs look like, but if they work properly we will be healthy. I want to give you an example about something you can see: if you want to build strong body, big muscles and be simply strong man (or woman)! You have to exercise, practice, give your body muscles proper stimulation, it will make your body stronger - adding special foods into that, your body will be stronger even faster, because of proper nutrition. In acne battle is the same, just food is even more important. It's good to use other treatments, like: proper cleansing, antibiotics and effective lotions - but without proper dietiary plan, they will not be as sufficient as they could be - even if you will get rid of acne using antibiotics, it may come back after a while if your diet is bad and you have to answer if you want to go for acne antibiotics again?

I guess you know that antibiotics always have some side effects. Read about the causes of acne and some crucial rules to follow to get rid of acne (one of them is to avoid certain foods - there are four more ruleslisted there).

It's great to start with restricted diet and after a while, when your acne problem is getting smaller, you can try with foods that you removed from your menu, maybe it will not affect you - you will observe. There always should be balance, between what to eat and what not to eat, sometimes we just like so much foods we should avoid and we have to let go our restrictions, we shouldn't be to hard on ourselves with our diets but it's great to know what food causes what problems in our body and be able to accept cause and effect.. and most important, always smile on the way!

So let's go to the most important part, to the list of foods that may cause the acne problem:

List of foods you should remove from your acne diet:

Nuts - and products that are made with nuts: such as peanut butter
Chocolates - in any forms
Cola and other dark drinks - it's ok to drink light colored sodas
Spicy foods - especially if you use sauces you buy in stores, homemade chilli sauce with fresh peppers are not that bad.
Salty foods - like french fries, chips and other. If you want to eat salt, please use it while cooking
Pizza - oops!
Dairy products
Less sugar - it may cause problems, so consume less sweet products - I know it's hard
Less fried foods - again something with "less". So enjoy fried foods, but not all the time
Well, I hope you are not depressed now! In the list you can see "less sugar" and "less fried foods" - I would recommend to remove sugar and fried foods for some days to see how your body reacts and then include a bit if wanted.

Feel that there is nothing left to eat? Well it's simply not true. I will give you in case the list of foods you can eat and it's the same long!

Stay with that list of foods to help acne problem:

Meat
Chicken
Fish
Vegetables and fruits
Cereals and grains
Coffee and tea
Bread
You may also try herbs for acne - but before using herbs it's recommended to consult first with doctor if you should use certain herbs and for how long. Read about good vitamins for acne.

It will all depends on how advance acne you have to get rid of your acne problem. As it was mentioned before, after getting rid of it, add foods from your "not to eat" list, one by one and give yourself few days how your body reacts. Now, you have to decide which list of foods you will choose. I believe both: you will avoid eating foods from the first list and enjoy foods on the second list.

Acne is a ordinary skin disease that causes pimples. Pimples form when hair follicles (A small bodily cavity or sac.) under your skin clog up. It can, however, occur at all ages. Mostly people affected by acne are between 12 and 25 of age. Typical acne seems in the oil-producing areas of the body that are the face, chest, and back.

Acne can also occur on the neck and upper arms. There are many misapprehension and rumours about acne. Acne is due to overactivity of the sebaceous glands that secrete oily substances onto the skin. Most people get so derange by their pimples that they pick at them and make them last longer. Stress, however, does not play much of a charge role in causing acne. Eating greasy foods can get grease on a person's hands: sequential contact of the hands to the face may exacerbate acne. Some treatments may result or worsen acne, such as those containing iodides, bromides, or oral or injected steroids.

There are many treatment of acne. Laser surgery is more effective treatment for acne. Laser surgery has been in use for some time to remove the scars left behind by acne. Lasers acne treatment is much more invasive (An abnormal tissue growth, such as a neoplasm or tumor, that spreads (invades) to the surrounding healthy tissue ) than non-ablative lasers. They are reduced by erosion, melting, evaporation, or vaporization. Ablative lasers are not endorsed for use on darker skin colors. This kind of medications uses lasers to remove old skin so that new skin can develop. Laser treatment for acne is a comparatively new procedure.

Laser treatment of acne scars is revealing a lot of promise as the actual treatment penetrates into the skin with a fine degree of control which even the depth is uniform -- a far departure from other more conventional methods of treating acne scars. There are many types of lasers available, only few of them have profitably been used in treatment of acne.

Smoothbeam laser treatment helps to advance the growth of collagen which does not worse the skin's surface and help to beneath the surface of the skin in the body. The Smoothbeam Laser is an "inside out" technique to healthier looking skin, remodelling the body's natural collagen having no dangerous chemicals, needles, anesthesia. The 1450 nm infrared laser has been used in one uncontrolled study and reduced lesion counts by 83% after three treatments. Temporary pain, redness, and swelling was observed in most patients.

In patients with darker skin tones, hyperpigmentation (darkening of the skin) was coveraged. Fraxel laser treatment is best treatment to treat harsh acne and useful to improve the skin's texture. It is the best to heal the skin quickly. Vbeam laser is helpful in treating acne from the surface of skin. It is used to target on the very small blood cells, that help to improve the skin's color and lead for treating acne from the body.

Acne Treatment Tips

1. Regular exercise helps keep your whole body in shape.

2. Ice pick acne scars have hard, irregular jagged borders and often the depth is irregular as well.

3. Eat at least 5 servings of fresh fruit and vegetables each day.

4. Always use a shaving cream if your skin is sensitive.

5. Avoid oil free products, coal tar derivatives, and heavy creams.

6. Protect your skin from the sun.

7. Drink an adequate amount of water daily.

8. Use this rule of thumb when using products that contain chemicals: a little goes a long way.

Now here's an amazing way to get your spots off your face in 10 mins. This simple home procedure doesn't work the magic of giving you instant spot free skin, you have to have a normal skin care routine(view blog), you have to have good products for your skin, and you have to be nice to your skin else it's not going to be nice to you.
So this is something you can do right in your bedroom.

Eggs!

Yeah i know you've heard of eggs and how either the egg white or yolk can help your skin. but what about the shell? Did you know that the inner skin of the shell is twice as effective and works instantly?
The natural biological job of the shell's inner skin is to draw impurities from the egg as the chick develops. Now if you carefully peel this skin off the shell, large enough to cover a spot on your face, place it directly on the spots, one after the other. It draws dirt and oil from the spot area and surprisingly pulls the spot onto itself, after 15mins when you peel off the skin, you'd notice the surrounding skin of that spot coming right off right before your eyes!!
Now because what your doing is a simple demabrasion, be careful not to do this too many times. Also use a simple moisturizer afterwards to soothe the skin, like Boots rosewater, Boots night treatment cream with tea tree and witch hazel (works effectively on spots and blemish)

There is so much more we throw out of our kitchens that do a great job of taking care of the skin.