What is skin cancer?

There are three main types of skin cancer, (in order of most aggressive)
-Melanoma
-Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC)
-Basal cell carcinoma (BCC)

Melanoma is a serious type of skin cancer, this type is curable only if detected early. Melanoma is formed from pigment cells called melanocytes.

It can develop as a new mole or within an existing mole and it can occur anywhere on the body, not necessarily on sun- exposed areas. Melanoma usually starts as a skin lesion, but occasionally it occurs in other parts of the body, such as the eye, brain, mouth, or genitals.

250 New Zealanders die from Melanoma each year. One in fifteen white skinned New Zealanders are expected to develop Melanoma in their lifetime.

A suspicious lesion will be removed and sent to a laboratory to be checked, and almost always, melanoma are treated via surgery.

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) Looks like crusty non-healing sores (can be tender). They generally start as small patches, sometimes as actinic keratoses.

SCC is found most often on sun-exposed parts of the skin, e.g. face, ears, shoulders, arms, backs and legs etc.
Squamous cell carcinoma develops in the Keratinocytes of the epidermis (the cells that produce the outer layer of the skin).
This type of non melanoma skin cancers is most common in people over 40 years old and is the second most common type of skin cancer.
Treatment is usually straight forward, typically surgical.

Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) with Squamous cell carcinoma are the most common skin cancers.
Together they are called non melanoma skin cancers (NMSC).

BCC is the most common and least aggressive form of skin cancer.

A BCC develops within the basal layer of the epidermis.
Flesh coloured, firm and pearly nodules is how they typically first appear.
Often on the face, shoulder, or upper back, some can even look like a non-healing sore.
The danger from a BCC is its potential to travel deeper into the skin and underlying tissue over the course of many years.

Treatment – Usually straight forward. Topical treatment via freezing off the lesion, radiotherapy or surgery can be involved.

What to look for with a mole-

A- Asymmetry
B- Border (Irregular)
C- Colour (Irregular)
D- Diameter greater then 6mm
E- Evolving (enlarging or changing)

Glasgow seven point checklist

Major Features-
Change in size
Change in shape
Change in colour

Minor Features-
Diameter greater then 6mm
Inflammation
Oozing or bleeding
Itch or altered sensation
A spot or sore that fails to heal within three weeks

You should always consult your doctor about any lump or sore that sits the description of the above, especially if they fail to heal over weeks or months.

“Stay safe and beautiful xxx”

— Tegan

Divine Skin and Beauty- behind the name.

Its my pleasure to introduce you to my baby, my very own skin and beauty clinic launching on the 1st of August 2016

Divine Skin and Beauty

This is a blog all about what the name and logo/symbol means-  I hope you enjoy and love it as much as I do Tegan xxx

“I started this journey with one question,
What does true Beauty mean?”

I found the answer to this in the content below which is taken from my response to the question “What is your reason for working as a beauty therapist”

I became a beauty therapist so that I could help lift people up and make them feel amazing. I love the way a person is when they feel beautiful, it affects their entire being.

They walk taller, speak kinder, touch softer, and love more. In turn this ripples out to become a positive influence on anyone who comes into contact with them. Being a beauty therapist is a powerful thing, and we bring such a beautiful positivity to the world. The work we do is incredibly important, In fact I consider it life changing. Think of how many people a happy client will come into contact with in a day, this positivity influences families, communities, cities, the world! We have the ability to bring about a positive change to the world one client at a time, how amazing is that!

I love that what makes each of us feel beautiful can be so different, so I never find myself doing the exact same thing all the time. This is just another reason I thrive from working in this industry. I enjoy finding out what makes people feel beautiful, whether its having beautiful eye brows, nails or skin to just feeling more relaxed, having someone to talk to or just that human to human touch. I make sure my clients leave me feeling beautiful every single time. To know you make such an enormous difference to the world is so fulfilling.

It is here that I realised that true Beauty isn’t always about just looking good on the outside but it is more a balance of looking good on the outside, and feeling beautiful inside.

“True Beauty is a feeling.”

When I created Divine Skin and Beauty I had that specific feeling In mind, this feeling became the heart of Divine Skin and Beauty and I had it in mind to help make every decision on how and what Divine would be and what it would offer.

My intention is for that feeling to be felt by everyone that walks through the door, and to stay with them long after they leave. This feeling is reflected in all aspects of the clinic, from the way it smelled, the way it looked, felt, sounded even tasted. The name and logo ( being the face of the business) had to portray just the right message AND feeling, and this is where I started.

I begin with creating the core values for Divine, I did this by asking myself what things contribute to feeling beautiful, These are attributes I hold close to my heart and things I wanted to share with others, myself and the world…

People- Family, Community and giving back Health, Wellbeing and Balance

Positive , Beautiful Environment Knowledge and Growth

Service and Purpose Love Always

Whats in a name?

Divine Is a word that I have always loved, to me it holds multiple meaning, Its a beautiful descriptive word used to positively describe something that cant be summed up with a mer “it was good” response. Divine also describes an essence I believe we all have deep inside ourselves, It has many names, and everyone refers to it as something different. It is a inner Knowing, inner Wisdom, Confidence and inner Love and Peace. I want Divine to be a place that nurtures this essence and inspires others to take time out of their lives to connect with their inner divineness.

Dictionary meaning of the word DIVINE: extremely good; unusually lovely:
“He has the most divine tenor voice.very pleasing; delightful”.

Synonyms: lovely, handsome, beautiful, good-looking, prepossessing, charming, delightful, appealing, engaging, winsome, ravishing, gorgeous, bewitching, beguiling; wonderful, glorious, marvellous, excellent, superlative, perfect; delicious, mouth-watering, delectable; bonny; heavenly, sublime, dreamy, sensational, knockout, stunning, super, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, great, tasty, fanciable, easy on the eye, a sight for sore eyes, as nice as pie; brilliant, brill, smashing; fair; raresightly

“don’t you think she looks rather divine?”

Devoted to God; sacred: divine liturgy
“Any authority will do, any divine mission, any sacred fatherland or revolution”. (the Divine)

Discover (something) by guesswork or intuition: mum had divined my state of mind

Logo meaning:

Visual is a very important part of my life, the beauty and wonder I feel inside when I look at something I find physically breathtaking is a feeling that can only be summed up as a Divine experience. So when creating the logo for Divine Skin and Beauty It had to inspire that feeling at first glance, I wanted to create something that re-inspired that feeling every time the logo was viewed or the name was said.

I have always loved circles and triangles and once I began to research the meaning behind each of the shapes I knew that I needed to incorporate these into the creation of Divine. Because balance is one of the key attributes, the logo itself needed to reflect this in its imagery, so I knew that I needed to create something that mirrored itself. Beauty is also something that comes from within so I needed a centre focus in the logo that radiated out, just like inner beauty begins inside and then is radiated out from the person effecting all others that come into contact with them.

Colours where another aspect in creating the feeling of Divine, I knew I wanted Gold, Purple and Pink which turned out to have beautiful meaning linked to the values above.

Colour meaning:

Gold (associated with the gold circle): Success, Achievement, Triumph, Abundance, Prosperity. Masculine energy, sun power. Optimistic, Positive, Illuminates “enhances other thing around it” Wisdom, Self and Soul, Generous, Giving, Beauty and Light.

Purple (associated with the purple centre points): Individual, Creative, Intuitive, Humanitarian, Mystery, Fantasy, Wealth, High Quality, Superior Premium Service.

Pink:(associated with the pink centre points) Unconditional Love, Nurturing, Warmth,Calming and Hope, Sweetness, Feminine and Intuitive energy.

Shape meaning:

Circle:

• Inclusion
• Wholeness
• Focus
• Unity
• Nurturing
• Cycles
• Initiation
• Everything
• Perfection
• Womb
• Centering
• Revolution
• Infinity
• Mobility
• Completion

In alchemical symbolism the circle is a center point of focus. Circles are a prolific feature in esoteric alchemical art. Circles are an emphasis on the featured work within its contoured border. It’s like alchemists were amplifying the function of the element. For example If fire is a feature in the work, a circle around it will illuminate the focus of the fire.

Circles were protective emblems to the Celtic mind. Circles were often drawn as protective boundaries, not to be crossed by enemy or evil.

In Chinese macrocosmic symbology, the circle expresses the shape of heaven, The deeply significant yin yang symbol is circular, and thus speaks to us of encompassing the whole of duality with intent for unified balance.

Circle’s includes us in the grand scheme, In fact, when a symbol is shown with a circle around it the symbol beckons the viewer to be drawn in, and included in the experience of whatever symbolic message the center may hold.

Few objects can change meaning based on the direction of the shape, If a triangle stand erect its affirming masculine energies. When inverted, tips pointed down, its hailing a feminine energy.

When looking at a triangle you cant help but think of the number three. Three represents the union of the numbers prior to it (One and Two). Numerologically speaking, if One represents force, and Two represents an opening, then Three is the birthing of true wisdom.

To the Greeks, the triangle is seen as the delta glyph and is symbolic of a doorway. It revisits the combination of polarities to push out a new opening. For example, balancing thought and emotion would provide a doorway to higher wisdom (the hypotenuse).

Triangles:

• Gender
• Creativity
• Harmony
• Proportion
• Ascension
• Manifestation
• Illumination
• Integration
• Subjectivity
• Culmination

Down VS Up:

Lunar -Solar

Yoni -Lingam

Shakti -Shakta

Passive -Active

Cave- Mountain

Down -Up

Mother -Father

Two Hands:

• Balance
• Choice
• Contrast
• Justice (think of a scale)

In Asian cultures the left hand is symbolic of yin energy and the right yang energy.

In the ancient Celtic way of thinking (and countless others), the hand was symbolic of spiritual power. Further, hands were thought to harbor energetic power as we see invocations by Celtic gods and goddesses as well as Druids.

The Divine Logo Message:

At the heart of the logo is a tiny circle, This represents the notion that true beauty begins from within, its a circle to represent the Chinese symbology for heaven. This heaven is a place that lives inside each and everyone of us.

The Triangles in the Divine logo represent the the door way or the channels that our beauty radiant from. Just like a flower bud our beauty opens and radiates out to touch and influence others around us. The triangles are a combination of small, large, erect and inverted to represent complete balance masculine and feminine energy. The colour pink is used to represent unconditional love and nurturing while purple combines the calm stability of blue and the fierce energy of red.

The second Circle in the Divine logo is the gold circle around the outside of the triangles. This represents the positive, illuminating true wisdom of self and soul, it represents the generous sharing of beauty and light that a person gives so freely to everyone they come into contact with when they feel truly beautiful. It symbolises protection, unified balance and puts emphasis and illuminates the focus of higher wisdom and complete harmony of the triangles.

The Hands in the Divine Logo represent what divine is all about, my hands are the channel for my work and they cradle the beauty that is represented as the heart of the logo. With every treatment or client I come into contact with at Divine the mission is to inspire the beautiful feeling within them and by doing so awaken the Divine heaven that lives inside all of us.

“With every client, I give the gift of Divine.”

— Tegan Frost

Tegan xxx

Why we love emerginC

There are SO many reason why I love emerginC… infact there is over 8 years of reasons why I love emerginC!

I have been working with this range almost as long as I have been a beauty therapist. Besides from the fact I have been able to achieve AMAZING results from this range for my clients.

There is a few deeper reasons as to why I love this range with a passion. In this blog I want to share with you some of those reasons and teach you a few things you may not know about the amazing emerginC skin care range.

The emerginC brand is a simple story of emerging. The journey began in 1996 with one of the most stable and effective vitamin C serums to emerge on the beauty market. Now at that time this was an amazing achievement in itself, the industry had just began to find out how wonderful Vitamin C was as an ingredient for skin health and treatment for various skin conditions, but because vitamin C oxidises (goes off) so fast if its not encapsulated correctly there was lots of issues utilising this ingredient in some skin care products.

At that time they had no formal marketing plan or even an office, just a Manhattan studio apartment.The buzz about the VitaminC product began to spread and emerginC started to grow by word of mouth. More products emerged— two, then four, then eight, some amazing facials and body treatments and now the range has approximately 80 products, for all skin types, and all the while, they never compromised their commitment to quality and effectiveness.

emerginC work’s with top chemists, state-of-the-art labs incorporating clinically proven cosmeceutical and medical-grade ingredients, active botanicals and marine extracts, and are always on the lookout for new technologies to ensure that, no matter the environment, your skin radiates and the best of you keeps emerging.

The emerginC green incentive – Now this is one of the reasons I love emerginC so much. They have taken an industry leading role in giving back and sustainability, with the beauty industry-first “buy one, plant one” tree planting program.

Trees are essential for life. They provide us with Oxygen, store carbon and stabilise soil. They are the biggest plants and longest living species on earth. They connect the past with the present. They provide us with tools and shelter.

emerginC and you help better our planet by planting a viable, indigenous tree in a non harvest location for EVERY RETAIL SIZE product sold, Click here for more information.

“emerginC strives to implement environmentally friendlily practises”

They started the emerginBees bee habitat initiative as well as the emerginCeeds organic vegetable program, while taking pains to source ethically and sustainably wherever possible, including the use of fair trade ingredients.  And they have long ago emerged from that studio apartment. They now have a headquarters in their own wind-powered building near the waterfront in Brooklyn, with weekly yoga classes, rooftop vegetables, flowers, and chickens that give organic eggs all year round….. How cool is that!!!! If thats not “practise what you preach” then I don’t know what is!

The office runs on 100% windmill generated power and approximately 80% of emerginC is manufactured using wind power.

• No synthetic colours or fragrance
• Not tested on animals
• Paraben free

Today, emerginC has emerged into tops spas in many counties around the world. They deliver the results you deserve, all with an eye to sustainability, giving back, nourishing your skin and your spirits, lighting the way for a better community all of us to emerge. 

The essence of emerginC is still emerging.

I have had the pleasure of meeting the lovely founder + CEO, Ian Lirenman twice over my 8 years as a emerginC therapist, here he is below planting Pok Choi on the emerginC rooftop garden in Brooklyn, NY. (Check out how good his skin looks!!!)

For more information on emerginC or if you are interested in finding the perfect products to suit your skin care please feel free to send me a message here.

Tegan xxx

Tegan's Tip- Peeling nails

Above is a picture of my own nails, over the last year I have noticed my nails beginning to peel and break almost constantly, a trip to my GP in August reminded me of the connection our outside appearance has with our inner system- Our skin, hair and nails are tools that report messages back about our inner health.

In my case I was boarding on anaemia ( I have struggled with my iron my whole life) but I had missed the usual signs. 

Here is why:
Nails are made from keratin, a protein that’s also found in your hair. Nails have multiple, tough layers that can peel, which can cause the nails to appear thin or become weakened causing them to split. The professional term for peeling or splitting fingernails is "onychoschizia".

Internal causes can vary but sometimes dry, peeling nails can indicate a vitamin deficiency, typically an iron deficiency.

You need iron to manufacture hemoglobin and myoglobin, the proteins responsible for transporting oxygen to your tissues and muscles, as well as for proper growth and development and functioning of your immune system. Along with fatigue, decreased body temperature, an iron deficiency also causes brittle, splitting nails.

*Always confirm any suspicion of deficiencies by a blood test and a consultation with your GP.

Tegan xx

Skin Nutrition: Dermo-nutrition

This is an area that I am very passionate about! I truly believe for beautiful healthy skin you have to use good quality skin care products, with a high potency, stable active ingredients, AND! consume good quality food, with high, clean energy.

Dermo-nutrition is a modern science highlighting the link between food and our skin’s appearance or “beauty”. While nutritional deficiencies can be easily seen on the face, improving our eating habits can change this with equally visible results.

Now I haven’t always been very good with my eating (and I still have my bad days!) as you can see from these pictures below. The first photo is of me from 2006, this is the ONLY photo I have of myself at this size, as i didn’t enjoy having my photo taken ( this is from a family photo, my mum made me take haha)

I weighed a hefty 99.9Kg, which is quite a lot for my 163cm frame.

The second photo is the most recent photo of me at a friends wedding, weighing 75Kg, (still a little while to go) but as you can see from the picture a lot more happy and healthy :)

Eating for the health of my skin and my body, is a journey that I have been on for the last 7-8 years, which was around the time I began my beauty therapy training and started to learn in more detail about the cells that make up our body and skin. I began to really appreciate that old saying “you are what you eat”. Literally our entire body is made from the food we choose to consume. Every 28 days roughly) our skin cells turn over, so if your skin and nails are looking dull and lackluster, you have the food you ate 28 days before to thank for their appearance.

I now ask myself almost every time I choose to eat something;

  “will this food nourish & better my body”

If the answer is no, I think to myself, what is the benefit in eating this. Sometimes this is enough to not eat the food, or other times if I’m craving a piece of chocolate cake, l will eat it, but it is ALWAYS a conscious choice.

Eating trends change over the years – and with it, the impact on health, skin and beauty.

About 10-15 years ago we had a “Fat free” epidemic. I know from personal experience how effective this type of marketing is for weight loss. The word on the street was, fat is the enemy. If you wanted to be thin, eating any type of fats (even the good sources) was a NO NO! I will explain in more detail in my Omega 3 & 6 blog, how very important consuming healthy fats daily are for our skin and bodies. I always know the clients who have very fat restricted diets, it’s literally written all over the skin. I will explain the signs to look for.

Because eating healthy good food is very important to me, I am writing a chain of blogs based around the six most important vitamins and minerals for skin beauty and health, and because they are so amazing! they deserve their own individual blog!

-VitaminC

-VitaminB

-Vitamin A

-Zinc 

-Omega 3 & 6

-Water

This science really shines a light on our eating habits, and does render us to ask the question. “Will this food nourish & better my body”

My mole map experience

Around 250 New Zealanders die from melanoma each year, BUT many more are successfully treated.

However the long term success of treatment greatly depends on early diagnosis.

Today I had a full mole map appointment at the Carefirst Medical centre in New Plymouth. I was absolutely blown away with the technology available to us today, but I couldn’t help but think how many of us actually take full advantage of it?

Prior to my appointment I was asked to

• Remove all polish from my toe nails and finger nails
• Arrive with no make up, or fake tan products
• Check for moles on scalp, buttocks & genitals – As these areas are not routinely checked in your mole map. However if you find any moles you would like to be checked in these areas, you are asked to advise your mole map technician.

We began the appointment with some questions on family history, sun exposure history and reason for the visit today.

I explained that unfortunately I had exposed my skin to sun beds as a teenager, and had some pretty decent sun burns as a typical out door-active youth growing up in the Naki. Thankfully my father and mother have only had BCC’s (Basal cell carcinoma – More about this and other skin lesions in an up and coming blog) but nothing more serious.

After we finished documenting the answers to the questions, I was asked to undress down to my underwear (ekkk this is the part I know a lot of you will be breaking out in a cold sweat about. If I was to tell you I wasn’t nervous at all, I would be lying), BUT I keep telling myself its just like what I do for a living, and she isn’t looking at the extra serving of plum duff & Christmas pavlova I was carrying … she is more concerned with my moles, and this did make me feel a little better.

I was then analysed from top to toe, and any moles of concern were circled with a white chalk pencil.

My hair line, under arms, in-between each finger & toe, palms and soles were checked also.

Then each mole was recorded via two photo’s and matched against the area of my body in which it is located.

The first camera was just a digital picture, like a naked eye view, this was then linked to a digital body part in the computer system (very effective recording system I thought).

The second camera… WAS AMAZING. This camera took a incredibly detailed close up picture of the mole or lesion in question. I could see the tiny blood vessels in my skin linking up to the moles, also the amazing pigmentation that my skin and the moles were made up of.

These photos will be checked by a Naevus specialist, and a full report on each mole will be sent to me. I will also be contacted if any moles need to be removed. I will write a quick blog about the results and how they come back to me.

In total, the appointment took 60 minutes & cost $225.00. In my opinion, it was money and time well spent. I found the mole map extremely thorough, professional and quite comfortable (once you got into it).

I left my appointment feeling thankful and happy to myself for having the peace of mind that a professional will take the time to look at my moles and make sure everything is healthy. 

It is so easy to tell yourself things like

“ Im too young for anything to not be right”, “nothing has changed”, or “I’ll get it checked one day”.

But the reality is there is nothing better than peace of mind, and that old saying “it’s better to be safe than sorry” springs to mind… and heres another one for you “there is no time like the present”. Speaking of ‘present’ I have booked my husband in for a full mole map, and think I will give this as a gift to my loved ones for their birthday this year.

I fully recommend everyone to have their moles checked at least once, then depending on your own unique results, either every year, or two years. I was told that after your first assessment, every appointment after that is a lot cheaper, I will find out the price for you.

I urge anyone to have a complete mole check especially if

• You have had a direct family member who has had a melanoma eg mother, father, sister, brother, grandparent.
• If you have had significant sun exposure or sun beds (especially when young)
• If you have fair skin that burns easily (red hair, light coloured eyes or hair)
• Large number of moles (over 100)
• Abnormal moles (usually 5 or more)

To Book a mole map appointment

Call Carefirst medical centre

99 Tukapa Street, Westown New Plymouth 4310

Phone:06-753 9505

Information about the Naevus mole map system:

“Naevus is a unique service for skin cancer detection using advanced computer technology and high definition digital photography screening (Digital Dermoscopy) that provides you with immediate results”.

“Digital Dermoscopy is a new and exciting technology. It is a research based approach to early detection of melanoma. It involves the use of digital technology along with a to provide a vastly magnified view of structural changes within moles and other skin lesions at a stage long before that visible to the naked eye. This greatly increases the accuracy of the early diagnosis of melanoma and skin cancer”.

“The system used is ‘Fotofinder Dermoscope’ that has been developed by the Dermatology Department of the University of Tuebingen in Germany. The system has a diagnostic sensitivity of 96% and Diagnostic specificity of 93%”.

Information sourced from http://naevus.co.nz/

Winter Skin Care

Confession… I love winter!

I love the fashion! The colours!…Beautiful coats and boots <3

I love the crisp mornings, snuggling up with a cup of tea in gorgeous pjs and slippers, and of course keeping warm and snuggly in bed….My favourite place.

But what I don’t love, is how damaging winter can be to our skin!

A lot of people think summer is the most damaging season on our skin, especially because we can literally feel the sun and its rays burning our skin, but winter is A LOT sneakier….

In fact you quite often don’t feel the damage until it has taken a strong hold on the skin!

But never fear my beauties, before the cold sets in I have a few tips and tricks to help you stay beautiful this winter <3

Tip # 1: Moisture from the inside out

– If you are not already supplementing EFA’s now is the time!

I talk about EFA’s (essential fatty acids) a lot, because they are so essential for proper skin function and health. In our western diets we just don’t consume enough good fats (omega 3&6) and this literally becomes our protective skin barrier.

When our skin has a working barrier the skin radiates with health. Without this vital barrier the skin is helpless to foreign invaders and looks lacklustre and unhealthy.

To read more information about EFA’s here is a link to my previous article all about how they work in the skin….

-EFA’s can be obtained from either fish or flax seed. Both are excellent, however a flax source contains extra benefits to skin in the form of Linoleic acid, this is especially beneficial to anyone who suffers from dermatitis or psoriasis.

Tegans favourites

-Bestow beauty oil 1 x Tblspn a day

-Nortic Naturals omega 3,6,9 x 3 capsules a day

Tip #2: Protective ingredients

Winter skin care needs to contain different “protective ingredients” than summer skin care.

Let me ask you this….

What is the driest place in your house?… I’ll give you 5 seconds to think…..

5

4

3

2

1

Times up!

It is your fridge/freezer…. Yes seriously your fridge freezer is the driest place in your house… Think about how dry your food gets if you leave it uncovered in your fridge for a day… or even two days!

Now just picture your skin as that food when you expose it unprotected to the cold out doors repetitively and think what is going to happen to it?… It will dry out!

This is the hidden danger of winter! Winter damages by rapidly drawing the moisture out of our skin.

But lucky there are ingredients/products you can use to help fend off the terribly moisture poaching cold!

-Tegans favourites

-Super hydrating serum Nimue

– Hypervitalizer cream emerginC

3: Just because its winter…. doesn’t mean you can ditch the SPF

I know you have heard or read me say this a million times…. But I’m going to say it again!

Where there is light there is UV!

In winter there might not be as high concentration of UVB, but there is still UVA… and that is our skins aging rays, so we still need protection!

The biggest difference when looking for a winter SPF is to choose a SPF in a nourishing formulation – something containing ingredients like Shea Butter, Linseed Oil, Evening Primrose Oil, Rose Hip and Ceramides to name a few.

And just a little side note, since we are on the topic… Yes you still need to apply a separate topical SPF, don’t rely on your makeup for this protection :)

-Tegans favorites

-Coola SPF mineral matte tinted

Tip #4 Drink up!

I don’t know about you, but in winter I find it so hard to drink water from my water bottle. It’s just so cold the last thing I want to do is drink cold water!

So tip number 4 is drink warm water to keep up your water intake. Be it herbal tea, like green tea or peppermint, fresh lemon in water or just plain water warmed, don’t let the cold be an excuse to not drink your water.

Lets have the most beautiful winter to date!!!

xxx

What to avoid for skin health

I have a dream… Well a mission really….

““One day I dream that teenage girls will value using a good SPF as much as they might value having a labeled lipstick or the latest “must have holy grail make up products” from the latest beauty guru…. I tell you what, your skin will be around longer then that expensive lippy you ‘have’ to have!””

— Tegan Frost

I belong to a few beauty forums where woman of all ages come together to discuss the latest in beauty trends and products. I, like most woman LOVE the latest lip stick shades and the beautiful packaging from some of the amazing cosmetic companies. But it was in this forum that I made two discoveries

1- How many young woman are concerned with their skin. They want to have nice skin, but they either don’t know where to start or what to use.

2- How many woman would prefer to just cover up their skin with expensive make up, and don’t want to spend much (if any) money on skin care. This is often caused by the latest foundations they are recommended to use being extremely expensive, and they aren’t left with a lot of extra money at the end of the day…

Now I am not here to judge at all! The beauty of having your own money is to spend it on whatever you want to…. I am simply here to voice another perspective for you to think about; I want you to think about your skin. 

You are only born with one skin. I want you to think about what you put on it, not only your face but more importantly, your whole body…. But for the point of this article, lets concentrate on the face.

Good skin care is expensive… I know it is and I understand, I really do…. I began as a struggling student myself, living off a $150 student allowance. This would have to stretch to cover rent, petrol, food… and fun! So believe me I know…. But then again anything worth having is often expensive.

Most of you understand that when comparing … lets say a high end beauty product like lipstick, to a basic lipstick brand, (besides the packaging and the label) the function, lasting power and pigmentation of that product can vary dramatically… cant it? Some low end lip sticks might only last 5 minutes compared to high end brands that can last all day (just an example).

This is also true for the function of skin care products… But the part where they differ is a low end lipstick is highly unlikely to bring any harm to the health of your skin (I would like to think not at all!)… unfortunately the same cannot be said for some low end skin care products….

Now the last things I would ever want to do is scare you or to sell any products (which is why in this article you will find NO SPECIFIC BRANDS) but instead I want to teach you what ingredients to look out for… it will then be YOUR educated choice to either avoid or minimize these ingredients… or continue to use… but the main thing is the choice is yours, my job is to educate you.

Since I have now been studying beauty therapy and skin since 2007, I am lucky enough to know first hand how my skin works. I know what it needs to be able to do its job, how I can care for my skin, and what ingredients to avoid. I would like to share with you what I know but first I think for you to value your skin, you need a basic understanding of it e.g. what it actually does and how it really works.

Basic function of skin: First line of defense for the body against injury and the invasion of bacteria, it also acts as a waterproof covering for the body.

How your skin works: The most important thing to understand about our skin and the products you use on it is to understand the pH scale.

What is a pH scale: pH is a chemistry term meaning “Potential of Hydrogen” and refers to the degree of acidity or alkalinity in our outer skin layers. It is measured on a scale ranging from 0 to 14 where the center of the scale (7) is neutral, a reading below 7 indicates that the substance being measured is acidic and above 7 is alkaline.

A healthy skin sits at a pH of 5.5, so as you can see on the graph, its slightly acidic. The problem lies with when you apply a product containing alkaline ingredients to the skin. What this does is it strips the skin of its natural oily protection layer (known as the acid mantle) resulting in a skin that cant do its job anymore.

Using products below 5.5 are also not doing your skin ANY BENEFIT as discussed above but now the skin is allowing invasion of bacteria and other ingredients (ingredients we may not want to be absorbed into the skin). Doing this disturbs the waterproof coating of the skin and allows water to evaporate out of the deeper layers of the skin causing excessive dehydration.

How to read an ingredient list: Im going to teach you a little trick. Did you know that in every product the ingredients are listed in order of potency, meaning the ingredients listed at the top of the list are contained in larger amounts than the ingredients at the bottom of the list…

For example the first ingredient is always the most concentrated; so if you want to purchase a product for its VitaminC benefit, you want to see those relevant ingredients appear in the first 5 names of the list, anything below that and its not the ingredient you are really paying for.

Ingredients to avoid or reduce:

Low end cheaper products (typically called drug store products in America) are more likely to contain these ingredients as they are inexpensive to use, but I recommend you check all your products. I recommend purchasing off a skin care professional that understands their products. They should be able to tell you the pH level of the product, the active ingredients including their percentages, and also how to use the product and any possible complications or things you need to know about that product.

You can almost guarantee any product that you can walk up to and self prescribe, aren’t going to have any ingredients at the right percentage that will actually be able to change or improve the skin. This is as much a safety pre-caution as it is good business… Think about this; cosmetic companies can’t afford for you to not enjoy their products, or worse, have a reaction from them, so most products are made to have little to no effect on the skin at all, except for the sneaky slow change to your skins PH every day…. taking your skin further and further away from the safe 5.5 pH.

These ingredients distress the skin: Avoid or reduce the following

Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) / Sodium laureth sulfate (SLES)

This is one of the most commonly found ingredients (90% of personal-care products that foam)

used in car washes, garage floor cleaners and engine degreasers. Animals exposed to SLS experience eye damage, depression, laboured breathing, diarrhea, severe skin irritation, and even death. SLS may also damage the skins immune system by causing layers to separate and inflame. When combined with other chemicals, SLS can be transformed into nitrosamines, a potent class of carcinogens. Your body may retain the SLS for up to five days, during which time it may enter and maintain residual levels in the heart, liver, the lungs, and the brain.

Other ingredients to avoid:

• Phthalates
• Added colouring – If you take a look at your product label and you notice FD&C or D&C, they represent artificial colours. These letters precede a colour and number (e.g., D&C Red 27 or FD&C Blue 1). These synthetic colours are derived from petroleum or coal tar sources.
• Tricosan (petrochemicals)
• Cocamidopropyl betaine (CAPB)
• Parabens
• Mineral oil

• Added Fragrance
• Microbeads
• Propylene glycol
• Alcohol, Isopropyl (SD-40) – very drying and irritating solvent and dehydrator that strips your skin’s moisture and natural immune barrier, making you more vulnerable to bacteria, molds and viruses

For more information please feel free to read the link below about each ingredient

http://www.spabeauty.co.nz/Beauty+Articles/x_post/six-toxic-ingredients-you-need-to-avoid-00266.html

or feel free to read the book “Malcolm Rands – ECOMAN”

Tegan’s tips for great skin

• Consult a beauty therapist who specialises in skin health.

Initially we spend up to two years studying to become a beauty therapist and beyond this spend thousands of dollars on our careers learning about the function of skin in depth. As we never stop studying and up-skilling, this ensures you receive the best and most up to date advice and treatment for your skin.

We are beauty therapist’s for a reason, because we love people, we love to make them happy and importantly we love to care for your skin. If you are concerned with expense, talk to your therapist and ask her to create a cost effective skin care plan, she will be more then happy to help you achieve beautiful healthy skin, while keeping your wallet healthy and happy also.

• SPF everyday: my greatest tip is to apply a good quality SPF to your skin EVERYDAY, winter, summer, autumn and spring… yes 365 days a year! Containing physical ingredients like zinc and titanium dioxide, this will keep your skin healthy and looking younger for longer…. Trust me.

• If you wear make up, you need to remove it safely so please invest in a good cleanser; something that is of course pH 5.5 or as close to it. Talk to a skin specialist who can match you with one to suit your needs. You can get beautiful cream cleansers for dryer sensitive skins and cream gel cleansers for skins that have more surface oil to help safely balance the excess oil without stripping the skin.
• Don’t trust marketing buzz words. Make sure you check the ingredients in your products and don’t trust a product simply by how it is marketed. So often less then satisfactory ingredients are hiding in products claiming to be “natural” or “for sensitive skin” especially in baby products so remember chemicals can be natural too. Like my friendRobyn McAlpine Expert Skin Therapist says #turnitover if you unsure of what your using.

Stay Beautiful xxx

Beauty to me is balance.

It’s a balance of  feeling beauty on the inside as much as it is feeling beauty on the outside and your own appearance.

I write lots of articles about skin health and beauty tips, but I have never written about feeling beauty on the inside.

What does beauty on the inside even mean? What does it feel like?

I understand that beauty will feel different to everyone but to me, feeling beauty on the inside is reducing the feeling of stress. It’s allowing myself to be present in the current moment, not worrying about the future, not reminiscing on the past.

It’s believing and trusting in myself and my intuition and knowing that no matter what, I can handle anything that comes my way. In-fact there is nothing that I have not been able to get through, and the same is true for you too. The fact that you are reading this right now means that you have a 100% success rate of getting through anything no matter how tough… Now that is impressive, you are amazing!

“I was asked once “why are you so happy all of the time? Do you ever have a bad day?””

The answer to that last question is absolutely! I’m only human, we all have not so beautiful days. But I always remind myself that I am ALWAYS in control of my feelings, and at any given moment I choose to let myself feel one of two ways… Happy or not happy.

Feeling happy is amazing, and because of this I always try to get back to feeling happy as soon as I can. I also believe in that old saying “ you reap what you sow”. It relates so well as I like to think of feelings as seeds. For example when you are feeling happy, gratitude or love you are dropping more seeds of happiness, gratitude & love to grow and the same can be said for the other type of feelings.

Now it’s ok to feel sad every now and then, but try and turn it around as soon as you can. There is always a silver lining for something to be happy and grateful about. I promise you when you start to feel grateful, the more things there will be to be grateful about. Even if you have to start with just feeling thankful that you are alive and can walk this earth, or thankful for your eyesight, clean water to drink, anything, but be mindful in feeling gratitude and get ready for more wonderful things to come.

““Inner beauty to me is perspective,””

— Tegan Frost

 

Let yourself see the beauty in everything, feel the beauty in everything, become the beauty in everything.

I would like to share with you one of my favourite stories about the classic water/glass perspective…

A psychologist walked around a room while teaching stress management to an audience. As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they’d be asked the “half empty or half full” question. Instead, with a smile on her face, she inquired: “How heavy is this glass of water?”

Answers called out ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz.

She replied, “The absolute weight doesn’t matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it’s not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my arm. If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel numb and paralyzed. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn’t change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.”

She continued, “The stresses and worries in life are like that glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them a bit longer and they begin to hurt. And if you think about them all day long, you will feel paralyzed – incapable of doing anything.”

Remember to put the glass down.

““If it doesn’t make you feel beauty, if it doesn’t inspire you, if you cant find that silver lining no matter how hard you try…. why are you doing it? Always remember that you are in-charge.””

— Tegan Frost