give yourself a facial this weekend :)

We all need pampering once in awhile, but sometimes i don't see why you would spend the extra money to experience something that you can easily do in your own home. This is one of those cases :)

  Now the thing about facials is that its best to perform them on a friend, so that the "client" can be totally relaxed and enjoy their own time more. but since i don't have anyone to do that for me, i will be giving a facial to myself, which is okay but it isn't the best. I will also be doing this for my sister because i feel like a giving mood this weekend ;) haha and just becasue this will be our last weekend together until we're over 2,000 miles apart.

 So either be sincere and do something for a friend this weekend or do this for yourself while you're bored.

THE EASY, AWESOME, @ HOME SPA FACIAL

now before you start the facial, wash your face once to get it clean, twice if you're wearing makeup.

*you can either make the products yourself or use products that you have at home that have the same purpose. Doesn't matter, but i will be making the products myself.*

1.exfoliate the face. I will be using a carrot scrub, which is well blended and contains:

      one carrot blended in a blender

      1 tablespoon all natural fat free yoghurt

      1 1/2 tablespoon(or less) brown sugar

      1 tablespoon honey

* this scrub is great for gently removing dead skin cells, attracting and retaining moisture, and reversing aging and impurities because of the antioxidants. i also find it very soothing relaxing :)

apply to face and leave on 5-7 minutes, and then wipe off with warm,wet washcloth (if you're doing this on your own skin you can rinse it off with warm water if you prefer)

2. while laying down, apply a steamed towel to your face, covering all areas except your breathing holes of your nose and mouth, and leave on for 5 minutes.(click here to learn how to steam your facial towel).

3. now this step is optional, but since i have young, acne-prone skin i will be using this on myself: apply honey (or any acne treating product) to your "problem areas" and let it sit there for a few minutes (honey is very good for treating acne and promotes moisture the skin area, which also fights acne. i''m going to apply this to the black heads and white heads on my face). Afterwards wipe it off with a wet washcloth or gently rinsed off over the sink.

4. now either using a special face oil or just regular cooking oil, apply just enough to your hands to make your fingertips glide easily across your face, but doesn't make your face very slippery. I will be using extra virgon olive oil for this, but any cooking oil will work just as well. With very light pressure, work your fingertips in circular motions moving upward. work your fingers across your face for more stimulation of collagen and blood circulation, or work your fingers slower around your face for more relaxation. it doesn't matter, but if you're doing this to someone else ask them what they would prefer, and keep checking back in with them to make sure you're not hurting them or whatever. massage for however long you or the client wants, it doesn't matter. but i'll probably do it for ten minutes. and don't forget your neck and shoulders!

5. Now wipe off access oil with a warm, wet washcloth and apply a face mask of your choice. I will be using an avocado mask that contains:

     

      .half of an avocado mashed up (or you could use half of a mashed banana)

      .one green tea bag (rip it open and dump it into your avocado/banana)

  

either using a foundation brush or your fingers apply all over the face, avoiding the hair and eyes, and leave on for 20 minutes. You can put 2 already-steeped tea bags and use them to cover your eyes and undereye area for an extra benefit (cucumber slices would work well too) while the mask is on your face. For the last 2 minutes put a steam towel over the face. then when the times up use the steam towel to wipe off the product, and then either rinse your face or repeat wiping the remainders of the mask with the steam towel. BUT if you are using a product of your choice follow the instructions on the packaging instead.

6. Apply your favorite serum, eye cream, face cream, etc onto the clean face and you're done!

  I love to do this kind of stuff for myself and friends. I will be pampering myself and my sister this weekend with this DIY facial, but i'll also be saving a ton of money i don't have by doing this at home instead of going to a spa.

Have a great weekend everyone!

photo above





What There is to LOVE About Green Tea

 So just starting off my blog i thought that this would be a great topic to refresh our minds on. We here of how Green Tea is so beneficial to us when we want to lose weight, fight the risk of cancer and other diseases, get energy with minimal caffeine, and so on. I figured since we all heard the talk of it but don't really know WHAT makes this type of tea so good for you that I should write a little about why it is so important to add this tea to our lifestyle.

 While black tea is used from the same plant (Carmellia Sinensis) as green, black tea has been oxidized and therefore has lost all of the vital nutrients that the plant provides. Green Tea though is steamed and withered to provide all of it's antioxidants called catechins. Used for over 4 thousand years by the chinese, green tea has been used like medicine because it was believed to have many healing powers.
  The antioxidants in green tea for one fight the cancerous free radicals from doing harm to your body. It reduces the risk of stroke, cancer, and heart disease, and lowers the "bad" cholesteral LDL and blood sugar levels as well.
  Then there is the poly phenols that burn calories and ramp up your metabolism because they heat up in your body. Also, because of the antioxidants Green Tea is great for fighting free radicals! It is used in many beauty creams and lotions because the benefits that the plant has includes reversing aging skin.
 Not all green tea has these amazing properties though. Buying bottled green tea is just a waste of your money because after being packaged in preservatives and such the nutrients become diluted and don't have any affect anymore to your health. I would recommend just drinking a hot cup of green tea a couple times a day (i drink it morning and night), and if you don't like the taste of it (i've grown to it's flavor, because it is a little bitter but now after drinking it for so long i actually like it) you could add some lemon juice or honey. You can also make ice tea out of it too. Just find what you like and you can let me know what your favorite way to drink it is :)
 So that is all on my rant about green tea. This post kinda seems long but my point was green tea is beneficial to all of us, and incorporating it into our lives will just be like another detox for our body and skin. Hope you enjoyed this and i'll be updating soon!

Bored On a Wednesday Night

So i'm sitting here on a wednesday night and there really isnt anything to do, so what better to do than to make a facial mask :D Now i say mask, but really it's a scrub/cleanser. I came up with it a couple days ago and i really like it because it has really good benefits and is super easy.

Ingrediants:

Green Tea

 Green tea has lots of antioxidants that prevent free radicals, which once enter the body can damage DNA and the cell membrane (producing cancer, other diseases, and aging skin), from coming into the body by fighting them before they can damage significant molecules. So with that applying green tea on your skin can prevent aging and heal acne while also cleansing the skin. Instead of applying already-to-drink green tea on my face i'll be using the leaves in the scrub to exfoliate the face as well.

Honey
Honey works very well for healing acne (so good for teenagers ;) ) and is a humectant (absorbs moisture from the air) so it attracts and retains moisture, preventing your skin from drying out.

Oatmeal
Now this is the ingrediant that is going to cleanse your face(so you won't even need to wash it before you apply this scrub) but it has many more benefits. Oatmeal is a natural cleanser, so it will remove all dirt from your skin while gently exfoliating, leaving a soft,renewed glow. It also contains antioxidants to protect your skin from free radicals.
                                                

So the first step is to mix on teaspoon of honey in with half of the pre-soaked leaves in a tea bag.  

     

Then you prepare oats. Clench about half a fistful in your hand and run it under lukewarm water until they are very moist. Work the water into the oats with your fingertips and then squezze out all of the excess water. then add it to your green tea and honey and stir.

Now just take the mixture into your hands and massage very gently into your face, avoiding your eyes (*note* i recommend that you do this over your garbage disposer in your kitchen sink so that it doesn't clog up your bathroom sink or bathtub). Then after a minute of gently rubbing it all over your face wash it off. Then apply moisturizer and you are good.

  This was a long post but this facial cleanser will take no time to make. After i washed this off my skin felt very smooth and awakened. So hope you try this because i really liked it, and don't let the pictures prevent you from trying this because this stuff looks really gross, i know, but it works very well. Have a good night.

Fine tooth or Brush?

So just a short post that will save your hair; stop brushing your hair when it's wet! This is probably common sense to most of you, but when your hair is wet it is more vulnerable to breaking. You definitely know when your brushing after getting out of the shower and then you hear your hair snap. Not cool!

Yes, brushing your hair when it's wet is just about as bad as always using heat tools on it. So invest $5 in a comb. I recommend one that has wide-gapped teeth. This will help your broken hair grow back to normal length, and you won't see as much hair in your comb as you did in your brush before because your not snagging out as nearly as much strands.

But do keep your brush for when your hair is dry,  because it is faster and gets the knots out better.

d.

First Post

Hey everyone!! so yes this is my first blog post on Pure Complexion and i just want to tell you that i will be keeping up with this blog a lot with daily beauty posts because there is a lot of information that i have to keeping your hair, skin, and body in the healthiest way possible. I will be posting on this blog what i have found to be the best skin care and health tips, because in the media today there is so much information that the advice given may not be the actual truth, so i will post what i have found to work best for me. Well that is pretty much all i have to say at the moment but as i update this site i hope that you will look around on it and that it will be useful to you.

d.