Style Icon’s The Fashion Word: A Dose of Dermalogica
How often do you cleanse, tone, and moisturise your skin? These three basic steps of what should be part of our daily skincare regime are often overlooked. It’s easy to fall into bad habits especially after a night out when feeling too tired to remove our make-up before bedtime! This is a major sin in itself, not to mention bad for our skin. If you aren’t as self-disciplined as some others at least make an extra effort to have a monthly facial which will indeed revitalise your skin and give an extra glow to a dull looking face. As a stylist, I get extremely busy especially during Award Season which is from January – February. It doesn’t stop here, with all the networking events I attend in the evening I sometimes wake up to dry skin due to tiredness and alcohol consumption so having regular facials is a MUST. I recently treated myself to a Deluxe Dermalogica Deep Cleansing Facial at Cucumba – the Urban Pitstop. My beauty therapist, Amy Mccorry who was very professional, removed all my make-up initially using Dermalogica precleanse wipes which melt away layers of excess oil. Amy added a little water which transforms this hydrophilic formula into a milky emulsion. This allowed the special cleansing gel, which Amy used after the preclense, to penetrate even further. During the steaming process, my face was cleansed again with a rich, creamy, non-foaming cleanser which helps to replenish dry skin and maintain moisture levels.
There are some great benefits to steaming your face:
- It helps to make healthy skin more responsive to treatment
- helps to fight acne
- It opens your pores and makes you sweat which washes out oil, and grime
- Steaming stimulates blood circulation which increases oxygen and nutrients to the skin
- The mist that surrounds our skin is actually perspiration that helps to push out any debris hidden beneath the skin which can’t be done to the same effect through our own daily routine using just face wash and cleansing milk
- It also helps to remove stubborn whiteheads and blackheads which are easier to remove during the extraction process.
After 10 minutes of steaming, Amy then applied a multivitamin thermafoliant to my face which is a self-heating skin polisher. This also helps to enhance the penetration of age-fighting vitamins into the skin. Now, it was time for a second round of steaming before the uncomfortable extraction process. As I knew what to expect this time around, I experienced less discomfort but still couldn’t wait for it to be over. My skin was more supple at this stage making is easier to remove the build up of gunk trapped in my pores. For the record, extractions are an important part of a facial treatment. Once the follicles are cleared out, your skin should improve again. Extractions should not last more than ten minutes. I then had a skin hydrating masque of calming botanicals applied to my face which helped to soothe it before applying moisturiser. The final touch was placing a little multi-vitamin power firm around my eye and lip area to accelerate the skin’s natural repair process. I instantly felt brand new, and energised. Here are some other benefits of facial treatments:
- Help to deep cleanse the skin moving toxins caused by pollution
- Help to improve and restore circulation to facial skin layers increasing the flow of oxygen-enriched blood to the skin cells.
- There are emotional benefits to having regular facials – the feel good factor
- Help to slow down the skin-ageing process
One top tip I can give is to have a facial at least once a month! It’s amazing how much your skin glows the following day, and the number of positive remarks you receive as a result such as “Have you been on holiday?” Secretly, you want to say “Yes, I just got back from Thailand” but why not tell the truth and say that you have just had an amazing facial, like I did at Cucumba, as a way of sharing the love especially if it means helping somebody else make a positive difference to their life. Cucumba stock the complete Dermalogica range which are high quality products and worth investing in for your own individual beauty regime.
Written by Natalie Robinson @styleiconnat | Images from Pinterest
