Men are getting savvier with their skin care. That means they’re paying attention to what they’re using on their skin… no more bar soap! Here are some suggestions on my personal favorite picks of skin care products to address men’s unique skin care and grooming needs!
ZIRH Clean- I can’t rave enough about this product. Less than a quarter size in the palm of my hand works to a thick rich lather, providing a deep tingling facial cleansing without over drying my skin!
SkinCeuticals Revitalizing Toner- Excellent to mist on your face and neck after cleansing to help balance your skin’s PH level without any alcohol to cause burning.
The Art of Shaving Cream Sandalwood- This luxurious shaving cream has the rich thick consistency of a whipped balm and provides superior protection against irritation and razor burn.
The Art of Shaving After Shave Balm- Soft smooth after shave balm that nourishes the skin with grape seed, shea extracts and Vitamin C. This product has a very mild fragrance and absorb quickly into your freshly shaven smooth skin!
5. Ole Henriksen Truth Revealed Super Crème- An excellent anti aging moisturizer with SPF 15 helps to brighten, lighten and tighten your skin and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Assists in firming your skin and promoting an overall healthy glow!
Jack Black Dragon Ice Relief and Recovery Balm- After a hard day’s work relax and relieve your muscle pain and joint inflammation with this rich balm containing 2.2% menthol as the active ingredient.
What are your favorite men’s skin care products? Share your comments below or on our Facebook page!
Don’t forget to enter our Sundari Giveaway! Enter here. Event ends 4/25/11.
1. “Never pop a zit, it will cause a scar and get infected“ – FACT. By popping a zit you may end up forcing pus (thick yellow fluid) out of your pore. The problem is that this can cause a tear in the skin leaving you more susceptible to infection. The other risk is that while popping a zit you may end up forcing the fluid downward and inward, further spreading infection and causing more breakouts at a deeper level.
2.)“Don’t tweeze your eyebrows in the opposite direction”; it will cause your brows to grow back in the wrong direction” – FICTION. Eyebrow hairs should always be tweezed in the direction of the hair growth. Tweezing in the direction of the hair growth will maximize your results in removing not just the hair shaft but also the root! Tweezing against the direction of hair growth only lessens effectiveness.
3.) “Never shave your facial hair off; it will cause thicker hair to grow”- FICTION. Shaving facial gives the tip of the hair a more coarse prickly feeling especially when the hair grows back above the surface of the skin. Shaving however will NOT stimulate hair growth. If this was true, all balding men who shave their heads would suddenly have hair growth! Excess facial hair growth for women is usually related to a hormonal imbalance. While shaving may be quick and easy, stubble quickly returns and can leave that 5 O’Clock shadow. Instead consider waxing, cream depilatories, or laser removal.
4.) “Wearing make up causes bad skin” – Could be FACT, could be FICTION. Bad skin is not caused by wearing makeup. Skin issues such as wrinkles, scaling, redness, sun spotting, and overall poor skin condition are usually caused by environmental factors and lack of skin care regimen. However a combination of too much makeup and poor quality makeup can lead to clogged pores and break outs. Try to avoid liquid or cream foundations with mineral oil. Instead try mineral based or water-based foundations or foundations that say “non-comedogenic”.
5.)“Polishing your nails is bad for them and it will make them yellow” – FICTION. Applying polish and clear coat to your nails can help to strengthen your nails and prevent problems such as cracking, chipping or peeling. It is a good idea though from time to time to give your nails a break. Remove all base coats, polish and topcoats and give your nails a day or two to relax and breathe. Some polishes especially dark red polishes have a tendency to stain the top layers of the nail giving them a yellow appearance. While this can be frustrating it is easily remedied by removing all polish with an acetone based polish remover. Use a 3 way nail buffer to remove any surface ridges, smooth out the nail and then buff it back to a shine, follow with cuticle oil. Doing so should remove any of the yellow staining left behind by red polish. Try our SPARITUAL nail line- it’s vegan and free of chemicals!
Do you have any fact/fiction tips from mom? Do share! We’d love to know.
You could win a Perricone MD Cold Plasma! Enter our latest giveaway now! Enter here. Event ends on 4/4/2011.
Sporting green this St. Patrick’s Day doesn’t have to be limited to the usual green clothes, pins, nail polish, makeup etc. Think beyond the box and “Go Green” this March with some of SkinStore’s natural product lines.
With SkinStore “Natural” means the product meets our natural beauty standards with a high concentration of quality natural botanicals while keeping harsh chemicals to a minimum!
Here are some top suggestions on a few green products from our “Natural” brands:
Juice Beauty Green Apple Peel Sensitive – A wonderful and effective yet gentle peel for sensitive skin. Made with certified organic apple, lemon, grape juices and raw cane sugar.
ARCONA Youth Serum – A powerful anti aging 20% Vitamin C serum that helps to prevent photo aging, fine lines and loss of elasticity as well as stimulate collagen growth!
Pevonia Combination Skin Cleanser – Creamy but lightweight cleanser designed to gently but thoroughly cleanse your skin with safflower seed oil, grapefruit peel oil, rosemary and lemon extract!
Caudalie Vine Body Butter – Nourish your entire body with this deeply hydrating body butter that contains grape seed butter, omega 6, vitamin e, and shea butter.
What are your favorite green or natural products? Rate a product online or leave us some feedback on our Facebook page!
And don’t forgot to enter into our GIVEAWAY! Going on on our Facebook page, right now!
Years ago when ladies hair would begin to show signs of gray it meant running to the beauty parlor for a discrete coloring service. And years ago when gentlemen began sporting gray it was usually accompanied by balding and bad combovers. (Not the image most of us want to be remembered by!)
Those days are definitely gone! Bold male actors such as Sean Connery, Richard Gere, Pierce Brosnan and George Clooney set the trend early on by making that salt and pepper gray something dashing and debonair. More recently a newer era of actors beginning to sport the look include Eric Dane, Ben Affleck, Matt LeBlanc and even Brad Pitt!
Actresses Jamie Lee Curtis, Helen Mirren, Blythe Danner, celebrity chef Paula Dean and even singer Pink have all set the new standard for ladies. Silver is sassy and sexy instead of old and tired!
While some may have to make a visit to the hairstylist to get those seductive silver tones, others may have that touch of gray naturally. But how do you ensure your gray is well cared for and nice and silvery, instead of a dull yellowy gray?
We recommend the following hair care products to help highlight your white, silver or gray hair and provide shine and brilliance.
Rene Furterer Okara Mild Silver Shampoorepairs, nourishes and protects hair; enhances silver highlights and dramatically helps to improve the texture of gray and white hair!
With the 83rd Academy Awards airing soon, we will see how fabulous the actors and actresses look as they walk down that glamorous red carpet. Most of them will have flawless, radiant skin that shows no signs of sun damage, hyperpigmentation, wrinkles or sagging skin. Not to mention luscious hair to die for!
Many of you have a special event coming up soon (spring weddings are right around the corner) and need to look fabulously youthful and radiant. How can you achieve all of this without going in for expensive chemical peels, microdermabrasion, injections or surgery?
Here are my “TOP PICKS” for products that will help you achieve a more youthful radiant appearance for your upcoming special event:
Ole Henriksen African Red Tea Foaming Cleanser- This foaming cleanser provides deep cleansing with powerful antioxidants and helps to stimulate collagen synthesis while soothing the skin.
Yonka Lotion PS Toner- Helps to normalize PH Levels in your skin with botanical oil extracts that help to soothe and bind moisture to your skin.
Goldfaden Instant Face Lift- Apply 2-3 drops of this serum to your face to help tighten, smooth and lift skin for up to eight hours. It helps to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles and has cumulative results, too.
Pevonia Timeless Cream- This moisturizer uses caviar extract, pearl, alpha lipoic acid, and retinol to repair and tighten the skin, relax and smooth wrinkles while providing superior hydration!
The best news of all is the above skin care products meet our natural beauty standards with a high concentration of quality natural botanicals while keeping harsh chemicals to a minimum!
I also recommend the following products to maximize your hair volume and shine:
Frederic Fekkai ADVANCED Brilliant Glossing Cream- A frizz fighting glossing cream to provide shine to hair. Rub a small amount between palms and distribute through hair before and after blow-drying to add manageability and shine.
Frederic Fekkai ADVANCED Brilliant Glossing Sheer Shine Mist- A light weight mist delivers an even veil of shine with encapsulated Olive Oil plus all day long protection. Your hair is left with a sheer shine that is the perfect finish for any hair style.
Now go work your own red carpet and look fabulous doing it! You’ve earned it!
And share with us who your favorite star on this year’s runway is! AND don’t forget to checkout our GIVEAWAY! It’s going on right now! So visit our Facebook page to enter!
Winter weather has taken a toll on our skin. The winter cold and indoor heat are leaving our skin chapped and much drier than normal. We’ve forgotten what it’s like to have dewy, soft and supple skin by the end of February.
I myself tend to have dry skin on a regular basis, and especially in the winter, and I’ve tried a variety of products to keep my skin soft. Here are my two top choices for deep hydration that I love! Both hydrate without that oily greasy residue left by most lotions and creams.
Vichy Aqualia Thermal Balm in a 1.7oz pump for $32.00! This balm has a rich, thick texture and makes an excellent day or night moisturizer. This can also be used as a hydrating mask for those in need of a once or twice a week treatment. All the power of Vichy Thermal Spa Water rich with 50mg of minerals are packed into this formula!
Kinerase Pro Therapy Ultra Rich Night Repair in a 1.7oz pump for $149.00. This creamy balm is an excellent night repair cream that helps to rehydrate, reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, and helps to repair sun damage. If your skin is very dry (like mine) you can use it in the morning and evening. It absorbs easily and leaves skin feeling soft and smooth!
Both of these products can help to protect your skin to keep it soft, smooth and supple- keep your friends guessing! Tell us what your favorite winter time product is ~ we’d love to know!
When customers call in asking for guidance on a product like a moisturizer that best suits their specific needs, there are many variables that need to be narrowed down to help the customer choose.
By the time I have a group of products ready to discuss with a customer, many times cost will be a deciding factor. I hear some of the following questions from customers on a regular basis:
• What’s the difference between drug store and department store brands versus what SkinStore.com sells?
• I love my department store brand, why should I pay more for the brands you sell?
• Do I have to spend a lot of money to see results?
The answer to the first question is that each level of cosmetic or skin care products will have ingredients whose potency and effectiveness will vary according to the maximum dollar amount that the consumer is willing to spend. For example a moisturizer at a drug store may cost $15.00, at a department store $30.00, and at a day spa or doctors office $45 and up! Each price range sets the limit on what ingredients; the quantity of those ingredients and the quality of those ingredients that can be used to produce the product. SkinStore continually strives to provide the best products available with more than 200 premium brands typically found only in luxury spas, fine stores and doctors’ offices!
The second question is why should I pay more and graduate to the next level of product? Each of us has unique skin care concerns that can be addressed with a variety of products. In general the younger we are and healthier our skin the less we may need to spend on products to keep our skin healthy. However for some customers concerns with acne, sun damage (hyper pigmentation) or aging are not met with the average drug store or department store levels of products. This is the point where moving up to the next level of product can help you get better results. After all, where’s the savings in buying four anti aging moisturizers for $15 each from a drug store in six months time, totaling $60 when you can buy a more potent & more effective product for $45 and it will last you just as long?
The third and most important question is do you have to spend a LOT of money to see results? The answer is NO! Remember just because you’re choosing a product that is more expensive than what you have used in the past, doesn’t mean you have to choose the MOST expensive product!
SkinStore welcomes you to contact one of our many skin care professionals who are ready to discuss your unique concerns and issues. Our goal is to help guide you to the product(s) that can help you achieve your skin care goals!
Don’t forget that our NIA24 Giveaway is happening now! Enter to win.
Customers frequently call in wanting to know what products will help alleviate their ongoing symptoms of redness in their cheeks, nose, chin, and forehead. Many times customers describe small bumps or pimples that accompany the redness along with occasional itching or irritation especially during times of extreme environmental heat or cold.
Some may just need more intense hydration and products that help address dilated capillary veins that produce redness. For others this can be an ongoing medical condition called Rosacea that should be diagnosed and supervised by a physician. There is no cure for Rosacea, however there are skin care products and regimens designed to help alleviate irritation and calm the skin.
Pevonia Botanica provides four excellent products that help soothe and calm sensitive skin using Green Tea, Licorice and Chamomile. RS2 Gentle Cleanser gently cleans and removes surface impurities while calming and desensitizing the skin. Rose RS2 Gentle Lotion is a gentle toning lotion with Licorice, Green Tea, and Chamomile to help reduce blotchiness. RS2 Concentrate is an excellent serum that helps strengthen capillaries (fine veins), control blotchiness and decongest pores. The final step is RS2 Care Cream with UV protection to hydrate your skin, protect it from damaging UV rays and promote vaso-constriction (reducing fine vein redness).
The B. Kamins line also provides four wonderful products to soothe the symptoms of rosacea. Booster Blue Rosacea Cleanser helps to remove dirt and impurities while soothing and calming redness using B. Kamins Bio-Maple compound and chamomile. Booster Blue Soothing Skin Concentrate is an anti-inflammatory serum that helps reduce redness and calm and soothe skin. Booster Blue Soothing Day Cream is a daily moisturizer with SPF to help moisturize, relieve inflammation, protect against UV rays and create an antioxidant barrier to protect skin cells from free radicals. Finally the Booster Blue Rosacea Masque is a weekly facial treatment that is applied to wet skin and allowed to dry for 5-10 minutes and removed with water to reduce redness and promote a healthier complexion.
Even if you don’t have rosacea but experience problems with dilated capillaries or very sensitive skin, both of these product lines are excellent choices to help overcome those red cheek woes!
Have you entered our latest giveaway? You could win a 5-product regimen from NIA24! Enter now!
Recently I had the pleasure of meeting one of the Arcona representatives while completing training on their products. My first question to be answered was, “What does Arcona mean?” Arcona is the name of the lady chemist that developed this line of skin care products based on natural cosmeceutical grade ingredients in 1989.
My second question to be answered was, “with so many “natural” products out there what makes Arcona different?” The answer to that question is that Arcona products contain natural ingredients such as antioxidants, active enzymes, amino acids at a high concentration level that are designed to assist your skin’s renewal process. These cosmeceutical grade ingredients are obtained through cold-processing for maximum ingredient concentration without reducing the effectiveness.
I was also pleased to find out that Arcona products are vegan, with the exception of a couple of products containing honey! Arcona products also do not contain any fillers, parabens, perfumes, dyes or sodium lauryl sulphates.
I had the pleasure of trying The Basic Five Program for Normal Skin. The kit contains the Golden Grain Gommage (Morning Exfoliant.), Magic White Ice (Hydrator), Desert Mist (Protective Serum), Toner Tea Bar (Night time Cleanser), and Gentle Solution (Night time Repair Serum).
My first delight was applying the Golden Grain Gommage. The blend of distilled water, jojoba beads along with Cranberry, Blueberry White Tea and Grapefruit Seed Extracts gently exfoliated my skin leaving it fresh and smooth.
Next I applied the Magic White Ice. Because I have dry skin I was skeptical that this thin moisturizing lotion would be able to quench my skin’s thirst. I remembered during the training how we were informed that the Arcona products don’t have heavy creams. Their philosophy is to balance your skin’s hydration level and you won’t need heavy creams to compensate. I was very pleased with the results! My skin felt hydrated and renewed and I had a satisfaction in knowing that this had been achieved through natural ingredients and without harmful chemicals.
Finally I applied the Desert Mist. My first thought was this serum appeared oily and would sit on my face creating a shiny complexion. Absolutely the opposite! It quickly absorbed into my skin within a minute creating an antioxidant barrier that helped strengthen my collagen level and acted as a humectant to bind moisture to my skin.
In the evening I followed up by using the Toner Tea Bar. I ran a clean washcloth under warm water and rubbed it on the bar and proceeded to cleanse my face in upward outward circles as the directions suggested. The organic smell of the blend of black tea, green tea, honey, and essential oils by itself was already soothing and relaxing. I found the Toner Tea Bar to be deeply cleansing without drying my skin. I tend to have dry skin and this bar was wonderful on my skin even though this is the bar for Normal Skin!
I completed the night time treatment by applying the Gentle Solution as a night time treatment to nourish and repair my skin with its antioxidants.
After having used these products for two weeks now I can honestly say I enjoy them! I am very pleased with how my skin looks and feels and would highly recommend this line of products for the most scrupulous customer searching for a line of natural based products that are customer and environmentally friendly!
Have you entered our latest giveaway? You could win a 5-product regimen from NIA24! Enter now!
There’s no denying eyebrows can make or break your look! Eyebrow trends come and go, but for the most part having well groomed brows can make all the difference in the message you send when someone approaches you.
In recent years it’s become much trendier for men to go in and have their brows trimmed, groomed, or waxed. Unfortunately there are those cases where the person they went to got over-zealous and tweezed or waxed too much… and well, you get the idea.
Either lady or gentleman, remember the first rule when tweezing and shaping your brows, you can always tweeze more hair later, but if you tweeze too much now you can’t put it back!
The second thing to keep in mind is the old adage, “The right tool for the right job!” If you want to look fierce, using an old beat up pair of cheap tweezers, bad mirrors, and low lighting won’t get you there.
Be sure you invest in a pair of good tweezers. They don’t have to be expensive but I recommend tweezers at a slanted angle or tweezers that come to a point. I recommend Billion Dollar Brows Tweezers, or Tweezerman Slant Tweezers. Either of these tweezers will allow you to precisely remove one hair at a time versus stubby tweezers that may end up pulling out too many hairs at a time! For best results grasp the hair at the base next to your skin and pull outward in the direction of the growth.
Ladies if you’re not sure on what shape to go with, how thick or thin, try using Colorscience Voluptuous Stencil. Use this as a guide to shadow or pencil in you brows. Once completed, trim or tweeze all the brow hairs that fall outside your new brow shape.
When tweezing your brows don’t forget to use a 10X mirror to get you that close up detailed view. Don’t forget to take a moment and step back and view your results in a regular mirror at a distance as you go.
And always remember Eyebrows are Tweezed, Chickens are Plucked!
Have you entered our latest giveaway? You could win a 5-product regimen from NIA24! Enter now!
Men are getting savvier with their skin care. That means they’re paying attention to what they’re using on their skin… no more bar soap! Here are some suggestions on my personal favorite picks of skin care products to address men’s unique skin care and grooming needs!
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