exfoliating sea salt and apricot oil body scrub...

I came across this basic and easy to make scrub from the book "Secrets of the Spas" by Catherine Bardey. Slough off dead skin and leave your skin soft with a hint of apricot...

• 2 cups coarse sea salt
  
• 1/4 cup apricot kernel oil
  
• body scrub tool (I like the tools by Earth Therapeutics for example).

Mix the sea salt and oil into a paste, while in the shower rub on skin in a circular motion from feet upwards (towards the heart). Be firm but not abrasive, after the entire body has been scrubbed use a loofah (scrub tool) to remove salt and rinse. If you feel the need to use a mild wash do so. Pat dry.

get the scoop on test-driven products...

Zoozoom, the original online glossy, has posted a great story on tried and tested skincare products. Click here to take a peak...and if your interested, don't forget to look at some of their fun fashion spreads...

skincare with a hint of rose...

The scent of rose is worth blogging about again and again. I've blogged before about my favorite mask from Aubrey Organics and luscious body oil from Weleda. Nature Girl offers a face mask "I Am Petal" and always a great staple for your bedside table or office desk is the rose hand cream by Jurlique.

the season of Strawberries...

Try a little kitchen table beauty with a fresh, in season, strawberry mask. Strawberries, as many fruits, are abundant in mild natural acids that will act as an exfoliant while evening out skin tone to give your face a satisfying summer glow...

• 3 ripe strawberries (preferably from your local farmers market and most definitely organic).
  

Wash berries, remove stems, mash and apply pulp and juice on face. Let sit for 15-20 minutes then rinse with warm water. Apply your favorite soothing moisturizer or let your face breath for the evening.

back from vacation...

...and before I know it, I am back. Vieques was amazing and highly recommended for those who love to lounge at isolated beaches (above). I always have a great time whenever I travel to Puerto Rico. I stayed at a wonderful apartment on the water with my sister and her friends. I always pack light for the Caribbean, one carry on bag. All you need is a bikini, hat, book and large scarf. Oh and a dress for the plane. My bag and dress (pictured above) are from my friend Mona's beach line Float. She is kind enough to offer all Flawless Beauty readers a 20% discount on all orders through June 30th. Enter flawbeau08 in the discount code box. Click here to see the collection.
While on vacation, my sister and I explored the local fruit stands and discovered the amazing properties of fresh papaya! Papaya is a great natural exfoliant for the skin and very healthy for the body so eat half then make a mask with the rest. The enzymes in a papaya soften and heal by fighting free-radical damage while dissolving dead cells from the skins surface. Similar to pineapple. Just mash, apply directly to skin and leave on for 15 minutes or so then rinse.

Another thing Vieques had a lot of...mosquitoes (yuk). Tea Tree Oil is a great natural mosquito bite soother. I feel like it is a decent insect repellent as well. I always travel with a small bottle when going somewhere humid. Available at most beauty or health food stores.

leave skin glowing...

Ren makes a lot of amazing products that leave one with healthy and radiant skin. Surprisingly, I first discovered Ren products while staying in a hotel that was fully stocked with this wonderful brand. I was instantly hooked and have been ever since! My latest favorite from Ren is the Glycolactic Skin Renewal Peel Mask. A gentle fruit acid complex leaves you with exfoliated glowing skin in optimal health. Not suitable for very sensitive skin. Available at Renskincare.com.

a new take on "disposable"...

Summer is about to set in and smooth legs are yet again the hottest item of the season. Forget the runway trends and go straight for those sexy legs. Preserve Recyclable Razors are the eco must for getting all parts smooth, made from recycled Stonyfield Farms yogurt containers. When finished, these razors retire right into your home recyclables container.

expert skincare advice on pores...

Dr. Mah Hussain-Gambles Ph.D, the natural skincare specialist who created the aforementioned and remarkable skin care range Saaf, has much to offer the generally beauty industry disillusioned:

Primarily, a gentler, evidence-based approach to skin care that transcends outrageous beauty marketing claims and emphasizes instead what has consistently worked over her fifteen plus years of research and treating people homeopathically.

Here Dr. Mah offers us some clear insight about pores!

According to Dr. Mah there are four main factors affecting the size and overall appearance of your pores:

1. GENETICS- those with oily thicker skin tend to have larger looking pores and those with drier skin likely have pores that are hardly noticeable.

2. DIET- a diet rich in oily and fatty food promotes over production of sebum.

3. AGING- as we age, our pores appear larger due to a build up of dead cells around the pore. As collagen breaks down and production of collagen slows, the supportive structures surrounding cells looks stretched.

4. SUN DAMAGE- sun damage is linked with enlarged pores by thickening the rim of the cells around individual pores thereby creating an enlarged appearance.

A REMEDY? Dr. Mah urges us to keep skin exfoliated, the pores clear, and to remember gently does it-- using a soft Muslin cloth rather than harsh dermabrasion to exfoliate since irregular exfoliant granules will actually damage skin with long term use. Finally, she reminds us to reduce sun damage by ALWAYS using a sunscreen and make sure to be adequately hydrated so as to avoid 'compensatory' over production of oil.

2$ well spent...

I guess I am going through a current trend of shedding all dry skin. Here's another great tool to help. The pumice stone from Muji. I came across this a few months back and can't get enough of it. It's soft enough to not be too abrasive on your feet yet rough enough to get the job done. The downside, the amazing Muji stores are in limited locations only. Soon I'm sure you'll be able to order online though! Hopefully you can get to a store and have the full Muji life experience...

In other events, to follow up on the Organic Avenue fast, I am on day 4! 5 days total so this is it! So far, aside from some technical difficulties with Organic Avenue the fast has been great. Good variety in drinks, I've had decent energy level and I've been told my skin glowing (thanks to all that water drinking). I am eager to see how I feel when I am completely finished...

scrub that dry skin goodbye...

I think all this freezing NYC weather has me thinking of ways to warm up and get rid of dry skin! Below is a great recipe involving rosemary and sea salt. Sea salt revitalizes the body and is always a good base for body scrubs, it also encourages the elimination of toxins. rosemary is one of my favorite oils. It is believed that Rosemary helps clear thinking, improves circulation (so perfect when your cold) and boosts the nervous system.

Mix 1/2 cup coarse sea salt with 1/4 cup rosemary oil (or adjust to your liking). Apply with hands, washcloth or body-scrub tool. This can be done in the shower or bath. Whats great about the bath is that you can soak in the sea salt and rosemary oil for awhile.

as soft as it gets...

Thanks to my roommate, I came across an amazing facial scrub that I am so excited to share... Eminence Organics Pear and Poppyseed Microderm Polisher. I instantly felt a difference on my skin, actually I don't recall my skin ever feeling this soft! I wish I could actually do a full body scrub with this, it's that amazing. The scent is nice as well and I love the directions it gives on the packaging, "Mix the polisher with an equal amount of water, tea or juice. For sensitive skin, mix with an equal amount of the Pear & Green Apple Masque. Gently apply to the skin with a circular motion for one to two minutes. (It is recommended to place a wet gauze or cotton strip over top). Steaming is possible while the masque is on. Remove with a warm wash cloth." I love how it says mix with water, tea or juice...fabulous. Eminence products are never tested on animals and packaging is 100% recyclable. Available online.

skin with a velvety soft touch...

How to get skin with a velvety soft touch? Exfoliate. It is necessary to remove the dead skin on the surface to let healthy soft skin glow underneath. I've tried many different salt, sugar and nut scrubs. I came across this scrub from Sephora, and it is amazing. I do not usually try to advertise large non-organic brand names on Flawless Beauty but I also understand that a lot of people shop at Sephora on a regular basis and am taking that into consideration. This sugar body scrub from Sephora has no mineral oil which is great because mineral oil is a cheap filler ingredient that is hard to break down and clogs pours.
Another bonus is the scrub leaves my skin with a great sweet brown sugar scent! The active ingredients are:
-Sweet Sugar: Nourishing exfoliant, -Grapeseed Oil: Nourishing/antioxidant, -Sweet Almond Oil: Softening, -Apricot Kernel Oil: Reviving, -Jojoba Oil: Protective, -Vitamin E: Antioxidant.
I also can offer anyone who is interested 20% off at Sephora for 3 weeks in November. Valid online or in the store. Just email me at flawlessbeautyblog@gmail.com and I will email you the discount code, great for holiday shopping!

new organic skincare line...nude

Thanks to my connected roommate Sabrina, I found amazing new products in my shower by nude. Nude is a wonderful organic skincare line from the UK and soon be avaliable in the US launching at Barneys. My favorite were the facial scrub (pictured below) and the Monoi body oil. Also from the nude website I pulled a good summary of what they are all about...and I loved their opening question which is something we should all ask ourselves!! Considering our skin such a large part of our body!

Why do we feed our skin chemicals we would never consider eating?

nude is free from the chemicals you would rather your body didn’t absorb.

Our first priority is to formulate without ingredients which are irritating to the skin or potentially harmful to the body and we have minimised our use of preservatives by using airless packaging. Where necessary, we have selected a safe, non-irritating, synthetic preservative because the natural option caused skin irritation.

We will always choose organic ingredients wherever possible. However, some of the advanced ingredients we use, such as peptides from milk, simply aren’t available organically.

nude has not conducted, or commissioned any animal testing on ingredients or products and we actively support the development of alternative ingredient testing methods through sponsorship of the UK charity FRAME.

a mask that exfoliates....

A fabulous mask from Aubrey Organics. Jojoba Meal & Oatmeal with Rose Mosqueta. Each time I use this mask, it leaves my face fresh and glowing. Although it is labeled for dry skin, I find it works great for normal skin as well. I am curious what someone with oily or sensitive skin would have to say about it.....

Traditionally, Rosa Mosqueta oil is obtained from rose hips from rose bushes that grow wild in the south of Chile. Seeds are collected and carefully processed to obtain a high concentration of essential fatty acids (77%) which provide remarkable tissue-regenerating and rejuvenating effects.

In fact, Rosa Mosqueta oil has been collected from the Andes mountains and used by South Americans for generations to treat dry skin, help reduce signs of premature ageing and fade off blemishes such as pigmentation spots, stretch marks, acne scars and sun spots. It has also proven to be particularly effective in the treatment of scars and burns by improving skin quality, color and texture.