It's amazing what happens when you Wash Your Face!

WASH YOUR FACE- sound simple?

Well you wouldn't believe just how hard this actually is for people to comply too..it needs to be as natural as eating. Washing your face needs to happen every single night before you go to bed, and then when you wake up before you start your step by step product routine. Ideally, I prefer to tell people to exfoliate with a scrub in the mornings, but washing or toning will work too.

When people tell me my skin is nice, I am always truly grateful for the compliment. I work hard at it.
I am a licensed esthetician. I no longer "work" in that field serving clients. I did own my own business for a long time mixing custom masks, and giving one of a kind facials with ingredients that the clients skin told me it needed.

I still do this for myself.

I always get asked what skincare line I use.

Answer: for the most part "ARCONA" www.arcona.com

I have used this line daily and nightly for 12 yrs. I also always get asked "what can I do thats simple to change my skin?"

Something else I ALWAYS DO, no matter how tired....no matter how late, no matter what the situation around me might be-is wash my face before I go to bed. Oh, and yes...this goes for the days, I have only put on my sunscreen and no makeup on too!

The reason is, that when you don't wash dirt from the day, and makeup off your face it sits there overnight opening up and stretching out your pores. Stretching out your pores over time, leads to aging, large pores, and tired saggy skin.  Leaving dirt, debris, and makeup on your face will create what we call uneven skin tone.  Uneven skin tone can be redness, specific spots on the face that are flaky, blackheads/whiteheads, bumps, and premature wrinkles (yikes!) Seriously if you could avoid all of this by washing your face at night, then quickly going through a couple other steps (depending on the product line) wouldn't you do it??

For you Actors and Models out there, you want to make sure you look exactly like those gorgeous pictures you have, right?! 

Some people wash their face TOO MUCH. This creates an environment where your skin's natural oil barrier has been stripped away. Depending on the person's skin type one of 2 things will happen.

1. if the person has oily skin, the skin will work overtime to put that oil back, leading to a horrible cycle where the person who is over washing their face, is trying to keep oil away. The BEST thing in this situation is to use a face wash appropriate for YOUR skin type.  Their are literally hundreds to choose from. Finding the one thats right for you is what is important. You want to make sure it is PH balanced, has a nice short list of active ingredients. Look for a product line that is serum based, and make sure you are moisturizing! It is important that your cleanser not strip away that barrier, so your already oily skin doesn't go into overdrive.

2. if the person has dry skin, the skin will start to crack, get flaky and feel so tight that it hurts to move from over washing. Finding a face wash that has soothing ingredients to it, is key. It also needs to be PH balanced. You should never feel like you need to slap on your moisturizer 10 seconds after washing, because your face feels so tight, its as if you just spent the last hour hanging out outside in the tundra. Look for products with little too no preservatives. The list of ingredients should be simple, and include extracts that are both moisturizing and full of antioxidants. Dry skin needs to be exfoliated more than people realize.  Using something every single night that gives a gentle exfoliation, I find works best. This way there is always a gentle turn over of cells happening.

Many product lines offer nightly exfoliating serums. The reason that serums work better on the face is because the size of the molecule can penetrate into the skin, and the pore easier. Heavy creams tend to do nothing more than sit on top of the skin stretching it out , enlarging pores, and eventually leading to... you got it saggy, droopy, big ol' pores, wrinkles, and all the things we DONT WANT!
See how simple this all is?

For my at home care I use the Arcona skincare line because it is serum based. I have used it since 2005. They really were the leaders in the serum revolution. Now you can find serums in tons of product lines.

For skin that is not sensitive and/or more on the oily side here are just a few examples of some ingredients to look for when selecting a night serum

• Gycolic
• Alpha or Beta hydroxy Acids aka AHA or BHA
• Salicylic acid
• Malic acid

For skin that tends to be sensitive, dry, or mature look for night serums with these ingredients
• Lactic acid
• Vitamin c
• Papain and Bromelian

Ok-I don't want to overwhelm right out of the gate. Its really easy to book an image appointment with me if you live in Chicago and your an actor. Not only do we get to work on acting, but we get to talk about awesome stuff like this.

For the rest of you-email me, and I can help with basic questions! Sign up for my Blog, lets have some fun!

Basic thing to remember from this Post- WASH YOUR DAMN FACE. I don't care if your with a new date and its going great and you don't want too.  I don't care if your too wasted-make your way to that sink before you pass out!  I don't care if you worked 14 hrs. I don't care if the baby had you up all night and you don't have any makeup on anyway.  I don't care if your a dude and you think thats for girls....4 weeks from now you will thank me!!! You will LOOK BETTER.

I swear.

2 years from now, you will be singing my praises,  and 5 yrs from now, the name Elisabeth with an "s" might be more popular than Elizabeth with a "z" based on all the non aging people naming their children after me...

Ok, well that last one probably not.

Until next time

Yours in Beauty,
Elisabeth