Some Fabulously Fun Facts About Our Skin!
Did you know:
- That the skin is the largest organ in the human body?
- Skin is waterproof?
- There are approximately 25,000 “good” bacteria per square centimeter of skin?
- Skin on the lips and eyelids is the thinnest and the thickest skin is on the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet?
- You will shed approximately 13.5 kg of skin over your lifetime?
- That the skin can sense up to 5 different types of stimulation: touch, heat, pressure, cold, and pain?
- That the skin regulates body temperature?
- The average person has approximately 2 sq. meters of skin covering their body, it weighs about 3.2 kg and comprised of about 300 million skin cells?
- On average each sq. centimeter contains about 10 hairs, 1 sq meter of blood vessels, 100 sweat glands, and 15 sebaceous glands?
Just amazing!
Little Downy Darlings.
Several months ago I wrote a Get Even More Gorgeous With Beauty Marked! Blog post come poem in the form of an address to one of my most favourite beauty tools and it’s definitely worthy of singing its praises once again. Actually, this natty little downy darling is not only deserved of a royal repost, but quite possibly public holiday-worthy, if you ask me. So in the meantime, while not-so-patiently awaiting the Public Holiday Decreeing Council to convene and come to my senses, here’s an esteemed encore posting for your reading pleasure. All hail the humble cotton bud! Ode To A Cotton Bud
Buzz Off Already!
Is it just me or have you been besieged by mosquitos these last few days as well? So itchy those blasted bites are! I thought I’d share my saving grace, which seems to have prevented me from scratching off all 7 layers of my poor mozzie bitten to bits skin. 100% pure lavender essential oil applied neat and firmly pressed with a cotton ball onto to the embattled area has helped to soothe my savaged skin considerably. It also acts as a very basic bug deterrent too, which is good. If you haven’t any lavender oil kicking about, pure Tea tree essential oil will do fabulously as well. Both essential oils can be applied neat to most skins without the dilution of a carrier oil unlike a majority of other essential oils which are too irritating to be applied directly to the skin. But do perform a wee skin patch test first though, just to be sure to be sure. Cool Bananas!
Post Waxing Wonder.
Here’s a quick and super effective little essential oil number to apply to your skin after waxing which not only soothes your skin, but act as a natural antiseptic too. Just mix the following bits of gorgeousness in an amber or similarly dark coloured bottle, cap, and gently shake. Be sure to store in a dark, cool place, out of reach of children. Not a bad drop this one. Enjoy!
- 75 ml of organic sweet almond, jojoba or apricot kernel carrier oil
- 25 ml of Calendula infused oil
- 25 drops of True lavender essential oil (lavandula angustifolia)
- 10 drops of Tea Tree essential oil
- 5 drops of German chamomile essential oil (the blue one)
SO What?!
Beauty Marked! absolutely loves an environmentally aware product, but what we love even more is an environmentally aware product that works. Did you know that Australia’s Salon Only (SO) hair care range absolutely fits this bill? SO hair care products have had a makeover with an environmental focus and repackaged its extensive range created from the expertise of no less than 3 generations of hairdressers! Most would be familiar with SO from its debut in the late 90’s and from its use in any of the 33 SO dedicated preferred product salons across Australia from soon after its inception. Now though, the range has certainly grown and is available currently from over 700 salons nation-wide with its new-look packaging!
So what we love about SO, besides their considerate product range, is the new innovative design changes made to the packaging and the super cool refill system that allows you to rock up to mostly any of 700 SO stockist and refill your empty and fully recyclable SO product bottle and receive an ever so handy $5 AUD off the refill price! Not bad, huh? Nice on your purse and great for the environment. We love that!
To find your nearest stockist, contact SO on 1300 660 680 (within Australia) or visit www.salononly.com.au for so much more.
Times When A Breakdown Is A Good Thing.
I often get asked if it is really necessary to remove all of one’s makeup from the day’s adventures if you are going out for the evening and still wish to wear makeup. To be honest, I don’t feel it is always 100% necessary to remove all of your makeup and cleanse, but if you’ve got the time and energy…go for it! If not, this is when I’d go “the breakdown”. Breakdown the bits of your makeup that are looking a bit battle weary and blot, perhaps powder and reapply. This treatment, of course, doesn’t really extend to mascara as that’s a whole other kettle of fish altogether.
So for everything non-mascara related, just lightly remove or take back by gingerly wiping off with a tissue and or cotton bud. When you’ve done this ever-so-gently, blot your entire face (t-zone especially) with cosmetic blotting paper or film. *whispers* One square of single-ply, super cheap loo paper works fantastically by the way. After you’ve blotted away any excess oil or perspiration that would have naturally managed to creep to the skin’s surface after a day’s wear, just barely powder your entire face (loose or pressed powder is fine). When you’ve finished your ‘barely there’ powder, feel free to reapply your makeup to your beautiful heart’s content.
Carefully breaking down your makeup, blotting, lightly powdering, and reapplying will often give you a nicer looking and longer wearing base for your colour cosmetics than would freshly applied. Go figure? I suspect it has a lot to do with the artful building up of makeup and removing the excess oils, which leave mainly pure pigment behind. (Much like the Beauty Marked! technique for getting your lip to stick.) But don’t be tempted to skip the blot step, because it’s the buildup of oils that actually cause the cakey and flakey thing to happen, which is definitely not the effect we’re after. It’s now, after I’ve done the above, that I adore a quick and ultra indulgent spritz of rose water. Quite frankly, I can’t think of a better and more luxe way to set my makeup. Mmmm.
Now on to the matter of mascara. You know, generally, I am tempted to just leave it alone. I rarely reapply new over old, as that just seems to tempt fate, especially where the potential for clumping and flaking is concerned. But if you reckon there’s only a weensy bit or no bit on, then by all means reapply. Just be extra vigilant for clumps and ensure the lashes stay separated. You can carefully re-curl your lashes with a non clamp-style curler if you’ve got one. If not…use your finger to gently press the lashes towards your lid and hold for about 30 seconds or so before the mascara is dry. Sometimes the finger trick works so well that I often wonder why I bother searching for my curler in the first place, which, oddly enough, always seems to grow legs…especially when I’m in a rush.
So there you have it: Times when a breakdown might just be a good thing. Ultimately though, the most important thing of all to remember is to blot and don’t stress…because you’re beautiful!
For The Travelling Man.
Just because Beauty Marked! knows precisely how important it is to keep our men gorgeously groomed both home and away, we had to point you in the direction of this great travel kit from VitaMan. The VitaMan Travel Kit contains a stellar lineup of holistically minded skin and hair care products that are based on traditional native Australian plant and herbal extracts that have been expertly used by indigenous Australians for thousands of years. Every VitaMan product uses organic aloe vera as its base as opposed to mineral oil or lanolin which is pretty nifty within itself.
The VitaMan Travel Kit contains six 50-ml travel-sized tubes of great grooming products comprising of VitaMan Face & Body Cleanser, Face Moisturizer, Shave Crème, After Shave Balm, Shampoo, and Conditioner. But wait, it gets even better as all of this fabulousness comes in a soft and easily packable water-proof travel case with 6 internal pockets for the products and plenty more room for other grooming incidentals as well. He’ll just adore it…nearly as much as he adores you!
