Since the commercial aired many years ago, back to school time has always conjured images of a joyful woman pushing a shopping cart through Office Max to that favorite holiday song “The Most Wonderful Time of Year”, and it is! As a working mom with four daughters, I know the relief that is felt when school finally gets back in session. This year will be particularly exciting because of the disruptive trauma inflicted on our families from Covid-19. So here we are, back to school, back on schedule, and finally, a few extra moments to put ourselves back together…where to begin?
As an esthetician, my expertise is in the area of skincare and brow design. However, I always look at the woman as a whole being, and my first recommendations are to get your healthcare appointments scheduled, your diet back in check, and your exercise routine back on the wagon. Once these things have been addressed, you can then begin to take stock in your beauty routine. Without the aforementioned, nothing else will work.
Mornings can be quite hectic this time of year, so the more you can get done in the evenings, the more time you will have for self care in the morning. Finish homework, lay out clothes for both yourself and the kids, and get lunches made. Keep in mind that your hands will need some TLC from all of the extra hand washing, so I recommend keeping Beespa Luxury Body Cream by your sink to moisturize as often as possible. This will repair and protect your hands, an area that often gets neglected and is a dead giveaway of age.
Another area that needs attention is sleep. Now that late summer nights are a thing of the past, make sure that after the kids are put to bed, you get tucked in for a good eight hours. Sleep is non-negotiable for better health and beauty. Our body needs that time to repair and recuperate from thousands of daily, free-radical assaults. Without it, our body ages at an exponential rate.
Now is the time to say goodbye to “letting it slide” summer and start getting your skincare routine back on track. Cleansing, toning and moisturizing both morning and night are the most basic essentials. After that, consider an AM vitamin c serum, like iS Clinical Advanced Super Serum + and a PM retinol product, like iS Clinical Active Serum. Both will begin to erase the discoloration that is left on our complexion after the dog days of muggy heat. Keep in mind that the weather is becoming drier and colder, adding in more moisture in the form of a higher tech moisturizer and/or a serum will be just what the doctor ordered.
This is also the time to get your regularly scheduled facials back on the books and I highly recommend the HydraFacial. I like to supplement those with a photo-facial to clean up the hyperpigmentation that has come forward from all of those days spent outdoors. If you have not considered this prior to now, you will want to ask your esthetician if you are a candidate for this procedure. If so, you may need to do a series of three to begin with and then do a “clean up” each fall.
Finally, there has never been a better time to schedule a massage! This truly is my happy place. Massage reduces stress, detoxes by stimulating lymphatic drainage, soothes sore, aching muscles and leaves you with a wonderful sense of wellbeing. Schedule these in every 6-8 weeks, as this will extend that feeling of bliss and give you something to look forward to!