Shea Butter – Ghariti

In the western savannah grassland region of Africa, there is a tree called the Shea Nut Tree. These trees grow slowly, taking almost 30 years to mature. The fruit of this exotic holds beauty secrets that have been known by Africans for thousands of years. It is called ghariti in Senegal and shetelou in Mali – names that flow off the tongue. Also called shea butter, this exotic produce is no longer an African secret. Everyone can now share in its promises for healthy skin.

Karite

The common usage name for the Shea Nut plant is the Karite tree. The tree produces a nut from which shea butter is extracted. The nut encloses a yellowish pulp. To get this pulp requires a long process of drying and extracting and kneading. Some companies extract the butter using chemical solvents, while others use a mechanical extraction process not requiring additives. This organic pulp, or butter, has unique and beneficial properties recognized around the world.

Shea butter benefits for skin

• Contains vitamins (especially Vitamin A and E) that rejuvenate skin
• Enhances sun screen with its ability to protect against ultraviolet rays
• Can reduce skin allergy symptoms
• Speeds healing of small wounds and skin cracks
• Slows skin aging with its moisturizing qualities
• Restores brittle hair
• Reduces appearances of stretch marks
• Soothes sore muscles
• Stimulates collagen production
• Rehydrates dry scalp

Shea butter is an amazing organic substance. It is so mild that allergic reactions are extremely rare. Therefore it can be used on sensitive skin and it can be used daily. The protection from the sun arises from its cinnamic acid content. It has even been used to decrease nasal congestion.

Nia

Nia is an African word for having a goal or purpose. When you have dry skin or skin problems, your nia or purpose is to use a product that will soothe and heal. She butter has been commonly used for literally thousands of years in Africa where the sun and climate can be brutal. The butter contains bioactive substances including antioxidants and lupeol. Lupeol interferes with enzymes that cause your skin to age. In addition, shea butter stimulates protein manufacturing. The cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies continue to find new uses for shea butter, including as an ointment for skin disorders such as eczema. The benefits of shea butter seem to be unlimited.

If your goal is to slow aging and restore your skin to a more youthful appearance, shea butter can help. It has therapeutic value far exceeding many other cosmetic additives. Africa recognizes the value of shea butter not only for its healthful benefits, but also as an economic force. The trees are protected. The harvesting often offers an opportunity for women to gain self-sufficiency.

Essential oils and other herbal plants work well in a base of shea butter. It is easily smoothed on the skin. It is unsaponifiable and so does not steal natural skin oils. When looking for a cream or cosmetic that provides maximum skin nutrition without irritation, shea butter is the perfect answer.

Looking for the perfect make up?

When you’re trying to find a way to enhance your appearance, most women will look for make up to help them out. Not only can make up correct any flaws that you feel you have, but it can also draw attention to the parts of your face that you do want to flaunt. But when it comes to finding the perfect make up for you, there’s a little you should know.

Do you know your skin type?

Your skin type is the first place that you should start when you’re looking for make up. Different skins will react differently to various kinds of ingredients that are included in make up, causing it to look different on the skin. There are four basic skin types:

You can also have sensitive skin in conjunction with any of these types, meaning that you have a propensity to react to chemicals and other ingredients.

To determine your skin type, simply wash your face in the morning, but do not add anything else and wait for about a half an hour. At the end of that time, if your skin appears normal, you have normal skin. If your skin is tight and dry, you have dry skin. If your skin is oily, you have oily skin. And if your skin is a combination of oily and dry, you have combination skin.

What’s the best make up for your skin type?

For normal skin, you really don’t have to worry about the kind of make up that you’re using – just see how your skin reacts and then adjust as needed. But for oily and generally acne-prone skin, you should use lighter make up that’s water based. This will allow the oil from your skin to not interact with the make up and ruin your look. For dry skin, you’ll want something that has moisturizing benefits, like oils. This will allow the makeup to stay on your skin without cracking or peeling.

For combination skin, you will want to adjust for the various areas that are oily and dry.

What’s your skin tone?

Thankfully, make up companies have realized that matching your skin tone to a bottle of foundation isn’t an easy task. Many companies have created more lifelike samples and tools to match your skin tone perfectly. You will want to hold these tools (they’re plastic representations of the foundation shades) against your jaw line, but in natural light if possible. This will give you the most natural looking outcome.

The perfect makeup bag

When you’re going out shopping, there are a few key pieces of make up you should have:

You’ll want to keep the basic palette neutral in color, but you can add brighter colors for more formal occasions. For example, browns and light pinks are good colors for most people.

Thermolift in the Wink of an Eye

Many people live by the philosophy that surgery should be avoided whenever possible. But just because they choose to forgo cosmetic surgery doesn’t mean they don’t want to look as good all the time. To some, surgery is just too invasive and too much of a risk for even beauty reasons. It is for people who believe this way that the non-surgical procedures were created. Thermolift is one of the newest procedures developed. It is used for eye lifting and is growing rapidly in popularity.

So Uplifting

As people age, wrinkles begin to make an appearance. The eye area is no exception. In fact, the eyelids and the area around the eyes are the first to show age lines, often called crow’s feet. There are reasons for this.

• The skin under the eye is some of the thinnest skin on your body. It is primarily epidermis and does not have the cushioning the rest of your skin enjoys.
• There are fewer oil glands in the eye area, so the skin is dryer and more prone to wrinkling.
• There is only a small amount of elastin in the eye area so the skin is more prone to sagging.

Eye aging involves several processes all happening at once and for an extended time. Gravity causes eyelid sagging. The muscles around the eye weaken. Muscles weakening are a major cause of deep wrinkles anywhere on our body. So in the eye area, where there is little skin to hide sagging muscles, aging will appear to happen more rapidly. In addition, puffy bags can appear around the eye area due to fat accumulations. Thermolift is a nonsurgical eye lifting procedure for use before wrinkles get too deep or sagging too far advanced.

Uplifting – A Hot Topic

Thermolift uses radio frequency waves to tighten and lift skin around the eyes. As the skin becomes tighter, it naturally lifts. The waves heat the surface of the skin and that causes the tightening. It sounds so simple! That’s because it is! Thermolift has many advantages over surgery.

• Since it is noninvasive, it is safe
• There is no surgery
• It only requires a topical anesthesia
• The procedure only takes approximately an hour and you can resume your life immediately

The key to thermolift success is having the procedure completed before you are dealing with deeply wrinkled eyelids. Advanced wrinkling or sagging will probably require surgery. Thermolift is not intended to replace surgery on the eyelids. Sometimes genetics causes severe eyelid sagging and only cutting away the excess skin and restitching the lid will solve the problem.

Thermolift is the perfect procedure for busy people. Men or women can use it. Of course, you should always use protective eye creams on the sensitive skin around your eyes on a daily basis. The sun is a major cause of eye area damage. Ultra violet rays are particularly damaging to the eye area because of the thin skin. So don’t fret anymore over whether you should have eyelift surgery. First check out the newest procedure called thermolift!

If you have large pores, you want to know how to shrink them. Not only can they change the appearance of your face, but they can also be breeding grounds for acne and breakouts. However, many people with large pores are born that way – which leads some to believe that you can’t do anything about them. This is misled thinking. With just a few simple steps, you can help reduce the size of your pores or cover them up from those who are looking.

Keeping things clean

One of the best ways to start controlling enlarged pores is to make sure that they don’t look bigger than they need do. Often, larger pores are caused by an accumulation of dirt and oil – sometimes spouting up as blackheads or whiteheads. When you take the time to remove the dirt and oil from your face, you can lessen the overall size of your pores, though temporarily. Try to wash your face one to two times each day with a gentler cleanser. The trick is to buy something that’s gentle so that you’re not irritating the skin and causing more reasons for your pores to expand. Soap free products are good as are products that contain mild astringents (you could find these in the acne section). Simply lather up your face with the cleanser, rinse completely off and you’re allowing your skin to stay clean.

But wait…there’s more

The next thing you will want to do when you have enlarged pores is follow up with an astringent or toner. This can be a certain brand from a store or just simple witch hazel. By placing this on a cotton pad or ball and rubbing it on your face after you wash, you will help the pores constrict, leading to a smaller appearance. The only problem is that you don’t want to use that too much as you can also dry out the skin. Be sure to follow with a water-based moisturizer to prevent this from happening.

Do pore shrinking products really work?

The thing that you will want to remember about enlarged pores is that much of their size is determined by heredity, so you’re only going to be able to reduce their size temporarily with these products. If you’re heading out for a night on the town, this can be the perfect solution for making your makeup look its best. In the long run, however, your pores can only be minimized and not reduced permanently.

…Makeup trick

The key with creating a pore-free appearance to your skin is to use a foundation or a tinted moisturizer that’s suited to your skin type. When you use something that’s too oily or too drying, you will call attention to your pores. Try to determine the skin type that you are before shopping for a foundation. Another idea is to stick with a foundation that’s a cream and a powder in one. These tend to provide ample coverage for your pores, but also not be as heavy as liquid foundations. Make sure to apply a light dusting of powder when you’re done for a movie star appearance.

Wrinkles seem to appear out of nowhere. They form slowly and creep up on you like thieves in the night. Stealing your smooth skin and healthy glow, you wonder how you can put a stop to this thievery. Botox may be the wrinkle police – temporarily arresting the loss of tone and restoring plump and healthy looking skin.

It’s Criminal

It’s absolutely criminal the way you can try to take care of your skin and still find yourself unhappy with the way you are aging. Wrinkles are caused by so many factors, there is just no way you can fight them all with one cosmetic. Wrinkles are a product of the following, to name a few.

Like framing and girders in a building, collagen and elastin are the skin’s support structure. Collagen erodes over time. Like a crumbling building, the damage is slow but effective. Though the collagen supply begins to be depleted, the skin continues to renew itself. So now you have more skin than you have collagen to plump! Cosmetics claim to restore collagen, but the fact is that cosmetics cannot go deep enough yet to have a lasting impact on collagen. In addition, the chemicals in lotions cannot bond to the collagen. The discovery of Botox as an anti-aging treatment offers a way to lesson the effect of muscle and collagen weakness that causes wrinkling.

On Probation

Botox is actually a botulinum toxin. It was discovered that a small amount injected into a muscle, causes the muscle to become paralyzed. Once the muscle relaxed, the skin was able to lay smoother on the face. It is a non-surgical injection used on frown lines between the brows and on the lines around the eyes. It is also used on forehead creases. Botox paralyzes a muscle by acting as a neurotoxin on nerve endings. It is purified protein that is being tested for other uses, but right now it is primarily used for cosmetic reasons. Botox puts wrinkles on probation!

Case Dismissed

There can be some side effects from the Botox injections, but they are almost always mild. Injections may cause temporary headaches or nausea. It is important to go over all aspects of the procedure with the dermatologist or physician. Botox is a safe and effective procedure for temporarily erasing age lines. Your more youthful looks are restored and time is turned back. The proof is in all the successful cases of Botox users!

Body treatments don’t have to be limited to the spa anymore. With a little imagination and a few ideas, you can create your own afternoon (or day) of bliss without having to leave a tip. From head to toe, you can create a new and fresher you – here are the ideas that you can use today.

For the face

Since your face is generally the first thing that people look at, you will want to start there. A facial is something that your local spa would offer, and you can give yourself the same kind of treatment at home. Start with a bowl of hot water and a towel. Drape the towel over your head so that the steam that rises from the bowl reaches your washed face. If it feels too hot, simply raise your head a bit to allow the steam to cool more before it gets to your skin – beauty doesn’t have to hurt. After you’ve done that for a few minutes, you will want to take out a bottle of witch hazel or some other gentle toner. Since your pores are wide open, the toner will help to clean out impurities and then shrink the pores back down. Next, you can apply a mud mask (or mix oatmeal and water for a natural mask for all skin types) and let that sit for a few minutes, rinse and then pat your face dry.

For the hands and feet

Your hands and feet are the parts of you that work the hardest, so why not treat them right? An easy way to get both looking pretty again is to start by soaking your unpolished nails in a small bowl of lemon juice. This will help to whiten up your nail tips and freshen them up. Next, you can take some sugar and add it to water to make a paste and scrub your hands and feet with the mixture, focusing on your cuticles and calluses. Rinse this off and then wash your hands and feet with soap to remove the stickiness. Add a rich lotion to your entire hands and feet put on a pair of cotton socks or mittens over your hands. Sit with the socks on for a few minutes and then remove.

For the body

Body treatments that involve a bath are hard to come by in this fast paced world. But if you have a few bags of herbal tea, you have the beginnings of a recipe for success. Chamomile works best. Simply boil water as though you are going to make a cup of tea and add six tea bags. Let them cool and run a hot bath while you’re waiting. Add four of the tea bags to the bath and let steep for a few minutes. Take the other tea bags with you as you sit in the bath. Place the remaining tea bags on your eyes to calm puffiness and block out the world.

Sure, you could use high priced body treatments and have someone else do the work, but if you already have the ingredients you need, why not get started right now?

It seems that acne likes to pop up at the worst times – a blind date, a wedding, etc. Thankfully, there are many things that you can do to tame the blemish that wants to ruin your face. But there are also ways to make it much worse. To help solve all your blemish woes, here are the ways that you can put your best face forward.

If you have a few days

If you notice a blemish on your face a few days before an important event, you have plenty of time to do something about it. In most cases, a pimple will resolve itself in that time, and with a proper cleansing routine, you won’t have any others to worry about. But if you’d like to speed up the process, it’s time to get out that tube of pimple cream and start putting it on whenever you have the chance. Make sure to limit the coverage ONLY to the blemish as you don’t want to irritate your skin any more than it already is.

If you have twenty four hours

Notice a blemish right before a big day? First of all, don’t panic. What you’ll want to do is look at the blemish to see how red it is. If it’s red, you’ll want to apply an ice pack to the area to reduce the swelling and then apply a pimple cream. If there’s a raised head to the blemish, you can do more, but this isn’t something that you want to make routine. Take a thin needle and dip it in alcohol or through a flame to sterilize it. Place the needle at the base of the pimple and push into the skin slowly. You don’t have to go all the way through the skin, just enough to puncture it.

Now, DON’T squeeze. What you’ll want to do is get out a warm compress – a warm washcloth will do. Place a tip of the washcloth on the affected area for a few minutes. You are helping to draw out the dirt and the oil, hopefully reducing the need to squeeze. After a few minutes, check the size of the pimple, it should have gone down at this point. If not, gently squeeze the pimple with the warm washcloth – push toward the size and not to the top of the blemish. When you’re done, dry off and place a small amount of acne cream on top of the area.

If you have no time

If you have a last minute blemish, you’ll want to employ coverage techniques. Choose a concealer that’s the same color as your skin – not lighter as many magazines will indicate. You want to make sure that it’s not apparent that anything is wrong with that section of your skin. Softly dab the concealer on and pat to blend with your ring finger (it produces less pressure). Then apply foundation as usual and be sure to powder your face to set the makeup. Next, stop and breathe – no one will notice the blemish.