The Beauty Denominator

Skin care is very important to everyone needless to say we spend billions of dollars in the health and beauty fields to improve ourselves and as I mentioned in previous posts we need to do some research before we decide what is best for us and our bodies because no one knows your body or hair better than you. We all have those imperfections that bug us and just by listening to others we often find a simple solution.

You need knowledge to be able to make informed decisions and there is a blog called Skin Health Today that has a free streaming audio radio show on World Talk Radio. They cover lots of different topics, last night they covered acne and if you miss a live broadcast you can always find it in the archives, so be sure that you bookmark them so you can find them and tune into those weekly live shows, I’m sure you wont regret it.

Consider signing up for the Beauty Work Out Club newsletter so you are kept up to date and you’ll also get a personalized skin care plan from a licensed skin care professional. Skin care is very important and I was browsing their articles because I love to read other experts advice. Even someone that went to beauty school and has a license doesn’t have all the answers.

Thursday March the 6th they are going to have a live audio broadcast about hormones and Menopause so I certainly don’t want to miss that one since you all know I’m going through that phase. You can even go to the site early and put in a question that you would like Celeste and the panel to discuss. There is a very distinguished panel and you can read about each one. John Gray, PHD is one name I am sure you will recognize from all the talk shows on television.

Finding a partner, friend, companion or whatever you prefer to call them to share your life with is not as easy as some people would have you think. Sure it’s easy to go out on dates for some people, but I always had one heck of a time because all the guys I met had one thing on their mind and had no conversation what so ever, they were so boring and I could hardly wait to go home and pray I would never run into them again.

I have always looked for someone that could make me laugh and that I could converse with about anything and just share above anything else and then the other good stuff would just follow. So I decided to check out those dating sites and it was fun just to flirt and see if anyone had anything on their mind that was interesting instead of typing suggestive innuendos. There were a few that were very nice and I actually had 4 dates, but always met in a public place.

Unfortunately none of them met my expectations and I decided not to meet any more people in person basically because I had my eye on someone that came into the restaurant that I worked at and that was Bill, but I figured we would never get together because he never made a move. He seemed to be just my type, but I eventually put him on the back burner of my mind till a year later.

I was always told if you are actively seeking love you will never find it, but if you start concentrating on other things like school or your career then love will find you and I have actually found this to be true. Needless to say it took me 49 years to find the person that I could be content to spend the rest of my life with and that was the back burner guy and I have to say Bill is not perfect, but He is perfect for me.

Apparently he had been in a bad relationship for 7 years and when we met he was still trying to work it out, that’s why he never made a move and I really admire him for that. Even though now it seems like we wasted a lot of time it should me his character and I really admire him. He’s the type that will stand by someone until they kick him to the curb, so when that happened and he knew that it was totally over he then “Finally” made a move and we have been very happy for 5 years.

The point is you never know when love will find you and it’s a good idea to keep all your options open and not settle for just anyone because you’re lonely. I know a lot of women that have done that and settled for someone that wasn’t right for them, myself included and for most of us it never works out. I have talked to many women over the years that have stories the same as mine of spousal abuse and desperation.

I didn’t mean to get on that subject so I’ll drop that right now. You never know when the right companion will come along or even if they ever will, so the most important thing I have learned in life is to love yourself and treat yourself good and fill your life with friends, family, joy and by sharing and participating in group activities at school, church, and community and you can have a full and rich life until the right partner comes along.

I decided to turn this comment into a post because a lot of Cosmetologist don’t realize that they can use their work history if they don’t meet the states requirement hours of training if they have worked long enough to qualify. All states are different and constantly changing.

jillmarie000: This is the biggest headache. Why can’t there just be national requirements? I have been licensed as an Esthetician and Cosmetologist for three years in Washington, but now that I am moving to Utah I have to jump through a thousand hoops, and I still have to go back to school! How annoying is this?!

Answer: You are so right and maybe someday they will do that. I know more and more states now require you to take a national exam, but not all. It is a big hassle. Almost all states will except work experience in lieu of the extra hours that may be required.

If I were you I would contact Utah Dept of licensing and tell them you have 3 years of experience. You would have to have your hours verified, but they will tell you exactly what you need to do for that.

I did a little checking on their site and found this Utah application and was wondering if you had checked it? Go all the way down to C it will give you information on how to proceed using your work history. Plus it has all the information anyone else would need if they are moving to Utah from any where else.

Hopefully you were working full time in those 3 years and have 4,000 hours of full time paid employment in your field and they can be verified then you wouldn’t have to go back for more training. I wasn’t sure if you were just making a comment in passing or if you wanted me to answer so I decided it might help someone else.

On this beauty blog I try to cover many things and even though I write about skin care I have never tried to formulate my own because there are so many companies out there that can do it much better and Scott-Vincent Borba who is the founder and CEO of Borba is one man that gets my attention not just because he’s handsome, but because of his philosophy of uniting the inner health of your skin with the outer and creating some exceptional skin care products to achieve this.

You really will achieve better results when you start within and that includes anything and everything, A sore needs to heal from the inside out because it doesn’t work well the other way around and that’s why we search our soul inside so that we can maintain in the outer world. To get back to skin care products that work best when we treat the inside lets take a look at one of the products. Regardless of your skin type there are skin care kits for everyone’s need.

HD-Illuminating Plasma Crystals

Diamond - Dermabrasion Peel Treatment

This product is a 2 step treatment for those of us with the dreaded aging skin and uneven tones the ingredient in the first is HD-Illuminating Plasma Crystals and the second is the HD-Illuminating Plasma Activator ( you can check the ingredients in both on their blog) which will produce the best results when used as directed, but if your in a rush you can combine the two, this system will help reduce those fine lines and wrinkles and illuminate the skin and reduce the dullness. None of Borba products are tested using animals and they are dermatologist tested & recommended.

A couple of their best sellers are Complete Age Defying Skin Care Solution which is the most expensive and the Age Defying Discovery System which is more affordable. The best time to start taking care of your skin is when you are young and with so many products out there you simply have to do some research to find out about the different companies and the ingredients that are used to make up those products to find the ones that are right for you.

Every month Borba has an online special promotion and the products change accordingly and if you spend $100. or more you receive the products of the month free. I always seem to miss him when he’s on QVC, but I just checked their blog and see I got lucky because he is on today and tonight the 28th so I’ll watch the 8 o’clock show. If you ever need to check the QVC dates and time he will be on, they have it listed on the site. You can also sign up to get a free sample in your mailbox when they start that up again.

I am trying to improve my health by stopping my smoking habit and I am now on my second day without having one. With the program that I am on which I told you about in an earlier post, you can smoke the first week when you start taking these pills because it needs to build up in your system and then on the 7th day that is your quit day and you also start taking a higher dose twice a day.

I can tell you right now that even with these pills it is still a struggle, but I am assured that it will abate over a period of time, but I can’t help wishing that the time was already in the future because it sure isn’t easy. I have tried to break the routine I normally had before, so I can disassociate the things I did when I felt the urges to smoke. They tell you to get rid of ashtrays, lighters and all things associated and to wash all your clothes to get rid of the smoke.

They also have online support for a year that you can sign up for and I may have to do that because I really thought today was going to be easier than yesterday, but so far it hasn’t been. I said I would keep you updated and I’m sure this is going to be the hardest week I have had in a very long time.These pills have no nicotine in them unlike other products, what they do is activate the receptors that nicotine would normally attach too and block them.

The booklet explains how when you smoke the brain has those receptors that nicotine attaches to and then send a message to another part of your brain and it releases a chemical called Dopamine that emanates a feeling of pleasure and since it doesn’t last long your body starts craving more and more nicotine. This treatment can cause many different side effects and so far I have had the headaches and some weird dreams that I actually remembered.

The booklet also tells me that the carbon monoxide level dropped to normal after my first 12 hours, now that’s a good thing. Between 2 to 12 weeks my blood circulation and lung functions should also improve. I’ve been concerned with my blood circulation so I’m excited to learn how quickly that should improve and I’m also hoping for more energy which I am assured does come.

I’ll update again in a weeks time for anyone that is curious. You have to remember that I’ve been smoking for over 40 years and I never would have even made it to the second day without Chantix because I tried before on my own, this may take my system a couple weeks to really kick in before it really helps with those cravings and urges, maybe after I have the second pack finished it will be easier, I hope.

If you want to see a list of ingredients some companies use you can view the list that was released here http://quitsmoking.about.com/cs/nicotineinhaler/a/cigingredients.htm

The last couple days I did some research on Keravis: (INIC name is Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein PG-Propyl Silanetriol) which you can read about from the post below this one because I knew I was getting a sample of an unembellished, organic naked natural shampoo and conditioner to try and I wanted to see why that ingredient was used and claimed to make your hair 7x stronger with the shampoo and 3x stronger with the conditioner and I was very surprised at the results I found.

Naked Naturals is a catchy name and will certainly catch your attention. There are three different types in the naked naturals series. One is for color treated hair, which is what I received and even though I haven’t colored my hair in over a year I’m still going to try it in a few minutes so I can give you the results since my hair is very coarse I can’t wait to see the results.

The Awapuhi & Lavender scent wasn’t overpowering and actually was quite pleasant and I liked the thickness and texture of the shampoo. After rinsing I blotted my hair and applied the conditioner and it says to leave on for 1 to 3 minutes, so I’m typing this part while I wait, going to rinse and dry now, I’ll be back with my results. I’m back and after using the color treated duo I could tell that damaged and over treated hair would benefit greatly from this system.

I’ve mentioned before that conditioners usually leave my hair flat and feeling heavy, but I was okay with this and it does feel better and I’m not sure if I’m imagining this after only one use, but the tensile strength of my hair felt better and it felt immediately hydrated. I’m sure after several uses the porosity would start to improve if your hair is very porous and with over treated hair it would be. I would like to sample the other two in this series so I can choose the best for my hair, but I think I’m leaning toward the moisturizing one.

Continental Consumer Products has started the Naked Natural Line with Keravis, by the way if you love Salon Grafix then don’t hesitate to try this shampoo and conditioner dual system for hydrating and strengthening your hair, if you read the post below this one you will see how Keravis beat D-Panthenol (Provitamin B5 which is widely used in hair care products) in a flexabrasion study to see which delivered better tensile strength for your hair.

For more information on the other 2 products don’t hesitate to check their site and see which would be best for your hair. By the way all 3 contain Keravis so it’s just a matter of choosing what is best for your hair. I’m more interested in trying the moisturizing naked natural with Aloe and Chamomile since my scalp and hair is dry.

They also have a fortifying natural naked duo of citrus and keratin which the hair is made up of anyhow and would really help with breakage and the citrus helps get rid of excess oils. Remember that some of the properties will penetrate the cortex because the molecules are smaller and the larger molecules help smooth the top layer.

In school you will learn the chemistry of shampoos, conditioners, perms, relaxers, haircoloring, and cosmetics. You’ll learn about peptides and polypeptide chains, about sulfur bonds, hydrogen bonds, and disulfide bonds. It wont be in depth, but it will be enough to make you pay attention so you will understand what happens to the hair when chemicals are used.

Peptide bonds are chemical bonds that form a chain as long as your hair and these are the strongest bonds in the cortex, the amino acids join together end to end to form this chain and that is what gives hair it’s strength. When a few bonds are broken the hair becomes weak and damaged and when the hair starts breaking off that means that a lot of those bonds were broken.

That brings me back to the subject I was posting about yesterday and the protein-silicone copolymer Keravis which is a trademark of Croda Inc. (International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients) or the INCI name is (Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein PG-Propyl Silanetriol) and since the molecular level is low it makes it easy to penetrate the cortex and the larger molecules then coat the cuticle thus giving hair fibers more strength to resist breakage.

Croda is a large supplier of specialty chemicals to pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies to name a couple and they are noted for their contributions to the ethnic hair care ingredients that have furthered relaxer technology. I did a lot of relaxers in school and I hated all the damage I saw so I really appreciate these efforts. I really enjoyed checking out all of their products and the uses for each one.

There was a flexabrasion test performed between Keravis and D-Panthenol (Provitamin B5) which is widely used in shampoos to help strengthen the hair and combat split-ends and it has been proven less effective than Keravis as a hair strengthener. The hair gets really weak when exposed to humidity so it was also tested under increasing levels and once again it was proven to have strengthened the hair whereas D-Panthenol did not.

The flexabrasion tests were designed to assess the fatigue lifetime of a strand of hair through bending, straightening and abrasion (like rubbing the hair against each other) using special equipment the tests were performed using bleached hair and it was shown Keravis actually tripled the strength. This is very exciting because I simply can’t tell you how many people totally destroy their hair and then they seek help, but sometimes it’s just too late.

Keravis is highly recommended for reducing the damaging effects of chemical stress especially bleaching, but also coloring and perms and environmental stress that we incur on a daily bases. I saw today that Elizabeth Arden has a mascara out that incorporates Keravis in the formulation now that might be worth a try because my eyelashes definitely need some strengthening.

Also I saw that Italy is actually using Keravis + Titan in cookware to make a hardened PTFE, which is a versatile polymer, polytetrafluoroethylene and it actually allows the inside and outside to become exceptionally tough and will keep the non-stick on longer. It amazes me the uses for this product and I’m sure if I look a little harder I will find a lot more. Well, I think I have probably strained your eyes enough if you made it this far so I’ll shut this down.

To learn more about Keravis you can visit www.crodausa.com/datasheets/FeatureArchive/PCFeatureKeravis.htm

I was doing some reading today about conditioners, protein in particular which are polymers and are composed of any combination of 23 different amino acids that have different molecular weights. Hydrolysis and chemical modifications are used to change the natural protein form into a product we can use to recondition damaged hair. You actually learn about all of these things in beauty school, but it never hurts to  refresh our memory.

A concentrated protein conditioner is used to increase tensile strength of the hair and close split ends . Hydrolyzed protein is used in the concentrated conditioner which are designed to pass through to the cuticle and penetrate the cortex and it will replace the keratin that has been lost from your hair due to damage. It helps increase the elasticity, improve texture, and equalize porosity.

You wouldn’t want to use a concentrated protein conditioner after any chemical process because it could change the protein bonds that you just changed and rearranged in a perm, relaxer, or hair color session. It’s really fascinating to learn about these things. I was reading today about a new hair strengthening complex called Keravis™   trademark of Croda Inc. and they have been doing studies that show  by adding Keravis to shampoo it can improve hair strength by 36%. More about this tomorrow.

I see no purpose at all in buying gift cards just to make someone shop at a specific store. For those really hard to please people on my list I prefer to just give them a gift of money and let them choose whatever their heart desires. However I can see giving a gift card to a spa or a favorite beauty salon, now that’s a nice way for them to relax and a very thoughtful gesture from you.

I personally love to get and give gift baskets, not the kind that you just go and buy already made up. The homemade ones that you create yourself with love and if you use Longaberger baskets that’s a gift in itself, but they are very expensive. I collect baskets or did, I have actually stopped collecting because I have no where to put anything else.

You can create a theme gift basket or just make it random with lots of different items. I like going to the beauty supply store and finding products that I know would be good for someones hair that they might never have tried because of price. I then create a beauty gift basket with different hair products and I also add hair accessories and other items, women love trying out new products.

Years ago I belonged to a beauty club and they would send me a new set of products once a month. That was so much fun and I really enjoyed trying out all those new lotions and makeup and all the different things they would send. It always gave me something to look forward to and I was like a little kid at Christmas time.

For men you can create a sports related basket of their favorite sport or team or maybe a tool gift basket for the handyman in your life. Gift baskets of gourmet spices and oils for the chef on your list. There are so many creative things you can do with a gift basket and it’s fun. Anyone would appreciate such a thoughtful and creative gift that comes from the heart.

I made up a Christmas basket for a dear friend of mine one year and her daughter swore up and down that it was store bought, made me feel proud that it looked professional, but my friend knew I had created it because it had all of her favorites in it, down to her favorite kind of slippers she likes to wear. Beauty is all about creativity, so release your inner creativity and beauty.

Whether you work for a large beauty salon or you have your own beauty business you are going to have to advertise yourself. If you work for a chain then the better your following is the more money you make. In chain salons such as Master Cuts and a lot of others if people come in an request you that is an extra 2 to 5 dollars you can count on. If your just a 1 or 2 person operation then you’ll have to promote even harder.

They teach you in beauty school some of the ways to do this, such as business cards with your operating hours listed, but there are also many other ways such as a small ad in the free community paper, a small ad in your phone book, passing out flyer’s plus many other ways. You’ll need to make a budget for this because it’s a necessity for any type of business.

Word of mouth is great, but you still need to make your presence known in other ways. If you’re still in school and dreaming about opening your own shop and making big bucks there is a lot to learn before you do that. I would suggest working in a large salon and learning the ropes first and build up a following before you branch out on your own.

If you already have a shop I found a great place online called Vistaprint that you can design your own logo which was fun this is the one I created, but they have many others and many ways to do them. This was just an experiment to see how easy it would be and it looked great on the t-shirt, which is another great way to advertise. You can find many good advertising ideas there and the prices looked reasonable.

Another great way to advertise would be with the use of magnets and they come in small or large. That’s a great way to get your name out there also. Put them on your car, have your friends put them on their’s, give them away and if you use this coupon code “Blog25FreeMag” at Vistaprint you can get 25 Free small magnets. I also signed up for the Insider so I can get promotional offers, like discounts up to 90% off of some of their items.

With the logo that I created above I also wanted to see what it would look like on the magnet and it was hard to decide which type I wanted to use, but I finally chose this one. and if I decide I don’t like that one I can go back and change everything. At any rate it was fun checking out all the advertising ideas. You can also have family pictures or anything you want put on these magnets.

Billy gave us a large magnet with a picture of him and the 2 grandbabies on his motorcycle and it has a prominent place on our fridge. Now that’s a cool idea. For home or business, you’ll find  some good ideas so be sure to check them out.