Spontaneous Breakout

Spontaneous breakouts are when your skin has been looking good for a while, blemish free, scars have healed, no new pimples... then suddenly you're in the midst of a full blown breakout again!

When this happens think back over the last week or two before your breakout occurred.  What did you do differently then that maybe affecting your skin now?  Did you eat lots of fatty and sugary foods? Did you begin to drink alcohol when you hadn't been drinking for a while?  Did you increase your dairy intake?  Did you begin using a different product, perhaps one that uses petroleum / mineral oil as a base?

To give you an example, using myself as the casualty.  For the past three weeks I've been suffering through a breakout along my T-zone - forehead, nose and chin.  Starting off with one pimple here, one pimple there and becoming a T-zone riddled with red dots that even make up failed to hide. [insert major sad face] :-(

Before then my skin had been looking great for months and I was feeling really good about myself.

Anyone who suffers breakouts knows that wonderful feeling you get when your skin is looking awesome!!!!

What happened?  What changed?  Well it turns out that prior to my breakout we went on a 10 day family holiday.  While on holiday I was drinking wine with hubby almost nightly (I usually don't drink often), I was also having cheese platters and iced coffees (an increase in dairy), plus I was using a mineral oil based sunscreen which clogged my pores.  During this time I was NOT cleansing regularly or properly.  In fact I didn't bring my Facial Wash at all.

I was also reading more and I'm not very good at having idle hands.  When idle some people chew their nails, some people smoke, some people eat, some people pull at their hair.  I rub my face.  Touching your face with your fingers is probably one of the most detrimental things to do when it comes to pimples/acne.  Your fingers and hands have lots of bacteria and when you touch your face you're effectively infecting your blemishes. You also spread the bacteria from blemish to blemish which is why it's important to clean your face correctly and not touch your face.  Wearing gloves can help.

Within a week of returning the first blemish appeared on my forehead and by the end of the week I had numerous angry red blemishes.  The toxins and impurities I was putting into my body were now coming out on my skin while the sunscreen had blocked my pores.  A bad combination!  Still I did not start routinely cleansing and looking after my skin until the end of the second week because I was being lazy and not taking care of myself.

It was time to set myself a challenge.  To clean my skin routinely for 7 nights in a row and improve and heal my skin, getting it back to looking blemish free again.  This consisted of drinking plenty of water daily to flush out toxins and impurities.  Cleansing, exfoliating and toning followed by an application of Skin Serum every night.  The Skin Serum helps with skin regeneration and healing while the cleansing cleans away the bacteria.

Six days in and my skin is looking so much better.  No new pimples to report, the old pimples are dead or dying, the flaking skin around the edges of the dead pimples has lessened, there is still some slight scarring / skin pigmentation where the pimples were, however, I can now cover these successfully with mineral makeup.

** Take the 7 day challenge TODAY using JOLI's Blemish Skin Pack - I recommend you choose Serum instead of Light Moisturiser - and share your successes with us!!!! **

 

  

I Don't Have A Green Thumb

If gardening doesn't call to you, sing to you, leave you feeling content and happy... then chances are it's not your thing and therefore you don't or won't have a green thumb.


Gardening is much like parenting (some are good at it and some are not).  If you don't water and feed and nurture your plants they'll die of neglect.  Of if you over indulge your plants and give them too much water they'll drown in your love.  If you pay your garden or plants attention often and interact with them regularly they will thrive.

However, here is some good news for all you brown thumbs: in a forest no one is watering, feeding and nurturing those plants and yet forests flourish.

Why?

Forests have their own self care methods that keep them thriving even in the most harshest of conditions.  Take Australian bush for example, usually growing in hot and arid conditions with little rain fall.

I view gardening much the same way.  I plant shrubs and trees that require relatively small amounts of attention.  In fact I usually plant my plants and leave them to see which ones grown well all by themselves.  If they die they weren't meant to be there and I try something else.  Then I grow the smaller more needy plants around them in conditions that suit their needs.

For example the ferns are planted along the south side of the house, along the wall of the house to give them plenty of shade and a moist ground.  The succulents are planted along the north of the house because they need zero attention.  Along the east of the house are the vegetable gardens because they need lots of sun to grow plenty of produce.  I move plants around too if they look like they're suffering and in need of more sun or more shade.  As for the plants that are in full sun for most of the time but not necessarily sun loving, the larger trees give them shade and protection.

Just like a forest it is rare for any green matter leave my property.  It is all used in biodynamic ways.

Branches and leaves from pruned trees are placed around the base of the tree to give back and feed the plant from which they came.  Weeds are tossed into garden beds because they absorbed nutrients from the ground that I want to keep and give back to my plants.  A large raised garden planter serves as a compost bin in which food scraps and excess garden waste is tossed including egg shells which feed my garden calcium.  Any excess plant matter I cannot fit into the compost bin (because the matter is too large or the bin is full) I burn and then use as potash on garden beds - such as potatoes, peas, beans and lettuce which love potash.

These are just a few tips and tricks of the 'trade' and I'm happy to share.  If you have any questions let me know.