You know you’ll to be eat­ing rich­er, sug­ar and carb-laden foods over these next cou­ple of weeks. You’ll be par­ty­ing and get­ting less sleep, enter­tain­ing more.  And you also know.…your skin’s like­ly to show it.  Here’s a quick hol­i­day skin sur­vival guide to keep your skin hap­py.

How to com­bat the 3 S’s:  Sleep, Stress, Sug­ar:

1.  Take the time to cleanse your skin 2x dai­ly for ONE MINUTE. 

2.  Remove make-up before bed — NO EXCUSES!

3.  Stay hydrat­ed — Drink a lot of water, espe­cial­ly between those hol­i­day cock­tails. If water isn’t your drink of choice, give non-sug­ared car­bon­at­ed water a try — it’s very refresh­ing and is a tasty way to increase your dai­ly water intake.
 
4.  Get 8 hours or more of sleep every evening.  This prac­tice goes a long way towards over­all good health. 
 
5.  Don’t roll your eyes, but have you thought about med­i­ta­tion for stress relief?  I had the same reac­tion when a friend rec­om­mend­ed Insight Timer app to me.  I’ve found this app to be a help­ful resource for relax­ing music, talks and yes — guid­ed med­i­ta­tion.  Small breaks each day for this stress-reliev­ing activ­i­ty is so relax­ing, so wel­come.  Don’t we deserve 5–15 min­utes of down time?  Yes, we do!
 
6.  Buy & have on hand a sim­ple mud or clay mask.  Try “Queen Helene” brand. Apply on any break­out right away to draw out tox­ins and to dry out the blem­ish. It’s a good idea to use this type of mask sev­er­al times dai­ly and it’s ok to keep on overnight.

7.  If you have painful, red break­outs — remem­ber, this is an area of inflam­ma­tion and what’s good for inflam­ma­tion? ICE. Put ice in a soft tow­el and place on area for a few min­utes. You may repeat as often as need­ed. Fol­low with a mud mask. DO NOT extract these since doing this will cause scar­ring and pos­si­bly wors­en the infec­tion.

8.  Do not self-extract. Excep­tion: If there is a “head” on the pim­ple and it seems ready to open up, cleanse gen­tly and place a warm tow­el on the area to soft­en skin, then with 2 q‑tips, pull the skin away from the area.  Usu­al­ly, the infec­tion inside will release. Dab with a wet, warm tow­el and imme­di­ate­ly place a bit of mud/clay mask to fur­ther dry out the blem­ish.

9.  Call me!  I can help with a quick extrac­tion!  Or text with ques­tions.  (My phone num­ber is above.)  And of course — don’t for­get about your skin treat­ments.  Even a quick, 30-minute deep pore cleans­ing treat­ment is help­ful for get­ting rid of dead skin, bac­te­ria and con­ges­tion.  Let me know how I can help you.