Now, I’m not promising long-term solutions to actually stop the cause of oily skin. Oil (also known by fancy people as sebum) is produced by healthy skin as a barrier for protection – basically, to keep the greeblies out and moisture in. It’s part of your skin’s natural moisturising factor. In fact, as we age, oil-production dramatically slows to a point where most of us develop dry skin – a lack of natural oil – and that’s not a good thing! But oily skin can be a real pain. Not only can excess oil contribute to acne and blackheads, that oil-slick shine isn’t cute when you’re striving to look effortlessly well-groomed.  It’s hard to look ‘effortless’ when your shiny face makes it look like you’ve been slogging over a hot stove and are ready for a shower…in the middle of the day. So here are my fave ways to control and manage excess oil. • Avoid products where alcohol (Alcohol, alcohol denat., SD alcohol, Ethanol or Isopropyl alcohol) is listed in the first few lines of ingredients. First of all, SO MANY anti-acne and oil-controlling products use large amounts of alcohol to eliminate oil from the surface of the skin […]

Walking past the pharmacy in Tauranga Hospital, I was (rather easily) enticed off my path and into the store when I noticed the pretty stand of NATIO cosmetics. A relatively new brand, NATIO is a reasonably priced “bridge-brand”; designed to fill the gap between supermarket and department store brands. Natio’s tagline is “Natural Australian Beauty”, although in the FAQ on their website you can read the following: Q: Are Natio products 100% natural? A: Natio creates skincare and cosmetics that combine the best of nature and science. We use botanical extracts instead of mineral oils, and pure essential oils to fragrance the products. We also avoid animal testing and ingredients derived from animals. However, we do use the best compounded stabilizers to ensure that our products reaches you without contamination and remains pure until your very last drop. In other words, the answer is ‘no.’ But that’s OK! ‘Natural’ doesn’t equal ‘better’ or ‘safer’. So let’s see what stabilisers they are refering to here… What they refer to here as ‘stabilisers’ are chemical preservatives they use in their products, predominantly from the group of chemicals called parabens. Parabens have gotten a bad rap in recent years-but most of it without […]

Worse than the hideousness of hand-made Christmas jumpers/sweaters like the ones above… The SUN, not AGE, is the biggest cause of ‘ugliness’ on the skin.  So you know the sun causes skin cancer, melanoma and sun burn.  And you probably apply sunscreen to prevent yourself from burning in the Summer.  But did you know the sun, not getting older, is also the biggest cause of ugliness? Wrinkles, redness, sagging, loss of elasticity and firmess, blotchiness, hyperpigmentation, and sun spots…these things we often attribute to ‘getting old’, but in reality, it’s not age that causes these, it’s the SUN. Even while you don’t burn, the UVA rays of the sun, which penetrate deeper than the burning UVB rays, cause wrinkles, sun spots and permanent UVA damage – yes, even without a sunburn – and within the first minute of sun exposure.  You probably don’t bother slip-slop-slapping just to get your mail from your letterbox, or drive to the dairy, but these small ventures out into the sun accumulate in damage to your skin. This everyday sun exposure, as opposed to spending long periods on the beach or outdoors, is called ‘incidental’ sun exposure and is cause enough to apply sunscreen daily, no matter where you […]