Category Archives: Winter

6 Reasons to Exfoliate Your Skin

Even though you keep your skin clean by washing regularly with a proven cleanser, if you’re not exfoliating, your skin may not be as healthy as it could be. Exfoliation is the process of removing dead skin cells on the surface of the skin by using either an abrasive scrub to sluff off the dead skin, a daily use product with fruit acids, a chemical peel, or microdermabrasion. Doing any of these things will help to revitalize dull, tired-looking skin.

Regular exfoliation provides a number of benefits:

  1. Brighter, healthier looking skin

When dead skin cells accumulate on the surface of your skin, your skin looks drab and dry. By removing these dead cells through exfoliation, you uncover new cells, which make your face and the rest of your body look brighter and healthier.

  1. Reduction of the signs of aging

As we age, our skin’s natural ability to slough off dead cells decreases, leading to drier, rougher skin. Exfoliating once or twice a week, helps increase skin cell turnover rate and resurface the skin to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.

  1. Improved performance of skin care products

Exfoliation naturally improves the performance of skin care treatments by removing penetration-blocking dead skin cells and allowing for deeper penetration.

  1. Prevention of future breakouts

When dead cells accumulate on the skin’s surface, this accumulation can clog up pores. As a result, these dead cells, along with the excess oil that also accumulates because the skin is not properly cleansed, leads to blemishes and acne. Help prevent these breakouts by exfoliating your skin on a regular basis.

  1. Improved skin texture

Does your skin have rough or dry spots? This may be because of an accumulation of dead skin cells in these areas. By sloughing off the dead cells through exfoliation, you’ll reveal the new cells underneath, leaving your skin smooth and even-textured throughout.

  1. Minimization of dark spots

Long after a blemish has healed, a red, brown, or purple mark may remain. But each time you exfoliate, you’re removing the top layer of skin to diminish the appearance of discoloration.

Try our daily bamboo exfoliant!

Looking for an exfoliant to try? We recommend our daily bamboo exfoliant, a daily exfoliating micro-scrub which removes impurities, oil, makeup, and dead skin cells, leaving the skin clean and fresh with a more youthful glow. It also helps increase skin cell turnover rate and resurface the skin to reduce the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, pores, age spots, discolorations, and even acne scars. But what it won’t do is overly dry your skin by being too abrasive.

Our daily bamboo exfoliant contains HylaFusion®, a clinically proven breakthrough hyaluronic acid complex, which leaves skin feeling fresh, smooth, and hydrated with no greasy residue.

5 Ways to Avoid Gaining Weight over the Holidays

5 Ways to Avoid Gaining Weight over the Holidays

We’€™ve all been there. You arrive at the holiday party famished from a long day at work, only to have a smiling hostess direct you straight to the buffet table, where you pluck a large plate from the stack and pile it high with delicious treats ranging from glazed ham and stuffing to chocolate cake and pumpkin pie. Afterwards, you sit at the table with friends, grazing upon the chocolates in your goodie bag and sipping on your third glass of wine, so full you’€™re practically in a coma, and so worried about how many calories you’€™ve added this night you can barely concentrate on what your friends are talking about. Continue reading →

10 Winter Skin Myths

lady2Some myths about your skin in the winter might sound right, but will actually hurt your skin in the long-run.

When it comes to skin care, there are a lot of misconceptions that, despite how much people believe them, are simply not true.  While it might be easier to just assume that some of these myths are true, it won’t do your skin any favors to fall back on any of these “shortcuts”.

Naturally oily skin doesn’t need to be moisturized.

Moisturizing replenishes essential oils, so if you naturally produce lots of oils moisturizing becomes unimportant, right?  Wrong.  All skin types can dry out, especially in cold climates.

Thicker creams always work better.

Thicker creams usually mean more lipids.  Too many of those can actually have the opposite effect than you want by trapping the dead skin on your body.

Cold weather requires bundling up in as many layers as possible.

Now, don’t get the wrong idea here.  We’re not saying you should freeze yourself during the winter, but non-natural fabrics can actually hurt your skin when piled on.  Don’t forget to moisturize!

Steamy showers impart moisture to dry skin.

Yes, a hot shower on a cold day feels amazing right away.  But, it won’t feel amazing later because the heat will dilate your blood vessels and dry out your skin.

You shouldn’t exfoliate in the winter because it will dry out your skin.

This couldn’t be further from the truth.  The exfoliation and shedding of dead skin cells will bring out new, healthy cells

Don’t use sunscreen when it’s cloudy.

The clouds might filter out most of the visible light, but the UV rays are still coming.  Not to mention, if you find a good, moisturizing sun screen, you can protect yourself from the sun while still doing your routine moisturizing.  It’s a win-win.

Stay indoors as much as you can to protect skin.

Barring extreme temperatures, spending time outside, absorbing important nutrients, will do your skin some good.

More lip balm means less chapping.

Most lip balms have weird chemicals that actually hurt your lips’ skin in large amounts.

Windburn makes your skin look rosier and healthier.

Much like the shower myth, the rosy glow of windburn might look nice initially, but in the long-run it can be extremely damaging to skin.

Save the pro treatments for seasons that are less hazardous than winter for your skin.

Sun exposure can cause laser treatments to go wrong fast, so winter might actually be the best season for pro treatments.

Our Ever-moist Lip Balm is a lip treatment which is deeply hydrating lip treatment that helps repair dry, distressed lips while replenishing lost moisture. It is rich in emollients, to give lips a satiny-smooth look and feel, while shea butter, jojoba, and antioxidants condition and revitalize lips.

You can find Marie Clarie’s debunking of these myths and tips for avoiding them at: http://www.webmd.com/beauty/skin/winter-skin-care-from-sea-to-sea

Fighting Dry Skin: Beat the Itch of Winter

Web MD’s tips for keeping your skin itch-free during the cold and dry season

dry-skin-dry-earth

We’re in the colder months approaching winter and everyone knows what that means.  It means freezing weather with very little humidity in the air.  When this sets in, dry and itchy skin isn’t too far behind.  This kind of weather makes you want nothing more than to curl up by the fire and get warm quickly, but guess what!  That makes your skin even drier! The winter months can be particularly difficult for people who have sensitive skin conditions such as eczema or psoriasis, but everyone can take steps toward healthier and more comfortable skin.

Use the right products

The first thing that we usually think of when we want to moisturize our skin is finding the right moisturizer.  It is always best to use an oil-based moisturizer as it will replenish the important natural oils that your skin produces to keep itself healthy.  eraclea carries a large number of skin care products, especially moisturizers, so you don’t have to look much farther than our website to find the right oil-based moisturizer for you and your skin.  https://www.eracleaskincare.com/

Sunscreen

This is one product that you specifically don’t want to forget about.  Yes, the sun shines much less during the winter.  But, all of that white snow actually reflects the UV rays that do make it past the clouds right back onto your skin.  Walking around in winter weather is a lot like walking around in an extremely cold tanning machine, so make sure you protect your skin accordingly.

Humidify your home

The winter means low humidity, and low humidity means your skin is at risk for being dried out.  That is because the natural moisture in your skin evaporates over time and cannot be replenished if there is nothing in the air available to replenish it.  Invest in a portable humidifier that can add some moisture to that heater you’re using to evade the freezing cold outside.  Remember: dry heat dries skin faster.  Humid heat, on the other hand, keeps you at a cozy temperature without giving up comfortable skin in the process.

No one likes dry, itchy skin.  It can be difficult to avoid in the winter months when the air gets colder and dryer, but there are plenty of things that you can do to fight it!  That’s why WebMD put up their own really helpful guide for preventing dryness in this driest of seasons on their website at: http://www.webmd.com/beauty/dry-skin-13/winter-dry-skin?page=1

Keep your skin feeling healthy and beautiful in the harsh winter weather!

video-winter-skin With the winter season comes dry weather.  Find out how to keep your skin healthy this winter!

We all know that itchy, scratchy feeling of dry skin and how bad it can get during the winter.  Sometimes it can be pretty frustrating to deal with your skin during this super dry season, but here are some great suggestions to help you get through the season with healthy, well nourished skin.

First of all, you want to make sure you that you balance out the humidity in your house.  Turning up the heat during the winter is great because it keeps you from freezing, but as bad for the skin as cold air is, hot air can be just as bad.  Make sure to use the humidifier as much as you can during this season.  More moisture in the air means less opportunity for your skin to dry out, and will even help open up and restore your airways during allergy season.

Make sure to pay special attention to your showering routine.  Long, warm baths may feel wonderful and be part of many people’s de-stressing ritual, but that much water can actually have the opposite effect of what you want on your skin.  You should be sure to limit your showers or baths to 10 minutes at the most and use warm water.   If it is too hot, you could rob your skin of essential oils that keep your skin healthy.

Ever notice how when you get out of a long bath or the pool how your fingers and toes are wrinkled?  That’s because that much water actually drains the moisture from your body.  Make absolutely sure to moisturize your skin as soon as possible after a shower.  Wait no longer than 3 minutes.  The moisturizer will trap the moisture from the shower or bath in your skin so that the shower does not further dry out your skin.

Remember that UV rays can irritate your skin in cold weather too, so if you’re planning on taking a fun trip to the slopes or spending time outside, putting on sunscreen is recommended.  White snow is far more reflective than green grass, so even though the sun might not be shining as bright during this season, the sun’s rays can be just as harmful to your skin.  You’ll want to make sure you do yourself a favor and don’t give your skin any more reason to be irritated.

Everyone wants to feel comfy and beautiful in their own skin.  Follow this advice and you’ll be on your way to forgetting that winter was ever a frustrating season for your skin in the first place!