Skincare Basics

1. Cleanse and Massage

With cleansing, the important message is to really massage the product into your skin.  ‘Use circular movements to work the product into the pores and make sure you work all the way out to your hairline, not forgetting your neck,’ says Jane Calderwood, Beauty Therapist at Champneys.

2. Double Cleanse

For a thorough cleanse - maybe you’ve been wearing a lot of make-up or your skin’s just looking a bit lacklustre - try double cleansing. ‘The first cleanse will remove make-up, while the second cleanse rids the skin of all the daily impurities’ explains Fiona Brackenbury, Head of Education for Decléor. ‘If you plan to exfoliate or use a mask then double cleansing before will ensure there are no impurities on your skin that will affect the performance of your targeted treatment product’. 

3. Need a Toner

If you are cleansing thoroughly a toner isn’t essential; part of the reason you would include a toner into your regime is to ensure every last trace of make-up and dirt is removed. However, if you have sensitive skin a toner can be used to restore the pH balance of your complexion. ‘Soaps cleansers and tap water can sometime disturb your natural pH balance. This will result in your skin becoming more oily than usual as your skin tries to restore itself to its natural balance,’ explains Skin Expert Lorena Oberg.

4. What Type of Exfoliator

Dry skin will benefit from a grainy exfoliator to really slough away dead skin cells. But the general consensus from the experts is that exfoliators made up of fruit enzymes are best for all skin types, and especially congested or sensitive complexions as they are more gentle.

5. The Daily Slough

If you do feel like your skin could do with a gentle, daily exfoliation then use a muslin cloth. ‘These are brilliant to give the skin a gentle exfoliation every day. If you rinse the muslin cloth first in hand-hot water, it leaves the skin feeling really clean, and is also very relaxing,’ says Kirsty Ellis, Treatment Manager, Nirvana Spa.

6. Before your Serum

‘The best way to layer your serum, eye cream and moisturiser, is to be clever with your routine to give your skin the best opportunity to absorb the active ingredients. When you apply your serum don’t apply your moisturiser straight away afterwards. Apply your eye or neck cream next that way you give your skin time to absorb the serum before you apply your day cream,’ explains Fiona Brackenbury, Head of Education for Decléor.

7. Why a Seperate Cream?

Eye creams are really important, because the skin is so much thinner than the rest of your face you need a different cream. While it’s an extra expense you only need a tiny amount - the size of a grain of rice, for both eyes - so it should last!

8. Puffy eyes

If you do apply too much eye cream, you can end up with puffyness. Counteract this by ‘lightly pressing a cold flannel over your eyelids to instantly reduce the puffiness,’ advises Skin Expert Lorena Oberg.

9. Massage in your Moisturiser

‘When you apply your face cream, take the opportunity to give yourself a little massage. Use your index and middle finger and start at the sides of your nose, go under your cheek bone and gently press upwards towards your ear then start again on the top of your eye brows and extend in a c- shape towards your temples. This will increase blood flow and penetration of your cream and also give your face more energy,’ explains Sylvie Chantecaille.

And wait...

Lastly, when applying your day cream wait at least 30 seconds before moving on to your foundation. ‘This will give the moisturiser time to sink in and will help promote even make-up coverage,’ says Skin Expert Lorena Oberg.

Culled from www.elleuk.com

Low tolerance for pains? The reason may be in your genes

Researchers may have identified key genes linked to why some people have a higher tolerance for pain than others, according to a study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 66th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, April 26 to May 3, 2014.

"Our study is quite significant because it provides an objective way to understand pain and why different individuals have different pain tolerance levels," said study author Tobore Onojjighofia, MD, MPH, with Proove Biosciences and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. "Identifying whether a person has these four genes could help doctors better understand a patient's perception of pain."

Researchers evaluated 2,721 people diagnosed with chronic pain for certain genes. Participants were taking prescription opioid pain medications. The genes involved were COMT, DRD2, DRD1 and OPRK1. The participants also rated their perception of pain on a scale from zero to 10. People who rated their pain as zero were not included in the study. Low pain perception was defined as a score of one, two or three; moderate pain perception was a score of four, five or six; and high pain perception was a score of seven, eight, nine or 10.

Nine percent of the participants had low pain perception, 46 percent had moderate pain perception and 45 percent had high pain perception.

The researchers found that the DRD1 gene variant was 33 percent more prevalent in the low pain group than in the high pain group. Among people with a moderate pain perception, the COMT and OPRK variants were 25 percent and 19 percent more often found than in those with a high pain perception. The DRD2 variant was 25 percent more common among those with a high pain perception compared to people with moderate pain.

"Chronic pain can affect every other part of life," said Onojjighofia. "Finding genes that may be play a role in pain perception could provide a target for developing new therapies and help physicians better understand their patients' perceptions of pain."

The study was supported by Proove Biosciences, Inc.

New evidence linking fruit and vegetable consumption with lower mortality

Eating seven or more portions of fruit and vegetables a day reduces your risk of death at any point in time by 42 percent compared to eating less than one portion, reports a new study. This is the first study to link fruit and vegetable consumption with all-cause, cancer and heart disease deaths in a nationally-representative population, the first to quantify health benefits per-portion, and the first to identify the types of fruit and vegetable with the most benefit.

Researchers used the Health Survey for England to study the eating habits of 65,226 people representative of the English population between 2001 and 2013, and found that the more fruit and vegetables they ate, the less likely they were to die at any age. Eating seven or more portions reduces the specific risks of death by cancer and heart disease by 25% and 31% respectively. The research also showed that vegetables have significantly higher health benefits than fruit.

This is the first study to link fruit and vegetable consumption with all-cause, cancer and heart disease deaths in a nationally-representative population, the first to quantify health benefits per-portion, and the first to identify the types of fruit and vegetable with the most benefit.

Compared to eating less than one portion of fruit and vegetables, the risk of death by any cause is reduced by 14% by eating one to three portions, 29% for three to five portions, 36% for five to seven portions and 42% for seven or more. These figures are adjusted for sex, age, cigarette smoking, social class, Body Mass Index, education, physical activity and alcohol intake, and exclude deaths within a year of the food survey.

The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, found that fresh vegetables had the strongest protective effect, with each daily portion reducing overall risk of death by 16%. Salad contributed to a 13% risk reduction per portion, and each portion of fresh fruit was associated with a smaller but still significant 4% reduction.

"We all know that eating fruit and vegetables is healthy, but the size of the effect is staggering," says Dr Oyinlola Oyebode of UCL's Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, lead author of the study. "The clear message here is that the more fruit and vegetables you eat, the less likely you are to die at any age. Vegetables have a larger effect than fruit, but fruit still makes a real difference. If you're happy to snack on carrots or other vegetables, then that is a great choice but if you fancy something sweeter, a banana or any fruit will also do you good."

The findings lend support to the Australian government's 'Go for 2 + 5' guidelines, which recommend eating two portions of fruit and five of vegetables. The UK Department of Health recommends '5 a day', while 'Fruit and Veggies -- More Matters' is the key message in the USA.

"Our study shows that people following Australia's 'Go for 2 + 5' advice will reap huge health benefits," says Dr Oyebode. "However, people shouldn't feel daunted by a big target like seven. Whatever your starting point, it is always worth eating more fruit and vegetables. In our study even those eating one to three portions had a significantly lower risk than those eating less than one"

The researchers found no evidence of significant benefit from fruit juice, and canned and frozen fruit appeared to increase risk of death by 17% per portion. The survey did not distinguish between canned and frozen fruit so this finding is difficult to interpret. Canned fruit products are almost four times more popular than frozen fruit in Europe*, so it is likely that canned fruit dominated this effect.

"Most canned fruit contains high sugar levels and cheaper varieties are packed in syrup rather than fruit juice," explains Dr Oyebode. "The negative health impacts of the sugar may well outweigh any benefits. Another possibility is that there are confounding factors that we could not control for, such as poor access to fresh groceries among people who have pre-existing health conditions, hectic lifestyles or who live in deprived areas."

*Note: 13.0m tons of canned fruit and vegetables were sold in the EU in 2008 compared to 3.7m for frozen fruit and vegetables.

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by University College London