How To Keep Your Skin Hydrated In The Summer

The summer is a time where I am the most dehydrated.  As a resident of the desert, my skin suffers from the lack of moisture in the environment.  I have learned a few ways to keep dehydration from occurring and I’d love to share them with you here.

Tip #1: Drink H2O

Your body loses fluids when you sweat in high heat.  If you’re losing fluids, you need to increase your fluid intake so that you can restore your body’s natural hydration levels.  Dehydration can cause your skin to look more dry and wrinkled which can be improved with proper hydration.  The best way to make sure you are hydrated throughout the day is invest in a bottle that helps you track how much water you drink.
Aim to drink eight 8oz glasses per day and increase your intake if you are exercising.

Tip #2: Use  Hydrating Skincare Products

Choosing the right product for skincare can be overwhelming.  To keep from dehydrating your skin, you need skincare that protects, restores and fortifies with moisture you can feel.  My favourite products to use by Aquation.  Their skincare is powered by Hydro Balance™ which is an advanced dual phase technology that delivers hydration and creates an invisible barrier to help prevent moisture loss while encapsulated actives penetrate deeply for long-lasting hydration.

After using the following three products (Aquation Gentle Moisturizing Cleanser, Aquation Daily Moisturizing Lotion, and Aquation Moisturizing Cream) for a couple of weeks, I noticed an extraordinary difference in my skin.  It felt smooth hydrated and replenished.  If you are looking for a product that has a strong perfume or spa smell, Aquation is not for you.  It honestly smells like what they would give you at the hospital.  Great for people who are allergic to those types of ingredients.

Tip #3: Exfoliate

I’ve talked about exfoliation extensively before. To refresh your memory, exfoliating the skin removes dead cells and improves hydration from toners and moisturizers.  Personally, I exfoliate my face and body once a week.  After I exfoliate, my skin is super soft and feels refreshed.  Please consult your dermatologist for what type of scrub to use for your skin type.

As the summer ends and weather starts to change,  you may have to tweak your skincare regimen.  Let us know if you enjoyed this article and we can help you with more tips for the winter weather!  

Charles & Camilla - Welcome to Sydney

Welcome to Sydney Charles & Camilla. 

Charles and Camilla stopped off in Sydney Harbour today for their first official engagement at Garden Island in Sydney Harbour. Unfortunately the weather was not as good as it has been all week and the sky was a bit greyer than normal. The royal couple touched down at Sydney Airport last night and the rain stopped just in time for them to have a quick chat with Governor Marie Bashir and Premier Barry O'Farrell before dashing off to their awaiting car. Prince Charles was dressed in a smart grey pin-striped suit with a poppy in his lapel. Camilla, wearing a camel trench coat, looked a little tired after the couple's busy day in Tasmania. After watching sheep run about in Hobart yesterday morning, the royal couple will spend today taking in the beauty of the Harbour and beaches.

Couldn't help joining the crowds on my way to work this morning and taking a photo of this cheeky cruise company that had a big Royal Suite Available on the bow of their luxury cruises ship.

They must have put this up in case Charles and Camilla wanted a last minute cruise....

Get Gorgeous Tips

Well now that the weather has finally warmed up in Sydney and summer is just around the corner I thought I would share some tips on how to get gorgeous for summer.

Also as the social season hits high gear starting with Melbourne Cup in a couple of weeks, there's barely enough time to swipe on mascara in between after-work parties and weekends away!!

While we all love going to the beach in and enjoying the summer sunshine we should be careful as the strong Aussie sun takes away the skin moisture making it dehydrated. It is then the right time to take care of your skin from getting wrinkled in summer.

Get Gorgeous Skin

Here are some ideas to get gorgeous skin this summer:

Sunscreen

Applying the right sunscreen on your skin in summer is essential. Application of a sun block/sunscreen in summer doesn’t make a gorgeous skin but at least it protects your skin from any further damage.

Shades

Wearing sun glasses on Sydney’s glarey days is one of the best beauty tips. This stops you squinting and prevents crows feet around your eyes.

Cleansing

Skin in summer gets oily too due to heat, use a fine cleanser everyday in order to get a gorgeous skin result.

Protecting the Pout

Don’t make your lips oily in summer. Along with a gorgeous skin you need to maintain your lips too by applying a SPF infused lip balm on the lips.

Look Around for Shade

As we keep getting told stay out of the mid day sun between 12-3pm – hard to do some days though when you just want to get out of the office for a while. If it is still unavoidable to be outdoors, then try to stay in shade as much as possible. This will help you to get gorgeous skin.

 

 

The Postman Always Rings Twice

The Postman Always Rings Twice - or at least he did this week...
Hands up who doesn't love getting free stuff? Thats the best thing about arriving home from work and checking my mailbox to see more free samples have arrived this week....

Just before everything thinks that I get free samples from companies because I write a blog, well you are wrong that is not the case these are freely available to anyone - but having said that if any companies do want to send me free samples I might write about them and review them if they are up to spec...

No the free samples that I receive are available to anyone, I signed up to get free Olay skincare samples at VIP Offers – the discount coupon site. But I think you can also sign up at Rouge Mag to get Olay skincare samples too.

It sort of puzzles me though when you do explore the web looking for free samples how many websites are actually out there....and in some warehouse somewhere there are thousands of miniature bottles of shampoo, skincare, coffee, laundry detergent you name it and they are probably getting stuffed into an envelope right now!!

You just have to know how to find the ones you are interested in finding..

And these days, who isn’t interested in getting some free stuff.  Plus a shampoo sample is handy to stick in my gym bag... and I just refill it as and when required, shh don’t tell anyone that though or my name might go on a free sample black list that is held somewhere...


Even when I login into Facebook I am now being offered free samples for this and free samples for that.... ahhhh.

I will need a bigger mailbox at this rate or maybe I get get postie just to drop around once a week in his ute with my samples!!

Till next time

Becky
 ps check back soon - I let you know what I think of my Olay samples!!

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Charm Bracelet For A Special Birthday!

So it’s that time of the year and looking at my calendar, my little niece’s birthday is only a few weeks away! I racked my brain for something really special since it’s her 15^th so I frantically asked around to all my friends and heaps of them suggested Pandora jewellery as a classy and stylish gift. I thought it would be a great idea for a younger girl because you start them off with a few charms then they can collect a whole heap as they grow up and experience the whole world! There aren’t really any stores around here that I could find carrying Pandora Jewellery, but on the website there’s this nifty bracelet designer that lets you try out different combinations from all of Pandora’s product range and preview the result. I spent so much time on the website I started designing my own bracelet!
But back to my niece… I thought a leather bracelet might be more her style because I want something she can wear pretty much every day. I think the leather goes really well with anything, even the school uniform that she has to wear for the next few years. As for the charms I went for a silver opal charm that’s classy and girly to which I think looks great against the black. It’s also the birthstone of October and is a really Aussie stone in my opinion! I decided to get another charm and this time I saw a Murano glass bead with these really pretty stained patterns that I just know she’ll love. Last I thought I might just throw in a few spacers to even out the bracelet and to get her on her way to filling the rest of the space up.
So here’s the final result from the website’s app:

  

I think it looks like a perfect gift for a 15^th birthday but I’m not sure. I’ll have to look at my nearest store and really hold it in my hands before I decide, but for now I’m feeling pretty good about my gift. Now I need to log off the computer for sure… the more I look at the pretty and intricate charms around the website the more I want to get my own! It’s never too late to start a bracelet is it?? Well Christmas is just around the corner and maybe if I drop a few hints I can get one for myself haha. Here’s the website:http://www.pandora.net/en-au  enter at your own risk!!

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Free Product Samples

OMG...I got a nice little surprise when I got home from work yesterday. It was my free sample of Pantene shampoo and conditioner..I got it by subscribing to Rouge Mag the online beauty tips mag.

Nowadays given how costly everything seems to be in Sydney I love getting some free stuff. I have even been taking advantage of some of the daily deal websites and discount coupons websites lately as it is a great way of saving some money. Specially when it comes to eating out, which we like to do from time to time some of the deal sites have some great restaurant coupons and restaurant deals so it makes having a night out a bit less expensive.

I have to say though at first I was a bit reluctant to get into the whole deal thing as initially you could never get a restaurant booking and when you did you were offered a different menu but all that seems to be sorted out now that the heat has died down.

Anyway looking forward to trying my Pantene samples, will come in handy when I go to the beach or swimming pool which given the hot weather in the last few days might be this weekend.

 

Till next time

Becky

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Interesting Hair Colour Facts

So I’ve been giving more thought towards hair colours, and I’ve been inspired by my trip to Freedom and our new furniture that I’ve thought of going with red hair colouring or maybe some subtle streaks of lighter browns for better texture in my natural colour. At my weekly trim with the salon I talked to my hairdresser and she actually had some pretty interesting facts and figures that I haven’t considered before with hair colouring. It seems each shade of hair colour has its own unique properties which complicates the situation even more! Here are a few tips I can remember for those out there doing home hair colouring:

Red Hair Colouring
Apparently this is the most fragile of all the colours and if you’re doing this it might not last as long and you need to be more careful with it. If you go red remember to always use a colour safe shampoo and conditioner. It’s also the most damaging to hair strands, so salons are really careful doing red hair colouring on already damaged hair or something that’s just undergone heat or chemical perms. Also not everyone can wear red – it looks the best with skin that has pink undertones.

Brown Hair Colouring
Brunettes have it ways easier than reds. It’s the kindest to hair health and also the easiest to maintain, that is unless you are a natural platinum blonde in which case you’ll need root touch ups pretty often. The disadvantage of brown hair colouring is that it often blends all together and looks really two-dimensional. The hairdresser said she advises most people to go for either a really dark chocolate brown or a lighter colour with highlights to avoid looking too boring.

Blonde Colouring

When salons lighten hair they have to use really powerful chemicals. In fact the hairdresser told me blonde is usually the worst for hair since it almost always means using really nasty chemicals. Yikes! I might have to reconsider my little experiment. Another thing I forgot is the regrowth of my natural colour…some people can pull off a natural transition but I’d hate to have to keep putting root touch ups every week.

So there you have it, some simple hair colouring advice. So much I didn’t know! If you’ve got some useful info don’t hold back…Share in comments!

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