Winter Skin Care Favorites

There is nothing worse than changing seasons wreaking havoc on your skin!

This winter, we’ve put together a few of our favorite products that help you to beat the dry season and keep that skin exfoliated and glowing. Winter and changing temperatures can dry out even oily skin! No matter your skin type, it’s important to hydrate and protect your skin's barrier function. This will help to keep irritants out and lock in all the good stuff. 

The skincare line that we carry is Sorella Apothecary. This line has a great range of products to help clients enhance their skin and correct any concerns they may have in a natural and effective manner. These products are loaded with active ingredients to help you see results faster. 

Here are our top picks!

• Apricot Mango Cleansing Milk - This cleanser is ideal for helping relieve dryness and calm the skin. It is infused with apricot oil, vitamin C, and mango extract. These ingredients will help soothe, brighten and protect your skin with antioxidants.

• Mint Poppy Seed Polish - This product doubles as an exfoliant AND a mask! Infused with sweet almond oil, Kaolin clay, and lactic acid, this product helps to rebuild the skin’s barrier as well as exfoliate dead skin cells that cause irritation, flakiness, and in some cases, pimples!

• Main Squeeze Hydrating Serum - Hydration and a lightweight feel make this serum great for all skin types. Snow mushroom extract, hyaluronic acid, and Niacinamide combine to create a great complexion perfecter. The snow mushroom extract and hydrating properties of the hyaluronic acid help to create a better overall complexion while Niacinamide (B3) vitamins help to reduce inflammation and restore the skin’s barrier.

• The Balm - This product is an Elevate Esthetics favorite! A great addition to any nightly routine, this thicker moisturizer contains Argireline, Black Currant Extract, Acai Berry Extract. These powerhouse ingredients are great for anti-aging, brightening, and providing antioxidants to the skin.

• Yogurt & Kale Eye Concentrate - Algae?! in skincare?! Don’t knock it until you try it! This anti-aging powerhouse has tightening, firming, and smoothing effects on the skin. Algae also help to stimulate the production of collagen in the skin, which helps to firm and smooth fine lines naturally. Another anti-aging powerhouse that this serum contains is apple stem cells! This helps to preserve skins vibrancy and youthful appearance. This eye concentrate sounds good enough to eat!

This winter skincare routine is sure to bust up your dryness and give your skin a healthy and radiant glow! But, just because the weather is turning drab doesn’t mean your skin has to!! 

Treat yourself this season with skincare and gift cards! We are including a $20 voucher with every $50 gift card purchased. So this season, give the gift of great-looking and feeling skin—buy online or in-studio at elevate-esthetics.com. 

Product Highlight: COOLA Refreshing Water Mist

How is a water mist going to protect my skin from the sun?

The COOLA Refreshing Water Mist is a lightweight SPF spray infused with organic aloe and coconut water to help hydrate skin. Coconut water contains minerals and electrolytes that help to rehydrate you as well as a sports drink!

In addition to great hydration, this product contains Jasmine Leaf Extract. This extract is known for its healing and anti-inflammatory properties. With antioxidants infused in this product, it is great to protect the skin from environmental stressors and pollution in the air.

A complete full spectrum complex. 360-degree protection against modern skin aggressors such as blue light.

Many of you have heard of blue light protection for your eyes (blue light glasses), but Blue light has also been shown to create changes in your skin cells. It causes your skin cells to shrink, and in cases when exposed to electronic blue light for prolonged periods, the skin cells even die. This kind of cell shrinkage will speed up the aging process of this skin and, in some cases, even cause pigmentation or dark spots. So why speed up your aging process when you don’t have to?

COOLA Refreshing Water Mist is a great product for multiple reasons; full spectrum SPF with healthy skin benefits, suitable for all skin types, reef-safe SPF, and from a cruelty-free company. We love great products with skin benefits.

You can find it on our website, and for the rest of September, all COOLA products are 25% off!

Product Highlight: COOLA Hair & Scalp SPF

Does your hair really need sunscreen? Or your scalp?

Just like heat from your blow dryer or heat from your styling tools, the sun can be just as damaging to your strands! The cuticle of your hair can easily be damaged by the UV rays. 

Prolonged exposure to UV rays can cause the hair to become brittle and prone to breakage. If you already have compromised hair strands that are dry, heat damaged, or damaged from coloring and bleaching, you are going to want to protect your locks at all costs. Even the salt water and chlorine can cause severe damage to the hair strands. These elements can disrupt the natural pH balance of the hair. If left unwashed or rinsed, this can be very damaging. 

Now, your scalp is still made up of living cells. It is still part of your skin and is still susceptible to UV rays and damage. Just because you have hair on your head, does not mean that your scalp is protected by the sun. 

3.6 Million cases of Basal Cell Carcinoma are diagnosed in the US each year. The most common places this type of cancer is found are face, ears, neck and scalp. With this being the most mild form of skin cancer, this is still damage that you’re going to want to avoid. 

We recommend using the COOLA Ocean Salted Sage Scalp & Hair Mist on your locks and scalp when you go out for the day in the sunshine. If you’re an avid hair colorer or if you love your blonde strands, this is a great way to protect your hair and scalp from the UV rays. 

This product contains Monoi oil and Gotu Kola extract. 

Monoi Oil is made from soaking Tahitian Gardenias in coconut oil. It’s used widely among french polynesians as a hair and skin softener. This oil is used on hair to help restore and retain moisture. It is also used to help fight bacteria and promote healing of the strands. 
Gotu Kola extract comes from an herb used mainly in Traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine. This extract can be found in many sun care products because it aids in the production of collagen and increases the levels of antioxidants in the skin.

Continual checks of your neck and scalp can be so beneficial for your health and early detection of a suspicious spot. Get your hairdresser involved! There’s no one else that’s looking at your head that closely! A 2015 study showed that melanomas on the head and neck have a faster growth rate of anywhere else on your body. Early detection is KEY. So be diligent, take precautions, and stay sun safe!

Check out the Skin Cancer Foundation’s Self examination guide on their website. It walks you through what to look for when you’re scanning your body for suspicious activities!

Lash Lift After Care

There are a few questions that we get a lot regarding the after care and maintenance of the lash lifting. They’re pretty low maintenance believe it or not!

“What do I do after this?”
The main things to remember are no water or no mascara for 24 hours. Think of the iconic courtroom scene from Legally Blonde:

“Because isn't the first cardinal rule of perm maintenance that you're forbidden to wet your hair for at least 24 hours after getting a perm at the risk of deactivating the ammonium thioglycolate”

The process and solutions are very similar to that of a hair perm. Getting the lashes wet will deactivate the solutions and cause the lashes to fall. We don’t recommend doing any excessive sweating, swimming, showering, washing your face, etc. Keep those puppies dry!

“If I get a tint, can I still use mascara?” 

Yes! You can still use mascara if you want to, but tinting them a darker color, you may not want to! Just don’t put anything on for the first 24 hours after you receive the service.

“Can I still use a lash serum when they are lifted?”

Of course! It’s highly encouraged to use a lash serum while you have a lift, as well as a conditioner. This will protect your lashes and keep them healthy.

“Is there a lash length requirement for the lifting process?”

While we want to say yes, we can lift shorter lashes, there is just a bit of a risk with them being too short. We can risk damaging the lashes or you really won’t see that much of a dramatic difference with the lift. 

“How soon should I get this redone?” 

We will rebook you at 6 weeks to get them relifted. Normally 6-8 weeks is the timeframe in which you need to get them relifted. Your lashes' natural cycle of life spans from 6 -8 weeks and it depends on where you are in that cycle when you get the lift done. We recommend the 6 week mark to catch the lashes before they completely fall. This will condition your lashes to stay curled so that they can stay that way longer.

“What lash serums do you recommend?”  

There are a lot of options out there for lash serums. The one that we recommend is by the brand Grande Lash. We love that brand as a whole and love seeing the results that it gives our clients. We also suggest the Grande Lash thickening mascara in conjunction with the serum. The mascara is infused with peptides which help to protect and strengthen your lashes.

I hope this helped to give you some answers to your burning questions! We have a great video posted on our website to help you guys as well.