Winter is often a time of reckoning for many women. One morning in February, we look in the mirror and literally wonder aloud, “What happened?”
There are several reasons for this. One reason is literally the light of winter. It is oblique, sharp and high-contrast, while the light of summer is more diffused, sort of like putting gauze over the photographer’s lens. The harsh light of a winter morning exposes every pore to merciless scrutiny.
Another perceptual issue is the fact that most of us are at our palest in winter. I personally am not a fan of the tan, at all. I think every person should enjoy and celebrate the actual color of her skin, from alabaster to espresso.
But the fact of the matter is that many Americans are a bit tanner in summer. Exposure to the sun, as well as vacation spray-tans and bronzing products, add golden and warm-brown tones to even the pastiest skin. This effect does distract from purplish-blue undereye shadows, fine surface fissures, reduces sharp contrasts and visually creates a smoother look in terms of perceived pigment distribution – although I am not an advocate for basking.
So, winter is the time to get it right, and lay the foundation for healthier skin as the New Year. The real issue is two-fold. Cold temperatures cause the skin to contract, and cold reduces circulation. This means cell turnover slows, as do other body processes. So, cold weather may slow down lymphatic drainage, making us feel sluggish and look puffy. And, a slowing of the overall system reduces the rate of cell turnover, resulting in more cell debris on the surface of the skin. This can make skin look ashy, pasty, dusty and dull.
The other problem with winter weather, though, is the drop in humidity. Even in sunny Southern California where I live and work, it’s dry as well as chillier. And this loss of air-humidity means that skin feels dry, too.
Here are a few key moves to keep your winter skin healthier: 1 – Tepid water only. Heat may be appealing when you’re chilled to your core, but hot water contributes to dehydration. A steaming bath may also trigger flushing, including Rosacea symptoms.
2 – Moisturize – especially before you go outdoors. No, moisturizer does not freeze! Dermalogica’s clients across Scandinavia will attest to this. This never happens. So be sure to guard your skin with a shield of hydration. Sounds like a given, but we’ve gotten the feedback that some people actually skip moisturizer when it’s cold outside, fearing that their product will ice up like a skating rink. Not gonna happen.
3 – Cleanse carefully. Your skin continues to produce sebum and waste products, and shed cells, even if you’re not feeling warm and sweaty. So, cleansing is always the first step to optimum skin function. When facing the challenges of winter weather, it is more important than ever to avoid harsh products, especially deodorant bar soaps. These are generally alkaline, and the perfumes are irritating to the skin. Don’t use these on your body, and definitely don’t get them anywhere near your face! Cleanse face and body with a gentle botanicals-based liquid cleanser, pat dry (don’t rub), and apply moiturizer from toenails to hairline. I also think that antibacterial cleansers are overkill, unless you’re about to perform surgery.
I recently had the pleasure of joining Ali Brown as part of her annual “Shine Conference” in Dallas, where I was invited to speak and participate. Dermalogica’s women’s global microlending initiative, joinFITE, was spotlighted before 500 attendees, all of them dynamic women who are dedicated to entrepreneurism.
The theme of the conference was “Embracing Change.” And no one epitomizes this more than the electrifying Ms. Brown herself, who brings a sparkling million-watt smile and a sizzling billion-watt brain to the party. She’s written several business bestsellers, and her company, Ali International LLC, has been listed in the Inc. 500 as one of the world’s fastest-growing companies. Business News Daily has dubbed her “The Entrepreneurial Guru for Women.”
She’s a self-made success zeitgeist, leading, coaching and counseling women about how to create the lives they want.
Ali is a supporter of a dynamic national organization for women where I also mentor, Step Up Women’s Network (suwn.org). On the topic of change, one of Ali’s recurring themes really resonates for me: that women are creating a new paradigm in business, which literally will alter the course of history — and save the world! — because it is more sustainable than the prior masculine model. Men are welcome to follow, join and learn, and I can think of no more energizing example and teacher than Ali Brown.
Check out her no-nonsense inspirations — which are often hilariously funny, as well as pointed and smart — at alibrown.com, and her blog at forbes.com (Forbes called her one of the “Women to Watch”).
The time to winter-proof your skin is right now! Watch our Canadian Education Manager and skin care expert Holly Sherrard on The Morning Show to learn the best skin survival tips against the frigid cold, and find out how to keep your skin hydrated when the temperatures drop!
In the new year, people often make resolutions. “This is the year,” we often tell ourselves, “for a big change!”
Perhaps the most common NYR: to find a new job. A better job. Or just a job. Of course, in our current economy, this resolution may be somewhat tempered by the cold reality of less hiring. Still, employees may aspire to something… better.
It’s easy to conclude that the problem may be your employer. Just as there is no perfect mate or perfect marriage, there is no perfect workplace, and there is no perfect boss. If you can land another offer, it’s possible that a different job and a different company culture may suit you better—in which case, go for it, congratulations, and I wish you every success!
But here’s my news flash for the New Year: creating your own greater job-satisfaction may be possible right where you are. It requires that you see yourself differently, and see your job differently. When you do this, it is possible that you will create different results in the corporate culture around you.
A woman I know, a writer, spent many years working in ad agencies and PR agencies. She described feeling like a large, agile, trained, captive killer whale at a place like Sea World. “I live in a cement pond and perform tricks for food,” she told me one day over a martini or two.
You may know how this story ends, as these stories always end: the trained killer whale bit her trainer in two. Bad whale.
This is the problem with how most of us think of our jobs. We are conditioned to seek external rewards and incentives.
But get this: Dan Pink, author of four best-selling books on motivation, says “Tangible rewards tend to have a substantially negative effect on intrinsic motivation.” Money, in particular, he says, tends to de-motivate. It’s never enough.
In fact, Pink says “meaning is the new money.” What people really need in order to achieve and succeed is a sense of connection to something beyond self-interest. Something more meaningful.
In 2012, try looking at your work with new eyes. The word that’s got my mind buzzing is “autotelic,” meaning that the activity is its own reward, and the goal is self-fulfilling.
We’ve all had the experience of having our restaurant meal served by someone who genuinely seems to take joy in bringing us our food. Sure, this inspires us to tip well. But the truth is, people who love their work aren’t doing it for the tips.
We’ve all felt the difference of being greeted and assisted by a customer service person who genuinely addresses our concerns, attentively and effectively. Their task may sound like a nightmare job: handling our luggage at the airport, or working at the DMV. Again, this is because whoever that person is finds some intrinsic pay-off in the job itself. These people work with pride, and a sense of joy.
Do you?
If you’re disconnected from your job, it’s human nature to say that this is because it’s not a good job. So, you play Farmville instead of working. You re-tweet and text and FB instead of working. Maybe you, oops, how did that get there?, may even find yourself slipping some office supplies into your gym bag. You paste magazine photos of beaches inside the drawer of your desk, thinking, Some day, some day.
Some day is now. You may be experiencing disconnection, and dissatisfaction, because you’re waiting for rewards, like my friend Shamu, waiting for a fish to be tossed to her from the side of her sad cement pond.
Find your meaning now. Where is it? The answer may surprise you.
meet Dermalogica Canada – (not a) red-nosed reindeer
♫You know boosters and toners, Cleansers and serums, Exfoliating powders and Oils to condition But do you recall, The most preventative measure of all? ♫
meet Holly Sherrard A special member of our education team, Holly Sherrard, Dermalogica Canada Education Manager, swears (and sings) by the most preventive measure of all – protection against ultraviolet rays to combat skin aging and sun damage on the skin.
As a Canadian, we sometimes feel we don’t need to apply sunscreen in the winter. However, this is a huge misconception. I can’t resist using this fast-absorbing formula that instantly hydrates my skin. Some may call me an addict, as MultiVitamin Body Block SPF20 would be my ‘desert island’ product, but the results I experience with it are phenomenal. Each summer day I apply it as my body moisturizer, but in the winter I use it as a hand cream and on my chest when I wear a V-neck shirt. For days or nights that I’m wearing a skirt, I apply this product all over to leave my skin feeling soft and hydrated.
anti-oxidant daylight protection
This velvety rich product contains Shea Butter and Evening Primrose Oil to maintain hydration and smooth skin. Encapsulated Vitamin C and E is released when exposed to the sun’s rays to give added anti-oxidant protection from daylight. SPF20 perfects this product with daylight protection.
It’s officially time to winterize your skin – that means extra TLC to combat dry, tight, itchy, thirsty or even stinging skin, especially in the extreme Canadian cold! Dermalogica® masques are the ideal regimen supplement to help overcome skin concerns by providing a dramatic boost to the skin. As part of our meet Dermalogica® Canada segment, one of our very own tribe members shares her love for masquing and how to combat dry skin with her favourite Dermalogica® product!
meet Sarah Peck A star member of our Customer Service team, Sarah strongly supports skin health and the great benefits of her favourite product, an incredibly hydrating masque from our Skin Health System.
Skin Hydrating Masque is a refreshing, oil-free gel masque of calming botanicals and antioxidant vitamins that helps to restore moisture back to my skin, which makes it feel baby soft! I love the fact that it is free of artificial fragrances and colours, because I can apply it just before I snuggle up to watch a movie with the boyfriend and instead of scaring him, he barely notices I have anything on my face.
bye-bye fine lines
I apply at least 2-3 times a week right after exfoliating with either MultiVitamin Thermafoliant® or Daily Resurfacer – two other personal favourites. An added bonus – this masque can be applied around the eye area which helps me say bye-bye to fine lines!
America has always been a society of positive thinkers. This is one of the qualities which makes America great: our sunny, upbeat, “can-do!” national attitude has always drawn the dreamers, and drawn the dreaming out of each of us.
On the face of it, this is a great thing. This country’s positive thinking has enabled millions of people, including myself, to create things which would not have been feasible anywhere else. As much as I love my native UK, where people tend to be a bit less blue-sky (maybe it’s the weather), I am convinced this is what makes America unique!
But these days, there is a tendency in the midst all of this “positivity” to look away from anything disturbing. In our anti-depressant seeking times, nobody wants to wrestle with a downer, a bummer, a buzz-kill. Everybody wants to just have a nice day. This pattern may prove to be a challenge if you’re one of the estimated 12 million people on Earth today who live in some form of slavery.
Yes, slavery. “Slavery” may seem like a word from another century, but it is still pervasive in many parts of the world. In fact, there are more slaves today than in any other period in history. Most slaves are female. Many are children. Much slavery around the world involves sexual slavery, almost always as an effect of poverty.
joinFITE the women’s empowerment initiative powered by Kiva and spearheaded by Dermalogica, launched in January, 2011, targets slavery and trafficking of human beings through empowering women with financial independence. Denying that these conditions exist doesn’t help. Taking action does.
We are honored to be joined by DNA Foundation, a dynamic activist organization formed by Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher which aims to spread awareness of and combat sex trafficking in the United States. Other celebrities who have shown their support of joinFITE include Charlize Theron, AnnaLynne McCord, Cindy Crawford, Jason Alexander, Emma Watson and Kelly Rutherford, who also add star-power to the cause through their high-profile participation.
Most recently, these celebrities have shown their support of joinFITE by lending their hand for a recent social media campaign that was launched in October called “Lend Your Hand”. The participating celebrities photographed their hands and consumers have the opportunity to guess which celebrity the hands belong to on joinFITE.org or on joinFITE’s Facebook page. Winners receive a unique code which they can redeem online at joinFITE.org and trigger a donation from Dermalogica to a woman entrepreneur from the region of the world and industry of their choosing. The more codes a consumer redeems, the more chances she or he has to enter to win fabulous prizes from various lifestyle brands who have decided to lend a hand in making this campaign possible. Some of the brands who have donated prizes include Foot Petals, Lifetime Television, and Jimmy Choo.
This is our way of lighting one candle, rather than curse the darkness. We are committed to the idea that by creating modest, accessible economic opportunities for women, individuals, families and entire communities will be able to stand, rise, and break free from poverty and the injustice which reinforces it, including slavery of all kinds.
For more information on joinFITE or the Lend Your Hand campaign, please visit joinFITE.org or take the quiz below to activate a microloan for a deserving woman entrepreneur. Together, we can help put more women into their own businesses, one code at a time.
Since January, 2011, joinFITE.com has been at the top of my radar. If you’ve been stopping by this blogspace (hope so!), you know all about it. The focus of joinFITE is to globally empower and emancipate women, through microloans which facilitate their work. Generally, these women do this work with their hands – everything from braiding hair to embroidering baby clothes to planting seeds.
This really rings my bell, of course, since my entire career has relied upon my own hands, what they can do, and what I can discern through touching the skin of another human being. So when Dawn Wilcox, my associate from Allison & Partners, and I were participating in the Clinton Global Initiative in Manhattan, were asked to use our hands to send a message – we were all over it!
While at CGI, we were approached by Robert Fogarty, who founded “Dear World” – visit www.dearworld.me. Robert’s unique and inspired humanitarian cause began in New Orleans, where he began by photographing the people who were devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Now, the project has grown global, and Robert invites people to write a message on their own skin – on their own hands! – and to share this message with the world via photographs which are part of the “Dear World” movement.
I love the idea of being a human billboard for our cause! Dawn and I both wrote “joinFITE.org” on our hands, and the photo will be incorporated with thousands of others into Robert’s blog, upcoming exhibits, and future book.
Dermalogica Founder Jane Wurwand made a commitment at the 2010 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) to financially and economically empower women through microloans, resulting in the joinFITE initiative. In 2011, Jane returned to CGI to give a progress report, and to invite more people to give a hand up to 25,000 women looking to start or grow a business worldwide!
Do more, and do it now! You can lend your hand to joinFITE to empower a woman at joinFITE.org/lendyourhand
A common misconception when it comes to UV radiation is that we only need to wear SPF on sunny days or during the summer months – false. Even on cloudy or overcast days, UV light can strike skin and cause damage, so make sure you are wearing SPF protection year-round! Today we’re pleased to introduce to you a sun savvy member of our education team as part of our “Meet Dermalogica Canada” blog segment.
meet Leala McInerney There is one thing our fabulously funny Toronto Educator, Leala doesn’t joke about – and that’s protecting skin against ultraviolet rays.
WaterBlock Solar Spray SPF30 is a must-have not only in the sunny summer months, but throughout each season to keep those exposed areas protected. Being that I am a champion for people to become more sun savvy, it makes sense that WaterBlock Solar Spray SPF30 is my favourite product. I love it because it helps keep me well protected from the sun, it gives my skin a beautiful sheen and is also great to help hydrate. As if those benefits weren’t enough, because of the unique UV smart booster technology found in this product, it also helps treat and prevent the signs of aging before they even start!
spritz and go
The fact that this product is so easy to use, makes it that much more fantastic. With its convenient spray top, I can just spritz and spray my body into full protection. Also, we know how important re-application is when talking about SPF – being able to just spritz myself and go, makes re-application a breeze. A great tip when using WaterBlock Solar Spray SPF30 is to give yourself a few sprays throughout the day to keep that protection up on your face. That way you don’t need to take off your makeup and reapply.
Winter is often a time of reckoning for many women. One morning in February, we look in the mirror and literally wonder aloud, “What happened?”
