Irinä's advices for Beauty issues : April 2017

Hello sweet butterflies !

As you probably noticed, Irina's Beauty Advices is back too (along with the Self Improvement Blog), totally refreshed, active and full of wonderful things to share with you!

Today's article is about a "Detox Beauty Routine" I personally follow. It is best combined with the physical Body Detox Routine which is focused on removing all the toxins and their effects from your body forming a great combo for treating yourself inside out clean <3

Why jumping into a Detox Beauty Routine? It is beneficial both for your appearance and health, it lifts up your mood, boosts your self confidence as you're treating yourself nice and In my opinion, it has a symbolic aspect as well. Once you decide cleaning yourself from all the "dirt" and harmful material you also choose to get rid of the negativity and embrace the clear, light and hopeful version of yourself. You're making space for your own rebirth ( literally referring to the skin cells that will grow, metaphorically to the improvement and change in your life ).

When is the best time to get a Beauty Detox Routine? Well, there isn't a "right" or "wrong" moment and it also depends on the basic routine you follow. In my point of view, I proceed to a stronger purification when I feel that I need to refresh myself. This can be after a long tiring day when you seek some relaxation, the day after a party or night out when you feel a bit zombified, a day that you feel out of mood and you have to remind yourself that you are a beautiful and worthy creature or instantly after holidays associated to unhealthy lifestyle.

As I already mentioned, this is a stronger routine which I follow on a weekly basis (some isolated parts) or monthly basis (the full process) but i definetely do not recommend following this daily as it can be damaging.

Here we go!

BODY

Get started with a warm relaxing bath!
You can sink in your bathtub in foam and oil drops or enjoy the experience of the falling water. No matter the choice, you need a warm bath to open your pores and let the dirt wash out.

Get a body scrub!
Doesn't matter If you're making your own or using an industrial (I occassionally make my own out of natural ingredients but there are fair and nice products in the market too). Give your body a nice strong peeling and get rid of the dead skin cells.

Don't forget to use (maybe a stronger) scrub product for your feet and elbows. The foot scrub is my number one weapon to recover after long hours of standing ( especially during my work shifts ). Peeling and rubbing increase the blood circulation and your feet recover faster.

(Optional) : Get your hair removal routine. Best during shower if it's shaving or before you shower if it is wax or anything similar. If you're getting a wax session be careful with the scrub as it can cause irritation, Use a mild product and don't overdo it with rubbing.

Moisture mode: ON !
After your clear and soft skin is revealed you need to make sure it will get moisturized as it needs to recover and stay smooth, clean and silky. The variety of options is wide, you can choose between a body mask during your bath or a post shower product in any format that suits your skin: bodylotions, bodybutters, babyoils. I personally use babyoils the days I'm scrubbing because my skin is extremely sensitive and it reacts best to this format. I go with bodylotions usually after my daily simple showers.

Tips:

Give your body a nice circular massage with your moisturizer to improve the blood circulation, help your skin absorb the product faster, relax yourself and create a smooth texture on your skin. Spend some more time on areas you may have cellulite or loose skin.

While applying your moisturizer on your feet it is a REALLY GREAT opportunity to relax yourself for real. Rubbing your feet and toes feels really amazing but knowing exactly where to focus is a powerful weapon to relief yourself from stress, tiredness and further health issues. Here's a "map" of your feet sensors and their "correspondence" body parts. I highly insist of trying this, it helped me a lot with a lot of aches during my period, migraine, insomnia and digestion problems.

For extra silky feet, after rubbing your feet put on some socks. The heating between your skin and socks will let your pores open and the product will reach deeper creating a much softer texture.

FACE

First step before showering is to remove ANY make up using a mild soft facial soap.

Use a facial scrub product or jump combine Sugar and Honey and gently rub your skin avoiding the area around your eyes and mouth, the skin there is pretty thin and can be damaged easily.

Exfoliate your lips as well using your fingertips and the sugar-honey mixture or blend some honey and cinnamon and use an old toothbrush to gently scrub your lips.

Wash out your skin with lukewarm water and there you get two options. Either using cold water on the last washout (and optionally apply some face lotion to balance your PH and moisture level) or washing out with lukewarm water, drying your skin with a clean towel ( DO NOT RUB! ) and using a moisturize cream or mask.

Personal Use: If I'm doing the scrub for beauty routine purpose I usually proceed on the mask or moisturizer step. When I scrub after a night out I prefer not using any product after washing out and let my skin "breathe" and repair its natural oils on its own.

TEETH

Yes, these are my own teeth after this treatment :)

Once a month ( or less frequently ) I follow a natural teeth whitening routine. Once a month is a good frequency more or less but do not repeat this more often as it can be harmful for teeths' adamantine or cause a chemical burning on your gums.

How to do it: Mix a tbsp. of cooking/baking soda with some fresh squeezed lemon juice. Adjust the proportions so that you get a creamy paste. Use this paste to brush your teeth for 2-3 minutes. Wash out with plain water. It's a process that can visibly whiten your teeth naturally and clean your mouth deeply. I guess that regular coffee drinkers and smokers will get more noticeable change with this because of the extra dye concentrated on their teeth,

HAIR

My hair

Your hair is a part of you and suffers the consequences of a bad day or lifestyle too. During your shower use a mild shampoo to clean up your roots and lengths and wash out with lukewarm water. I use hairmasks (instead of conditioner) regularly but the products stays on for maybe 2-3 minutes maximum during shower. If you wish to give them a refreshed, moisturized and healthy look you need to switch to "therapy" mode. You can either use products specialized to repair or simply use your favourite mask across the lengths/ends and let it on for 10-15 minutes (preferably using a shower cap to preserve some heat). Wash out with lukewarm water AND make sure the last washout is done with cold water. This will tighten the scalp pores (which means healthy hair won't fall out during brushing - something that happens really often as moisturizers and warm water open up the pores) and will also make your hair shine.

Let your hair dry naturally if you're into this or If you can't avoid blow drying make sure It's on the coolest scale and on a safe distance from your hair.

Another highlight of my beauty routine is oiling my hair. There are tons of products that swear a silky result, a lot of them actually work but most of them just offer a smooth texture just for 1-2 hours after application ( especially the leave-in ones ).
My main aim of using oil is to moisturize my hair DEEPLY so I don't just use a post-shower leave-in product.

I use natural almond oil across my lengths, ends and even my roots (since it is a natural product it isn't harmful for the scalp) the night before I sleep (I usually wash my the following day). It works the best If i don't have to get out for one day, to brush my hair, apply almond oil and make a loose braid. If you give it a try, leave it overnight and the whole following day and you get AMAZING ,healthy hair.

A close-up shot of my hair

Since it has no smell, it can be used as a leave-in product as well. You can add your preferable essences too. Why almond oil? All the natural oils (ex. laurel oil, olive oil or relevant ones) work exactly the same way but they aren't recommended for blonde hair (like mine) as they tend to darken or even cause brassiness and green tones to such light hair.

They are perfect for Brown and black hair. If you're blonde, gigner or redhear, almond and coconut oils will work great.

I repeat the "overnight" treatment once a week or once every 10 days and i use leave in oil almost every day.

Except natural oils I also use this amaaaaaazing product : The Gold Oil Essence - Tsubaki Oil from Montibello. I purchased a bottle of 30mL for around 3 euros and it lasts 1-2 months of regular use.

NAILS

The routine here is more obvious and adjusted to the manicure steps every person follows individually but in general cutting your nails, leaving them unpolished to breathe is the healthiest way to let them grow stronger while taking care of your personal hygiene. Some personal life hacks i discovered through the time is the use of lemon to remove stains of nail polish absorbed by the nail surface and clean my nails (lemon is antibacterial as well). Another life hack when my nails feel weak and crack is to let them rest for a few days or a week, boosting my diet with the essential protein and vitamins aaaaaaaaand applying olive oil while rubbing them.

That was it for today, all these steps complete a full facial and body beauty detox routine that I personally follow and recommend. If you're trying either the whole process or even some isolated parts I would love your feedback! I am also really welcome to your own comments, suggestions, questions and requests for upcoming articles.

Thank you a lot for taking the time to read my article and feel free to share it out there If you liked it.

Stay tuned for the next update, coming up really soon.

Find my contact information below.

Love,

Irina