I remember a few years ago I got it…the “crud” as some call it. Chest & sinus congestion with laryngitis. Oh happy day! Not your normal cold, this lasted well over 10 days of being too sick to work. This also meant, honestly, I was too sick to do much more than lay around, drink fluids and take medications (both allopathic and “non-traditional”/herbal). It meant I wasn’t washing my face morning and night and obviously not doing an at-home facial or even simply exfoliating. How did my skin look? IN NEED! Adding to this, I had gone on a camping trip (where I caught the bug) the weekend before I got sick, so I wasn’t able to take great care of my skin in that situation either. What this all amounts to is: My skin needed some emergency care!

Whenever you are temporarily unable to take care of your skin, you can do a few things on the back end to help your skin look its best.

1. Drink a lot of water. It helps clear your skin and keep your organs moving toxins along. Even if you weren’t sick but still weren’t taking care of your skin, drinking more water will benefit your whole body, including your deprived skin.
2. Get back into your twice daily cleansing routine ASAP. Without giving your skin a general cleanse morning and night, you are asking for trouble eventually. When your circumstances change (ie: you’re feeling better after an illness), just do it!
3. Exfoliate at the least; give yourself an at-home facial at best. The at-home facial involves a (clay-based) mask. The addition of the mask after exfoliation will help to revive your skin and put moisture back on the surface.
4. Exfoliate (preferably with Yonka’s Gommage) 3 days in a row. Once is fine, but if your skin is in need (especially if it’s breaking out), exfoliating consecutively will help to snap it back into shape. It improves circulation, gets rid of dead skin and excess oil, and improves texture immediately.
5. Get a professional facial. For some this is not possible, but if you can, do. During a facial your aesthetician will be able to assess your specific needs and give your depleted skin everything it needs.

Getting your skin back in shape after (hopefully only a temporary) absence from care isn’t so hard to do. It just takes a few steps every day and your skin will be glowing again in no time!

Recently a client wrote and asked:

My secret: Enjoying the process of getting older.
Another secret: If you fight it, it just gets worse. I’m on the train with everyone else. The difference is, I’m looking out the window enjoying the ride. Many (women) are focusing inside the car, fighting with the train conductor about the fare!

As I’m looking over my last post, I am surprised I didn’t let you know I was going on vacation at the end of September. I let my Facebook followers know, but not my bloggers…Opps! I was in the south of France and Barcelona, Spain, among many little towns and cities in between.

If you are interested in seeing some of my pictures, below are the links. I am still working out some kinks with my blog pages and at the moment cannot put up photos.

Graffiti: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=111803&id=702857877&l=b564277d2e

Gargoyles: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=111851&id=702857877&l=e20bbc4393

Beautiful tiles: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=111808&id=702857877&l=c2228013c8

A few of my favorites: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=111968&id=702857877&l=ba297b95f0

I’m happy to be back and happy to have seen all the great sites in France and Spain!

:+) Carolyn.

A client wrote:

I am LOVING the Yonka products and really happy with my choices from you.  I have been doing the clay mask at least once a week and sometimes twice and keeping really good care with washing, toning and moisturizing every morning and evening.  Overall, my skin is doing really well, but I still feel like my pores are visible and I don’t know if they would be considered blackheads or just enlarged pores and I’m wondering if there is any other product you would recommend to work with this, or if this is just the way my skin is?

Once pores are enlarged, they remain enlarged. The good thing is by keeping your skin clean (and super clean through using the clay), your pores are less likely to become congested, which can and usually does lead to enlarged pores. Because pores don’t shrink (a myth for sure!), you may just be looking at slight enlargement vs. blackheads in the pores. If you look really closely, you should be able to discern dirt and debris (blackhead junk) and just simple (and slight, no doubt) enlargement.

I seriously doubt you have very much enlargement - it really is rare, although many people think they have “big pores.” Based on your wonderful program (you are an “A+” client!), it is also doubtful you have much debris in your pores.

Next time I see you I will talk with you about what I see. In the meantime, I truly think your skin is doing well and that any enlargement you do see is minor with my professional eyes.

Once again, so sorry for all the delays in my blog posts. Perhaps you are on pins and needles waiting to hear about the mole biopsy I had last month. Here is the scoop:

The pathology report came back suggesting further investigation was necessary. Reading dermatology reports on the Internet, in my particular case and pathology reading, some derms excised and some did not. In my case, since the mole could potentially turn into melanoma, I didn’t want to risk it and took the doctor’s advice and had it reexcised.

What does that mean? It means that I went in a few weeks after the initial biopsy and the dermatologist made about an inch incision on my neck and scooped out more tissue to get tested, making sure all the questionable cells were removed. I cannot at this time (figure out why) I can’t get pictures to post here, so I have put a picture of the incision on my Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Boulder-CO/Carolyn-Ash-Skin-Care/131912367520?ref=ts).

It is pretty unbelievable that literally a dot of a mole turned into a good inch of a scar on my neck. I was prepared there would be stitches, I know they have to make a bigger incision than you’d think, but I have to admit when I asked to see where the doctor had drawn on my neck, it was a bit of a shock. Thank goodness this wasn’t on my face! Yikes.

It just hits home information I have been saying for years: It is better to be safe than sorry when it comes to getting funny-looking moles checked. The longer you wait, the more potential there is that you will be sporting a large scar where the mole was removed.

Make an appointment now with your dermatologist if you haven’t been in a year or more (or ever). Get a full body mole check and know you are doing yourself a huge favor in the process. You might be surprised to find out something needs to be removed.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Boulder-CO/Carolyn-Ash-Skin-Care/131912367520?ref=ts

Sign up for my Facebook Fan page! Along with this blog, I will continue to give you as much sound skin care advice along with other things skin care related and body balance related on my new Facebook page.

And remember: If you go to my website www.carolynash.com and sign up for my monthly discounts in the upper righthand corner of the site, you will receive discounts for products in my shopping area along with the across-the-board 5% off all products that everyone receives 365 24/7.

OMG! My apologies to Everyone reading this blog! For the past (almost) month I have not been able to access my blog site! This occurred during the change over from my old web servers to my new one. And in that process there were several glitches, one of which was access to post here.

I am so excited to be back online and to have this finally solved. I will get with the program and get some info to you shortly, I promise. I just wanted to post this to let you know I’m back! Yippie!

A client wrote me asking if she should change her products: ”
I’m pretty happy with all of it but I was wondering if I should make a change. I turned 40 last year, and I am thinking that maybe I should get something more “age appropriate.”

It’s a great question. And here is my answer:

I don’t use age as a guideline for recommendations. Any age of skin can have any number of issues or needs. So, if your skin had CHANGED (due to age or circumstances other than that) it could be possible you might need to readjust your routine. However, it your products still feel appropriate, I’d say stick with them. I always go by the condition of the skin, never the age. This seems contradictory to what you may hear in the media, etc., but it truly makes sense if you think about it. You could be 50 and still with oily skin. If so, and you use an “anti-aging” cream with lots of oils, etc., you’d develop an oil slick on your skin! So, if your skin had changed, it may call for a change in your routine.

Just because you are racking up candles on your birthday cake, it doesn’t mean your skin is drastically changing - necessarily.