Paula's Beauty Spot

Introducing sassymamas new Beauty Editor

2009-03-24T03:18:00.001-07:00

We're so excited over at sassymamas, cause we have a new 'beauty spot' and an amazingly experienced Beauty Editor to lead it! Time for you to meet her!

Sassy Beauty Editor, April Jones has 18 years experience as a qualified beauty therapist, beauty & spa director and international spa trainer and now assists small and large beauty & spa industry clients in creating their unique web presence and business voice. She has created beauty content for clients such as Cosmopolitan, Salon City, Shiesido and Lancome, and numerous web based projects for spas and salons worldwide. April is also the director of Spa Fresh, a boutique website design and copy company specialising in the spa, beauty and hair industry, www.spafresh.com.au

That’s sassy!

How to Eat Your Way to Beautiful Skin
By April Jones , Beauty Editor, sassymamas

Whoever it was that once said ‘you are what you eat’ could never imagine the horror it would instill in women everywhere. If this truly was the case then I am 90% champagne and chocolate, my best friend a calorie loaded combination of cream cheese and Pop Tarts and my next door neighbor one gigantic blueberry muffin and cappuccino with extra sprinkles. In our collective attempts to fight off our favorite foods and maintain a semblance of sanity when clothes shopping we trail to the gym religiously to step, lunge and pump away the calories. The battle against input and output has always been a serious and time consuming pre occupation for women, but now we are being bombarded by new information and research that the food we eat not only has an effect on our weight, but also on how our skin appears and ages.

Skin Food for Thought Anti aging skin foods have long since been coveted in cultures around the world, with powerful anti oxidant ingredients such as chilli and green tea attributed to the seemingly ageless skins of Indian and Japanese women alike. The average lifestyle of a Japanese woman is around 5 years longer than that of its Western counterparts, with a diet based solely upon large quantities of fresh foods including root vegetables, raw fish and brown rice. Long before skin creams, serums and local beauty salons Japanese women understood the connection between the ingredients in their food and the effect it has on health, long life and beautiful skin.

Ingredients in our Skin Care For years skin care companies have been coveted for their latest skin beautifying ingredients, with everything from synthetic collagen to animal derived ingredients added to their products to deliver the promise of beautiful skin. The startling admission that these skin care ingredients could actually be creating more harm than good has been met with a level of concern. The dangerous levels of chemicals and preservatives.......contd at sassy Beauty with April Jones, at sassymamas.com

Let me know what you think of our new sasy Beauty Spot at sassymamas? xoxo

Yoghurt & Avocado Nourishing Mask (Naural Beauty Kit)

2009-03-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

Yoghurt & Avocado Nourishing Mask (Natural Beauty Kit)

YUMMY! This one is definitely safe to eat!

For: all skin types

What Will It Do: Leave your skin feeling soft, fresh & nourished

From Your Fridge:

1 ripe avocado
1 ripe banana
3 tablespoons plain yoghurt
1/4 teaspoon vitamin E oil
3 tablespoons aloe vera juice

Directions:
1. Mash the avocado and banana to make a paste.
2. Add the yoghurt and vitamin E oil and mix well.
3. Massage the mask gently into your skin, covering your face & throat areas. Avoid your eye area.
4. Soak a piece of gauze in the aloe vera juice
5. Place the gauze over the mask to infuse the ingredients
6. Leave for 10-20 minutes
7. Rinse off
8. Tone & moisturise as normal.

Do you make your own 'yummy home made mask? care to share the main ingredients?

BEAUTY PRODUCTS 5 DAY SALE!

2009-03-01T03:40:00.000-08:00

5 DAY PAMPER SALE! LUSH! DIVINE! HYDRATING!

SAVE $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

DAINTY ANTI-AGING FACIAL MASKS

ONLY US*$1 EACH (min x5 masks @$1 each)

From my Personal Beauty Closet, I introduce to you these ultra-hydrating, fibre cloth masks that leave your skin feeling soft, fresh & moisturised!

Choose from:
COLLAGEN
ALOE
ROSE
CITRONELLA

ONLY WHILE STOCKS LAST!

Flat Rate Postage Worldwide:
US $5.00 (5-10 masks)
US $10.00 (10-15 masks)

****PAYMENT BY PAYPAL ONLY****

~Sale ends 6 March 2009~

~Place your order in Comments~

~Thank You~

check your beauty spot! paulak:.

Will my anti-perspirant give me cancer?

2009-02-27T07:08:00.000-08:00

B.S. METER

THAT'S A NEGATIVE. "This internet urban myth is extremely frustrating", says Women's Health Magazine Australia expert, Ginni Mansberg. "There's no evidence at all of any link between anti-perspirants and cancer (especially breast cancer)."

So where did all of this come from? Nasty parabens have been demonised by naysayers for a while now and I have to say that I cringe when I see them in product ingredient lists....they are in so many! If I can avoid them I do. But the experts tell us that parabens in anti-perspirants have never been linked to cancers. Sweating comes from our SWEAT GLANDS, people, not from our LYMPH GLANDS....BIG difference. These glands are not even connected. And you don't get cancer of the Sweat glands.

Who can blame you to err on the side of caution these days, but remember, it's the parabens you're getting all hot & sweaty (and stinky) about, so if you turf out your anti-perspirant because of them, best you look at what else they're lurking in, hiding in wait in your bathroom cabinet!

check out your beauty spot:.paulak

Natural Beauty Kit (part 2) 'Mmmm...minty cleanser'

2009-02-22T15:18:00.000-08:00

In our 'Natural Beauty Kit' series we'll serve up tips on turning nature into nurturing skincare products...and you needn't look any futher than your own fridge!

MINTY CLEANSER
The cucumber & the mint cools & soothes while the milk brightens and lightly hydrates your skin. The grapefruit extract acts as a natural preservative so that you can store your cleanser for a week.

Natures ingredient box:
*10cm piece of cucumber
*5 mint leaves
*50ml milk
*2 drops grapefruit seed extract
*muslin cloth
*sterilised bottle

1. peel cucumber & remove mint leaf stalks
2. chop both cucumber & mint leaves roughly
3. then put them in a blender with the milk & whizz until smooth
4. poor this mixture into a pan & heat until simmering over a medium heat
5. simmer for 2 minutes
6. cool then strain through muslin cloth
7. pour liquid into a sterilised bottle
8. add grapefruit extract
9. keep cleanser in fridge & use within a week

10.apply your 'minty cleanser' to your face and throat
11.avoid your eye & mouth areas
12 rinse off with warm water & facecloth
13.tone & moisturise as normal

Future parts to this series will include a 'lavender/rose skin tonic', a 'blackhead blaster' and a 'blemish blaster.'

check out your beautyspot:.

Natural Beauty Kit (part 1): 'raspberry razz skin lightener'

2009-02-18T20:16:00.000-08:00

Want to do your part to help the environment?

In our 'Natural Beauty Kit' series we'll serve up tips on turning nature into nurturing skincare products...and you needn't look any futher than your own fridge!

RASPBERRY RAZZ
The raspberry seeds act as a natural exfoliant and gently remove dead skin whilst the lactic acid in the yoghurt works on the new skin to brighten and lighten! Yummy!

Natures ingredient box:
*3 teaspoons plain yoghurt or strawberry yoghurt(for xtra razz!)
*a quarter cup of fresh or frozen (thawed) raspberries
*4 drops sweet orange essence oil
*2 slices of cucumber

1. pulp raspberries in a food processor
2. sieve over a bowl
3. keep the flesh & seeds (drink the juice if you wish)
4. mix the flesh & seeds well with the yoghurt
5. add the essential oil and stir in well
6. cleanse your face as per normal
7. now apply your 'raspberry razz' mixture to your face and throat
8. avoid your eye & mouth areas
9. cover each closed eye with a slice of cucumber
10.leave on for 15 minutes
11.relax!
12.remove cucumber from eyes and rinse off 'razz' with warm water
13.remove excess 'razz' with a warm facecloth
14.tone & moisturise as normal

Future parts to this series will include a 'lavender/rose skin tonic', a minty cleanser', a 'blackhead blaster' and a 'blemish blaster.'

check out your beautyspot:.

Bad Hair Day Solution!

2009-02-16T19:16:00.000-08:00

How many 'Bad Hair Days' per week do you have?
Is it because your hair is in desperate need of a good wash & blowdry but you simply don't have the time to do it before that: date, lunch, movie with BFF, meeting with Principal, dinner with monster-in-law?

Here are 2 great quick solutions!
As a former Model & Miss International New Zealand, Solution No. 1 got me thru many 'bad model hair days (plural)' and continues to get me thru many 'bad mom hair days'! Scientific advances have now given us Solution No. 2 in a can!

Solution 1:

1/ Simply tip some baby powder or other like powder onto your fingertips

2/ Rub the powder gently into the roots of your hair, particularly bases of your hairline that are visible, such as hairpart like the one pictured

3/ Don't be afraid to use more powder

4/ Leave it in for 1-2 minutes (the powder will absorb any oils)

5/ Brush powder thru to ends of hair so that powder is not visible

6/ Style hair as normal

Solution 2:

1/ Spray a DRY SHAMPOO such as KLORANE'S 'Gentle Shampoo with Oat Milk' (a miracle dry spray shampoo in a spray can) onto your hair, following the above directions, using this spray instead of the powder.

Voila, hair you can work with for at least another day!

PS if all of the above fails, wear a funky cap or hat:-)

check out your beautyspot, paulak:.

Skinfood Black Sugar Mask update-to die for!

2009-02-15T05:32:00.000-08:00

WOW! this skincare product is unbelievable!!!! I have worked in the beauty and fashion industries for many years, trained as a certified beauty consultant plus tested hundreds of products .....this one ranks in my top 5!

I finally got it in my hot little hands after buying it on the internet from Korea and paying heaps for postage (eeekk!)but I loved the pic, the review and the packaging (see post below) and JUST HAD TO HAVE IT! Then there were holiday delays....and finally it arrived.....the packaging did not let me down.....the smell of the product is DIVINE...it has rich warm citrus notes......and the texture is a 'thick wet brown sugar like scrub' or 'wet chocolate fudge mixture'.....YUM!!!!

I'm glad that the clever gurus at SKINFOODS did not name it a SCRUB, as I really dislike that word...it is so misleading...it tends to make people 'scrub' at their skin....our skin is so delicate that we need to treat it very gently, not scrub at it like we would a 'scourer on a pot!'

I recommend that you:*cleanse your face in the shower first
*then either rinse your cleanser off
*use a teaspoon full of this MASK mixed with a lot of water (u don't need a lot)
*gently massage into your skin
*or mix the MASK with your cleanser and water first, for a more gentle effect
*avoid your EYE AREA as this skin is extremely thin & delicate and damages easily
*make sure you get into the creases of your nose area for stubborn blackheads
*extend your gentle scrub down onto your neck area
*gently rub over your lips to exfoliate dry, dead skin
*wipe off excess mask with water & a wet facecloth
*tone & moisturise as normal
*I do not recommend that you use this mask whilst you have open acne or blemishes

.....it left my skin feeling STIMULATED, INVIGORATED, ALIVE, BLOOD PULSATING, FRESH, AND INCREDIBLY SMOOTH....especialy in areas where I had built up dry, dead skin.

VERDICT: I LOVE IT!!!!
NEXT STEP: I need to see if SKINFOOD has a similar BODY SCRUB because if they do and it makes my body feel the way my face does, I might actually use one!!!

GIVEAWAYS: I have x3 BEAUTY PACKS ON TO GIVE AWAY:
EACH CONTAINS: x1 SKINFOOD SAMPLE SACHET plus x1 DAINTY FACE MASK plus x1 EYELASH CURLER to giveaway to the 1st 3 followers who:1/ subscribe (ur still eligible if u have already subscribed)
2/ leave me a comment about this post
3/ tells a fellow blogger who also subscribes & leaves me a comment

check out your ur beauty spot xoxopaulak

Beautyspot is back after a break!

2009-02-14T08:20:00.000-08:00

Beautyspot is back & revamped after a short break!

Congrats to OF MICE AND raMen and VoteAudrey who have both won awesome beautyspot sample sachets! Thanks for being great followers!

Call back for regular beauty tips,reviews & giveaways plus WEEKLY SALES!!

check your beautyspot! xoxo

my first SKINFOOD product-BLACK SUGAR MASK/SCRUB

2009-01-23T05:02:00.000-08:00

well, i finally got to order my first 'skinfood' product today-yay! everyone says this BLACK SUGAR MASK is one of the most popular + they all rave about it....have been dying to try it for myself.....there are no 'skinfood' stores in australia so i had to search hard to find it online.....the ebay prices were such a rip-off!!!! what makes me sad is that i went to Kuala Lumpur on a shopping trip (twice in 5 months) and missed seeing the skinfood stores BOTH TIMES....eeekkkk!!

i'll keep you all updated....i can't wait for it to arrive....does that classify me as a beauty products junkie???

I also bought some 'skinfood' samples so the first 4 of you 'junkies' like me who subscribe to this 'beauty spot blog' in january will get a SKINFOOD SAMPLE FOR FREE! i bought it online at http://www.girlsniteinbeautystore.com/

......anybody wanna share what they think bout this mask/scrub? ...looks good enough to eat! check out your beauty spot ;-.)