Stress relieving beauty essentials

Mums Tips

Fashion & Beauty

Published on Monday, 22 February 2021 13:57

Last Updated on 22 February 2021

Monica Costa

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It’s safe to say that 2020 was a year of unexpected twists and turns. As we find ourselves in a new lockdown, it’s no surprise that stress and anxiety levels are at an all-time high. Google searches for anxiety in recent months have skyrocketed and a new year turn is the perfect time to address the causes of stress and find ways to help us manage it effectively.

Taking the time to treat yourself to a regular self-care ritual will help to calm your mind, body and soul. Check out the following stress relieving beauty essentials to help you take some well needed time each day to slow down, breathe and reclaim your calm.

We can reverse ageing if we treat our body like a temple. Skincare and skin healing need to happen from the inside out. Hydration and a healthy diet is essential to maintain a young and glowing skin. Here are some of my own routines and tips to keep my skin looking radiant.

I am passionate about reverse ageing maybe because I am in denial of ageing although I am happy with the way I look. 

Call me lucky, but my skin is 15 years younger than its real age. I get asked almost on a daily basis what I do to keep my skin so young and healthy. Apart from the fact that my Mediterranean complexion and genes certainly contribute heavily to the young look and feel of my skin, there are things I do regularly to support my skincare:

1. Intermittent fasting / healthy nutrition – skin is a mirror of your body’s health so a good nutrition is essential to achieve beauty from the inside out. As I reported last year, I started intermittent fasting and achieved amazing results, first of which a glowing looking skin.
2. No smoking – I have never smoked in my life! Smoke ages the skin very rapidly. 
3. No drinking with the exception of occasional glasses of wine with meals only when I am in good company, never by myself. I have never got drunk and I don’t feel the need to do that. Alcohol doesn’t do anything so exhilarating to me really. Alcohol also ages the skin. Alcohol and caffeine have a diuretic effect and can aggravate dry skin. Don’t forget to drink plenty of water, though! I drink at least 2 litres of water every day.
4. Antioxidants – I take lots of antioxidants in via tomatoes (which I love and eat every day) and green tea (I drink mainly that all day long).
5. Daily cleansing routine – I’ll explain all I do below but basically deeply washing the skin twice a day is vital to remove impurities and keep the skin young and healthy. I also never use the same products repeatedly. I always have three different cleansing products and moisturisers that I alternate every day. The same product all over again is not good for your skin which gets used to it and does not absorbs the goodies any more. It’s very simple, really. No matter what products you use – some are better than others but the moisturising effect is the key factor – don’t use them twice consecutively.  
6. Happiness – Last but not least I am a happy person from the inside out. I’m a free spirit. I always feel happy inside because I never look back. Looking back at my life so far, I have no regrets. I like to think that all the choices I have made along the way, even if wrong at the time, they have felt right or at least justified in that particular moment. Being generous to yourself and allowing to just be helps with your general wellbeing including your skin. 
7. Beauty Sleep – Sleeping well for at least 8 hours a day – and at regular times helps maintain a healthy skin. 
8. Indulge in me-time – My body is my temple and I treat it with respect. This also includes taking time to do the things I love to always feel happy, glam and satisfied. 

Here are all the products I use regularly to take care of my skin and well-being. 

DIY Sugar Scrub Recipe – this is my own home-made recipe!

I also use RAMER sponges to complement the sugar scrub action. The result is a silky skin from top to toe. 

Hemp based skincare products

During the pandemic I have been washing and sanitising my hands so much more than usual. They have been extremely distressed, dry and cracked throughout. I have been on hunt for something to soothe my dry hands and I have managed to find easy solutions. Since treating my hands with a mix of products, I have managed to keep both hands and nails soft using a combination of hand cream and oil before bedtime including a superb Hemp Hand Cream from the Aldi Hemp Range which costs only £1.49 for 65ml.

It is enriched with hemp seed oil to help preserve and nourish the skin, offering up to 48-hour moisture. It helps in giving hands an unbelievably soft and silky feeling, leaving the lovely hemp aroma. Also new to the Lacura beauty line up is the CBD Facial Serum (£4.99, 30ml). Enriched with natural Cannabis Stavia Seed Oil and Oregano Oil, this buzz ingredient helps to hydrate and calm skin. Its natural, soothing concentrate is safe for all skin types, including blemish prone, and will help to visibly reduce redness, leaving skin feeling and looking hydrated and protected. As the trend for hemp-based beauty shows no sign of slowing down, Aldi’s Lacura range has welcomed its own range featuring the hottest beauty ingredient, perfect for nurturing skin set to face the cooler temperatures this winter. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aloe vera based skincare essentials 

Forever Living, the aloe vera company, has launched a Hydrating Serum combining four types of hyaluronic acid to boost hydration, perfectly timed for summer.  Mixing aloe vera with other skin-loving ingredients such as white tea, mimosa bark, tamarind, and snow mushroom this hydrating serum helps shield against environmental stressors, and minimise the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. 

Each of the four types of hyaluronic acid (HA) play a key role in retaining hydration. Hyaluronic acid is an intense skin moisturiser that holds 1,000 times its weight in water. Combined, all four types of hyaluronic acid work together to replenish water on the surface of skin and retain moisture from the inside, whilst also improving elasticity and resulting in the appearance of visibly plump skin. 

As part of Forever’s targeted skincare, this formula applies easily, absorbs quickly, and has an exceptionally light feel. Hydrating Serum helps skin feel plump and hydrated while reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, and providing an added layer of protection against environmental stressors. 

Fast facts

• Absorbs quickly into surface layers of the skin
• Visibly plumps appearance of skin while enhancing its texture
• Boosts skin hydration
• Shields against environmental stressors
• Helps minimise appearance of fine lines and wrinkles

Key Ingredients 

• 4 types of hyaluronic acid 
• Stabilised aloe vera gel 
• Coconut fatty acids 
• Shea butter 
• Snow mushroom 
• Tamarind 
• White tea  
• Mimosa bark

Price £34 for 50mls. It’s available from here.

 

Mood Wellness 

A good mood can relieve stress. Mood can be influenced by many things. We have good things that make us feel happy and joyful. Then we can have the not so good things that can leave us feeling sad, angry or regretful. Then there are also days where mood cannot be explained or rationalised, and even days where we can swing from one extreme to the other. And as we are currently living in a limbo situation – lockdown 3, uncertain of what is happening around us, how we should handle things, or we ‘should’ feel it is understandable that our moods may differ day to day or even hour to hour. 

I asked pharmacist Sultan Dajani and advisor to www.dragonflycbd.com, to provide London Mums with tips can we do to try to help keep our moods healthy:  

3. Don’t force it: Let your mood be. The more you try to change it and pretend it’s not happening, the worse you are going to feel. Acknowledge that it is just a mood or a feeling that will eventually lift.
4. Take a minute: Take some time out to just sit with your mood. Perhaps giving it some attention can help you work out the cause or resolve it. If you know that it is your emails, or a certain friend that is causing your mood to worsen, step away from them until you feel like responding or talking to them.
5. Healthy Diet: When we aren’t feeling quite ourselves, we may be more inclined to reach for comfort food or high sugar food like chocolate. This may make us feel better for a nano second but will unlikely help us in the long term. Having a healthy balanced diet with lots of vegetable and fish will ensure you are getting the nutrients you need to help boost your mood.
6. Sleep: Getting a good night’s sleep is crucial for our mood and helps us to rationally process things around us. We can see this even on one night’s bad sleep. We feel grumpy, are quicker to react to negative things and find it harder to be enthusiastic. Stick to a sleep routine and note down any worries before you go to bed. CBD oil ticks all the boxes when it comes to sleep woes for me and many other people. Taking a few drops of CBD oil as part of a daily regime helps people to feel relaxed as well as better quality sleep which is vital for positive thinking as being anxious stops that. It can reduce conditioned fear and anxiety and the World Health Organization has recognised that CBD may have the potential to help health issues such as anxiety as well as sleep issues like insomnia.
7. Get moving: Exercise, walk, jump up and down, do some stretching or dance around the room. Whatever your preference just moves your body. Even a few minutes will give you a new outlook. Endorphins are released, stresses can be taken out through exercise and gentle options like yoga and Pilates can help reset and calm the mind.