Changing In Time For Spring.

Roses on my desk 2012

I'm sorry that I haven't posted for a week or so; work has been most enjoyable and I have had a great week helping with some clients understand some nerdy anatomy, work wonders with helping to cool menopausal skin and have basically looked around my treatment room and felt very for-filled, so I am getting back to blogging today.

I have spent this afternoon looking through the last layers of things in my office. I have treatment notes that are over three years old that need shredding, files of outdated class notes as new research has come along since then, books that need to be up-dated with new editions and I have decided to get rid of my old black filing cabinet.

Also, this week saw David and I talking with Jon Millington who will be editing the words for the new Cornerstone Website, and Fenwick Walker has some amazing designs for it. I have a strong sense that after five years of coping with myself faffing around I will actually get a website that will look simply amazing in a couple of months! Whoop!


The last vestiges of Cornerstone Therapy pre Advanced Clinical Massage and Skin Care Therapy are leaving the building.

Maybe it is spring. Maybe it is just time to let go. Maybe I'm making room for new adventures ...

Who knows? And to be honest, I don't really care, as it's just wonderful to feel fresh life being billowed through the windows into the business. Fresh, clean air with the hope of spring to come.

Part of the re-organization is that I have been tracking all your clicks onto the blog! It's been really quite surprising to find out that there are some pretty cool nerds out there reading the anatomy blogs as well as some skin care fanatics that just love the extra knowledge of how skin works. So, I am looking to shape the blog over the next few months to suit you both.

I am not good at writing series one after the other as my brain gets distracted so I'm going to look at writing a couple in tandem: One for the Anatomy-Nerds among you and another for the Dermal-Lovers.  They will be for all those looking for more knowledge about their own needs, pain, interests and general random searches, but I hope you enjoy them.

I'm kicking off with the subject of head-aches next week, and then I will start introducing the subject of premature aging on the skin the week after.

So, I hope that you enjoy the next few blogs. Please keep in touch an let me know what you think, what you want to read about on the blog and any ideas that you think I can add in.

Right, I think the shredder is cool now and I can get back stripping out the old so I can work on the new.

Base Oil - The Third

Macerated Oils. 

Driving home yesterday after a training session at Dermalogica, I was almost overwhelmed by the sunset. The colours were vivid, with the light causing the trees to be silhouetted in-front of the setting  light; the photo above is the same vibrant eye-full as the sunset last night. It is a photo of Calendula Officinalis, or the marigold flower. 

So what does the beautiful sunset, the common marigold and my blog have in common? Massage oil! (Well, the sun was simply wonderful, but it did make me think of writing today!)

Macerated oils are often misunderstood and underused in my opinion as they are not talked about much. It's easy to think of them in terms of music: Almond oil is King of the Oil World - the oil which is blended with most things, easy to use, non-perfumed and so all essences can be blended with him. Almond is the one that all the others gossip about and see as the pop-star. Macerated Oils are the Independent Musicians struggling to make their voice heard with loads to offer, have healing words and are true gems as soon as you find them. Macerated oils are the oils that are played on BBC6 Music late at night, that have a tiny army of fanatical fans and are plugging away in the background doing really interesting things. Personally I would rather listen to BBC6 Music than watch Pop Idol, so I guess you can see why I am passionate about these oils. They are truly remarkable! 

Maceration is the process of oil extraction that is used when you want to get to the healing properties of an oil but they are carried in the flower head. Calendula, Carrot, Melissa, Arnica and Lime Blossom are some examples of oils that are produced through maceration. To start the process of maceration, the chopped flower heads are put into a vat of oil, (normally olive, almond or sunflower oil), and then the vats are agitated over a period of a few days. The oil in the vat acts as a very gentle solvent to the flower heads and it gently lifts the properties that are required from them, resulting in a richly infused oil. Why is it produced this way? Well, it is often seen as a good way of extracting oils when other methods would be too expensive or cumbersome and as it works so well; why not?

Calendula Oil can be used to form up to 25% of the total mix of a base oil, so I would still add other oils to it if I were to use it in Aromatherapy. Or it can be used on its own in it's pure form. It is a wonderful anti-inflammatory oil and has been used to help damaged skin such as eczema, scars, ulcers, chapped and cracked skin, bruises and the like. It is really versatile and a wonderful oil to have around the house if you want a soothing oil to rub into the skin.

Arnica Oil is the one I reach for in times of emergency! No one should be without it. It is fantastic for bodies that are feeling over run, bruised, bumped, achy, sprained or strained. It's also a beautiful oil to use on back and shoulder ache and to be honest I tend to use this on its own without a blend to harness the purity of it. Just don't use it on cracked skin. 

Carrot Oil is quite funky and is a macerated oil from finely chopped carrot root, rather than the flower heads. Filled with beta-carotene it is used to help rejuvenate the skin and help with the anti-inflammatory process. I have to confess to never having used it as I can't find an organic supplier for it and as carrots are sprayed so heavily, I would rather have it if it is unadulterated. However, I think it is rather a cool oil in theory and would love to try using it some day!

Macerated base oils are a must to help the healing process and are a great tool to aromatherapy. I love the fact that they can be used neat and have a wonderful effect on the body, or they can still be blended and mixed with other base oils and essences to taylor make an oil just for you. 

Do ask your therapist about the oils that they use. Aromatherapy is an art and each blend will be different and unique, but worth the effort and time when blended well. However if your massage therapist uses pre-blended oils, (and I rely on them heavily), they are still fantastic and will offer your body specific properties to help aid you. Pre-blends simply mean that the oil manufacturer has developed a standardized essential oil blend that is blended into a vegetable oil and it will be the same in each bottle. I love them and for any type of massage apart from true Aromatherapy oil they are a must. 

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These blogs are not aimed at telling you how to blend oils, use them on yourself, family or friends, or give you the techniques to practice. It is just aimed at giving you background knowledge so that you can identify with your therapist in a deeper manner. If you are interested in the subject, please look to your local education providers so that you can learn how to use these tools safely, as they can be dangerous if used incorrectly.

Of course, I have used some great books to help with this series of blogs and they are:
The Book by Dermalogica
Aromatherapy Diploma Course Notes (Stonebridge College)
Essential Oils by Susan Curtis (Neal's Yard Remedies Publishing)
Aromatherapy An A-Z by Patricia Davis (Daniel Publishing)
The Art Of Aromatherapy by Robert Tisserand (Daniel Publishing).

Introducing Skinperfect Primer SPF30 From Dermalogica

Blur the line between skin care and make-up. 

Yesterday was launch day at Dermalogica for the new Skinperfect Primer SPF30, the latest edition to the AGE Smart range and a welcome edition to all morning skin care routines! We had a great afternoon up at HQ in Leatherhead and I am very excited to see this fantastic product arrive here at Cornerstone Therapies on February 1st. 

In the past there has been a lack of skin primers that offer a daily treatment for the skin as well as offering a fantastic base to your make-up application. Many cosmetic primers lead to skin irritation due to the fillers and waxes  that sit on the skin, or they advertise benefits for the skin but the result is a chalky, caked look that lacks the aesthetic elegance that is required of a primer. 

Skinperfect Primer SPF30 is a multifunctional skin care product for your skin, offering radiance as it helps to seal the surface of the skin to prepare for the wash of colour that you want to apply. You will achieve a fresh level of luminosity, even skin tone and hydration thanks to the pearl powders and natural earth minerals. Titanium dioxide and zinc oxide offer you a full, broad spectrum SPF 30, which is physical, not chemical, thus minimizing sensitivity. And you know you are going to be applying a powerful skin treatment as Skinperfect Primer SPF30 is packed with peptides to help stimulate collagen production, and ingredients known to fight biochemical triggers that may lead to skin aging. 

Makeup Artist Alyn Waterman, who is makeup artist to the Stars of screen and catwalk, has placed Skinperfect Primer SPF30 as his number one product to use on his clients. He says that the products has been intelligently designed and negates the use of a powder over the skin! He is a keen fan, and if someone who uses makeup every day for his job loves it, I am sure you will adore it too. 

So, if you are after a make-up primer that helps to deliver lasting coverage for your make-up, gives you smooth skin, helps absorb excess oil, stimulate collagen production to increase your skins firmness and shield you from skin aging UV rays, Skinperfect Primer SPF30 is for you! 

I loved this product when it first went on my skin back before Christmas. It's really easy to use on top of your daily moisturizer and gave me a natural looking tint to my skin for the whole day. The natural silicones give this product a luxurious feel and the pearl powders allowed my skin to glow. I suffer from very dry, grumpy skin and I was a little concerned that the powerful peptides may irritate me, but all I felt was hydrated and calm though-out the time I used it. Also, when I put my foundation on top of it I noticed that I had an even coverage, rather than my patchy issues around the nose and chin. I also liked that I could layer my sun-protection. Yes, I do use a SPF30 on my skin every day and using another one on top does not make an SPF60! But, knowing that all my skin was covered and that if I had missed a patch of skin with the first application, the second would get it was great as I knew I was fully protected. 

March 1st is also an exciting day to look forward to as we see Dermalogica's Cover Tint SPF20 and Sheer Tint SPF20 hit our shelves. Offering either a full coverage for the skin or a tinted wash of colour, these little babies are perfect partners with Skinperfect Primer SPF30. I'll keep you posted with updates of the next launch and I look forward to sharing and colour matching them with you next time you come for your treatments. 

Products are limited, so if you would like to pre-order your Skinperfect Primer SPF30, do get in touch with me so that you can be assured to get it as soon as it reaches the shelves!

Paraffin Wax ... Love Your Hands.

Snow is falling steadily, enveloping the house in white, and as a consequence Cornerstone Therapies has rolled itself into a cozy ball and I have decided to cancel all treatments until next week. The road is sheet ice and I just don't want to risk injuries to clients as they make their way here.

I joined the mass of panic buyers at the store this morning to get provisions for the weekend, but my gloves got wet and cold. By the time I got home after my car was pushed up the hill by a very kind man, my hands were almost numb with cold, the skin was cracking and the joints were painful.

So I put on my paraffin wax bath!

Paraffin wax is a wonderful treatment for the hands and feet, but it can be used all over the body as well. If you have dry, cracked skin and want to have some warmth over joints, then this is the treatment for you. It helps stimulate the skin, and if you pop your favorite hand cream on underneath it, the paraffin will help your skin to absorb it so that your skin is left deeply nourished. The paraffin treatments also help to cleanse the skin; sloughing off dead skin cells and correcting the acid mantle of the skin, leaving your pH balance in tip top order.

Personally, I always opt for the luxurious treatment option and apply Dermalogica's MultiVitamin Power Recovery Masque on under my paraffin to help boost my skin's health with the vitamin rich complexes. I then follow this with the Multivitamin Hand And Nail Treatment, which I feel is just heaven for dry skin and nails.

So, how do you use your paraffin wax bath?

1. Follow your manufacturers instructions. Commonly the wax baths will only have two settings; on and off, so you are sure that the wax is heated to the correct temperature at around 46c. So pop the wax in and set it to on and leave it for about an hour to heat up. 
2. Get two ziplock bags and three fresh fluffy towels, a cuticle stick and a nail file along with your hand care products. 
3. Take off any nail varnish; it's nice to make sure that the nail plates get treated along with the whole hand.
4. Enjoy cleansing your hands; wash them in some lovely Conditioning Body Wash and exfoliate them with Exfoliating Body Scrub. 
5. Pat dry on a fresh fluffy towel. 
6. Grab a cuticle stick and very gently push the cuticles back. 
7. Tidy up those nails with a nail file. 
8. Get the two zip-lock type bags and open them up so that it is easy to pop your hands inside. 
9. Fold the two clean hand towels so that you can slip each hand in without having to move the towels around. 
10. Massage a generous amount of your hand cream or masque into the hands, concentrating on all the dry and cracked areas. 
11. Now, dip your hands into the wax bath one at a time taking great care not to burn yourself! Dip them, take them out and repeat about four or five times so you get a few layers going on. 
12. Put your hands in the zip locks, then cover them with the towels. (This is why it's important to get it all ready before you start!)
13. Enjoy the warmth for about 10-15mins. 
14. Slip your hands out of the ziplock and peel the paraffin off your hands (this is my very favorite part!)
15. Massage any hand cream in that is left on the skin, or lightly rinse away the masque. 
16. Finnish up by applying the hand and nail cream and enjoy soft, pretty hands! 

You can follow the same routine for feet as well, and I think it's really lovely for all of you who spend the day on them; Teachers, Store Assistants, Therapists (!), busy parents, and just about anyone who suffers from tired feet can benefit. Just do the same thing, but soak your feet in a foot bath whilst the wax is warming up. 

In a foot bath I like to add some relaxing aromatherapy oils; get a teaspoon of almond oil and add a drop each of lavender, geranium and bergamot, then add to the warm water. 

I hope that this helps you if you are snowed in and wanting to look after yourself whilst you have some unexpected free time. Be careful on the roads and don't risk it if it's not an emergency.

For all of you waiting for Base Knowledge The Third, it's coming next week! I'm just looking up some lovely information on macerated oils. 

Looking forward to writing to you soon. 

Snow Protocol!

Glass sculpture on the Island of Mirano 

I have been enjoying a beautiful sunrise this morning with the sun glinting off white frost on the fence posts. The little Robins have been pecking at the ivy berries and there is a Blackbird singing away on the roof of our neighbors shed. Peppermint tea and BBC Radio 6 Music have been keeping me company whilst I do my paper work and I have been made aware that there is snow on the way thanks to the news updates.

I thought this would be a good time to remind people of what David in the past has called "The Snow Protocol"!

I will be here and I look forward to seeing you if you are booked in for your treatments over the next few days, but I don't want you to feel that you are putting yourself at risk in trying to get to me. I would much rather rearrange appointments than have you feeling stressed. So, if you could kindly send me a message on the morning of your treatment if you are not going to come for your appointment, we can rearrange for another day. If I don't hear from you I will assume you are coming .

I hope that is all clear and that you enjoy warm log fires, crisp walks to the pub, great food and all the coziness that snow can bring. What a joy that it hits us over a weekend; more time to relax and have fun in the snow!

Adult Acne with Dermalogica's MediBac.

MediBac - Professional Only Products For The Treatment Room

Yesterday was spent back home at H.Q; Dermalogica in Leatherhead. I was there almost a year ago to cover older ground at the Dermalogica Live series, but yesterday I was attending the MediBac Training course.





Dedicated to Adult Acne, the day was filled with skin physiology, pathology, product knowledge, tips and techniques to make sure that those coping with acne grades three and four are helped, treated correctly and understood so that their skin can be calmed, cleared and cooled.

There are four main reasons why adults can suffer from acne and they are these:

1. Hair - Often the hair in the follicles can be too short, too thin or not present at all, which is a problem as a normal hair acts as a wick for the pore allowing sebum to come to the surface of the skin. This sebum acts as a regulator and gets cleaned away, but if it can't reach the skin it stays in the skin and then the follicles gets blocked. 
2. Skin Cells - If you have adult acne your skin has the ability to create 4 -5 time more skin cells than normal. These have a tendency to stick together and not slough from the skin in the correct manner as our Lamellar Granules that help with the process can be fewer in number in your skin type. So, if you are creating more skin but don't have enough granules to help shed them, you are prone to get a build up. 
3. Sebum - In adult acne, the sebum can be a lot thicker than is ideal and as it is not being wicked away from the skin so easily, it can cause a bit of a problem. The other problem with sebum production in adult acne is that your skin has the potential to create 3 times more than 'normal' skin. 
4. Bacteria - These little fellows love to live anaerobically and feed off the tryglycorides in the sebum. When you have a blockage of skin cells and sebum which cut off the oxygen to the follicle, they multiply and the fatty acids that come with this process causes great inflammation and irritation. 

Treatment Stations At Dermalogica

Question: How do we treat Adult Acne? 

Answer: Gently! 

Dermalogica created a layering system that acts over 24 hours with MediBac. Helping to deal with the four main factors causing adult acne as well as calming the irritation and cooling the inflammation, the MediBac system can help with acne grades of 2, 3 and 4. 

Whether you use the whole system, or you choose one core product from the line to help with the occasional breakout, you know that your skin will be treated with the best products technology can bring. With some amazing ingredients such as the beta hydroxy acid, Salicylic Acid helping to clear congestion from the skin, microspheres absorbing oils, cooling camphor calming the skin, sebum regulating cinnamon, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory coneflower and the regulating effects of Sarcosine as well as the wonderful power of Nordihydroguaiaretic Acid to regulate the skin cells and sebum activity, I think Adult Acne has met its match!

In the treatment room I can treat acne Grades 1-3, but I feel that if you are suffering from Grade 4 acne, you should seek medical advice first as it could actually be too painful to receive a treatment and medication is there to help this form of acne. Also, you MUST ask your skin care therapist before using these products as if you are using any medication for acne, some of the products will be unsuitable and instead you may be advised to use complimenting products from another part of the Dermalogica brand to tie in with your prescription. 

In this YouTube clip, Jane Wurwand, the woman behind Dermalogica, talks about MediBac and the difference between adult and teen acne. 

I had a great day yesterday and I really enjoyed using the products in a facial with my working partner, Kim, and Sam our lecturer was fun, knowledgeable and made the day a real joy! 

I look forward to talking with you about your skin and treating you soon. Have a wonderful day and keep in touch. 

Happy New Year!

Me, enjoying some much needed sun in Oman! 

Happy New Year!

It is January 11th 2013 and I have just started my first day back at work after the Christmas break and New Year break when David and I had a good time in Oman with his parents.

After getting my dose of clear blue skies, warmth and super sun I am back and raring to go.

I have a feeling that this new year is going to be filled with growth, development and a new connection with body-work and I am very excited. This is mainly because I am starting without any worries about studying as I got my final results for my B-tec Level 6 in Advanced Clinical Massage and Sports Therapy just before I left for Oman. I have been awarded a High Merit and I am so pleased as I feel it was the best I could have done.

Now I can get on with the thing I love the most with out any hindrance -  treating all you lovely people at Cornerstone Therapies!