Stumbling My Way Through Life One Glass of Wine at a Time

Stumbling My Way Through Life One Glass of Wine at a Time

Sunday, August 26, 2012

RegimA Facial Peel

Working in a spa can be a lot of fun – one reason being that when the therapists need to train, guess who the guinea pigs are?
From massages to facials, nails to mud wraps… you name.

I arrived at work one morning after working at least ten full minutes solely on my makeup.
I believe that your face is your canvas each morning.
If you feel like being natural for the day then that’s great too, but if you’re feeling the creativity surging through your veins then at least make an effort to be proud of your presentation.
Play around.
Get messy.
And have fun!
You only live once – so why not explore what is right in front of you!?   

As I walked into the office I was told that I was having a facial.
Usually I would have been thrilled, but I’d lost precious time under the covers that morning to slap on a face.  
I’d experimented with new purple eye shadows’ I’d received as a gift and I really liked what I’d come up with.
Either way – I wasn’t going to say no!

I was slightly nervous about having the RegimA facial peel done, only because I’d heard it makes you break out and leaves your skin extremely dry and uncomfortable.
Today, I will explain this peel to you from first-hand experience and answer all the queries you have.

*

Firstly you might be wondering why would you want a facial peel? What are the benefits of a facial peel?

The RegimA Facial Peel is basically an intense exfoliation which leaves you glowing and radiant. It promises dramatic, instant results.  

Recommended for all skin conditions excluding hyper-sensitive skin and people who suffer from eczema.
This treatment is also great for someone who does not have time for a full two hour Anti-Aging facial.

The facial starts with a cleanse, using the milky cleanser for dry / aging skin and the gel cleanser for normal to oily.

The therapist will first apply a post-laser gel around the crevices of your face, around your nose and lips as well as under the eyes.
This is done as these areas tend to be more sensitive than others and so it acts as a protection barrier.

The fruit acid peel is made of a combination of things: Sugar Cane, Citric Acid and Malic Acid to name only a few.

The therapist applies this see-through liquid to the face, spreading it over the décolleté a few minutes later.

The post laser gel is then applied completely over the peel; this will not affect the strength of the peel at all, it basically numbs the skin slightly to dull the tingle-sensation you will experience. 

This treatment is time dependent.
Your therapist will work accordingly to your skins reaction to the peel, watching the redness appear as she constantly massages it in throughout the course of the treatment.
Usually you find that the areas that redden first are the cheeks, under the eyes, the chin and the forehead.

When the therapist has decided the peel has been on for long enough, she will start the cleansing process.
The skin is cleansed at least three to four times to ensure that there is no debris of the peel left on the skin.

As RegimA is a ‘layering’ brand, a series of serums and creams are applied to hydrate and moisturize the skin once the cleansing is complete.
One such cream is the Sun Pro, this is the last cream applied in the sequence as you need to have sun protection after a peel.  

For two-three hours after the peel your skin will appear slightly pink.

It is advised that you do not wash your face that night as the creams applied contain so many ingredients that are highly beneficial after an exfoliation. 
You'll also be surprised by how quickly your skin drinks up and absorbs all the lotions you layer on!
The following day you can go back to your normal routine of moisturizing but be aware that for about three days your skin is going to feel dry and tight.

After the treatment, your therapist will most likely recommend one cream to you for home use as an aftercare product. 

Ideally, one should have a RegimA facial peel once every two weeks – but hey, who can really afford such luxury!? ;)
I hope this information helped you get a better understanding of the RegimA facial peel ladies and gents!

Until next time,

J


Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Dreams of Waves and Car Crashes

I believe dreams carry insightful messages that we either choose to acknowledge or we don't.

Since I have moved into this quaint apartment made of bricks, I seem to be remembering at least three dreams I have every night. 
At untold hours I wake from my dreams, sometimes laughing - someone told me that this is a sign of positive energy floating around.
A few nights ago though, I had my first worrisome dream, better known as a nightmare. 

It started out as most had lately, happy.

Shaun and I were driving down a sandy pathway on our way to the beach in my little blue Micra. Shaun was behind the wheel, I being the passenger. 
Something that stood out to me in this dream was that there was no sound. 
It was a gorgeously sunny day with sweltering temperatures, a lucrative day for us to be heading to the ocean.
Through the sunlight I smiled at Shaun, shielding my eyes. He smiled back - and that moment seemed to last a lifetime. 
They say dreams take a matter of seconds, but that moment where we looked into each others eyes lasted hours. 
I took in every detail in that moment, the leather on the sides of the car and how it glistened in the light, the twinkle in Shaun's green eyes as we connected into our romantic gaze, even every follicle of hair on his rugged jawline stood out to me as beautiful. 
I can't describe the overall feeling of complete calmness and happiness I emitted in that moment. 

We turned our heads in unison, as if in slow motion. 

Our hearts plummeted as we saw what was in front of us, I could feel it in my sleep, jolting me back into reality. 
I didn't understand. 
A wave - a tidal wave - had risen up from the center of the sand, far off from the actual ocean, which was still quite a drive away. 
We looked at each other in horror, almost a look that clarified that this was actually happening. 
This look was equal to an entire conversation between us - our eyes spoke with one another and without parting his lips I knew what he wanted to do in this situation. I gave him a tremulous nod and squeezed the sides of my cushioned seat as hard as I could - I am almost certain I squeezed the side of the mattress at this point. 
It all felt too vivid.
At this, he put his foot flat on the accelerator and we flew forwards towards the wave. 
We had realized it was either this, or the wave crashed onto us. 
As the wave approached us, we both closed our eyes and turned our heads, unable to watch. 
To our surprise, our car used the vivacious white foam of the wave as a ramp and we flew over the wave, falling from a great height. 
As we flew through the air, eyes still tightly shut, there were only two things going through my head. 
The first was how much I wished I had put my seat-belt on that day. It was too late now. My body was frozen. 
The second was this: 'My car is going to be f!#@cked.....'

And so I asked myself, is that really what would go through my head in my last moments?
Really??

I opened my eyes and all I saw was the blueness of the ocean just seconds before our car collided into it. 

That is when I woke up. 

*

In dreams, water symbolize our emotions. 
So in that sense, dreaming of a wave signifies our emotions welling up or losing control. 

To see a wave forming and building up in front of you gives you the chance to see the immensity of what you feel outside of yourself. 
Tidal waves especially give you the opportunity to dive into your subconscious and be at one with yourself.

A few reasons to dream of a wave are as follows:
  • Your life is undergoing a substantial amount of change, internally or externally.
  • You're avoiding a certain situation in your life, (this signifies that eventually the situation will confront you, hence the wave blocking your path).
A few reasons to dream of a car crash are:
  • A car crash often symbolizes your beliefs clashing with someone else's. 
  • A forewarning of your reckless driving habits.
  • You could be experiencing some anxiety. 
To dream of someone else driving the vehicle often means that you are at a loss of control. 

To dream about a sea accident when you do not plan to travel across water is an omen having to do with love affairs. 

Falling dreams have become fairly common over the past few decades and usually occur during the first stages of sleep.
While writing upon this matter, I would just like to clarify once and for all that NO you will not die if you do not wake up before hitting the ground during your fall.

Falling dreams can signify a few self-explanatory things:

  • Anxiety
  • Self-security issues
  • Overwhelming situations at home or at work.. or both. 
  • Falling also indicates your feelings of failure or shame. 
One very interesting theory is the Freudian theory, which states that a falling dream is a contemplation of giving into a sexual urge. 


...Sweet dreams...

Monday, August 20, 2012

Dermalogica Moisturizers - Which one is for You!?


Dermalogica Moisturizers – Which one is for you?!

It’s pretty easy to pick up a bottle of face cream in your local drug store, buy it and not even realize how bad it is for your skin. I mean who really has the time to go and scrutinize every single ingredient a product contains – right?!

I too am a culprit of such a situation – usually, my go-to cream was a fairly well-known brand that seemed to work fine for me, my skin felt great when I applied it twice a day; but then when I started working in a spa, the looks of shock and horror I received from the therapists when I told them which brand I use was almost frightening.

I didn’t understand why using this product, used by millions of women worldwide, was such a crime. So I decided to do some research.
There turned out to be just over seventeen ingredients in my particular product, most of which sounded like gibberish to me.
A few ingredients were the preservatives Imadozolidinyl Urea, Propylparaben and Methylparaben… see what I mean? Gibberish.

However, it wasn’t that much of a foreign subject to me to not have heard all of the negativity towards preservatives in your facial creams.  
I just wasn’t sure why.
I sat down with one of the therapists at work who down-right told me the product I’d been using is ‘crap,’ and that it was actually cancer-causing if used after a long period of time.
I felt almost scolded as she told me I need to research what I spend my money on in the future.
The paraben’s found in many cosmetic products have apparently been found in cancerous breast tissue yet at the same time I found information stating that the latest studies are showing paraben’s are fully digestible and harmless to the body.

To be on the safe side, I decided to give up my loyalty to my facial cream brand and got a tester of Dermalgica from work.

After using it for just a week, I received dozens of compliments about my skin. Personally, I didn’t notice a difference in appearance but I could definitely feel it. It just felt so much more hydrated and healthy… and for this reason I decided to give the brand some praise by writing this post.
I also thought it would be a wonderful idea to sum up a few of the products for you all to help you get a quick and better understanding of which cream is right for you!

Dermalogica has unique moisturizers for each different skin condition.
There are three Dermalogica moisturizers that I will be sharing with you in this post.

Dermalogica Active Moist
This lightweight, oil-free and fast penetrating lotion is recommended for people with excess oil production and for the more sporty / active type.
The Silk Amino Acids found in this product help to smooth and improve the skins texture.
The extracts of cucumber, burdock and sage provide deep hydration benefits which leaves the skin with an overall feeling of calmness.
This product is best used after applying the Multi-Active Toner from the Dermalogica collection and is applied evenly to the face and throat in smooth, upward strokes both morning and evening.

Dermalogica Intensive Moisture Balance:
This is an ideal product for someone looking for a thicker cream.
The Vitamin C found in this product helps to repair premature-aging.
If you have ultra-dry skin that you just can’t bare anymore, then this is the cream for you.
It is so nourishing for your skin that it will appear revitalized and feel noticeably suppler.
Applied twice daily, morning and evening after use of the Multi-Active Toner or the Soothing Protection Spray, to dampened, cleansed skin.


Dermalogica Skin Smoothing Cream:
Dermalogica’s Skin Smoothing Cream is a medium weight lotion recommended for skin that suffers from dehydration and premature aging. It contains essential oils for the purpose of smoothing the skin as well as antioxidants to help fight aging.
This product is great to promote skins elasticity and is rich in emollients which helps to protect the skin from pollution.
This is the product that I used that helped to get me so many compliments.
The aloe found in this cream helps to prevent the appearance of dehydration which is my explanation for my now natural glow!
Best used after the Soothing Protection Spray, apply the cream over dampened face and neck, morning and evening.
I doubt I could ever go back to using another brand now.  
Although quite pricey in comparison to the quick grabs from the supermarket shelves, I believe it is completely worth it; and your skin thinks so too!




Friday, August 17, 2012

Bohemian Musings


I often find myself musing over autonomy… how liberating it must feel to have complete independence.
If only there was a way to broker into such an agreement with The Man Upstairs.
Alas, I fear I am destined to have an unspeakably boring life (for the next while at least,) kissing ass and devoutly praying for next months salary to come through.
Friends, family and people worldwide tell you to ‘just change it,’ or to, ‘just go.’ But it doesn’t work that way!

The sad reality is that my free-spirited, itching set of feet need to stay firmly planted on secure ground right now. I can’t just up-and-leave.
With my luck, I’d be lucky to finally have enough money saved for satisfactory traveling by the time I am fifty; and for me, that’s just too late.
I have this idea in my mind of being this young, beautiful traveler with life-changing stories to bare to people I come across along my unmapped journey.
Visiting Cape Town twice a year just doesn’t constitute to my blatant yearning for new things.
I need Tahiti, Portugal, Spain, Tuscany, India...
I want to dive off of a yacht into the sea of Greece.
I want an aching back from a heavy rucksack slung across my shoulders all day long.
I want to be overwhelmed by the amount of photographs I capture of historic landmarks.
I want blistered toes from hiking unfamiliar ground and I want an utterly perplexed nose from an abundant supply of divine new smells.

I want freedom.

I was meant to jot down, pen on paper, my experiences and share them with the world.
I was meant to dip my toes into all one hundred and thirteen seas and five oceans.

I am not meant to be the kind of person who counts the days on the calendar until next months pay check is due. Hell, I’m not even the kind of person that should know or care what day of the week it is!

Don’t get me wrong – I love my job and I appreciate having it so much in hard times like these… but if life were perfect, things would be different for me, as they would be for everyone.
That stale business man who reeks of caffeine and pours all of his energy into his poor, unsuspecting laptop will be lying on a swinging hammock, moijita in hand.
Your secretary at work who has a build up of papers to file so high that she can’t see the room around her will fling them out of an open window, letting them bluster off into nothingness while she hikes up her skirt and lets her hair loose; for she feels that just a simple night out on the town is like spending a week in Paris.

Already, I have written a novel entirely based  on a woman’s travels to Italy.

Of course, it was built on the bones of my dreams. Actually seeing these places would give me so much more to write about.

I’d like to believe that there is a reason why life isn’t happening the way I would prefer it to be right now.

I like to think that when I am emotionally ready, my dreams will come true.

Somehow.
Someway.
They have to… wanting something this much is different to wanting a new set of nails or having your hair colored.
This is something my soul cries for, day in and day out, I can hear it wailing from deep within.
One day, hopefully soon, I will put my soul at ease.
One day, hopefully soon, I will crack open my savings and see the world.

I’ll throw a dart at a map and travel to wherever it lands. 

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Pedicure Peel - A luxury spa treatment


I wrote the following review at the beginning of July, after royally mucking up at work.

My boss was doing this observation weekend at the hotel, experiencing each sector of the hotel as a guest would.
As always, my luck proceeded me as I was the Front Desk Co-Coordinator or duty when my boss inquired about treatments. 
I nailed the question regarding our promotion for the month, (using Bellabaci suction cups in a massage) I could tell by the tone of her voice that she was impressed. 
I had gone the extra mile to find facts out about how the suction cups work and why they are so beneficial. Best of all I felt so good about myself for working hard on it!
I think that I had been so wrapped up and focused on Bellabaci that when she turned to conversation over to one of our normal treatments, a Pedicure Peel, that I went blank. 
It really doesn't help that I was already a muddle of nerves, trying to impress her, so I began to stutter and stammer down the phone. 
I managed to choke out that it was a treatment that removes the dead skin from the SOLES of the feet. 
SOLES?!?!
By this time it was too late. 
Alas - me being me, I continued to talk, like projectile vomiting... and obviously this only made things worse. 
I spat out 'oh-so-assuringly' that this treatment was 'painless' and 'really good'.
 I mean really!?
By this time her entire voice had changed and I could tell that I had disappointed her. 
Deep down I knew what the treatment was but I was caught so off-guard that I failed the test. I wanted to throw myself off of a bridge into a river of self-pity. 
Chewing my nails down to the skin, I wondered how I could win back her impression of be as a 'good' employee. 
And then - magically, it came to me. 
I booked myself in for the pedi peel, regardless of cost or the fact that I have NO dead skin to be removed. 

I asked the therapist to take me through it while I made an abundant supply of mental notes. 
If I was going to sell something - I'd have to know what the hell I was talking about!!!

I walked out of that therapy area after 45minutes on silky soft, heavenly feet, feeling much more knowledgeable about the treatment. 

To top this off, I also wrote a review on  my experience and emailed it through to her. 
She was so proud that I had taken the initiative to learn and better myself. 

Below is my review on the pedicure peel that I had on the 01st July 2012:


Your treatment begins by lying on the massage bed in your own private therapy room. Each room had its own unique design and atmosphere. 

A heated blanket placed under the sheets is on, waiting to flood you with inviting warmth. 
The therapist will cover you in blankets, exposing just the feet. A rolled up towel is placed beneath your knees to position your legs correctly and comfortably. 

A fruit acid peel is applied to the hard callous skin with cotton strips and cling wrapped around the feet to set for 20-30minutes. 
While the fruit acid is setting, your therapist will get to work on pushing back the cuticles and reshaping the nails as the time goes by.

After 20-30minutes, a wooden spatula is used to scrape off the dead skin that has turned into a gooey gel. 
A foot file is then used to even the skin out, for me this can be a rather ticklish sensation and I had to warn my therapist to watch out for my flying legs, something she found to be hilarious!

To finish off, the therapist will wash the peel off in a wooden bowl of luke warm water, using exfoliating salts which neutralizes the peel.
A moisturizing cream is applied as she gently massages your feet with soothing hands. 

 Your feet literally do not know what has hit them! They feel fresh, clean, new, hygienic and revitalized. 

At Pezula Spa & Gym, the treatment costs R150.00 (a complimentary beverage is included plus a 15min lie down on our heated massage waterbeds in the post-treatment room). On top of all of this luxury, the hot zone area which includes the 12m heated swimming pool, the sauna and steam rooms and the rain water showers are at your disposal for the remainder of the day!