The art of fine eating

As a rule, I am not a New Year´s goals person but as everybody else I make one or two resolutions once in a while.

Last year I decided to cut down a bit on the quantity of sugar in my diet.

Happy to say against all predictions (I really mean this, even I wasn´t very sure of my own will), I made it. I don´t put any sugar on my hot beverage anymore, and the quantity of sweet I eat now is abot the half it used to be. Not that bad, right?

So this year I thought I could keep following my own nutritional path.

Like you know, one step at a time.

It was you who poisoned my mind

Do you remeber when I mentioned I had one entire holiday week and how much I wanted to enjoy it?

Well, the faerie of the bad luck was obviously listening, because as soon as I announced my fantastic plans I got sick. Without notice I woke up on Tuesday morning and looked myself in the mirror just to find that I had been converted into a red-eyes-congested-nose cartoon (it looks like the fairy had been working really hard all night).

So yes, I had lo leave all my spectacular holiday ideas involving shopping, dressing to kill extra time, writing and studying as long as there was no energy left for those activities and fever is not friends with fun.

Here I am, after three days of complete home quarantine (bio-hazard alarm ringing) doing nothing but little and boring reading for seminars, listening the same CD´s in a never ending loop, cuddling cats, and playing to organize my shoes a little bit (shoes that should be worn, not organized).

But The Gentle One is so sweet that has been looking after me all this time with a good dose of soup, cuddles and Harry Potter films, that looks like the definitive therapy for ill-timed flu, just because he´s so nice, and maybe a little bit because I can be a total hypocondriac.

But ey, once you overcome the continuous 

OMG I AM SURE I AM GOING TO DIE THIS TIME 

you can act like a normal person again (even pretending that panic attack didn´t happen) and keep going with your life, or at least with the recovery routine.

Anyway, I hope you are all having a great Easter darlings.

Lots of love!

Mirror, mirror on the wall...

I have been frequently asked by many readers about how do I manage to have healthy skin and what is my care routine. To be honest, at the beginning I was not sure about posting on this particular subject. 

I used to think that I had no big wisdom to share. 

'My beauty secrets? - I thought -  No big deal at all! '
 But then I started surfing the net to look for any tips from bloggers all around the world.

What I mainly wanted was comparing my own perception with some other people´s criteria.

And do you know what? We had diametrically opposed views.

I went totally perplexed when, after reading more than a dozen beauty blogs, I realized about (and this is just a personal opinion) the bunch of big mistakes they comitted. The most of them were focused on making reviews of semi-professional products which were supposed to be essential for daily skin care regime. From my point of view, there were too many of them in every single post, kind of a cosmetic avalanche. And I started thinking:

'This makes no sense. Why are those ladies so obsessed with getting every new product? This won´t make their skins healthier by itself'.

So I decided I could have something to share after all.

These are my tips for a pretty, young and healthy skin.

This can sound like an obvious principle, but we need to hydratate ourselves both internally and externally.
 The suitable quantity of  liquid to drink is around eight glasses a day, but they don´t need to be exclusively water: juices, infusions, softdrinks or smoothies are good options too. However, remember that drinks containing  caffeine, alcohol or big amounts of sugar do not count. Indeed, they contribute to dehydratation.
If you don´t feel like drinking that much, you can get a reasonable volume of water from fresh fruit. Watermelon, kiwis and oranges contain huge liquid portions. Water helps to eliminate toxins from our body and makes our skin to look younger.

In relation to external hydratation, big companies insist on selling really expensive and useless lotions to us.
Many scientific researches show that the most effective products are those containing big shots of C Vitamin. There are many good brands offering this type of treatments for no more than 10 euros.
Personally, I tried many different creams over the years (my skin is really sensitive) and I finally found the perfect one for me in an unexpensive body + face lotion from Kinesia. I get it in my current supermarket and it costs four euros. Yes, that´s right. Only four euros. The regular bottle lasts for two months or even more, (even if a share it with my man). And on the top of all it, it is cruelty free.
 I can assure that my skin feels young and fresh since I use it.

A good nutrition is as important as a good hydratation.

Anemia is a fast track to a bad look (and better not to speak about health problems).

Try to make your diet complete and well-balanced:

Do you eat fresh veggies three times a week at least? Do you have fruit everyday?

A recent research demonstrates that women who consume big portions of C vitamin show less wrinkles when they turn thirty. This substance is present in citrics, but also in strawberries, kiwis and blueberries.

Having a healthy diet can make us feel a little lazy, but there are simple ways to achieve success.

If you do feel really bored about cooking green stuff every day, well, you can try green smoothies. 

And the same is applied to fruit. One of my favourite smoothies right now contains freeze blueberries and soy milk. 

Really yummy! 

And don´t forget that you can get extra vitamins and minerals from pills. Nevertheless, it is important to remember that multi-vitamin pills do not substitute natural elements. Our body doesn´t synthesize a hundred per cent of artificial vitamins. Keep that in mind!  

Seriously, do you think you need those twenty five beauty bottles that you storage in the bathroom?

Skin PH is very sensitive, and the excess of chemical substances do not help.

If you want to reduce the impact of chemicals in your skin there are several things you can do: first and most obvious, do not saturate your beautiful face with lots of products. Think a little bit about it. 

Exfolitation followed by a mask, followed by hydratation.  

Really?

If you want to feel your skin softer you can eventually substitute your current chemical mask for a homemade natural product once in a while.

 Greek Yoghurt is a miracle, you can trust me.

My personal skin care treatment consists in three basic products:

1. Moisturizing cream (the one mentioned above).  Avena Kinesia Moisturizer.
2. Anti-oxidant Mask (I just apply it once a week). Gisèle Denis, Maque antioxidant au thé blanc.
3. Gentle scrub lotion for both, face and body (once every two weeks). Payot Paris Gommage Douceur & Sanctuary Warming Detox Mask.

Yes, every goth lady knows that.

Excessive sunlight contributes to premature aging. Of course I am not suggesting you totally hide yourself from it (we need it to synthesize vitamin D), but a good parasol and sunscreen on summer will help to make you look younger.

 

Of course it does!

So please, don´t forget to remove all your make up before sleeping. 

During our dream, skin regeneration process takes place. When we clean our skin, and help her breathe, we also remove dead skin cells, excess sebum and pollution accumulated during the day.

♥ My top secret product for a clean and healthy skin is Vichy Purete Thermale.

Besides, let your skin to breathe with no make up on it once in a while (I do it every time I stay at home, specially on the weekends). When I stay at home and I want to keep it simple, I just wash my face with water and a natural Shea Tree soap which has ultra-hydratation power. 

This makes the skin healthier.

 Yes, having good rest also helps to be pretty.

I am sure you notice the difference between a dream session of seven or eight hours to another one of five or six hours. When you don´t sleep properly not only dark circles appear, but also skin feels dry and tense.

Make a favour to yourself and have sweet dreams every night.

Okey, lovelies, this is what I basically do for keeping my skin healthy and young.

I´d like to know what do you think about this.

Is my routine very different from yours?