Guest Post: Reverse Regimen Success Story

This month, Rodan + Fields Consultant Jamie Duncan shares her inspiring journey to younger, more luminous-looking skin.

As a PE teacher and avid beach volleyball player, Jamie Duncan is no stranger to the sun. Even though she had always taken sun protection seriously, she began to notice dark spots developing on her face after years of sun exposure. “I had not attempted to treat them,” she admits. “I just assumed because I had freckles, it wouldn’t change.”

Once Jamie began the countdown to her wedding day, however, she started giving more thought to her complexion. In the weeks ahead, she decided to tackle her uneven skin tone with the help of REVERSE Brightening Regimen, and when the momentous day arrived, she confidently told her makeup artist to skip the heavy concealers.

Looking back, she says, “I have never felt more beautiful than I did on my wedding day. I felt gorgeous in my own skin for the first time in a long time. Shortly before my wedding, someone even asked me if I was in my twenties. Being thirty-two, I was so flattered!”

For Jamie, the journey to beautiful skin didn’t stop there. “After seeing what my natural skin looks like without the sun damage, I now take more time to make sure that I have sunscreen on daily not just at work or on the beach.”

She acknowledges that her active outdoor lifestyle makes her skin more vulnerable to sun damage, and that taking care of herself inside and out will remain a priority: “I useREVERSE Regimen daily and continue to watch my skin visibly transform. Looks are not everything to me, but health is. This is the only skin I have for the rest of my life and I want to preserve its natural beauty.”

Shhhh! My Lips Are Sealed!

There is no doubt that Rodan + Fields products are the best of the best! I wouldn't be a part of anything less. This Friday, R+F will release a NEW SKINCARE PRODUCT that is like nothing else in our product portfolio and is anticipated to triple our revenue! This new product will be proprietary to R+F and our Doctors report we currently DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH PEOPLE TO HANDLE THE DEMAND that will follow! We are still a new company -we can still fit ALL of our consultants across the United States in ONE football stadium. 

You will want it, your family will want it, and your friends will want it... AND WE NEED HELP SHARING IT! Our last product launch was 2 years ago and we sold 22 MILLION units in 6 days. Six. Days!!! We "broke the internet" the day we launched, and were voted by Forbes as the #1 Product Innovation of the YEAR.

YOU can open your own virtual business and as a direct business partner on my team, my team and I will personally train and mentor you on exactly what I have done to be successful. Oh, and we will have lots of FUN too... 

You think we have had amazing media coverage over the past several years.... just wait!! The free press and media coverage is going to be WILD!!

I am looking to add to my team to help us with this massive growth expansion and our new exclusive product demand. These doctors are legit and have such an established following and respected reputation in the dermatology world. If I can do it, YOU can do it. Let's talk! The time is NOW before this product is launched THIS FRIDAY!

Residual Income with R+F

This company gives you the opportunity for residual income - making money while you are sleeping! Does your current job do that?!

SaveSave
SaveSave

Your Fall Checklist for Staying Radiant & Healthy as the Temps Drop

1/2

Another Well & Good Article - 

In their first collaboration together, Deepak Chopra, MD, and Kimberly Snyder want to take you to a new kind of beauty school—offering an enormous amount of Ayurveda-inspired, spiritually informed get-gorgeous advice all in one place, with Radical Beauty: How to Transform Yourself From the Inside Out. The book comes out September 20—but here,exclusively for Well+Good readers, they share an excerpt from Radical Beauty: a checklist for staying radiantly healthy throughout the fall.

The beauty of fall is seen in the full range of colors among Mother Nature’s changing leaves. The air gets crisper, and the wind can pick up, making it important to protect your skin and body. You may find yourself craving less coconut water and more hot teas and elixirs to feel balanced, as well as hot, nourishing meals you may have largely avoided in the summer.

From an energetic standpoint, it’s important to take measures to feel grounded, as vata, the air-based element, dominates the fall season. When imbalanced, this can exacerbate stress and anxiety, which is particularly true if activities dramatically increase after a leisurely summer.

Here are the best fall beauty practices:

 • It’s the natural time of year to start eating more grounding, warm cooked meals again, so be sure to adjust your dietary rotation accordingly.

• Brussels sprouts, turnips, daikon radish, cauliflower, and mushrooms are some of the vegetables you’ll find in season in the fall, so be sure to take advantage and find creative and simple ways to cook and enjoy these fortifying foods.

• Quinoa, brown rice, and amaranth are great gluten-free grains to incorporate this time of year, especially if eaten with lots of vegetables.

• Sip on lemon balm, chamomile, valerian root, ashwagandha or holy basil/tulsi teas, which are fantastic for helping you destress and unwind. You can source these teas, which can often be found combined in “anti-anxiety” formulations, at health stores.

• The drying wind and drop in humidity may make your skin feel rougher. Be sure to spend a little more time with your abhyanga practice [of self-massage using sesame or coconut oil], which is also good for pacifying excess vata, which can lead to feeling overwhelmed and anxious when imbalanced. Abhyanga is a great practice to help alleviate stress.

• Since vata, or the air element, is so prevalent in the fall, you may experience some constipation. This is a symptom of vata being out of balance. Be sure to eat lots of fibrous foods, take some magnesium-oxygen supplements (such as Detoxy +) as needed to help keep things moving, and eat mindfully and slowly, always chewing well.

• Be sure to protect your skin from the quickening changes of the weather, including dry wind. Use scarves and gloves to protect your hands, neck, and face during walks or periods outside, keeping out drafts that can lead to chapping and excessive dryness.

• Your skin may need extra nourishment with the change of seasons, and it might start to feel drier. (Rodan + Fields Redefine Overnight Restorative Cream is a great one!)

• Be sure to protect your delicate lips, which may become increasingly chapped. Apply lip balms regularly that contain natural ingredients such as shea butter, olive oil, and vitamin E. Avoid lip balms that contain petroleum-based, synthetic ingredients (which you don’t want to continually ingest, an inevitable occurrence with anything you put on your lips).

Take time to cultivate nurturing, grounding activities such as meditation, massages, spending time at home reading, or whatever makes you feel soothed.

• Since you might have gotten your fair share (or more!) of sun, salt water, and chlorine over the summer, your skin might feel a bit taxed. Try going back to a gentle sugar scrub and adding more coconut oil if you feel that your skin needs extra lubrication.

• Avoid using stripping soaps on your skin in the shower. Choose all-natural, mild, and simple cleanserswith essential oils instead of potentially irritating artificial fragrances.

• With the cooler temperatures and chilly wind, it’s time to switch back to thicker moisturizers with an oil base, which can feel more hydrating and protective.

• Pay extra attention to your hands. They have the long winter ahead of them with lots of potential cold and wind exposure. Be sure to keep your hands moisturized with a good hand cream (shea butter or other natural ingredient based), and reapply often, especially after washing your hands.

Pay extra attention to your hands. They have the long winter ahead of them with lots of potential cold and wind exposure.

• After the leisure of summer, you may feel an increased swirl of activities in the fall: kids going back to school, increased work projects, or newfound intensity in hitting goals by the end of the year. Be sure to balance the stress. Make it a priority to create downtime for yourself as the holidays gear up so you don’t feel overwhelmed and resort to stress eating or other unhealthy outlets. Take time to cultivate nurturing, grounding activities such as meditation, massages, spending time at home reading, or whatever makes you feel soothed.

Making an effort to gracefully acknowledge the energy shifts as the earth makes her yearly progression around the sun and to shift your daily lifestyle routines in accordance with the different seasons is an important way to maximize your health, energy, and expression of beauty.

Whether we are aware of it or not, we are impacted by the larger energy influences of our environment. Why not recognize, embrace, and align with them to your advantage? You only have heightened beauty and a greater sense of energy to attain. Start applying these modifications for the season you are in right now to feel more in tune with the collective universal energy of which you are intrinsically part.

Clean the Slate

With summer days behind you, it’s time to see how your skin has fared after long, sunny afternoons of soccer games, poolside fun, family picnics, and beach getaways. Even with your daily dose of sunscreen, your complexion may be looking less than lustrous right about now. Before you send dull skin on its way, consider what’s going on above and below the surface.

We often pay more attention to evidence of the sun’s scorching UVB rays (hello sunburn), but it’s the aging UVA rays that can do far more insidious damage to the texture, quality and tone of our skin. For example, every time unprotected skin is exposed to UVA rays, skin cells in that area produce more melanin (or pigment), resulting in dark spots and a drab, uneven complexion.

Since evidence of sun damage is cumulative, it often shows up more dramatically in our twenties and thirties. Even if you feel like you’ve had that sprinkling of spots on your nose, cheeks or forehead forever, think again. No one is born with freckles. While there is a genetic tendency to develop dark areas or uneven pigmentation, sun exposure is a critical factor in bringing out freckles and it greatly accelerates visible signs of aging.

Now’s your chance to perk up post-summer skin. Just remember that sun exposure doesn’t just appear (or disappear) overnight, so be patient. Make sure your daily skincare routine includes exfoliation (to remove dead dulling skin), and look for ingredients like Vitamin C to help even out skin tone. REVERSE Brightening Regimen is an effective way to clean the slate, evening and brightening tone while reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles—so you can look forward to younger-looking skin this fall.

Does Your Face Need to Work Out Too?

First published on well&good.com

You hit up HIIT regularly, tuck and pulse with the best of them, and you live for vinyasa (and savasana!). But have you ever done brow burpees or face yoga? That’s the next frontier in fitness, according to a new breed of skin-care experts who say that working out isn’t just for your bod.

A centuries-old practice that was reportedly a beloved beauty ritual among Chinese empresses, facial toning is an ancient technique that’s getting a modern makeover thanks to salons (or should we call them studios?) like FaceLove Fitness in New York City and FaceGym in London. You actually can tone and sculpt your face, without the use of products (and without sweating!) using facial exercises that target your 43 facial muscles, they say. And judging by the growing list of clients (including among celebs like Lily Allen and Rita Ora), it’s working.

“Muscle has memory and exercise is accumulative, so you really can tone, sculpt, and define the face over time,” says Rachel Lang, co-founder of FaceLove Fitness. “It also improves bone density and muscle mass,” she says, which prevents sagging and boosts collagen production.

Don’t worry—doing resistance training with your chin is not as strenuous as swinging a kettle bell. And you know that endorphin boost you get after working out? The same applies when you exercise your facial muscles. “We like to say we’re enhancing your face joy,” says Lang.

Ready for some neck-up strength training? Here’s how it works—and the benefits you might see.

Photo: FaceLove Fitness

So what’s a face workout like?

At FaceGym, it’s structured like your typical sweat sesh: “We first warm up your muscles through massage, then go into ‘cardio’—which is [a facial massage that’s] all about detox,” explains Inge Barnett, the studio’s founder who was so obsessed with what Barry’s Bootcamp did for her body, she created something that did the same for the face.

“Next is sculpting, where we use both our hands and the incredible machines we have—like our FaceGym Pro, an electrical muscle stimulation device—which helps lift, tone, and tighten, followed by a stretching cool-down,” she says.

The FaceLove Fitness sessions, on the other hand, begin with aromatherapy and deep breathing, which propels the lymphatic elimination system, Lang says. The warmup consists of a massage that releases neck and shoulder tension—which improves the symmetry of your face, she explains. After that, the aesthetician rolls what looks like a mini Pilates ball all over your face to stretch out the muscles; according to Lang, this “aids in tension release and lymphatic draining.”

And then: “strength training,” which, yes, involves reps. “We ask you to move your muscles in certain ways as our hands become little free weights providing resistance,” she says. One example: the “face burpee,” where the facialist pushes down on your eyebrows and asks you to push them up for five seconds—which isolates and defines those muscles. To finish up, a jade roller—the facial version of a foam roller—is used to soothe your muscles and smooth your skin during a five-minute “cool down” period.

The benefits of facial fitness

The FaceGym and FaceLove Fitness pros say their regimens stimulate collagen production, resulting in a lifted, toned, and tightened face.

“Like with the gym, however, there are no shortcuts—it’s all about maintenance,” Barnett says. There is one big difference, she adds: “You don’t have to do anything—our trainers do the work for you.”

If you want to get an at-home facial fitness routine going, FaceGym sells their ball (“This you can use on pressure points to release tension,” says Barnett), FaceGym Pro, and a jade roller online, while FaceLove Fitness offers up their mini ball and rollers from their NYC location.

Whether you’re at home or in a salon, consider this your chance to work a whole new set of muscles—and feel fit all over. (Soreness not necessary.)

Surprising Shower Habits that are Making You Break Out

This article was first featured on People.com

 So Bad:

1. Taking long, super hot showers

“Doing this isn’t a great idea,” says NYC dermatologist Joshua Zeichner, M.D., since exposing your skin to super hot water for lengthy periods of time can strip skin of essential oil and can lead to inflammation. Why exactly is this so bad? When your skin is inflamed, it makes it more difficult to treat acne.

2. Using the same wash cloth all week (or even two washes in a row!)

Yes, you read that right; we said “two washes in a row.” Dr. Zeichner explains that reusing a wash cloth without cleaning it in between means you’re potentially putting mold and bacteria back onto your face. Ick. And the longer you go without cleansing the cloth, the more mold and bacteria will build up. Double ick.

3. Skipping moisturizer post-shower because you have oily skin

It sounds counter intuitive, but forgoing hydration because you’ve got oily skin only sets you up for an oilier (and more acne-prone) complexion. “Skin hydration is separate from oil,” Zeichner explains, adding that it’s possible to have shine, but still be lacking in hydration. And if your skin is dry (“Remember that some acne medications can dry out skin,” he says), it’s going to produce more oil and potentially break out more.

So Good:

Moisturizing right when you get out of the shower.

Women with oily complexions may not feel like they need it, but an oil-free moisturizer won’t clog pores and will help prevent breakouts for clear, even-looking skin.