E94: How to elevate your homecare routine when not seeing your esthetician

Hey guys, how’s it going, Emilie here, better known as the Meta Fairy and as per usual, this episode is brought to you by Meta Esthetique, premier Ottawa skincare establishment since 1979, where we’ve gotten to educate our clients on how to age, healthy gracefully, so they can feel confident in their own skin. So, today we are talking of actually a client inspired this podcast so shout out to Jess: how to take care of your skin when you’re actually not seeing your esthetician.

So sometimes, you know life happens and either you’re on maternity leave and you don’t have time. You’re going away on a really long trip or you’re gonna be abroad for a job for six months. you don’t want to see anyone else. And she asked me “what is something that I can do to make sure that I take care of my skin at home?” There’s many great things that you could do at home, obviously there’s, nothing that can mimic the strength and the efficacy of the professional treatment. But, there’s a lot of things at home that you can do in order to sustain and elevate the results that you’re getting from those professional treatments.

So aside from putting on your SPF, guys, I’m super annoying with this but aside from putting on your SPF, I’m not going to talk about that because you guys know that is a no brainer no discussion. Always wear your SPF and that will already give you a head start on the health of your skin but into more concrete things.

One thing that you can do is to invest in a quality home care regimen. So not all products are created equal. That is a fact. If you you’re not seeing your esty for a really long time, you know that is going to be your cue to actually have a few key items at home in order to keep the results of what you’re getting in the treatment room. If you’re seeing an esthetician and you don’t have products, and you’re gonna take a break from treatments, you’re not gonna spend that money on treatments, you might as well spend that money on, you know, a good cleanser, lotion and moisturizer (like your basic trio), so that you can take care of your skin and keep feeding it what she’d given you every time that you come and see her in the treatment room. So see it like that. Okay, if you’re taking a break from professional treatments, take that money, and invest in good home care regimen that’s going to last you three to four months. And then that way at least your money is going to be invested in your day-to-day skincare. Because it is important when you think about what you’re putting on your skin every single day. I mean, if you really want results and you want your skin to keep those results that you’re getting with your esty and you want your skin to continue to transform, you know high quality products is IT. It’s not a lie and it’s not a marketing thing, but the really big store brand products that are very inexpensive to you, the quality of product and the quality ingredients is just so low that it’s not going to do much on your skin! When you know you’re regularly see an esthetician and you want her honest opinion, please, you know, listen to her and then invest it in quality homecare. 

Now one other thing that you can do is going to take the time to do a mini facial every single week. So it doesn’t sound as long as it sounds. So having a mini facial, taking a time out to me to do a mini facial, is really going to boost your skin’s glow and it’s going to elevate your results and it will also give you some “ME” time. It’s important to do that for yourself because you will just enjoy, you know, we were talking about this in another podcast episode, but stress management right? It’s important to take the time to do some things for yourself. And if for you if you have the time to do this once a week, take 20 minutes once a week, and do your mini facial, you know, why not? It’s going to give you a skin glow in now time! It’s also going to give you some time to decompress and just wind down that stress a little bit. So what does that entail when you have a traditional mini-facial at home? I want to tell you a little trick that I like to do: double exfoliate! I like to use the two techniques to exfoliate (mechanical and chemical) and the reason behind that is that when you do a chemical exfoliation, it dissolves bond that keeps the dead dry skin cells together. Okay, so it’s kind of like brick and mortar. So you know the mortar that keeps your bricks together, well the acid is what will dissolve that mortar so that your dead and dry skin cells can exfoliate and loosen themselves off. Now I like to use the exfoliate the mechanical exfoliation after that so I can lift off those “bricks” from the skin because chemical exfoliation is awesome. I love chemical exfoliation. I’m sorry, but I still believe that there’s a place for mechanical exfoliation in this world because it actually lifts off. I like the word lifts off the dead and dry cells from the skin’s surface, okay, so it’s important to utilize both. So when I do have any facial at home, I use the two techniques. 

Afterwards, I will select a mask and I’m going to put it on for 20 minutes. So whether it’s a sheet mask, whether it’s a cream mask, whether it’s a gel mask, that’s how I feel I have a lot of products that you guys may already know when you’re in an esty you almost have a full back bar at home in your bathroom. But, if you want to be selective of what you have at home, I would say hydration is always a good start because hydration is like the main skin’s need. The main need of the skin is hydration, so it’s so important. And when your skin is hydrated, it’s actually going to be cpumpy because it’s going to feel more full with water.

You can also want to have fun with those sheet masks. They’re super fun. They’re super concentrated too, especially if you get them from your esty. They’re full of very high concentrated serum ingredients. So when you put it on, it’s a one time use for sure. But when you put it on the skin, it’s absolutely wonderful. I have so many recommendations, you can just shoot me a message if you need guidance. I’ll be happy to do some recommendations for you but select a match that works for your skin type. If you have a little bit more acne, then take select one that’s going to be target the blemishes or if your skin is more sensitive,  use something that’s more gentle and soothing on the skin. There’s just so many different masks that you can get. Then sit for 20 minutes in the bathtub, have a glass of wine, enjoy.

If if you’re someone who’s multitasking and you just got too much on your plate, then obviously you can multitaks and to do other things. In meantime, I’ll do some cleaning. I’ll do some cooking, you know home stuff that doesn’t require too much of my brain and I just do it and that way I’m like multitasking with what I’m doing so I don’t have to be sitting in the bathroom for 20 minutes. If you don’t like to take baths just keep that in mind!

And the final thing I’m gonna say is please do not skin pick, it’s just the worst. It’s like having, you know, when you have a scab and keep picking at it and keep taking it off. It’s not good guys. When you do that you’re just promoting scar tissue and erythema. So if you have a blemish and you keep picking at it, irritation is going to linger on the skin is most likely not going to heal in an ultimate way in an healthy way. So it’s actually going to put a dent in that’s how you’re going to heal around that. So you’re gonna have a scar, and not to mention that you’re lingering that inflammation for so long. So why would you keep picking at it. So, for some people, if you’re not seeing your professional for a long time, you may have a little bit more blemishes especially having acne prone skin and extractions is really the way that you’re keeping your skin clear. Don’t freak out. It’s okay. You can do things at home to get under control and this is where my number four is going to come in.

If you really really want to elevate your at home regimen, if you have a budget for it, purchase a LED mask. I’m just gonna say right now, I’m not talking about the cheap ones on Amazon, the cheap ones at Walmart, you know, these things have to be tested for the eyes, number one, and a professional LED is going to be very different than a cheap one that’s manufactured in China. okay? There’s only two brands that I recommend. There’s a Light Stim one you can buy. They have like handheld handheld devices that you can use use for three minutes and localized areas and they’re great. Or the Omnilux, either the clear or the contour. I believe it’s a little bit more on the pricey side. I think CAD (because I have one myself) it was $600 or 550 something like that. So yeah, it’s a little more pricey. However, LED is a technology that is amazing. It really stimulates the body’s own repair mechanisms. So we’re talking about flushing inflammation, we’re talking about more energy between the skin cells we’re talking about flushing oxidative stress, repair, just all the good stuff, depending on the wavelength that you get as well. The most common one for the red which is collagen inducing which is great for repairing the skin as well. You know you can get really, really nice to get results when you have no idea. After an LED the skin cells are super like, they’re functional and responsive. So I’ll do my exfoliation. I’ll do my LED and then I’ll do a collagen mask. Those cells are so activated that the results are so much better every time I do that process. So if you have the budget for it, and that’s aside from investing in your products, invest in products first, because that’s something we’re gonna use twice a day, every day. So take the budget first, get your polling products. And then if you still have money or if you want to splurge go ahead and get an professional standard LED. It’s in your face , your eyes are there so you want to make sure that you have something that’s FDA cleared, that’s Health Canada cleared you know, like Hello, this is your face guys. So invest in something of high quality to do your skin a favor and not harm.

So those are my tips. If you want to elevate your home routine, while you’re not seeing a professional, obviously the professional tx is gonna have the highest effect to quote unquote, fix you up for once you come back and see your esty and you know, that’s fine. But in that period of time, you can do all these things to keep your skin at bay. And just keep that going. So feel free to reach us on Instagram  @metaesthetique or send us an email if you happen to have a longer conversation.
hello@themetaesthetique.com to help you out.

And if you’re in the Ottawa area, like hello, come and see us we’re super happy to meet new clients! You guys are always awesome to chat with! And you guys can see what we’re all about. So if you have more questions reach out and if not, we will chat on the next episode. See you soon and take care!