Archive for May, 2010

This oil is made from pressing the seeds of apricot. You can use it as a mild salad dressing for a healthier alternative to many of the commercial dressings available but it is equally as good to apply directly to your skin! It is easily absorbed by the skin, which makes it perfect as a natural moisturiser for dry or ageing skin.

Everyone says they are good and that they don’t squeeze their pimples but do you really? How about when there is a great big pus-filled juicy one? Do you squeeze it? Chances are probably yes. You know you shouldn’t but you do. The damage you do when you squeeze pimples is enormous. If you have acne, you need to stop squeezing your pimples now. Think of how your pore is structured. It is like a straight tube of macaroni. If you take a tube of macaroni and fill it with cheese then squeeze the middle of it, what happens? Cheese comes out both the top and bottom right?

Your pores are the same. When you have a pimple your pore is filled with pus, oil and bacteria. If you squeeze it, that icky gross mixture will come out both the top AND BOTTOM of your pimple. So what happens to the pus and bacteria that you can’t see that get squeezed out the bottom? Simple, it spreads to other pores and creates more pimples! Every time you squeeze, you literally spread the pus and infection to other pores and create more acne. Stop now!

This anti-acne ingredient gets deep down into the skin and releases oxygen. Since bacteria can’t live in the presence of oxygen, the bacteria inside skin with acne start to die. And then your pimples go away! It’s a very strong ingredient and should only be used under supervision so make sure to get professional advice first.

Our bodies are actually very good at telling us that we are full. Most of us however have taught our body to ignore these preceptors. We have done this by ignoring the symbols our tummy sends to our brain when it wants us to stop feeding it. So how do we fix it? When you eat, eat at a table if you can. Don’t combine media entertainment with your meal! When we watch TV, use the computer, read etc we become absorbed and ignore what we are actually doing.

Chew! Give your body the time to realise it’s full, by wolfing food down we get super full before our brain can get the message through! Have two or three bites of food, chew each bite and on the third put your knife and fork down. Have a drink of water, look around, chat to someone and ask yourself are you still hungry? If yes have another few bites. If not stop eating!

This does work! You will be amazed at how differently you will start to eat!

Annual Holiday Closure –

The Beauty Therapy Room will be closed for the Annual Holidays from Tuesday 25th May to Tuesday 1st June 2010.

Therefore, if any of our regular or new clients would like to book their appointments with us, we advise you to do so very soon as the appointment availability for the week before our Annual Holiday Closure is getting full. And we do not want to be disappointed for not being able to have your treatments on time. So please call us on 020 7242 7745 or email us at info@thebeautytherapyroom.co.uk as soon as you can to book all your favourite treatments with us.

Also we like to remind that Ben Barnett will be at The Beauty Therapy Room on Tuesday 18th May for the Hydrotherm Massage as advertised previously in our newsletter. If you want to book a session with Ben Barnett, you can either call Ben on 07891339943 or email him at ben@benbarnett.org

Everyone knows that it feels nice to get a pedicure. Getting some extra time spent on pampering the toes and legs is always welcomed. Even the polished toenails look wonderful and make you feel so pleased with yourself. There are also physical benefits to getting a pedicure on a regular schedule. During a typical day, feet endure a cumulative force of several hundred tons and because healthy feet are vital to overall health. The average person walks approximately four miles every day or 115,000 miles in a lifetime. When someone is engaged in strenuous activities, the miles increase. 

So pedicures can be a good way to help keep your feet healthy, looking and feeling good. And while the rest of may not feel good just because your feet do, the rest of your body won’t feel good if your feet don’t. A pedicure cleans feet, provides nail care and foot massages. A good pedicure can be very relaxing and if you have foot problems it can be very therapeutic. Nails help protect the ends of our fingers and toes from trauma. Nails are made up of keratin, a hard protein. Protein is a building block for organs. A pedicure is a way to relax as well as a way to take care of your feet.

There are other small treatments that can be added to the normal pedicure procedure to make it more beneficial. For example,

1. A paraffin wax treatment which can be very stimulating for the circulation and very good for sluggish feet and especially for people with bad circulation int heir feet and legs.
2. Very nourishing and moisturising foot mask can be applied to the feet during the procedure, then wrapped in cling film to protect them and placed in heated mitts to increase absorption of active ingredients into the skin of the feet. A nice feeling of warmth in this procedure can be felt.
3. A deep holistic massage or a Reflexology Massage can be performed to ease any tension in the feet and especially in the sole area.

General Foot Care Tips at home.

For All Feet

• Wash your feet daily. Rinse off all soap and dry thoroughly, especially between toes.
• Trim nails straight across, and not too short. Don’t cut out or dig at corners.
• Do not trim, shave, or use over-the-counter medicines to dissolve corns or calluses.
• Wear clean socks or stockings, changed daily. Don’t wear any that are too short or too tight.
• Wear shoes that fit.
• Some people’s feet sweat more than others, and are more prone to athlete’s foot.

These tips may help:

• Wear shoes made of leather or canvas – not synthetics. Sandals are good.
• Switch shoes from day to day.
• Use foot powder.
• See your doctor if severe problems persist.
• Have regular professional pedicures.

The skin flora is the microorganisms (or microbes- organisms that are microscopic: too small to be seen by the naked human eye) which reside on the skin. Most research has been upon those that reside upon the 2 square meters of human skin. Many of them are bacteria of which there are around 1000 species upon human skin from 19 phyla (class of bacteria). The total number of bacteria on an average human has been estimated at 1012 (1,000,000,000,000). Most are found in the superficial layers of the epidermis (top layer of the skin) and the upper parts of the hair follicles.

Skin flora are usually non-pathogenic, and either commensals (are not harmful to their host) or mutualistic (offer a benefit). The benefits bacteria can offer include preventing transient pathogenic organisms from colonizing the skin surface, either by competing for nutrients, secreting chemicals against them, or stimulating the skin’s immune system. However, resident microbes can cause skin diseases and enter the blood system creating life threatening diseases particularly in immunosuppressed people. Hygiene to control such flora is important in preventing the transmission of antibiotic resistant hospital-acquired infections. A major nonhuman skin flora is Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, a chytrid and non-hyphal zoosporic fungus that causes chytridiomycosis, infectious disease thought to be responsible for the decline in amphibian populations.

 Species variety

• Bacteria: Scanning electron microscope image of Staphylococcus epidermidis one of roughly a thousand bacteria species present on human skin. Staphylococcus epidermidis and Staphylococcus aureus were thought from cultural based research to be dominant. However, skin variety provides a rich and diverse habit for bacteria. Most come from four phyla: Actinobacteria (51.8%), Firmicutes (24.4%), Proteobacteria (16.5%), and Bacteroidetes (6.3%).There are three main ecological areas: moist, dry and sebaceous. Propionebacterium and Staphylococci species were the main species in sebaceous areas. In moist places on the body Corynebacterium together with Staphylococci dominates. In dry areas, there is a mixture of species but b-Proteobacteria and Flavobacteriales are dominant. Ecologically, sebaceous areas had greater species richness than moist and dry one. The areas with least similarity between people in species were the spaces between fingers, the spaces between toes, axillae, and umbilical cord stump. Most similarly were beside the nostril, nares (inside the nostril), and on the back.
• Fungal: A study of the area between toes in 100 young adults found 14 different genera of fungi. These include yeasts such as Candida albicans, Rhodotorula rubra, Torulopsis and Trichosporon cutaneum, dermatophytes (skin living fungi) such as Microsporum gypsum, and Trichophyton rubrum and nondermatophyte fungi (opportunistic fungi that can live in skin) such as Rhizopus stolonifer, Trichosporon cutaneum, Fusarium, Scopulariopsis brevicaulis, Curvularia, Alternaria alternata, Paecilomyces, Aspergillus flavus and Penicillium species.
• Another aspect of bacteria is the generation of body odour. Sweat is odourless but Propionibacterium in adolescent and adult sebaceous glands can turn its amino acids into propionic acid. Staphylococcus epidermidis create the other source of body odour: isovaleric acid (3-methyl butanoic acid). In addition to these, people with strong foot odour this is due to Bacillus subtilis.

Skin defences

• Antimicrobial peptides. The skin creates antimicrobial peptides such as cathelicidins that control the proliferation of skin microbes. Conditions such as atopic dermatitis have been linked to the suppression in cathelicidin production. In rosacea, abnormal processing of cathelicidin cause inflammation. Psoriasis has been linked self-DNA created from cathelicidin peptides that causes auto inflammation. A major factor controlling cathelicidin is vitamin D3.
• Acidity. The superficial layers of the skin are naturally acidic (pH 4-4.5) due to lactic acid in sweat and produced by skin bacteria. At this pH mutualistic flora such as Staphylococci, Micrococci, Corynebacterium and Propionibacterium grow but not transient bacteria such as Gram negative bacteria like Escherichia and Pseudomonas or Gram positive ones such as Staphylococcus aureus or Candida albicans. Another factor effecting the growth of pathological bacteria is that the antimicrobial substances secreted by the skin are enhanced in acidic conditions. In alkaline conditions, bacteria cease to be attached to the skin and are more readily shed. It has been observed that the skin also swells under alkaline conditions and opens up allowing move to the surface.
• Immune system. If activated, the immune system in the skin produces cell-mediated immunity against microbes such as dermatophytes (skin fungi). One reaction is to increase stratum corneum turnover and so shed the fungus from the skin surface. Skin fungi such as Trichophyton rubrum have evolved to create substances that limit the immune response to them. The shedding of skin is a general means to control the build up flora upon the skin surface.