Baby steps to a healthier you

How to start getting healthy

For a lot of us it can be very hard to get healthy, we are all stuck in front of the television wishing for a body like the ones we see. We don't know where to start. We don't know how to start! A completely new lifestyle started cold turkey can be good for some people. However for others it can be a challenge to keep it up because we are so used to something completely different, sometimes it's been years since the last time we did anything remotely close to healthy. So here are a few tips on how to get started:

1. Do you go to bed at a decent hour?

Say you wake up every morning to go to work at 6am, are you in bed sleeping (or at least trying to sleep) by 10 pm. That's 8 hours right there.

Try to get your 8 hours of sleep to start, you'd be surprised how much healthier you feel and actually are when you sleep enough.

* We have tips on how to get a more restful sleep in our blog.

2. Do you eat often through out the day?

It's very important to have good eating habits. They say eating smaller meals more often through out the day is very important to keep one's metabolism running efficiently. This means that you are constantly burning what you are eating and not putting too much stress on your digestive system, or starving it.

Don't skip meals! This is important.

3. Do you drink enough water?

Taking in enough fluids is very important some people use the 8, 8 ounce glasses of water a day rule. But you can also measure your hydration level by the colour of your urine. It needs to have a pale yellow colour to it. Not clear and not dark, you can actually be over working your kidneys if it's too dark or too clear.

Hydration is very important to help keep your body moving along smoothly. Fluids are like the oil in your car, it keeps things going the way they are supposed to.

4. Do you exercise?

If you are a very sedentary person, you should always take it slow. Try to get the minimum amount of suggested exercise a week to start out and go from there. According to Health Canada for an adult that's a least 2.5hrs of exercise a week. That comes out to just over 20 minutes a day of exercise!

You can gradually increase the amount of time you spend exercising as you go, but for someone who doesn't lee active this is a good place to start.

It's suggested focus on exercises that get the blood flowing. Jumping jacks, dancing, aerobics etc... Choose something that you enjoy.

5. Build some muscle.

So if you already have all this down. Building muscle will help you get rid of any unwanted/unhealthy excess fat. You wonder how come people who are fit can eat "what ever they want" it's because getting fit and having lean muscle actually helps to keep you fit. A well oiled machine runs at peak efficiency.

And women are very afraid of looking bulky, but to get "large" for a woman takes a lot of dedication and a lot of food, and supplementation. Using weights every once in a while will actually tone and thin out your arms and legs rather than make then grow.

6. Be calm!

Stress is one on of the #1 causes of death these days. It causes major complications in the body. Stress can be seen in many ways. Eating things that put pressure on your system, being inactive, under/over sleeping, poor posture etc... It can all make a big difference in your life span and over all health.

Try to take better care of yourself. Take time for you, read a book take a bath do something you enjoy. Go to a yoga class, learn to meditate. It will all benefit you in the long run.



It's important to pick one and stick with it till it becomes second nature and then move on to another and then another. This will help you to build healthy habits for the future. You won't even have to think about what you are doing, you'll just do it. And don't worry if you slip up once or twice, everyone does it. Things take time to become a reality and if you want it badly enough you'll do it. It's all about focus, and strategy.

Keep moving and keep trying any effort you make to take a step forward is still farther ahead then you were yesterday even if you skipped last night's 20 minute work out.

You can do it!

Live Well and Be Healthy,

Renu U Aesthetics

Rotten Face Products?!

How to identify when your personal care products are spoiling

A lot of us keep things WAY past their best before date. Some of us don't even know that our makeup products and skin care products even have a best before date!

It's TRUE your makeup goes bad!

Mineral make-ups are an exception, but they have to be good quality makeup and you should still always make sure that they don't have a spoil date. And always use clean tools when applying it.

So how can you tell when your products are going to go bad?

Firstly, most products have seals to protect them from oxidation and bacteria growth. They are usually filled with machines and sealed air tight. So your makeup products shouldn't start spoiling till you open them, which means you are safe to use them as long as they have never been opened.

Once you have opened your product you have only so much time to use your products. On every personal care product there is usually a little logo that looks like a cream pot with the lid open. In the little pot there will be a words "6M", "9M" and "12M" etc... So once you open it, it will last approximately how long that little logo says.

You'll find this little logo on everything from hand cream, mascara, eyeliner and face powders. Even your body wash will have it.

If you find a product that doesn't have it, it will either have a stamp saying how long it will last or it could be a mineral based product.

Sometimes the products don't last as long as they say they will, for example most mascaras say they will last six months, but if you use it every day it is best to renew your mascara supply every three months.

Some professionals say to follow these guidelines with makeup:

Toss It Out

• Mascara — 3 months. (Some say 6 months, but many cosmetics experts, including DaltonJames, recommend 3 months.)
• Liquid Foundation and Concealer — 6 to 12 months.
• Cream Blush and Eyeshadow — 6 to 12 months.
• Powder Blush and Eyeshadow — 1 year.
• Eyeliner and Lipliner Pencils — Up to 2 years.
• Liquid Eyeliner — 6 months or less.
• Lipstick — 1 year.
• Moisturizers and Skin Care — 1 to 2 years.

IMPORTANT

If you have an infection and have used any of the products you have, for example and eye infection and you've used your mascara throw it out right away. The bacteria will multiply and cause future infections. 

We hope that this information will help you to rotate out your old and growing products, so that your skin can stay happy and germ free.

Live well and be healthy,

Renu U Aesthetics

Sleep

Ways to get more of those precious Zs

It's hard we live in a world that's on the go constantly, we carry cellphones everywhere so that we can keep in contact with all our family and friends when we need them or just get bored of ourselves. The you have to be constantly on the ball, always updated with the newest trends and the latest TV shows. Not to mention that we all have house work, partners maybe even children and work to deal with. It's hard to get that well deserved sleep you so cherish. But it's important to keep you strong and healthy.

So here are a few ways that Renu U gets those much deserved Zs that you're always craving, and maybe it'll help you to catch up on the sleep you've been losing.

#1. Turn it off!

Or at very least put it all away. Getting a good night's sleep means letting your brain realize that "night time" is coming.

Melatonin is a hormone released in your brain as the day goes on, if none of us owned artificial lights or computer screens etc... you'd start to notice that as the day goes by you start to get more and more tired, especially around sunset and there after. This is because humans AREN'T nocturnal. 

The clock may have been one of our worst inventions, because we know exactly how much time we are losing and when things are due. So we work well into our nights to get things done.

Try to turn of your gadgets and maybe grab a book or spend some time with your family. Build a skin care and bed time routine. Try to start this between 1-2 hours before you want to go to bed. You'll notice an increase in sleep.

#2. Don't bring it to bed!

Turn on your ringer if you think there may be an emergency and plug in your phone AWAY from your bedroom. leave your computer on a desk in your living room, study etc... as long as it's not in your room.

Studies show that any flashing lights, and/or sounds that are in your room will prevent you from going through your full sleep cycle, which means you'll be tired tomorrow too!

#3. Unplug your wifi

Some say that the wireless signals floating around in the air are causing a lot of people to have difficulty getting restful sleep. They say that it interferes with our bodies more than we really think. Some people argue that it doesn't

HOWEVER

Are you using it? No? Is it taking up power while you sleep? For sure! You might even reduce your electric bill while trying to sleep. I think that's a bonus.

#4. Did you exercise today?

Inactivity is a HUGE contributor to restlessness! 

How many of us work at jobs where we sit at a desk all day long, with only a lunch break to walk around? I know I have days like that! Those days are good days to start the day off with a jog, or a short trip to the gym. You could even use your lunch break to take a run around the building, etc...

Doing a little activity through out the day can GREATLY improve your sleeping patterns that night and over time. But make sure that any strenuous activity isn't done right before bed, or it'll do the opposite of what you are looking to accomplish. A light bedtime yoga routine might help.

#5. Your bed is for sleeping

Don't eat, drink, watch tv or play on your phone in bed. You can read in bed, but nothing that it's going to cause your brain to have to work too hard. If you like cheesy romance novels, this would be the perfect time to read one. However your bed should be for sleeping so try to keep other activities out of the bedroom. This will help you to associate your bed with sleeping.

#6. My room is my sanctuary

Make your bedroom inviting, keep it tidy and stress free. Have only things that help you relax. If you love pillows and warm colours fill your space with those. You enjoy books and things fill your space will books. Just make sure that your space is calming and welcoming to you.

#7. No Stimulants

Don't drink caffeinated beverages or smoke cigarettes before bed. These stimulate the body making it more alert and that isn't something you want to do before bed.

Benefits of good sleeping habits

Longer life expectancy

Youthful looking skin

More alert during the day

Weight loss

Overall better heath (due to immune function)

Better recovery times (the body does it's repairs during this time)

We hope these tips help you to sleep better and feel more awake during the day.

Live well and be healthy,

Renu U Aesthetics

Day Time Makeup

Easy Makeup Routine

A lot of people struggle with a natural looking day time makeup, it seems like it would take to long or is too difficult to do every day. But the truth is it's really not as difficult as it seems, there are a few things that you need to know to make this process simpler.

How to colour match

Look at the inside of your arm are the veins green? or blue? Are some of them green and them some of them blue?

Once you have this question answered you'll know whether or not your skin is warm, cool or neutral.

• Warm toned skin = Green veins

• Cool toned skin = Blue veins

• Neutral toned skin = some veins green, some blue

                                 

Most makeups will tell you whether or not they are warm, neutral or cool. So you choose the one based on the observations you make of your skin.

Then when you are trying to pick the shade of foundation don't match it to your cheek, match it to your neck! The colour should look as though it's disappeared on your skin.

Looking at this picture you can see that the second one to the left is the nearest match to the model's face. And it's best to compare multiple colours to compare and make sure that you have chosen the right colour for your face. You don't want to look orange or yellow or too pink because it will make you look like you are wearing a mask.

Contouring/Highlighting/Blush

It's very important to put some colour back in your face after you have made it all one smooth consistent colour. You can do this by adding contouring, blush and highlighting this adds dimension to your face.

Contour

Use a brown shade that is a couple shades darker than your natural skin tone. For a fairer skin tone choose the lighter coffee colour, for darker skin tones choose the darkest of the browns and medium skin tones the medium brown. Take a smaller blush brush apply a little colour to it, and then tap it off onto a paper towel. This ensures that you won't have too much colour on your brush, swipe this underneath your cheek bone from the ear lightly out towards the center of the face on both side. Pat the left over amount on the outer corners of the forehead. Dust off the brush and then use the now clean brush to brush the contouring out so there are no lines or super dark spots. Remember! A little goes a long way. 

Blush

With your blush you can go a little bit heavier. Smile wide and take pink blush for cool skin tones and a more orangie blush for olive skin tones. Tap off the excess and apply to the apples to your cheeks. Wipe off your brush and blend it out towards the hair line.

Highlight

For Highlighting take a fluffy brush and use the lightest shade to highlight, or if you are very dark of complexion take the lightest brown (coffee/caramel coloured) and apply to brush, tap excess and apply above your blush. You can also apply to your forehead, bridge of the nose, brow bone under your eyebrows. 

Eye Makeup

For day time makeup that looks natural it's best to choose browns, and pinks/purples.

You could use your contouring pallet if you like and make your make up look even more natural by taking your lightest shade and highlighting the brow bone right beneath the eyebrow. Then blending in the colour closest to your skin tone or a LITTLE darker over the lid, and along the bottom lash line. Then you take a darker colour and lightly press it into the crease of your eyelid. change brushes and blend the darkest colour out with a clean brush, this will help to keep you from adding too much product.

You can do the same thing with the store bought tri-packs, which are usually intended for those purposes.

Line your eye and apply mascara. Usually you would do a thin line of liner only on the top lid for day time looks. You can add the darkest of the eye shadow shades in a light dusting on the bottom lash line.

Something like this:

Lips

For the lip colour a nice natural shade for day time makeup or a coat of lip gloss is all you need for a natural look during the day.

You should look something like this when you're all done.

We hope that this helps everyone struggling to do their makeup every morning. Choosing colours really is about picking the ones you like best on you and finding a makeup routine that fits you. However once you've been doing your makeup for a while you will find that this morning routine becomes second nature. You'll know what colours match and what you like to see in the mirror. You'll be shocked when people don't believe that you have makeup on in the first place.

Live well and be healthy,

Renu U Aesthetics.

Waxing 101

Waxing:What you Need to Know

Many people have questions about waxing care, what are we supposed to do before we wax? What are you supposed to do after you wax? What do you use to do the waxing? Etc... Etc...

This will help those of you who are curious about how waxing works and what you need to do before and after to care for your skin.

Before Waxing

• Most important part of waxing is making sure that you exfoliate the day before you go to get waxed. And make sure that you've been moisturizing. You skin will thank you and the wax will be able to cling to the hairs of your leg better without all the extra dry skin clinging to it.
• Make sure that your hair is at least a 1/4 of an inch long (or the length of a grain of rice). However if your hair gets much longer than that it will become slightly more painful.

After waxing

• Do not go tanning for at least 12 hours after you get a wax, the skin will be very sensitive (no one wants a sunburn on their underarms etc...).
• Stay out of the pools, hot tubs and saunas for 24hrs; Sweating, soaking and chlorine can cause quite a bit of irritation which can cause folliculitis.
• Do not apply topical lotions as it can trap bacteria in your open pores and cause infection.
• Tea Tree oil and Lavender oil products can be very helpful at keeping away bacteria and avoiding infection however.

A Few Days Later

• Make sure to exfoliate the area with either a washcloth, loofa, dry brush or body scrub.

When should you come back?

Waxing should be maintained every 3-6 weeks depending on hair growth. Hairs must be at least the length of a grain of salt before waxing can be done again. However if you wait too long in-between you will have more hairs to remove, which can be more painful. 

Hoping this helps you with all your waxing questions :)

Live well and be healthy,

Renu U Aesthetics

Get Burning: Metabolism Boosters

How to spike your metabolism

We all want to have that perfect body, but we don't know how to get it. Lots of people try fad diets and/or cut down their food intake drastically.

Here's what we agree on at Renu U Aesthetics: 

Diet is Key!

However when we say diet we don't mean cut down till you get to your goal, we mean change your lifestyle. Gradually and for the better for good. That means instead of having potato chips while you're watching television, eat a pepper. Better yet instead of watching television go for a nature walk. Start small and work your way to your ultimate goal.

But we are talking about how to get your metabolism going.

#1. Get a head start on the day

Don't hit that snooze button, just get up. It helps! Your sleep cycles every 90mins, so if you are hitting snooze every ten minutes you are cutting it off and just making yourself that much more tired.

#2. Drink some warm water

It's said that drinking a glass of warm water within the first 30mins of waking gets things going inside your body and helps tremendously with digestive issues that can bog you down during the day.

#3. Drink water through out the day

Don't skip hydration, it's really important the better hydrated that you are the more you burn. Keep a bottle of water next to you at all times, most people mistake thirst for hunger in a world where food is everywhere. But keep that H20 close and you might find yourself reaching for it more often then you'd think through out the day.

#4. RELAX

It's been proven that stress shuts your body down. You don't function properly when you leave no time to unwind. Maybe try some yoga or meditation. It will help you combat the stress of our busy lives and keep the "fight and flight" symptoms at bay.

#5. Heat! Get sweating!

From hot yoga and saunas to strength training and cardio, warming up your body has a great deal to offer you when it comes to burning away those extra pounds. Not only that but spicy food ALSO helps. Burn it off in all sorts of ways. (Everything in moderation though you don't wanna add chili powder to everything you eat ;) )

#6. More meals, only smaller.

 When you plan out how you are going to eat for the day, try to plan it out to have six small meals a day. And always include proteins. So an apple and almond butter, a salad with some chicken or cheese.

DON'T skip meals! One of the biggest mistakes that people make is not eating. It's important to remember that eating once a day is not good for you. Your body will not be able to repair itself properly! It will effect your immune system and wreck havoc with your insides. You will also find yourself craving foods that aren't great for you, because you are hungry all the time.

If done over a long period of time, you run the risk of severe eating disorders as well. Eating is important for your metabolism.

# 7. Gain muscle

The more muscles you have the better your metabolism will be. Your body will burn through fat faster and you'll need to eat more often to keep up with your growing appetite.Which will go straight to your muscles instead of your hips.

#8. Fat is your Friend

Healthy fats from nuts, seed and other raw foods like avocado are actually good for you. Your body needs Fats as well as carbohydrates and proteins.Carbohydrates are your first source of energy

#9. Carbs first Protein next.

When you go to the gym it has been proven that having carbohydrates you work out it helps to keep your energy levels consistent. This means you'll get a better work out that you would without it.

Ex. Bananas (nature's energy bar), oats, fruit. Make sure its 30-45 mins before you work out.

When you are done at the gym it's good to have protein as it helps to repair your body after a work out. This means you'll be able to do the gym again tomorrow.

Ex. Hard boiled eggs, raw mixed nuts, or some yogurt.

#10. SLEEP

Get those Zzzs... The body goes through it's repair faze while you're sleeping. Which makes it the most important time of the day. A good night's rest could mean the difference between getting up and feeling your best, and wanting to hit that snooze button 800x the next morning.


Make your changes one at a time! Make each one a new habit over time and make changes slowly. It's very important have patience and persistence, as with everything your goals will come to you in time if you have the strength to be patient and work hard.

Live well and be healthy,

Renu U Aesthetics.

The Secret Ritual for a Beautiful Face

Facials: Your Beauty Secret

A lot of use take pride in the way that our face looks when we leave the house for the day, whether it's to cover redness, under eye circles, wrinkles or even for self expression however only a few of us take into consideration what we are doing to our faces. We don't go for regular facials, and often some of us only wash our faces with soap and water! On the other hand we have many people that own every product under the sun for a certain skin condition they feel that they have and may or may not be correct about.

Regular facials can keep you up to date on your skin type as it changes and the seasons go by, helping you to keep your home care routine up to date and working for you as best as it possibly can. The best skin care plans are the ones that are well thought out and consider your specific needs. Educated aestheticians will look at your skin very carefully and make recommendations for home care products at the end of a service, or ask you how you current face care plan is working for you.

Each skin type has specific needs that can be addressed at your regular facials, and just like a visit to the dentist (we know no one really likes those) your aesthetician will make sure that your skin is responding well to your products, and that every thing is working out for you.

When it comes to skin types these are the ways your facials will be addressing your skin, and how regular facials are going to help improve the texture and over all look of your skin.

Oily Skin:

An oily skin facial will consist of a balancing cleanser, pH balancing toner, manual exfoliation, around 10min steaming, extractions, massage, balancing serums and balancing masks, with matte moisturizers and eye creams.

Machines:

Microdermabrasion can be used to deeply exfoliate the skin, which helps to free the blockages from the skin during the extraction phase and helps to penetrate the oil balancing products.

Violet high frequency for disinfecting purposes. It helps to heal acne and fight the bacteria that causes it through sanitizing the skin.

Dry Skin:

A facial for a dryer skin type facial will consist of gentle cleansing, gentle balancing toner (often with aloe or hydrating algae), light steaming, exfoliation, extractions (IF needed), massage, hydrating serums, moisturizing masks, hydrating moisturizers and eye creams.

Machines:

Orange High frequency for stimulation, cell turn over and blood flow.

Microdermabrasion for the exfoliation and also stimulation of oils and cell turn over can be used on clients with dryer skin.

Aging Skin:

We all want to stay young and beautiful for as long as we possibly can, so anti aging facials are very important as we age and lose oil and elasticity.
It starts with gentle cleanser, none "medicated" toner simply for re-balancing your pH, gentle manual exfoliation and a little steaming.  Too much steaming can cause your skin to feel tight and lose moisture, an aging skin needs all the moisture it can get. As you won't have much oil you won't need a lot of extractions unless there is a lot of old build up that hasn't been very cleared out. This would all follow with massage, anti aging serums, anti aging moisturizers and collagen eye creams (sometime with caffeine for a lifting effect)

Machines:

Microdermabrasion on aging clients helps to increase blood flow, cell turn over and collagen and elastin boosting through intense exfoliation. It can also reduce the look of scaring and age spots and freckles

Orange light High Frequency is excellent for the stimulating cell turn over and blood flow to the face. This means more new skin! 

Sensitive Skin:

Facials of this variety are almost always tricky because the skin is VERY reactive, so it's hard to treat any acne a sensitive client might have, so we'd start with a gentle routine till the skin begins to come around. Gentle cleansers and gentle toners would be used, very limited steaming (warm/hot towels would probably be used instead) and minimal exfoliation, and if any extractions are needed they may be taken care of. All this would be followed by massage and then calming serums and/or masks.

Machines:

Orange high frequency would be use to increase circulation and create stimulation. If any blemishes are present Violet high frequency would be used to kill the bacteria inside.

Microdermabrasion would generally be left alone and if it was going to be done it would probably only be one pass.

Home care Routines:

Home care routines generally consist of the appropriate cleanser, toner and moisturizer for your skin type and perhaps even a manual exfoliator that would be used between 1 and 3 times a week at maximum. This keeps your skin gently cared for in-between deeper treatments at the spa, so that you will get to enjoy more of the massage and relaxation aspect of the facials. :)

We hope this helps you with your choice to have facials.

Live well and be healthy,

Renu U Aesthetics.