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Stress-Busting DIY Holiday Facial

The holidays are an exciting, magical time, but that excitement is easily drowned in the stress that surrounds the most wonderful time of the year. Having to fight crowds at the mall while trying to finish your shopping, or having your out-of-town in-laws stay at your house are typical holiday scenarios, but instead of stressing into oblivion, mentally prepare yourself for the weeks ahead by taking time for yourself and making a holiday-inspired at-home facial--because let's be real, you probably don't have time to book a spa facial right now anyways.

What You'll Need

1/3 cup rolled oats

1/3 cup eggnog

1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

Why These Ingredients Work

Oatmeal and eggnog are great for face masks because they both work as exfoliants to get rid of any dead skin. Eggnog is also great because the egg/milk combination will simultaneously soften and tighten your skin. The cinnamon, besides giving the mask a great, holiday smell, will help calm any stress-induced acne--cinnamon has natural anti-inflammatory properties that will help calm red skin and clean out your pores. Bonus: if you don't have cinnamon in your pantry, nutmeg has similar properties!

To make the mask, simply combine the ingredients together in a bowl, allowing the oats to absorb some of the eggnog. Once it's thoroughly mixed, apply the mask to you face and relax. After 15 minutes, gently wash the mask off and appreciate the glowing skin that is left behind.

Fall Renewal: Preparing Your Skin for Colder Weather

Fall isn’t just about cute scarves and boots. The transition to cooler weather means that it’s time for more than just a wardrobe change; it’s time for a skincare update too.

As the seasons change, the state of our skin also changes, and as the weather transitions, it’s important to take charge of our skin and prepare it for cold winds and temperatures. After summer, where a hot sun and chlorine pools prevail, it’s especially important to use the fall to restore our skin and prepare it for the harsher winter ahead.

Most people know that cold temperatures can severely dry out your skin.  What many don’t realize, however, is that refuge isn’t always sought indoors—forced air heating can have an equally drying effect on the skin.

To help your skin make the transition as smoothly as possible, make sure to keep the following tips in mind for combating the effects of the cold weather.

1. Switch up your moisturizer. The moisturizer you use during the summer probably isn’t going to cut it for hydrating cold weather skin.  Instead use a richer moisturizer, similar to an emollient cream.
2. Up your water intake. Water is essential for keeping skin hydrated and for eliminating toxins. Every body requires a different daily amount, so be sure to calculate how much water you should be drinking per day.
3. Knock yourself out with seasonal fruits and vegetables! Take advantage of these foods this fall—it’s nature’s way of repairing your skin.  These foods are great for eating or for applying topically to the skin.

             - Apples, cranberries, and pomegranates are full of antioxidants to help fight free radicals.

             - Avocados and  sweet potatoes are a good source of omega-3 fatty acids and natural oils to deeply moisturize.

             - Clementines help eliminate acne-causing bacteria.

             - Pumpkin is a natural gentle exfoliant that helps promote cell renewal.

Sheet Masks: The Scoop on the Newest Trend in Skincare

3 Ways to Bust Stressed Skin

Stress is one of the unavoidable parts of being human. We overwork ourselves at our jobs, take on an extra project or two, and still make time to go out late with our friends. But when we’re stressed and tired, the first place stress takes its toll is on our faces in the form of puffy eyes and red skin, and, if you’re anything like me, that will stress you out even more!

Luckily for us, there are several at-home, DIY solutions available to us that are so easy to do to combat stressed-out skin.

1. Water. We've heard it a hundred times and still we find it hard to drink the appropriate amount of water every day, but our bodies need water to perform essentially every task, and when it’s not getting enough, our skin takes the consequences. Water is used by the skin to leach out impurities and to help keep our skin supple and fresh. A good rule of thumb: to calculate how much water to drink daily, take your body weight and multiply it by two-thirds. That number is how many ounces your body needs to perform at its best.
2. Tea bags. Puffy eyes? Make a cup of tea! Tea contains tannins that help reduce inflammation, and while it’s great to drink to help you relax, the tea bags can also serve a purpose after your tea is done steeping. To make a compress for your eyes, simply refrigerate a wet tea bag until it’s cool and place it over your eyes for 10-15 minutes to help reduce bags under your eyes.
3. Cucumber Breeze Soothing Mask. There’s a reason why the cliché of putting cucumber slices over your eyes is so popular. Cucumbers naturally soothe and are a great way to refresh skin that is stressed. Even better, the cucumber breeze mask contains allantoin which helps moisturize and heal your skin.