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At Vitale we are often e-mailed about which Dry Body Brush to use. Our advice varies depending on skin sensitivity, whether or not the person has used a skin brush before and what areas of the body they want to skin brush. Jodie from Bodecare writes this about the range of natural brushes she has created:

All brushes are made of natural materials and vary in bristle firmness to cater for individual preferences. (The Vitale Natural Online Store every brush has details on what the brush is made of, dimensions and the firmness of the brush bristles.)

All Bodecare brush bristles are categorised under Extra Soft, Soft, Medium and Firm.

Extra Soft

• Face brush: Meant for delicate skin on the face, the bristles are silky soft, gentle enough for a baby. Suitable for working with Cleansers and removing face masks.

Soft

• Face brush: Soft bristles suitable for cleansing and removing face masks.
• Nails/Feet: Suitable for buffing residue off nails and lightly cleaning dirt under nail.
• Dry Body Brushing: Best for someone just new to dry body brushing, will still provide good stimulation. This is a great starting point until your skin gets use to dry brushing and then you can graduate to firmer brush bristles.

Medium

• Dry Body Brushing: Suitable for someone wanting extra stimulation, flexible bristle, great exfoliation.
• First time dry body brushers could also start with this level brush, because you only need to use light strokes for dry brushing.

Firm

• Dry Body Brushing: Suitable for experienced dry body brushers, firm, stiff bristles, providing optimum exfoliation, stimulation and massage for the skin.
• Nails: Firm, stiff bristles great for removing dirt from under nails, especially if you are a gardener or mechanic.

It is simply a choice of which brush meets your needs and comfort levels. View the range of Bodecare Brushes here.

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• Cellulite – is there ANYTHING I can do about it?

I have to admit I am a bit lackadaisical when it comes to using a toner every day. If it is in front of me, I use one under my moisturizer but if it isn’t I don’t go searching. This is in contrast to Mary and Caitlyn, our Vitale beauty therapists – they both swear by toners and use them religiously. May I also add they both have gorgeous skin! So when the Dr recently told me to keep the scars on my face moist, I added in the use of a toner first under the healing oils to deliver extra moisture, with might I add, excellent results! Since then I have been using a toner daily.

There are three categories of toner so it is important to make the distinction between them: traditional toners, astringents and fresheners.

Traditional toners are used to restore moisture to the skin. They are ideal for those with normal to dry or dehydrated skin as they contain moisturizing ingredients, herbal extracts and essential oils. They do not contain alcohol, which can reduce moisture and oil content in the skin and potential cause irritation. Examples of traditional toners are:

Remedica Hydra Mist – this amazing looking and smelling product is an active hydrator, moisture retainer and lipid-acid mantle restorer. The effectiveness of this product is due to a complex synergism between antioxidants, essential oils, vitamins and of the natural water binder Lecithin (humectant) which attracts water molecules from the atmosphere and helps bind these molecules to the skin. These actions are exactly what are needed for dry, dehydrated or damaged skin.

La Mav Refining Toner – again excellent for normal to dry or dehydrated skin this toner contains loads of slow ageing ingredients which when used under the La Mav Wrinkle Smoother, layer nutrients and enhance their effects.

Astiringent Toners contain alcohol based (or ethanol) in some form, which has the effect of tightening pores and removing oil. The natural & organic skin care industry moved away from this type of toner a long time ago however, you can still get the pore tightening, cleansing and refreshing effect from other ingredients used in toners that are suitable for normal to oily skin. I will also add that I think toners are excellent and often overlooked for very oil and acne-prone skin. They can deliver a light layer of healing and oil minimizing ingredients without the congestion issues that are sometimes found with moisturizers. Acne prone or oily skin is surprisingly often quite dehydrated. Yes you can have oily but dehydrated (low water) skin. So delivering moisture to oily skin is essential.

Examples of toners for oily or acne-prone skin include:

Third Stone Botanicals Cedarwood Toner – this product delivers concentrated hydration to skin after cleansing just when it needs it and before acid mantle returns which is the best opportunity to lock in extra moisture. The cedarwood essential oil helps to balance out oil production.

Devita Cool Cucumber Toner – well this just smells divine for a start but it also contains chamomile to soothe irritated skin and natural fruit acids to help clean out and tighten pores.

Fresheners are a category of toners that are used for…well exactly that, freshening up your face on a hot day or resetting your mineral makeup, cleansing off makeup at the end of the day or just adding that extra bit of moisture when you look and feel tired or your skin is dehydrated. Based on floral waters, they give much needed moisture but without the drying effects of water (ironic isn’t it but one of the most drying thing we do to our faces everyday is wash with water!).

Treasured Earth Gardenia & Honeysuckle Rehydrating Mist uses rose and lemon myrtle floral water to refresh and rehydrated skin. It also includes the purifying qualities of Iceland Moss so is excellent to help cleanse skin after makeup removal.

For best results use toners twice a day, morning and night after washing your face. One or two sprays is usually enough.

No matter what type of skin you have choosing the right cleanser is key to maintaining the protective layer and nutrition of your skin. When choosing cleansers for skin types, I break them into different categories ranging from the most gentle and nourishing to the strongest cleansers:

Cream Cleansers – have the consistency of thick cream. Cream cleansers generally don’t contain any surfactants (foaming agents). They are ideal for dry, dehydrated, mature or sensitive skin as they work by using the oil component to bind with and remove makeup and daily pollution. Cream cleansers only minimally disrupt the acid mantle of the skin, if at all and maintain skin hydration. They are also the best for removing makeup.

For best results, moisten your face with tepid water, apply the cream cleanser and gently massage your face. Remove by wiping with a soft moist cloth or rinse with tepid water. Examples include Haven Scent Coconut Cream Cleanser and AUM Brightening Milk Cleanser.

Milk Cleansers – have the consistency of milk. Milk cleansers may or may not contain surfactants and if they do, they are generally only very mild surfactants. They are lighter than cream cleansers and therefore are ideal for normal to sometimes dry, mildly dehydrated and mature skin. Examples include Treasured Earth Cleansing Milk and Third Stone Botanicals Palmarosa Cleansing Milk.

Gel Cleansers – typically used for normal to combination skin they can be minimally drying but less so than a foaming cleanser. Gel cleansers are ideal for skin that is sometimes dry and sometimes a bit oily and certainly for congestion. They aren’t as good as milk or cream cleansers at removing makeup but will certainly give the skin a “clean” feeling. Generally they are gentler on the skin than Foaming Cleansers and less disruptive to the acid mantle. Mukti Gentle Foaming Cleanser and Treasured Earth Lemon & Mango Cleansing Gel

Foaming Cleansers – often leave you with a “squeaky-clean” feel and so are great for acne-prone, congested or oily skin. Most natural foaming cleansers only create tight bubbles rather than lots of foam like cleanser based on synthetic foaming agents. The smaller foaming action means less disruption to the acid mantle and a quicker recovery. Foaming cleanser can be slightly drying for non-oily skin types or in winter when there is less humidity in the air. Examples include: Remedica Black Soap, Devita Aloe Cleanser and Third Stone Botanicals Rose Geranium Cleanser.

If you use a cleanser that is too “strong” for your skin it will have an impact on the protective layer and you may find your skin feeling overly tight. Using a richer moisturizer is a common way of combating the use of the wrong cleanser for your skin type and ultimately it will lead to either dehydrated skin or dehydrated skin with congestion, which is something no-one wants.

On the other hand choosing a cleanser that is too rich for your skin can lead to congestion and/or superficially oily skin. Again not a great outcome! You may find that you need to try a few cleansers to get the best one for your skin. And indeed it may change with the seasons. Myself, I use a cleaning gel in summer and a milk in winter which I have found suits my skin perfectly. As a general rule of thumb, if your skin feels squeaky clean, the cleanser is probably to “strong” for your skin. Your skin should feel clean but not tight after cleansing.

View our range of natural & organic cleanser

Every now and again at Vitale we hear really amazing stories and one of these is about my friend Karen. A bit about Karen, she is very fit and has no fear and so when she decided to learn how to skydive solo, no-one was surprised. So she spent 3 months prepping for her first solo dive and one sunny Sunday morning jumped out of a plane (the thought almost makes me pee my pants but she says she had no fear!). The dive was perfect, the landing was perfect and then Karen to one step and shattered her ankle and lower leg. The ambulance people told her that this was a common occurance and that they had been out at the same field the week before for the same reason. If only she had known!

What followed was lots of leg surgery, bed rest, casts etc. But Karen is a busy kind of person so within 5 days she was up and about. Three weeks later she came to me and said “I need some Rosehip oil for my scar – it isn’t healing”. I had a look at the scar – it was gruesome! So I replied, “yes Rosehip oil is good, but try this stuff, it is Excellent!”.

Five days after that I received a text message with photos attached. Being a scientific-type, Karen took a photo of her scar and sent it through to me:

Day 1 - no significant healing 3 weeks after surgery

After 5 days I received this surprising photo:

After 5 days of Skin Smoother application

Finally on Day 7 of application I received this photo:

The scar is completely closed over and starting to fade already

Karen is pretty happy with the results and her surgeon was also quietly impressed!

The product I recommended is Third Stone Botanicals Skin Smoother. It does contain Rosehip Oil, which is great for scar healing but it also contains some other key ingredients that promote even more rapid skin healing including Calendula, vitamin E and Wheatgerm oil. Karen’s isn’t the only story I have been told about this product – open heart surgery scars and scars from a broken arm have also responded similarly. You can also use Skin Smoother on small scars, wounds and abrasions. For areas where the skin is dry or dehydrated, choose Calm Magic Balm instead.

If you have a story about wound or scar healing or have used this product yourself, I would love to hear about it.

I love paw paw ointment but haven’t used it for years. The brand I used to use I found out contained petrochemicals as a base so I stopped using it all together. Recently however a couple of natural brands have popped up and I have been trialling them to see how they compare to the original. Of those natural brands I have done a comparison below and interestingly while I love the Pure Nutraceuticals product which we stock, the Suvana Paw Paw Ointment is really good too. For this reason, you will see it in-store soon! (Ed note: I is now in-store and on-line)

My video blog about Pure Nutraceuticals Paw Paw Ointment