Face Good

November is typically a busy month for everyone. It's the month of exams for students, worries for parents and overtime for the working class.

If you've been sleeping late, your body will not be getting enough rest and it will be more difficult for your system to purge the toxins that have accumulated in your body. These results in premature ageing and ageing related problems such as wrinkles and uneven pigmentation. Dark eyebags and listless eyes are a given too. Although there are various methods to combat problems stemming from late nights, these are only temporary. If your body is not resting well, the problems will come back again, and your health will suffer.

If you have to stay up late for various reasons, here are some tips to keep in mind to make your short length of sleep as sound and productive as possible.

Don't eat before sleeping. That means no snacking, and try not to have dinner to late.

Sleep with the lights off. In fact, the ideal condition for sleep is when it is so dark that you can't even see your fingers when you raise your hand. In total darkness, your body rests and undergoes repair. However, when there is light in your room, your body is misled into thinking that it is not yet night and will thus not be able to rest as well as it should.

Sleep in a comfortable position.
If you like to sleep on your side, place a pillow or bolster between your legs, it will make you feel more comfortable. If you like lying on your back, place a pillow under your thighs. It will help to reduce the pressure on your back. Avoid sleeping on your stomach as it will cause discomfort in your back and neck the next day.

Find time to exercise. It will keep you healthy as well as relieve stress.

Power naps are good for quick replenishing of energy, but avoid napping for longer than 20 - 30 minutes or you will  not be able to sleep at night.

Rest well and keep yourselves healthy for the holiday season!

Oh no! My face swelled overnight! It's puffy like a bun in the morning! And it looks like one too; pale and dull-coloured!

This is often the result of drinking too much water before you go to bed. The most effective way to curb this problem is of course, to drink more water in the day and reduce water intake at night. But this is easier said than done because most of us have little time to drink in the day and try to make up for the shortage of water consumption by drinking more at night.

Thankfully, there’s a method to reduce swelling quickly. It’s done like a ‘sauna’. Splash your face 30 times with cold water. Repeat the process with warm water, followed by cold water again. Five minutes after this process, your skin should become firmer, elastic and radiant!

Good eye creams do help to lessen eye bags, but as a long term solution, they can get really expensive! Here are some food items that are known to help prevent the formation of eye bags and reduce their intensity. Try to accommodate them in your diet frequently and you’ll find your eye bag issue improving in the long run without breaking your bank!

Eggs
Eggs are rich in proteins. Protein stimulates cell growth and helps to reduce dead cell accumulation around your under eyes. However, bear in mind that the max number of eggs one should consumer per day is 2. The healthiest method to cook your egg is to boil it. Lean meat and seafood are also rich in proteins and can be consumed to increase your amount of protein intake. However, because the amino makeup of protein in eggs is more similar to that of the human body, we absorb protein from eggs more readily.

Sesame
Sesame is rich in vitamin E, which is nourishing for your eyes and the skin around your eyes. Apart from this, it also promotes healthy hair growth! Other food rich in vitamin E include peanuts, almonds and sunflower seeds.

Carrots
Like sesame, carrots are rich in vitamin E. It has one more added bonus – richness in Vitamin A. It stimulates skin repair and thus helps to reduce eyebags. Other food items rich in Vitamin A include animal liver, butter, almonds, alfafa etc.

Seaweed
Seaweed is rich in iron. Iron combines with protein to form hemoglobin which promotes oxygen transportation and absorption of nutrients.

Green tea
Green tea has detoxification effects. If you’re constantly in front of the computer, you should drink more green tea to get rid of eyebags caused by radiation from the computer. Green tea contains polyphenols, a powerful antioxidant. It helps to reduce skin damage caused by harmful free radicals. Green tea helps to promote sleep, thus indirectly reducing one of the main causal factors of eyebags.

Placing tea bags over eyebags also helps to reduce dark circles. After boiling tea bags, put them aside to cool, or refrigerate them for a short while if you want to use them quickly. Place over closed eyes for 20 minutes.

Now we all know that fruits and veggies are good for skin, but some don’t taste very nice unprocessed, and we get sick of the common fruits. It’s good to have some variations, isn’t it? Here are some self-invented juices that will help you lessen the harmful effects of late nights on your skin! And they taste great too!

Veggie Delight
You will need 1 radish, 1 carrot, a few stalks of spinach and celery, half a glass of fresh milk, 2 tablespoons of honey and a few ice cubes.
Cut up all the vegetables into small pieces and place them into the fruit juicer. Add the milk, honey, and ice and mash them all together.

Creamie Fruitie
You will need one banana, a slice of papaya and a small carton of yogurt (250ml). Peel the banana and remove the skin of the papaya. Cut the banana and papaya into small pieces. Put them into the juicer with the yogurt and mash them all together.

Sour Stimulation (warning: It’s really sour! Good for digestion though, especially when you’ve just returned from supper!)
You will need 2 kiwi fruits, 4 oranges and 1 lemon. Remove their skins and cut them into small pieces. Mash them together in the juicer.

Sweet and Sour
You will need three pomeloes, a bunch of grapes and 2 tablespoons of honey. Peel the pomeloes and cut them into small pieces. Mash them together in the juicer. The mixture will be a nice balance of sour and sweet!

Minty Cool
You will need 1 cucumber, 500ml of soya bean milk, 3 peppermint leaves. Skin and slice the cucumber. Mash and mix them up in the juicer. It’s cooling and makes you feel more energetic!

I'm back with the final installment (for now) of beauty tips for late nighters!

If you're going to be up late, the least you can do is make the night constructive for your skin! With some simple steps, you can improve your skin's ability to absorb nutrients from skin care product, and subject your skin to more restful sleep, almost making up for the damage wrought from late nights!


Apply night serum before 11pm

In a previous article, I mentioned that 11pm is the recommended time for your body to rest since it would be when various detoxification processes begin in your body. Sadly that seems to be a luxury that not everyone can afford. Most people apply night serum / moisturizer just before bed time as it is the last step of your nightly skin care routine. I would recommend you do it before 11pm instead, so that the detoxification process does not affect the skin’s ability to absorb the serum.

Take your supplements at night

When your body (and consequently your skin) lacks sleep, nutrient loss outweighs nutrient gains from your diet. If you have a habit of taking supplements, do take them at night, instead of taking them in the morning, especially Vitamin C and collagen. When your body is in its rest state at night, it will absorb the supplements more effectively for efficient reparation.

DIY Aromatherapy

Most salons these days add some fragrance to your treatment room or incorporate fragrance oils into the beauty treatment process because natural fragrance helps your mind to relax.
You can also include fragrance oils in your steam facial to relax your skin and help you sleep more soundly at night.

After cleansing your face, prepare a basin of steaming hot water. Add a few drops of fragrance oil and stir evenly. Place your face over the basin so that the steam emitting from the hot water opens your pores. Cover your head and the basin with a towel to prevent the steam from escaping. When the water has cooled down significantly, cleanse your face with the water. If you’re afraid of perspiration dripping from your hair and dirtying the water, you should wrap up your hair in a towel prior to steaming.

Different fragrance oils can help to improve different skin conditions:
Rose, sandalwood and chamomile are kind on dry, peeling skin. Rose and chamomile will also restore radiance in dull skin.
Geranium and lavender are suitable for oily, moisture-deprived skin.
For those plagued with acne problems, go with chamomile, peppermint, eucalyptus and frankincense.
These fragrances can usually be found in skincare specialty shops like The Body Shop, or shops specializing in aromatherapy.

Apologies for the lack of updates last week! It was a pretty hectic week, having to juggle visitations and work (with people popping in for lao qi when you’ve just got home feeling all ready to fall into bed, and those obligatory visits that simply had to be made or it would be considered rude otherwise, despite having spoken only spoken a few sentences to the host in the entire 20+ years of my life. Good grief). How nice it would be if we got 15 days of holiday like China :D I wouldn’t mind all the socializing.

So back to beauty and skin care. I promised to write more about how to protect your skin against late nights.
In the study of Traditional Chinese Medicine, it is believed that healthy blood circulation makes your skin look radiant and healthy. And what better than a good massage to relax your skin and drive the blood up your skin capillaries?

3 minutes facial massage before bedtime

You can perform a simple massaging exercise just before bed time, which will help to improve your blood circulation, as well as improve sagging and wrinkling skin!

Step 1: Rub your palms vigorously together. Place your warm palms over your face (Be sure to wash your hands beforehand!)

Step 2: When the heat has retreated, keep your palms firmly on your face, and move your palms in a gentle up-down movement for 10 times.

Step 3: Repeat Steps 1 and 2 for up to five times.

Step 4: Tap your face repetitively with the tips of your fingers, starting from your cheeks, surroundings of your eye, sides of your nose, and the area around your mouth, with emphasis on the chin. Always tap in an inside-to-outside circular motion or bottom-to-top vertical motion.

With improved blood circulation, your skin cells will mend in a shorter time!



Acupoint Eye Massage for Brighter Eyes

If you are plagued with dark eye circles, eye bags, puffy eyes amongst various problems attributed to late nights, this is a massage that’s made for you! Chinese physicians believe that massaging the acupoints above, between and at the tail end of your eyebrows reduces swelling and exhaustion in the eyes. When you’re applying your eye cream at night, be sure to massage them by using your index and middle fingers to trace a line from your temples, to the tail end of your brow, over your brow and finally stopping at the spot between your brows. You can keep retracing back and forth 20 times. Your eyes should feel refreshed!

As you can see, TCM isn't all about old fuddy duddies meddling with nasty jars of preserved centipedes. From sidelined alternative medication, TCM has progressed into a mainstream replacement for Western medical services and procedures and is now seeing an increasing involvement in beauty and slimming. Best of all, the medical procedures are usually completely natural without side effects! In the near future, I intend to do more research and share more information about TCM's relation to beauty care.

I'll complete this series of late night skin care tips with another relevant post by this week. Stay tuned!

Early to sleep, early to rise lays the foundation for good health and beauty, but given our hectic lifestyles, we sometimes have to work till late, get home late and sleep even later! Especially when a huge festive season like Chinese New Year is just round the corner and everyone’s trying to handle increased workloads or finish work to enjoy the holiday in peace!

The good news is, yes, it is possible to sleep late and still maintain healthy skin, but there are some good habits that you must inculcate to make up for the lack of sleep!

1. Don’t wash your face late in the night.
Washing your face late at night actually stresses your skin and consequently encourages the formation of pimples and comedogenes. It’s just like eating late in the night, and your digestive system has to work when it shouldn’t have to. Wash your face as early as possible instead of right before bedtime, preferably right after you come back from work or wherever you are. It is also a good habit to remove make-up as early as possible.

2. Keep your skin well-moisturized
Late nights and exhaustion cause your skin’s moisture-trapping system to weaken. After cleansing your face, apply a good moisturizer that is easily absorbed. In other words, choose a moisturizer that suits your skin-type. Those with oily skin in particular, should generally avoid creamy moisturizers and choose water-based moisturizers instead. Frequently spraying water mist on your face is also a good practice. However, those with dry and sensitive skin should avoid using tap water to cleanse or moisturize your face as the deposits in it can cause further drying. Use mineral water or moisturizing sprays designed specially for skin care. Don’t forget to moisturize the nooks and crannies too, which are all too often neglected.

3. DIY Moisturizing Mask
Instead of applying your moisturizing serum directly to your face, apply it all over a plain facial mask and put it over your face. After 10 minutes, remove the mask; the serum should have settled into your skin. This is more thorough and gentler than rubbling the serum in with your fingers. Note that this works for serum and liquid moisturizers, but not for cream moisturizers.

More tips to come next week! Now you can stay up late to watch the Chingay without worrying, but all the same, don't go overboard, because sleeping late is still strenuous on your health in the long run!

Altering your biological clock radically can result in potential illnesses in the long run. In this aspect, many people are guilty of sleeping late and disrupting some of the body's most essential processes, which only take place at night. Here’s another outline of the workings of your body, this time, focusing on its nightly detoxifying actions.

1. 9pm – 11 pm. Lymphatic system detoxifies.

2. 11 pm – 1 pm. Liver detoxifies.

3. 1 am – 3 am. Bile ducts detoxify.

4. 3 am – 5am. Lungs detoxify. When you’re suffering from a cough, your cough is most vigorous at this point of time. Don’t try to stifle or stop your cough as you’ll be interfering with the lung’s detoxification process. Head out of the room instead if you don’t wish to disturb your room mate.

5. 5am – 7 am. Large intestine detoxifies. This is the time when you’d normally go to the toilet to defecate.

Our body’s detoxification system works best when the rest of our body is in resting mode. Hence, it’s best to be asleep during the entire detoxification process. But few people have the luxury to sleep by 9 and would prefer to spend the time before midnight on leisure activities. Nevertheless, from 9pm to 11pm, you can still optimize rest time by doing relaxing activities like listening to music and reading and avoiding high-energy activities such as eating (yes, eating burdens your digestive system) and adrenaline-pumping computer games.

Spending long hours in an office environment is unhealthy for anyone in the long run, and particularly has detrimental effects on skin. Office ladies who don’t bother to take the appropriate precautions will soon find themselves the epitome of Plain Janes. Being able to hide yourself in the office doesn’t mean you can neglect your image. These health and skin problems will continue to plague you, even if you leave office life behind. It’s wise to keep the problems under control while you can. In this post and the two coming ones, I’ll discuss these problems and ways to keep them at bay.

Problem 1: Dry skin
For ladies who do use make-up, you may find it difficult for your make-up to blend or stay on. The moisture level of your skin has a direct impact on the adherence levels of your make-up. Air-conditioning and radiation from the computer cause water loss, resulting in rough, flaking skin that easily creases into wrinkles.

Hydrate your skin
The natural solution is to keep your skin well moisturized. A moisture spray allows you to effortlessly hydrate your face directly. Before using it, dab away oil from your face and use a clean, wet cotton pad to wipe off dirt on your face. Spray some water evenly over your face. It’s a good way to stay awake too! Alternatively, you can place several pieces of clean cotton wool soaked in water over your clean face.

Drink water
It is common knowledge that you need at least 8 glasses of water per day for your body to function properly. If you are often too distracted by work to drink, make the effort to drink lots of water before you go to work. Do not try to make up for the requirement by drinking at night as it will have detrimental effects instead, and you’ll experience disrupted sleep from frequent trips to the toilet.

Blend moisturizer with liquid foundation
Mix 2 to 3 drops of your regular moisturizer with foundation in the amount that you normally use. It’s hydrating and makes it easier for the foundation to stay on.

Problem 2: The Computer Affliction
Computers are a source of radiation emissions and prolonged exposure to it can disrupt your secretion system. If your cells are not regenerating properly, spots and pimples will emerge. Magnetic fields from the radiation also accumulate dust and impure air, causing skin to be clogged, yellowish and dull. In addition, ladies with oily skin will find that their oil glands have become even more active, resulting in pimples and enlarged pores, while those with dry skin will end up with even drier skin that can give way to wrinkles and dark pigmentation.

Keep your skin clean
No matter how late you get home, remove your make-up and wash your face thoroughly. Use a hot towel to steam your face for 30 seconds before you begin your cleansing ritual. It helps to open up clogged pores and makes your skin more receptive to the cleanser.

Salt water exfoliator
Scoop a teaspoon of salt into your palm, pour some warm water (warm, not hot. You don’t want to scald your hand!) over the salt and rub the mixture so that it becomes liquid enough to be applied on your face. Rub the mixture gently in circular motion over your T-zone for thirty seconds and wash off. You can do this twice a week.

Problem 3: Panda eyes
Due to poor blood circulation, eye bags easily emerge, a problem escalated by staying up late to work overtime. Wrinkles also develop easily due to exhaustion and dryness. Fortunately, the onset of wrinkles and permanent eye bags can be pushed backwards given the right treatments as early as possible.

Milk Massage
Gently massaging milk on the skin around your eyes helps to reduce dark circles. If your dark circles are serious, you can use a more intense treatment by soaking a clean, absorbent cloth in milk and put it over your closed eyes for up to 10 minutes.

Wolfberry tea
Wolfberry is widely known to be good for eyes. Wolfberry tea is a sweet, fragrant tea with a mellow sweet taste that would be gladly consumed by many even if not for its health benefits. To make wolfberry tea, you will need a small amount of wolfberries (half a fistful should be sufficient) and 3 to 4 red dates. Add these ingredients to a glass and fill it with boiling water. You can consume it when it cools.

Eye Exercises
Eye exercises originating from China are designed based on how applying pressure on various accu-pressure points helps to regulate your body system. These eye exercises are conducted in schools to reduce the occurrence of eye disorders. This website has very detailed instructions and clear illustrations for doing eye exercises!

Well no, not karate or kungfu, but precautionary measures to protect your skin’s wellbeing on late nights. As you’re putting in extra nighters to ensure a peaceful Chinese New Year holiday, bear in mind that stress and late nights are the nemeses of beautiful, healthy skin! What’s more, many of us are going to stay up really late on New Year’s Eve. It’s a bane for the skin, but a tradition we have to observe nonetheless! The good news is, we can cushion these harmful effects and reduce them to the minimal!

Before midnight...

Keep your meal light and healthy. People tend to have their dinner really late when they’re doing overtime. Though we should actually have dinners in the evening, I know this is pretty inevitable, so if you really must have dinner-supper, choose to eat more vegetables and less meat and oil.

Remove your make-up as early as possible, preferably before midnight, even if you’re still stuck in your office. It’s better to look less glamorous for a few hours than suffer from breakouts over the next few days, don’t you think so? Pores get blocked when your face gets suffocated by make-up for long hours. The damage would have been done by the time you remove your make-up. Remove your make-up as early as possible, and remove it well.

Increase your intake of vitamin B, because it helps to strengthen your immunity system and relieves exhaustion!

Staying up after midnight...

Staying up late intensifies heatiness. The combination of late nights with a snack of potato chips, biscuits and other dry snacks that cause heatiness is a lethal one. You could end up with pimple breakouts and worst, sore throats and coughs.

1. Green tea has a cooling effect that helps to reduce heatiness. It makes you more awake and refreshed, and helps to rid your body of free radicals which are harmful to your health. Alternatively, you can drink jasmine tea or wolfberry tea if green tea doesn’t go down well with you.

2. If you must have supper, take non-oily and non-heaty foods like fruits, porridge or wholemeal bread.

Aftermath

1. Return to your normal sleeping routine as soon as you can.

2. If you're not used to staying up late, you may feel weak and tired over the next few days. Do drink ample water and consume protein-rich food to repair your damaged cells.

3. Massages will help to stimulate blood circulation.

4. Don't stay at home all day long even if you're exhausted. Go out for a walk. The sun will do you good. But don't forget the sunblock for your skin!

Have a Happy and Healthy Year of the Ox!

I received the following question from a reader:
"Do you have solutions for people who suffer from itchy eyes if they don't get enough sleep? Not only do I get puffy eyes but they itch."

An itching sensation certainly takes the sparkle out of your eyes. Itchy eyes look listless and squinty, so this is definitely a good question that needs a good solution.

The tea bag treatment is often one of the most recommended home remedies to treat eye-related problems such as puffiness and dark circles. They work on the basis of having a cooling effect on your eyes. In this case, they do mute mild itchiness by calming the itch.

For this treatment, you will need water, tea bags and a chair with a comfortable neck-rest. I recommend organic camomile tea bags. Organic products have little or no chemical additives, so they won't irritate your eyes. Camomile tea is known for its soothing effect, tastewise and smellwise. Boil water and pour it over two tea bags (to release the aroma and herbal extracts). Wait for the tea bags to cool. Sit down and tilt your head upwards and place the tea bags over your closed eyes for ten minutes. If the itch persists, repeat this with new tea bags over intervals of one hour until the itch disappears.

Alternatively, you can use a cool wet cloth or eye masks that are readily available at pharmacies, though I feel that cammomile tea bags produce a more soothing effect without agitating your skin with extreme coldness.

Itchy or dry eyes actually result from a variety of problems, lack of sleep being just one of them. Some people stay up really late at night and they don't suffer from itchy eyes, yet some get itchy eyes even if they turn in by midnight. The dryness and sensitivity of eyes also differs from person to person. As you didn't state what contributed to your lack of sleep, I can only give examples from a few scenarios. E.g. if you enjoy clubbing, cut down on the alcohol and avoid places with smokers. If you're staying up late to work on your computer, be sure to rest your eyes after every 30 mins and blink your eyes repeatedly until they feel wet and refreshed. You can do this in the day time too, when you're using the computer, or any time your eyes feel tired and dry. Regular eye drops help alleviate tiredness and dryness too. Drink plenty of water in the day to keep yourself moisturized.

However, if you are experiencing prolonged itchiness or intense itchiness and your eyes are bloodshot with pronounced puffiness, do consult your doctor!

Since this is my first post, I shall blog about a problem that inflicts almost all Singaporeans (yes, the men and children too!) and basically any developed country in the world - late nights!

Most people make light of staying up late, thinking that whatever damages that are caused can be slept away by the next night. If only this were true! Staying up late inflicts long-lasting damage to your overall well-being, including your skin. What's more, burning the midnight oil has become routine for most people, myself included, so there's no 'replenishing of sleep' to speak of. The list of negative impacts accompanying late nights is endless, but I'm not here to condemn late nights, so on with the tips!

You are what you eat, so eating right for dinner or supper is pretty much self-explanatory. Late nighters should consume food that is rich in Vitamin C or collagen as these help to restore the elasticity and luminity of skin. Skin of animals, such as chicken, duck and pig, is rich in collagen. Most fruits are rich sources of Vitamin C. If you're not consuming enough veggies or fruits, you may want to consider taking Vitamin C pills (but all natural is still the best!). Eat less spicy food and go easy on the alcohol!