A Need For Hyaluronic Acid

What if I told you that I could make your skin INSTANTLY glow, and it would not do any damage? Would you be even more excited if I told you that this instant glow could also reduce the look of fine lines and make your skin more plump? Do you think you would believe me? Let me share one of our top secret ingredients and tricks of the trade in these next few paragraphs, and then you can decide for yourself! 

When our skin is at its peak performance, you will find that your Acid Mantle (what I like to call this invisible force field, like a coat of armor on the outermost layer of your skin) is in a perfectly balanced ratio of 1:1:1 with these key elements- Water:Lipids:Ceramides. Today’s topic is all about the WATER element, and what you can do daily, weekly, and monthly, to help your skin look and perform at its best! 

The problem with WATER and the skin, is that our bodies actually don’t “make” water, we have to supply it to our skin! And I want you to think of your skin like a giant sponge as we are learning about water in the skin. We all know a couple of key points when we are using a sponge: 1) a damp sponge works better than a dry sponge (hydrated skin performs better!) and 2) when we do get a sponge wet, the water will evaporate fairly quick (same with our skin, and that’s where we lose the WATER in the ratio!) 

A 3 part lesson on what we can do and why, to check those boxes in optimum skin health and performance:

1. Giving our skin water is more involved than splashing the skin with water or even drinking more water than you already consume. (although, you will see a difference if you are truly drinking enough water for your body!) Hyaluronic acid is in the humectant family of ingredients, and these ingredients act like a “moisture magnet” to attract water! Hyaluronic acid, when applied to the skin, finds free water from 2 main sources: the ambient moisture in the air/humidity, and from the dermis, which is a deeper layer to your skin. For best results, apply hyaluronic to skin that is slightly damp (from water or from your toner or essence), apply a moisturizer with a heavier water content directly over the Hyaluronic Acid, and keep drinking plenty of water! 

2. Hyaluronic Acid works to keep your skin’s natural barrier (AKA the Acid Mantle or “coat of armor”) in tip top shape! When the skin is balanced, it is healthy, and all the functions of the skin work best! This ranges from healthier collagen production and protection of collagen, to normalized cell proliferation/turnover, to even allowing your other active products or skincare services and treatments to give you the best results! That is the peak performance we are talking about!

3. When our skin is out of balance or we don’t have the correct mix of ingredients, that is when our skin loses water through evaporation. As the water evaporates and leaves, so do additional active ingredients found in your other products! This can occur before those active ingredients have had adequate time to do the job that you placed them there to do! By having enough water, and then “sealing” the water and other active ingredients in with the right lipids and ceramides, your skin will have an immediate glow, along with long term benefits like plump collagen, reduced redness, and reduced fine lines! 

Your esthetician can help you navigate the best Hyaluronic Acid serum or products to use daily, and we even offer no charge consultations for this! (Ask our front desk team how!) This can be as simple as a daily serum layered in your current routine, or a weekly mask applied after you cleanse your skin. In the treatment room, be sure to also ask about our Nano Mask Upgrade, or our newest Glow Booster addition! For only $15, you will be instantly glowing, skin looking plump and radiant, and still achieving those long term goals for healthy and anti-aging skin! 

The ABCs of Pumpkin

I am convinced that the invention of the pumpkin spice latte was the springboard for the ultimate Pumpkin Craze! Coffee shops and restaurants are adding to the excitement with sneak peeks and countdowns, making this limited time, seasonal favorite, a major star. With its popularity, we’ve seen Pumpkin become a hit ingredient in our skincare products and treatments as well. And while Amelia Gray might be on the “limited time” pumpkin themed services bandwagon, I can also assure you, there is room for this powerhouse ingredient year round!

Aside from pumpkin acting as the mascot that ushers in all things autumn, what else is this ingredient doing for us and why is it a top choice? My style of educating our beloved guests, is straightforward, with easy to understand principles. So why not look at the A-B-Cs of PUMPKIN? 

A- Pumpkin contains a few mainstream ingredients, such as the gently exfoliating Alpha Hydroxy Acids, and Vitamin A, which produces new collagen and encourages new cell growth!

B- Pumpkin also contains Beta Carotene, which is a derivative of Vitamin A. This form strengthens the cells and skin with anti aging/antioxidant benefits.

C- Pumpkin is loaded with Vitamin C, which is the only FDA approved antioxidant shown to make cells “think” they are younger and perform at optimum levels. 

(Wanna keep going??? Me too!!)

D- Pumpkin is PERFECT for dry and dehydrated skin! Yes it’s exfoliating, but great for drier skin types!

E- Pumpkin also contains Vitamin E, which stabilizes Vitamin C, but also helps with elasticity and nourishes the skin, keeping it protected. 

And all the way through “Z”  we could go, given that Pumpkin also contains minerals, including magnesium and zinc, to promote skin health! 

Amelia Gray’s Estheticians are huge fans of all things pumpkin, and have even helped our Nail Technicians find a perfect pumpkin option for the season!

What will this do for YOU, you might be wondering? Pumpkin will brighten dark spots, and especially those new spots found after summer sun, on our face, chest, feet and legs! (Check out our Pumpkin Spice Facial and Pumpkin Spice Pedi!) These treatments give gentle exfoliation, brightening, smoothing, and hydrating benefits to your skin’s post summer sun fun, and gearing up for chemical peels or even just before events and holidays! Along with the fun colors and scents of autumn, you can trust that we will leave you feeling relaxed and looking radiant & youthful! These treatments will only last through November 2024, though, so act fast! Book online or reach out to our Guest Experts at the front desk to secure your pumpkin treat (I mean, service…) today! Have you tried either of these? We want to know, what’s your favorite! 

What Happened To My Skin When I Turned 40?!

I know I am probably the odd one out, but I was truly looking forward to turning 40! Am I alone in this thought? (Seriously, I’d love for you to comment to either validate me, or tell me I’m unusual!)  There was something about reaching that physical age that felt like a true milestone for me. I was excited to turn 16 so that I could achieve the action of driving a car. I was elated when I turned 18, to be able to vote in my first election, and it happened to be a Presidential election, and of course my high school graduation year! (Thank you, Mrs. Deal for the amazing, unbiased, political education!) Turning 30 was a very empowering time in my life. I was really hitting my stride in my personal life, and finding my way through motherhood and navigating the truest of friendships. So what exactly was it about turning 40 that had me pumped?! I honestly can’t say, aside from feeling as though “40” was going to bring me a certain level of credibility. And that it has!

Along with this enhanced, confidence, I also found a few additional pieces of evidence that began to emerge. Things such as wisdom streaks (aka, silver strands) were also starting to add a little more dimension to my hair, shall we say? And a deep, vertical wrinkle, that seems to only appear when I am deep in thought, was found in my reflection in the car one day. There were also some pros and cons: I almost never have a breakout anymore, even when I eat what I want or try a new skincare product! But I also notice that I’d like to somehow try and use a magical tape, to sort of lift my brows and forehead a bit. And probably my upper cheeks while I’m at it! 

So what is going on? Why the changes? And what can or should I be doing to stay ahead of some of this? Our 40’s will typically also bring changes to our estrogen, specifically. This decrease in estrogen can lead to various changes in the skin, hair, and body, and be more noticeable, as things are happening at a faster pace now. Estrogen helps to keep collagen strong and healthy, supports its production, and provides a softness to the skin. Our 40’s can bring on perimenopause, which is where we will see a more sharp decline in estrogen, and ultimately, a wrinkle or brown spot that seems to have “appeared out of nowhere!” (I promise, those changes were laying in wait, but the fast decline of collagen did make these things appear overnight for you! You are totally correct!) Our skin cannot truly hydrate itself with water, but again, as these hormonal fluctuations are occurring, the job of trying to hold onto water and hydration, becomes too big of a job for our skin! So how do we best address these new concerns and hopefully slow these processes down? 

I’m going to make some recommendations within my scope, but I am a firm believer that being set up with all of the right professionals will yield the best results! For sure you should be receiving regular skin checks with a dermatologist, especially if you ever tanned in your entire life! And most of my clients are finding great success with functional medicine doctors, as well. And we should not overlook the importance of the right, healthy diet and exercise, that these professionals can help assist you with further and with more depth than I can! But I’m going to spend just a few minutes sharing what I personally am doing to try and stay ahead of things, if you’d like to keep reading! 

My first switch, was to a more gentle cleanser. Something that is creamier, but still rinses clean. I will use a cleanser that creates a gentle foam and more of a deep clean, about 1-2 times per week, but a creamy cleanser every other day is perfect for me! My favorites are the Barrier Balance from Face Reality (which has NO pore clogging ingredients, just in case my acne wants to try something again!) and the Urban Un-Do cleanser from Bioelements a couple times a week! This pollution removing cleanser deep cleans, and balances my skin using malachite clay, so that I am still treating my skin gently. 

Next up, bring on the peptides! I can’t get enough of these ultra gentle, little messengers for my skin! I love the Power Peptide toner  and then using very skin specific peptides from Viktoria De’Ann, to target my specific concerns! Pepti-Tone is like Botox in a bottle for that deep set wrinkle between my eyes! (And if you opt to have any neuromodulators injected, Pepti-Tone can extend the life of your injections! Learn more about the different choices at the end of this blog post!)

I also started finding that exfoliating acids, which have always been my holy grail, were suddenly too much for my skin to be used regularly at home! Instead, moving my at home, night time serum to a retinol has provided me the best results for my overall, healthy collagen production, without damaging the top layers of my skin, which now occasionally feel sensitive and a little thinner too?!) My Age Activist Clinical Youth Serum rebuilds new collagen, does not dry me out, and gives my skin an amazing smooth and soft texture! 

So what about day time treatment, if retinol is taking the night shift while I sleep? Well, my acne prone skin could NEVER handle a Vitamin C before…but I can now! The VC 10 Daily Glow contains powerful vitamin C and E, which helps to create better results when these two are paired together! Vitamin C also supports all the new collagen being produced by my retinol being used at night! And my favorite fun fact, is that Vitamin C helps your SPF work better, without losing power so fast through the day! (Of course, I’m assuming you are still getting that SPF on every day for prevention and protection!) 

I hope you can see that I didn’t really ADD a bunch of new products to my line up, but it was more about moving things over to what is going to work best for me with these changes in my skin! But there were some other changes I started making and plan on making soon! And that is around my professional treatments. 

I’m now getting a facial every 4-5 weeks, instead of every 10-12 weeks, professionally. I’ll add pro chemical peels 3-4 times a year, for boosted results, without overdoing it. I can handle this, whereas the daily or every other day at home acids were becoming too much. I’m fully expecting that in the colder months, and into my later 40’s, as my estrogen continues to decline, I will see a lot more surface dryness. This will make my face look more “lined,” and can create sensitivities. I’ll let my esthetician decide when she should add in either a Nano Mask or our new Glow Booster, into my already scheduled facials. And if my skin can benefit, I’ll definitely be adding the Rezenerate Upgrade from time to time! That is great for making my skin plump, and filling in around my lips and around my eyes! 

If you know me at all, or have been a client of mine for any time at all, you know I LOVE the free tips and tricks also! So here are a few that I know could help! Be sure you are hydrating your body, from the inside out. To best and properly hydrate ourselves, we need to add water, sure! But we also need to add in healthy fats, to help hold that water in place and fuel all of these processes we are working on! Omegas, whether you talk to your doctor about a supplement, or eat plenty of seeds, nuts, and berries, along with things like salmon and avocado, can truly change your skin and body and joints in a very short amount of time! And if you are not using a silk pillowcase, now is the time, my friend! Cotton just robs our skin and hair of all of these great things we are applying and using to correct the problem! Silk or Satin pillowcases are just the icing on the cake! 

I hope this helps someone feel empowered to tackle their 40’s, and confident to know what to do as we are changing! If you’d like to learn more about nueromodulators, check out this awesome article from Allure Magazine, too! And as always, be sure to let me know in the comments or send a message my way if you are looking for personalized help from me or my team. 

New Product ALERT!

If you see any of our estheticians for skin services, especially if you see them for acne, you have probably been given recommendations for supplements you could add to your routine to benefit your skin. Our amazing acne line, Face Reality, has two powerhouse supplements they just launched that combine key ingredients to aid in clearing your skin.

Adding Clear Skin Balance and Clear Skin Restore into your routine eliminates the need to take a handful of supplements daily to only needing to take 4. We recommend you speak to your esthetician before implementing these into your routine, but what exactly is in these supplements that make them so amazing? Here is everything you need to know:

Clear Skin Restore:

Includes ingredients like Zinc, Probiotic, Vitamin C and Niacinamide. Here’s what these ingredients provide to your skin:

Zinc: A Foundation for Skin Health Zinc is an essential mineral known for its diverse roles in the body, including immune function, wound healing, and skin health. Studies have shown that individuals with acne tend to have lower levels of zinc in their blood compared to those with clear skin. Zinc plays a crucial role in regulating inflammation, sebum production, and skin cell turnover, all of which are factors implicated in acne development. Supplementing with zinc has been shown to reduce acne severity, frequency of outbreaks, and inflammation.*

Vitamin C: Provides antioxidant protection and is necessary for the body to produce collagen, which helps support healthy skin*

Probiotics: Balancing the Microbiome The gut-skin connection has garnered significant attention in recent years, with emerging evidence suggesting that an imbalance in gut microbiota may contribute to acne development. Probiotics, which are beneficial bacteria that support gut health, have shown promise in modulating the microbiome and reducing inflammation throughout the body, including the skin. By promoting a healthy balance of bacteria in the gut, probiotic supplements may help alleviate acne symptoms and support long-term skin wellness.*

Niacinamide: Supports cellular health*

Clear Skin Balance:

Includes ingredients like Omega-3 Fatty Acids, Vitamin D3 and a blend of Antioxidants.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids: Nourishing the Skin from Within Omega-3 fatty acids, primarily found in fish oil supplements, are renowned for their anti-inflammatory properties. Inflammation is a key driver of acne, contributing to the redness, swelling, and discomfort associated with breakouts. By incorporating omega-3 supplements into their routine, individuals can help mitigate the inflammatory response within the skin, potentially leading to fewer and less severe acne lesions. Moreover, omega-3 fatty acids promote overall skin health by supporting hydration and elasticity.*

Vitamin D3: Supports Immune Health*

Antioxidants: Protecting Against Oxidative Stress Oxidative stress, caused by an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants in the body, has been implicated in various skin conditions, including acne. Antioxidants, such as vitamins C and E, selenium, and green tea extract, neutralize free radicals and protect the skin from damage. By incorporating antioxidant supplements into their daily regimen, individuals can help fortify their skin's defenses against environmental aggressors and oxidative stressors, potentially reducing the severity and frequency of acne breakouts.*

So, you can see why our team is so excited to introduce these products to their clients! Click here to schedule an appointment to speak with your esthetician or stop in at any time to shop these new supplements!

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.​

Why You Should Choose Massage Therapy

In our fast paced and stress filled lives, finding moments for self-care is essential for maintaining overall well-being. One highly effective way to achieve this is through massage therapy. However, the key to reaping the full benefits lies in connecting and building trust with your licensed massage therapist. Let’s explore the reasons why opting for a licensed professional is crucial for a truly rejuvenating and therapeutic massage experience.

Expertise and Training:

Did you know, that in the state of Ohio, Licensed Massage Therapists (LMTs)are certified through the state’s Medical Board? LMTs undergo rigorous training and education to acquire the necessary skills for an effective and safe practice. They study various massage techniques, anatomy, physiology, and pathology, enabling them to address a wide range of issues, from muscle tension to chronic pain. By choosing a licensed massage therapist, you are ensuring that your massage is performed by someone with a deep understanding of the human body and the art and science of massage. While it’s true that here at Amelia Gray, we allow our Licensed Estheticians to perform an exfoliating and relaxing body treatment, and gentle neck and shoulder massage during most of our customized facials, we will quickly refer you to one of our specialized LMTs when you are needing more! We believe that true body work should be performed by those that know and understand it best! 

Customized Approach:

Every individual's body is unique, and so are their needs and preferences. A licensed massage therapist possesses the knowledge to tailor each session according to your specific requirements. Whether you're seeking relaxation, pain relief, or targeted muscle work, a licensed professional can customize the massage to address your unique concerns and provide a personalized healing experience. Our Front Desk team makes scheduling a breeze for you! You can choose the duration of the massage you would like to have (30, 60, or 90 minutes in length), and we do have LMTs that specialize in Deep Tissue work, if you know that is your preference. Aside from that, those are the only decisions you need to make coming into your appointment. Be ready to discuss your areas of concern with your LMT at the start of the appointment, and they will guide you from there.

Understanding Medical Conditions:

Licensed massage therapists are trained to recognize and adapt to various medical conditions. Whether you're dealing with chronic pain, recovering from an injury, or managing a health condition, a licensed professional can modify their approach to accommodate your unique circumstances. Pre-natal and Post-Natal care can be greatly beneficial, when your body has been through this beautiful process. For our clients’ safety, we recommend pre natal visits after beginning your second trimester, and as for your physician to release you after baby. This ensures a safe and effective massage experience that complements your overall health and wellness journey. Our LMTs also have an incredible network of varying providers. If they feel you could benefit from a session or consultation with someone else, they will happily let you know and make that recommendation. 

Incorporating massage therapy into your self-care routine is a powerful investment in your overall well-being. However, to unlock the full range of benefits, it's crucial to choose a Licensed Massage Therapist. Their expertise, personalized approach, commitment to safety, and ongoing professional development make them indispensable partners in your journey toward relaxation, healing, and optimal health. So, the next time you book a massage, remember that choosing a licensed professional is not just a preference; it's a vital step toward a healthier and more balanced life.

Two Products to Achieve Sun-Kissed Skin (Without the Sun!)

There are two types of people in the world: Those who try new makeup frequently, and those who have had the same makeup products and routine for the last 10 years! LOL! We’re always advocates of sticking with what you know, but it’s also fun sometimes to switch it up and try something new. 

If you’re up to date on the latest trends, you know that cream makeup is all the rage right now; cream bronzers and blush being the two most popular. That’s right, powder is out the door. (For now!) The truth is, cream products are a trend we can get behind, and actually hope it sticks around for a bit. The way these products are formulated creates a skin-like finish and allows your natural radiance to shine through; two things we’re always looking for in a product! (Speaking of radiant skin… have you tried our new Radiance Facial?)

If you’re keeping your face covered while you’re in the sun (which we know you are!) you are probably grabbing for blush to bring back a little rosiness to your cheeks, which is why today we’re recommending two products that we have in stock that have excellent color payoff, and are simply beautiful! 

Sigma Cream Blush

This is a brand new product from Sigma that we now have in stock! These are available in four different shades, and the lightweight texture effortlessly blends right into your skin. Click HERE to watch Emma try out all 4 shades!

Smashbox Halo Cream Cheek + Lip Tints

This product works as a duo; blush and lip tint! These come in 6 different shades, and like the Sigma blushes, have a satin finish that gives off the perfect sun-kissed color. Click HERE to grab a closer look! 

Blush is such a fun product to experiment with, especially with such a wide range of shades to choose from. If you’re looking to mix it up this summer, these are a great place to start. Just ask a guest expert the next you’re in to point you in the right direction. See you soon!