Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Greasy Palms

During the Oscars this weekend, I noticed a Cadillac commercial featuring the likes of clothing designer, Jason Wu. It's been awhile since I regularly followed the world of fashion but I know that Wu is an up and coming designer with creations that are as creative as they are gorgeous. (To simply immerse yourself in a fantasy world of fashion, you can visit his website here.) While the commercial doesn't seem to have anything to do with Cadillacs themselves, I noted Wu wore a cool sweatshirt and jeans and, for some reason I started looking him up online.

Rather than looking up his wiki page, I wanted to delve into the world of Jason Wu's clothing. As you can see, Wu has a website devoted to his collections and is also carried as a brand at Bergdorf Goodman. Having only limited products on these sites, I also traveled to Net-A-Porter which carried more "Wu stock" than any of the above locations. It was here though, that I noticed a small window claiming, "It's All About Oils."

Apparently, in the "beauty department" of Net-A-Porter, an abundance of oils are being featured. Showcased in shiny, delicate bottles, such oils bear names which include, "rose bath water", "Huile de Magnolia" and "gypsy water". Marketed between $78 to  $195, I have no doubt these oily concoctions do their job. However, I wondered if we could make similar concoctions at home from items that may not posses magnolia essence but deliver similar benefits to the hair and skin.

When my daily cleanser ran out last month, I began looking up homemade answers to my perpetual skin care questions. In doing so, I came across a blog entitled Wellness Mama which features homemade remedies in response to our general beauty needs. It was here that I was introduced to oil cleansing and its myriad of benefits to the skin. According to Katie, the head-honcho of Wellness Mama, "[t]he basic idea of oil cleansing is to use natural oils in specific combination to cleanse the skin and naturally balance the skins natural oils." In Chemistry, it is noted, "like dissolves like," thereby making oil a natural remedy for oily skin. to make an oil cleanser, Katie informs us to use a combination of castor and olive (or safflower, or coconut) oil in our "cleanser medley." For oily skin, Katie recommends using a 50/50 combination of the oils while normal skin benefits most from one part castor oil to three parts olive (or other) oil. If you have dry skin, you can simply add a small portion of castor oil to olive oil. Once you have your concoction, Katie recommends massaging it onto a dry face for two minutes, leaving it on for ten and then allowing a warm towel to pull out the impurities by placing it on your skin for two minutes. I am somewhat skeptical but I am willing to try.

When looking up the ingredients of Net-A-Porter oils online, I found that many of them contained ingredients which can be found at your local Vitamin Shoppe or grocery store. After realizing the medicinal benefits of foods and proceeding to write a blog about them, I generally assumed this would be the case. Descriptions of the oils included such ingredients as rose water, omega-3 acid and/or lavender to name a few. I'm sure these big-name companies place such ingredients in exact proportion to what your body needs (maybe?) but we really have easy access to these ingredients if they don't already exist behind the door of one's pantry. To note, olive oil, heavily featured in Wellness Mama's oil cleanse is loaded with both Omega-3 and 6 fatty oils which have been shown to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease and dementia, boost the effectiveness of antidepressants and aid in the visual development of infants. In general, if you're looking to save money yet receive many of the benefits of "big beauty" simply look within arms reach of healthy foods within your kitchen.

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