March 3, 2014

10 interesting facts about the skin

Recently, I posted a series of tweets featuring interesting facts about skin, which I am sharing here. It’s good to remember that our skin plays an incredibly important role in keeping us healthy. It protects our bones, muscles and internal organs; protects us from external diseases; and helps us to regulate our body temperature. The best way to thank it is to look after it!

(Yes, I am following up on my previous post about the proliferation of lists on the internet with, well, a list… but as I said, they are the perfect way to present certain material!)

1. The skin is our largest organ – the average adult’s skin, if stretched out, would measure about 1.8 sq m – 2 sq m.

2. It is also our heaviest organ, weighing in at around 8-10lb (depending on the person, obviously).

3. Your body produces a totally new epidermis about every 30 days.

4. The thinnest skin is on your eyelids (c. 0.5mm).

5. The thickest skin is on the soles of your feet (approx 4mm).

6. Your skin sheds 30,000 – 50,000 dead cells a MINUTE. Well over half of the dust in your home is actually dead skin.

7. The skin can release as much as 10-14 ltr of sweat over the course of a hot day.

8. Human skin is incredibly well supplied with blood vessels (capillaries, arteries and veins) – the average adult body contains more than 60,000 miles of them!

9. It is thought that the average person sheds around 47kg of skin in his/her lifetime.

10. Our skin is crawling with hundreds of different types of bacteria. Luckily, the vast majority of them are harmless.

Do you have an amazing skin fact that we haven’t included? Let us know in the comments below.

 

 

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February 14, 2014

Lists: why are there so many on the internet?!

Gold top 10 winnerToday I have been pondering a general social media question: why does so much information get rehashed into lists on the internet? Why does everything have to be shoe-horned into a ‘Top 5’ (or Best 7, or 10 Reasons Why…)?

There’s a seemingly endless number of examples of this in my twitter feed today.
10 signs you’ve outgrown your job, 9 must-have skills for business survival, 8 positive things you can do to change your life, 7 surefire tips to overcome anxiety, 6 ways to get a better night’s sleep, 5 key leadership skills. And a partridge in a pear tree.

I decided to research this phenomenon and quickly realised that I am not the only person to be suffering from List Overload. Oren Mendez sums it up nicely on The Huffington Post, and the banality of lists is humorously pointed out (in list form – how else?) here. There’s even a word for these listy (as opposed to listless?) articles: LISTICLES (as explained by Steven Poole in the Guardian).

I’m no expert, but I can very well see that lists are a very effective format for social media. From a writer’s point of view, they’re quick and easy to compile and often involve less brainpower and research than a ‘proper’ feature. Social media gurus tell us that a successful blog needs new content at least twice a week, if not every day; we feel under continuous pressure to come up with new material. An easy-to-throw-together list can be a great solution.

Lists are also a great way to attract readers’ attention. People don’t have the time to read a long essay on every subject that interests them; they want to grasp the essence quickly, almost at a glance, and lists do this par excellence. Being noticed is, after all, the main objective here, and if followers know in advance that the feature isn’t going to take up much of their time, they’re more likely to click on that link.

Of course, Top 10-style lists are far from new – my brother attributes his vast and eclectic factual knowledge to the ‘Top 10 Of Everything’ books he used to devour as a child. Lists are the best way to present facts (real ones) and How-Tos, and can be a witty way to deal with a lighthearted subject. But they are, on occasion, soooo inane. And they are decidedly NOT the best format for more weighty subjects. ‘Top 10 Cancer-Causing Foods’ – really? ‘Top 15 Killer Ingredients In Skin Care’ – no, just no. This is simplistic scaremongering. Complicated topics such as these require far more thought and development than is possible in a few lonely bullet points.

In this well-known article Nicholas Carr makes the argument that the internet is gradually stripping us of our capacity for concentration and contemplation. He might be right, but for now, most of us are still capable of following an argument from its introduction right through to its conclusion; we don’t only think in sound bites. I can’t help but feel slightly insulted by the implication that we, as readers, can only understand something if it’s numbered 1-10. The blogs I enjoy are varied, not only in subject matter but also in delivery style, because different subject matters demand different treatment.
So let’s mix it up a bit, people!

 

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January 30, 2014

New products

We have recently added three fabulous new products to our website, and they are already proving popular!

Firstly, our Apricot Face Cleansers for Dry Skin and Oily Skin:

apricot cleanser dry

They (no surprises here) contain the wonderful apricot kernel oil. Dry pressed from apricot kernels, this light, fragrant oil is loaded with vitamins A, C and E and is naturally high in essential fatty acids. It is easily absorbed into the skin without leaving any greasy residue and is mild and non-irritating oil, making it suitable for children and those with sensitive skin.

Both formulations also include Nigella Sativa (black caraway) seed oil. This amazing oil is known for its complexity and for its natural healing properties; in skincare formulations it can help to improve many conditions, including acne and psoriasis. It conditions and nourishes the skin, reducing the wrinkles and lines that are the visible signs of aging.

For the full 100% natural ingredients list, click on the links above.

Also newly available on our website is our lovely Honey & Rose Shampoo.

honey and rose Shampoo L

This fragrant, gentle shampoo is suitable for everyday use. Raw honey is a wonderfully versatile ingredient; thanks to its deep-cleansing, moisturizing and nourishing properties, softer, shinier and healthier hair is just a few washes away. We have combined it with Rosa Damascena essential oil, which has natural astringent and antiseptic properties and, of course, lends the shampoo its beautiful floral scent.

Click here to see the ingredients list or to buy the product.

And last but not least, our gorgeous rose water. Organic, natural, simple, fragrant… what more is there to say about it?! We think it’s the best all-round skin care product you could choose.

test 2 rosewater

 

 

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January 21, 2014

The best advice of 2013…?

For my first blog post of 2014, I thought I would share some of the fascinating wisdom and expert advice I have read on the internet over the course of last year. Here goes:

  1. Use only water to clean your skin. Water alone will not cleanse your skin effectively. Water can dry the skin and strip away its natural oils. Wash your face twice a day. Never wash your face in the morning. Splash warm water on your face to open your pores and cold water to close them. Pores do not open and close; they don’t have muscles. Use warm water when cleaning your face – it allows you to clean more deeply. ALWAYS wash your face with cold water. Too-hot or too-cold water can irritate the skin.wet hands
  2. If you suffer from acne, avoid oil-based products. Oils are the best way to moisturize your skin, even if you have acne. Acne sufferers should cut out junk food. There is no proven link between food and acne. Milk and sugary foods increase the risk of acne.
  3. The skin is like a sponge; it absorbs everything. The skin is an efficient barrier to most things. At least 60% of what you put on your skin is absorbed. Hardly anything can pass through the skin’s layers into the bloodstream. [I explore this in more detail here].
  4. Artificial ingredients can be just as good as – or better than – natural ones. If it’s natural, it must be good for you. Just because it’s natural, it doesn’t mean it’s good for you! Avoid chemicals in skin care. There’s no such thing as chemical-free skin care. All chemicals are evil. Everything is made up of chemicals. [Here’s the proper explanation, courtesy of Herb & Hedgerow.]
  5. Only eat organic raw fruit and veg. Cooking food is vital as we can digest it more easily, thus getting more energy from our food. Heating food destroys its nutrients. Some fruit and veg are more nutritious when cooked. Homo sapiens survived and Neanderthals died out because the former could cook and the latter couldn’t. Cooking food makes it toxic. Some foods are toxic until cooked. Fruit and veg are full of sugar; you might as well eat chocolate and drink cola all day. Everything in moderation.

Confused, anyone? The truth is out there. Somewhere…

Of course, you will find conflicting advice on almost any topic you care to think of, because (luckily) we’re all different. What works for one person might work for the next; but it also might not. The internet has made information sharing so easy, and this is a Wonderful Thing. But there’s so much advice out there now, it can be hard to distinguish what’s worth reading and what’s not. Is it a hard fact or a personal opinion? Is the information coming from a reputable source? Are the claims backed up by proper scientific studies? It’s not always easy to tell. Whatever your health or skincare question, you’ll find someone, somewhere, with a definitive answer. Now look again: this time you’ll find someone else, somewhere else, with the polar opposite answer. Both would probably swear that their solution is the right one for you.

Moral of the story: Do your research before making any big changes in your life. There’s a rich source of information, advice and support at our fingertips and it would be foolish not to use it, but don’t put all your trust in a single source. And beware of statistics – they lend credence to an article, but not only can they be massaged to reflect the outcome desired by the writer, they can also be entirely made up!

Trust your instincts – after all, you know your own body better than anyone. Listen to your body and do what feels right for you. And don’t believe everything you read on the internet!

Have you got any other examples of conflicting skin care or health advice that you have read or received? Please share them in the comments below!

 

 

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