Tinted Moisturizers 101 Adding colour to a product can create a lot of confusion and therefore questions. I hope this 101 helps you to choose your perfect match, and get the best results from your tinted moisturizer. The colours: GLOW – a light, illuminating and creamy light beige for highlighting and creating a dewy look. BRONZE – a rich, darker bronzer to give a natural sun kissed look Both colours blend with your natural skin tone, so are suitable for all skins. Coverage: They are translucent, not full coverage foundations but the product can be built up, by layering, for a more dramatic effect. Application: They can be applied by themselves or mixed with a moisturizer for an even lighter look. I recommend…
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Balancing Geranium & Lemon Verbena Hydrating Mist
Help I can’t choose! What skincare to pick when you feel you need it all!
Choosing Skincare Last summer, when I launched my new products, I also created the skin care Collections; Balancing, Nourishing and Calming. The main reason was to help you decide which products to choose. However quite often we may feel we need two, or even all three collections to cover the myriad of skin issues we want to solve. Some of the most common ones are: “I have acne and scarring that I want to address” “I have acne, scarring and I want something for anti-aging” “My skin is really sensitive, but I also get hormonal acne” LET ME HELP. It’s a good idea to think of the issues you want to solve as a list to work through. What is the most important to you…
The Red Western Cedar and Lemon Oil Cleanser – my new best-seller!
Red Western Cedar and Lemon Oil Vegan Cleanser Where it all began I have been selling a selection of Helena Lane Skincare products in Hong Kong for a few years now, but they have been limited in which products they import as the higher temperatures make the solid products potentially melt. This means that they have not had the moisturizers or cleansers. I was asked very early on in my relationship with the distributor there to create a liquid cleanser that can be put in a bottle and pumped. It took a little longer than planned (as does everything it seems!) but here it is, and guess what? It has become my new best seller! I knew from the beginning I wanted this product to…
Geranium Oil – It’s all about balance
This week’s blog has been part of my continuing series around the creation and formulation of the 2019 line. You can read parts 1-3 in this series as well: New Ingredient – Steam Distilled Lemon Essential Oil New product – Tropical Fruit & Coconut Mask New Ingredient – Sea Buckthorn Geranium Oil & Skin Health Geranium is one of the most well-known and well-used herbs for skin health. It’s up there with chamomile, calendula and lavender for it’s long history and effectiveness. Interestingly, I used to dislike the smell, a lot, which is why I didn’t use it when creating the original Helena Lane Skincare products 7 years ago. However, over the last few years I have been using it in my personal…
New ingredient – Sea buckthorn
When making skin care formulations I like to really get to know an ingredient before using it. Even when there is lots of great information, and research telling me its benefits. Sea buckthorn intrigued me right from the start, its intense orange colour drew me in and had me hooked. It glows with vibrancy and health. Sea buckthorn is a smallish shrub covered in prickles (it tries hard to keep hold of its treasure!) which, in late summer, produces hundreds of bright orange berries. It loves hot, dry weather and thrives in marginal soil. Ontario is a big growing region and it’s even grown right here in BC. It’s in the bright orange berries that the wonderful oil is found. It is exceptionally rich in…
New Product – Tropical Fruit and Coconut Mask (coming soon)
Using fruit acids to exfoliate and rejuvenate the skin is very popular in skin care products, and rightly so. Fruits contain various acids all of which can have fantastic benefits for our skin. Many skincare companies either extract and concentrate or even synthesize artificially these acids in order to create faster and more potent effects. However, my philosophy includes being gentle to the skin, and too much of these acids can cause burning and damage, sometimes long term, to the surface of our skin. I always like to use the whole plant or food as much as possible as I believe in a holistic approach to using natural ingredients. ie. Although we might know that one particular compound is responsible for the action we are…
Steam Distilled Organic Lemon Essential Oil
As I finalize my new formulations, I wanted to start introducing some of the new ingredients I will be using. Starting with one of my favourites. Steam Distilled Organic Lemon Essential Oil I am a massive fan of all things citrus, to eat, apply or smell and lemon tops them all for me. There is something so clean and vibrant about this fruit, it gets me every time. Lemon essential oil has wonderful properties for the skin, including oil balance, skin toning, acne fighting, and skin lightening. Reducing pigmentation in the skin is notoriously hard with natural products but I have seen lemon oil work great for this. Using lemon essential oil can be tricky though as the most common way to produce…