Hello to you!  Thank you for taking a few minutes to read my blog.  I am very excited to start blogging and I hope that you will find the topics to be interesting and informative.  I have been a licensed Esthetician for 5 years working in different settings and performing many different types of procedures and treatments.  Since the beginning of my career I have been highly interested in a more natural side of skin care and health care.  I am not chasing youth or trying to help anyone else do so.  I am not a doctor or a dermatologist.  I am simply a woman who enjoys taking care of my self and helping others do the same.

This week’s topic is going to tell you how to achieve beautiful, plump skin.  It’s the cheapest treatment you will ever have with the most benefit and it is super simple.  DRINK WATER!  That is it.  Our bodies are made up of 70% water.  None of our body systems, including the integumentary system (skin), can function without it.  I know everyone has heard the facts that we should all be drinking 8-10 glasses of water each day.  But it is always surprising to me how few people actually do this.  Soft drinks, coffee, processed fruit juices, sports drinks, alcohol; none of these are pure water and none of them can benefit you as well as 8-10 glasses of water every day.  If you choose to drink any of the above mentioned beverages then add another glass of pure water to the original 8-10 glasses so as to counteract and flush out any negative effects of the other drinks.  If you do not like water try adding things to give it flavor.  Fruit or cucumber always gives it a nice fresh taste.  I will say this if you do drink a lot of sugar filled drinks then even adding flavoring to water probably will not make it taste pleasant to you.  Retraining your taste buds takes time and if you do not refrain from drinking the sugar and carbonation your taste buds may never adjust.

I have a perfect story to explain the just how amazing the effects of water can be in plumping the skin.  There is a woman that I know who I believe is in her late 50’s.  She is beautiful in every way.  However, growing up I think she was taught that oil free is the best way to go for skin care and makeup.  One day I had the opportunity to give her a facial.  I used heavy creams and amazing Face Oil which Bobbi Brown makes to hydrate her skin.  I also did a bit of detoxifying facial massage and when I was finished her skin was glowing and plump.  Everyone who saw her that day commented on how beautiful she looked.  But even this was not enough to convince her that she needed more hydration.  Several months later she unfortunately had to have surgery.  When I went to see her I could not believe how great she looked.  The day after her surgery she literally looked healthier than I had ever seen her.  But how could this be?  She had been very sick and usually people look tired and lacking when fighting an illness.  However, she did not.  Her skin was glowing, many of the fine lines which had previously been pronounced were gone, and she was not exactly doing a serious skin care regimen in the hospital.  What happened was she had been receiving fluids intravenously for several days and was properly hydrated.  How amazing that water alone can do such amazing things for our health.  I have not seen her in a while so I do not know if she has continued to stay properly hydrated.  But I will never forget what a powerful impact her story has made on me.

I began to notice the differences in my own skin.  How it looked when I had been properly hydrating and how it looked when I had not.  After a night on the town with too many glasses of wine I wake up to see bags under my eyes and many fine lines around my face.  Or before I gave up drinking soft drinks and coffee how dull and droopy my skin looked.  I do my best to drink the appropriate amounts of water and my skin is thanks me by being beautiful.  I do not break out as often, I don’t have pronounced fine lines around my eyes, and I have a lovely glow to my skin even without wearing foundation.  Water not only plumps the skin, it aids in flushing the body and making sure that all they systems are functioning properly.  When your body is healthy, your skin will show it.  And drinking plenty of water is the number one way to keep healthy.