Paula's Choice

Hey Ladies,

Sorry, I know, I've been slacking majorly again. But I'm just going to get right into this new post.

One of my Christmas gifts this year (well, 2010) was a book called "The Original Beauty Bible" by Paula Begoun. I cannot rave about this book enough. It is a book all about how to achieve your most beautiful skin, for face and body, and she also has chapters on nail care, cosmetic/plastic surgery, and makeup. Basically what she has done is interviewed dermatologists and read huge amounts of research and peer reviewed journals in order to educate herself on what ingredients in skin care products do what, the benefits and downfalls, and combinations that really work. There are soooo many misconceptions about skincare out there and she busts all the myths in existence. She goes over every skin type and makes recommendations on what products would work best, and also, the reason why the products work for that skin type (basically what ingredients are beneficial and why).

Paula has a skin care line of her own. I plan on purchasing from her line of products once I get paid in a couple of weeks lol. My sister recently purchased four items: cleanser, exfoliant, moisturizer for day (with SPF) and moisturizer for night (without SPF). So far she is absolutely loving the products. She tends to have sensitive skin, so manual exfoliants (i.e.: scrubs) are too harsh because of the abrasive quality they have. The exfoliants that Paula has are all chemical, AHA's (alpha hydroxy acid - this includes glycolic and lactic acid to name a couple) and BHA (beta hydroxy acid - more commonly known as salicylic acid). My sister has had no problem at all using the exfoliant she purchased.

Paula's main philosophy is use products with ingredients that are not harmful or irritating to the skin. One of the biggest misconceptions about skin care is that if the ingredient is 'natural' or 'organic' then it is good for your skin. Well here's a little tidbit and call to reality: lavender oil and citrus cause cell death. So maybe you can imagine what many of the other so called 'natural' or 'organic' ingredients might be doing to your skin. Another thing, there are no real regulations in the skin care industry as to what makes a product 'organic'. There are many, many ingredients that are 'synthetic' and are perfectly fine and beneficial for the skin.

Ever since I started reading this book, one of my biggest pet peeves is when I see people on youtube or any other means of spreading news about skin care, and the person is talking like they know the topic inside and out, but they are spreading false information that could actually harm the health of the skin of the people that take their advice. I know they most likely don't know that they are wrong, because it is what the majority of what the population is used to hearing, but I wish that people would educate themselves before speaking on a topic. This is why I love Paula's book so much.

I'll just add that the book came with a post card for a set of free samples and catalog that you can mail to her company. I believe it also comes with a $5.00 gift card as well. Paula has three websites that I am aware of:

http://www.cosmeticscop.com/
Here, among other things, you can look up individual ingredients to find out their benefits/disadvantages and what they do.

http://www.beautypedia.com/
This website contains thousands of product reviews so you can make an informed decision when choosing cosmetics and skin care products.

http://www.paulaschoice.com/
This is where you can search all of her products available and purchase online. She even offers sample sizes for her products, all under $1.00 I believe. Once you have reached $5.00 worth of product to be purchased you will be able to choose three free samples!!

I hope that this will help some people out if they are at wits end trying to deal with their skin, or even for people who like the quality of their skin and would like to experiment to see how beautiful it can be!! If you would like me to go into more detail about certain aspects of skin care I would be glad to do so.

Stay Beautiful xo