Effects of Smoking on the Skin

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As a former smoker, I felt compelled to share this information because I am very conscious of how my skin looks and feels.  I watched my precious grandmother Binny suffer through COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and wearing oxygen the last years of her life and I was still smoking.  I know because of experience that it must be your own choice to quit smoking and although skin health was not my main reason for quitting (my main reason was that I promised my 3 daughters that I would quit). After I quit smoking my skin experienced such drastic results, and I became fully aware of the effects of smoking on the skin. After I quit, others were telling me how great I looked and that my skin was glowing.  No other changes had occurred other than quitting smoking.  I share this information as a hopeful catapult to help those that want to quit, to kick that habit forever.  We are worth it and so is our skin! :-)

Effects of Smoking on the Skin

1)  Bags Under the Eyes

Johns Hopkins reported smokers are 4 times more likely to feel tired after a “good night’s sleep”.  It is possibly connected to the nicotine withdrawals causing restless sleeping.

2)  Premature Wrinkles and Aging

Smoking suppresses blood flow to the skin which causes a loss in elasticity and plumpness. Not to mention that pumping carcinogens and oxidants into the skin causes damage to DNA and creates free radicals which are like little Tasmanian devils to healthy cells, causing smokers to look older than their age.

3) Scarring

Nicotine causes constriction of the capillaries which then reduces the amount of free oxygen required for wound healing.  Smokers skin takes longer to heal, and once healed, the scarring will be more visible than a non-smokers scars.

4)  Gray Skin Tone

Healthy skin has a pink glow.  This is due to blood flow, and when blood flow is compromised by nicotine the skin tends to be dull and gaunt looking.  Important nutrients such as vitamin C are depleted with smoking.  Vitamin C plays many important roles in maintaining healthy skin including healing, hydration, lightening and is a powerful anti-oxidant. It fights those free radical little Tasmanian devils attempting to destroy healthy cells. :)

5)  Cancer

According to the Skin Care Foundation, “Smokers beware: in addition to raising your odds of developing lung cancer, strokes, and heart attacks, smoking also boosts your risk of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) by 52 percent, according to a major new study. SCC, the second most common skin cancer, affects an estimated 700,000 people in the US annually.   The disease will kill approximately 2,500 people in the US this year.”

6)  Stretch marks

Although anyone can develop stretch marks due to weight gain and pregnancy, the loss in blood flow to the skin caused by nicotine damages the collagen and elastin in our skin which keep it firm and plump.

Here is a list of resources if you are interested in quitting smoking:

 

Acne, Teens and Make-Up

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Acne in Teens

I brought my almost 14 year old daughter into the spa with me today and decided to apply some simple Jane Iredale foundation to help her even out her skin tone and cover up some acne.  She has rosy cheeks and a condition called keratosis pilaris which gives her bumps and redness on her cheeks.  Teen years are awkward enough on their own and although I wasn’t ever the type of girl to sneak out and put on a ton of makeup when I was young (I DID love my blue mascara which my mom hated. :)

Skincare Make-up

I am 41 years old and am still honestly lazy when it comes to makeup and believe very strongly in a natural look.  This skincare makeup is actually good for the skin.  It contains zinc which is naturally healing and helps in the prevention of acne.  Jane Iredale began her career after her work in screencasting when she saw all of these actors using heavy makeup that was causing their skin to breakout.  Her mission was to create a makeup that was a skincare treatment and accentuated a woman’s natural beauty while feeling weightless and was almost invisible to others.  She created an amazing makeup line that includes no FD&C dyes, and complies with the over 1300 banned ingredients in Europe (the US only bans 13 ingredients). This makeup is safe, gentle, and most importantly can provide the crucial sun protection that is often missed in the skincare routine of teenagers (and adults).

Do you or someone you care about suffer from Acne?

Sign up for an Adult and Teen Acne Workshop being held at Harmony in Hair Salon and Spa on June 16th at 12:00 p.m.  Please R.S.V.P. at 719-597-1770

Tips to Happier Healthier Skin

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What steps can you take to ensure healthier skin?

SUNSCREEN!

I can’t say it enough about sunscreens contribution towards healthier skin. Sun is the leading cause of aging, damage, and skin cancer.  Protection from an early age is key to keeping skin looking and performing at it’s best.

Effective cleansing and exfoliation

Healthier skin is achieved by combining the perfect balance of cleansers tailored to your skin type making sure conditions are being treated. This along with a balance of appropriate exfoliation in order to stimulate new cell growth, collagen and elastin production to ensure the skin is clean and ready to accept the nutrients of products applied.

Monthly Facials

This assists the skin in turning over and remembering how to “act young” bringing healthier skin.  Deeper exfoliation, specific products and ingredients can be used in the spa room to target your skincare concerns.

Applying Moisturizer

All skin needs moisture, especially oily and acneic skin to look and feel healthier. Oily and acneic skin can sometimes occur as symptoms that the skin needs additional external moisture to balance oil production.  Young and old skin alike need appropriate levels of moisture in order to retain skin’s suppleness.

Weather Reliant Social Media

There are some lucky businesses in this world that are not affected by the will of nature. On the flip side, there are some that base their day to day operations on the whimsical character of Mother Nature.

As marketers, it is important to be aware of your client’s situation. Posting, “Come out to the park on this beautiful day!” while it is raining cats and small children outside might be a little odd.

This creates a dilemma as Social Media managers. Do we schedule our posts out or do we post in person every day?

While we all like to believe in the weather but, but he/she is wrong a little too frequently to make their observations an immediate certainty.

At the same time, a lot of us are too busy to check the weather and create unique content day in and day out.

So what’s the answer?

Backlogging.

You will still have to check the weather every day, there isn’t much of a way around that. By backlogging and storing content for later use you are giving yourself options for fast posting.

Take your regularly allotted time for content scheduling and use it to create and curate content. Store links to the content in a spreadsheet and catalog them by category.

You can even have two overarching categories: Sunny and Rainy.

This provides a quick and easy way to reference what content should be posted according to the weather. It also helps to grow a huge content library for later use and cross-platform promotion. 

Save time and energy by setting yourself up for future success.

Social Ignorance

Many of us younger folk may think that Social Media are simple. Of course we do, we have been using them since we were children.

For the older generations, they may not be so simple. This has become evident to me through my work with existing business pages.

Many business owners are not internet-savvy, and do not understand the importance of an optimized Social Media account.

By perfecting the back end of a Social Networking page you open the doors to numerous opportunities for future promotions and also make it easier for users to find you.

A great profile picture may seem like enough, but without having the correct categories and keywords plugged in you may never see a Like or Share.

It is important to solve preliminary issues first before you begin posting. Optimize what you have and make it worth your time. Effort put into a platform that will never be seen is wasted.

The Colors of Action

My internship has led me in many directions since I began last month. One very interesting part has been website design.

It would take years of study to truly understand the exact intricacies of beautiful web design. What I understand is only a fraction of the total knowledge I may yet possess.

One important aspect involves action colors. Action colors access consumer psychology to subconsciously prompt users to take a desired action.

Before this internship I never realized that action colors were so prevalent. Now, every time I access a page I can see how the colors affect my movements and actions.

There are many instances when the understanding of consumer psychology can come in handy. If your business is seeing a decline in click-throughs or actions after a redesign, take a look at what colors you are using to prompt action.

You may not be motivating people in the right direction.

The 5 Rules of Twitter

Many businesses simply hop into Twitter and go for a ride. While it is admirable that they want to begin their Social Media adventure so quickly, it is not surprising when they crash and burn. Just like anything good in this life Twitter takes time and work to be worthwhile.

As a way to help ease business owners into Twitter I have devised 5 simple rules that anyone can use to build a Twitter stategy.

 

1. Brand Identity

Your business has a brand. Your brand is what users will identify you with. If your brand identity is not concrete you will be unwittingly creeping out users. People need context to coordinate their thoughts. If they never know who or what they are talking to when interacting with you they will be less likely to open up and enjoy the experience. Multiple personality disorder is a no-no on Twitter. Stick to one voice and you will do alright.

 

2. Know your audience

Getting to know people you have never met before can be tough. If it were easy everyone would be doing it, right? Your job as a business owner is to find out who you need to be talking to and how it will help your business. If you currently do not have an audience then you have the glorious privilege of choosing one. Regardless, solidifying your specific audiences will help you craft targeted content that will push the needle for you brand.

 

3. Great Content helps

While your Tweets can be anything under the sun, they shouldn’t be. Your mission as a brand is to help your consumers. That is what business is all about and it does not stop when customers leave through your doors. Great brands find ways to help their customers at home AND in store. Twitter is designed for information distribution, which makes it a natural venue for awesome content marketing. Create content that your users will benefit from and you will grow engaged followers that crave your business.

 

4. Keep it Simple

140 characters is great. The problem is that consumers won’t even read that little bit. It might seem counter-intuitive but keep your Tweets as short and sweet as you can. Most users will not read past 50 characters unless the content is absolutely amazing. While you may think your newest piece of content descended from the heavens itself it is better to keep it short just in case. No reason to make something just to have it crash and burn from a bad lead-in.

 

5. Engage and Interact

This is THE most important Rule. Your brand has to engage with its following. Pushing content and never actually speaking to a user makes you look like a robot. No one likes talking to robots. Except maybe robotics engineers, but that is beside the point. Talking to your following gives your brand a human element that users want to see. They want to know there is a human on the other side of that Tweet that wants to communicate with them. If you can give them that consistently you will far exceed many others on this platform.

 

These 5 rules, when taken to heart zealously, will guide you through Twitter. Breaking any one of these rules will harm your brand and damage your reputation.

Stick with them and they will serve you well.

Social Media Done Better

If you own a company Facebook Page or Twitter account, you may need to take a look back at the foundation of your profile.

The back end of your account sets you up, either for success or failure. Take a look back and make sure all of your settings make sense.

Most likely there will be a few things that used to fit until one of Facebook’s game-changing updates made it obsolete.

Setting and leaving your profiles will inhibit the amount of user engagement you could be getting and limit the promotional capabilities you have as a business on Social Media.

The ReTweetolution

There is a huge debate right now in the digital world about Twitter’s new Timeline-esque interface. Some love it and some hate it.

I’m going to talk about why they NEEDED it.

Twitter is a bastion for information distribution. It is dependent upon users getting the content they want to receive quickly.

What happens when that info comes too quickly? What happens when content appears so fast you barely have time to process it?

That is what is happening within the twitosphere right now. There is way too much happening to keep track of it all.

That is why it was a great move on Twitter’s part to implement a change in how they operate their platform. Creating a more streamlined and user-friendly look helps keep users on track and getting the information they need.

Why be different for the sake of being different? Adopting a look similar to a competitor may seem counter-intuitive, but only when it decreases market share.

Users go to Twitter for info and Facebook for friends. They are two distinctively different platforms with different purposes. Twitter does not have to worry about losing users to Facebook. Now, they have provided one look that a user can understand immediately and navigate through easily.

Great move Twitter. Keep up the great work.