LiveMom Giveaway!!!

I've teamed up with LiveMom to give two lucky winners the chance to win a set of three yummy Juice Beauty lip balms each.

All you have to do is leave a comment there describing the ways you like to multi-task with your favorite beauty products.

Good luck!!!

ps: You don't have to be a mom to enter!

Summer Cocktail!

Momformation has again inspired me to write a blog entry!

Warm weather is upon us and I know lots of people who are STILL hiding their "winter legs" under jeans.

I have translucent, pasty skin and am prone to spider veins so I feel your pain, but there are ways to still rock a skirt or a pair of shorts.

(I don't personally wear shorts often, but skirts I can't live without!)

Don't hide your legs, add a touch of healthy color, moisture and glow instead.

Here is my personal favorite combination, although you can achieve a similar effect with any number of products that you may already have in your arsenal:

1. Dr. Hauschka Quince Body Moisturizer--two squirts
Quince is my absolute favorite both in the body lotion and day cream for the face. Even with the newest additions, Lemon Body Moisturizer and Rose Day Cream Light I still reach for the Quince. However, lemon is a great uplifting, fresh aroma for hot weather so I won't blame you if you use that instead.

2. Dr. Hauschka Translucent Bronze Concentrate--this is the great part. This product allows you to completely control the amount of color you get. I do not go in for the whole 'sunkissed look' so I only add one squirt, but the color can go as deep as you like just by adding more concentrate.

3. Smashbox Artificial Light Luminizing lotion in Diffuse--one squirt. Just enough to give some subtle sheen, not enough to head to the disco!

This can also go on the face, even the body lotion if you like or you can use your favorite moisturizer or even better, sunscreen.

During my good-skin days I only use TBC with the SPF 30 and a touch of loose powder and that's it. I have enough color from the concentrate to soften the white from the sunscreen and also to cover any redness or or inflammation in my skin tone.

Featured Product: Dr. Hauschka Blackthorn Body Oil

This is my skincare/professional blog so I don't talk much about my "real life" but this particular product deals with both of my "professions": being a mom to twins and being a holistic esthetician.

When I was pregnant in 2004/2005, one of the very first books I picked up after finding out I was having twins informed me that I would end up with what is known as "twin skin."

This basically means really loose skin similar to what someone is left with after a gastric bypass surgery.

Needless to say, I wasn't thrilled at this prospect, but I made a commitment to myself in the beginning to eat well for my babies' sake and to try not to worry about the ways in which my body was starting to change. I figured I would deal with it once I was through breastfeeding and my body was "mine" again. (big joke on me, I'm still nursing!)

I was motivated to write this blog after reading this blog and also because I am a big fan of this website. I have been following The Shape of a Mother for a few years now, since I was pregnant and I see the dramatic way women's bodies change during normal pregnancies and childbirth. (I'm not convinced that breastfeeding will harm the appearance of your breasts. I know that the rapid growth that happens when your milk comes in will create stretch marks but I don't think that the act of lactation and breastfeeding will cause changes in your breasts that time alone wouldn't have created)

All of the products I work with in my line of work are "luxury" skincare items, meaning they are high-end ingredient-wise and budget-wise. I am lucky because I had been in the skincare industry for a number of years when I became pregnant so I had all of these products at my disposal. I had been selling Dr. Haushcka skincare for a number of years in the retail world so I told many a pregnant woman about the Blackthorn Body Oil to help with skin elasticity and preventing stretch marks. A lot of them took one look at the price ($26.95) and politely inquired about alternate products but some of them practically snatched the bottle out of my hands.

I had many, many women come back to tell me that although their mother's and their sisters and every other birthing female in their family had gotten severe stretch marks, they faithfully used the Blackthorn Oil and got not a one. I heard enough of these stories to reach straight for the oil when I became pregnant.

I started using it right before I found out I was having twins, right as I was entering my second trimester. Although my baby bump was still small, my skin was starting to itch like crazy. At that point I didn't care if it prevented stretch marks or not, I just wanted it to soothe the itching. And it did, immediately.

By the time I gave birth, at 37 1/2 weeks I had gone through nine bottles. Most pictures of me pregnant are of me sitting on the couch with a giant shiny belly with a bottle of Blackthorn Oil next to me.

I am a little embarrassed to admit, I didn't look at my tummy for two days after I gave birth. I just wasn't ready to face what it may look like.

When I finally did look I was pleasantly surprised. I had some pretty intense abdominal diastasis and my poor belly button got the worst of it (my mom was right when she said I shouldn't have pierced it!!) but other than that I didn't get any stretch marks. (see second tummy pic above to see the belly button damage)

I went back and forth trying to decide whether or not to write this blog. I didn't want it to come across as bragging or boasting at all because that is not at all where I am coming from. But I did want to get the information out there in case other moms want to hear of something that "worked."

I became an esthetician to help my clients understand and take care of their skin and this falls under that umbrella, so here is my story, for what it's worth. I felt like I had to post at least a couple of pictures as evidence. I have been too shy to actually post my story or pictures to SOAM so this is the next best thing.

Would I have not gotten stretch marks if I hadn't have used this product? Who knows, maybe I wouldn't have gotten them anyway, but I think probably would have. I have told several friends about this and they all have used it and not gotten stretch marks either, so that's enough evidence for me.

What is blackthorn?

Blackthorn is a rose (rosacea) family shrub, also known as sloe. Also in the rose family are quince, almond, apple and pear. Flower extracts of blackthorn are strengthening and rejuvenating. Both fruit and flower extracts are strengthening to connective tissue.

Ingredients:

Arachis Hypogaea (Peanut) Oil, Prunus Spinosa (Blackthorn) Flower Extract, Betula Alba (Birch) Leaf Extract, Hypericum Perforatum (St. John'swort) Extract, Fragrance/Parfum (Essential Oil), Linalool, Limonene, Geraniol, Citronellol, Citral, Coumarin, Farnesol, Eugenol