Transitioning into Autumn.

November 25, 2019

(originally posted as a newsletter!)
We’re officially in the best season of the year… boot season! *High fives all around!* It seems that for many of us, just as we get to don our cozy-yet-oh-so-cool fall wardrobes our skin is all no gracias! and basically freaks right out. Dry patches. A breakout. Sensitivities. And even if you’re lucky and none of this happens, you still have to say adios to your golden (but responsibly-acquired) tan and hello to, well, some degree of pallor.

Fear not! You can skinsition into fall in no time and have glowing, radiant skin …here’s how. (Including the #1 major, major thing you’re probably forgetting to do RIGHT NOW.)

Exfoliate.
Fall is a great time to incorporate a little exfoliation into your self-care game. After summer, we tend to need to deep cleanse (sweat, sunscreen, a little sun-damage, anyone?) You know what they say, there’s more than one way to exfoliate a cat…so keep in mind that you don’t need to go bananas with a gritty sugar scrub or some mega chemical peel. This isn’t about sloughing off half your face, this is just about speeding up your skin’s natural process of getting rid of dead cells.
There are three ways to exfoliate:

1. Manually: By using elbow grease, water and a cloth or Konjac sponge. Gentle enough to use every day (the sponge.. I can’t vouch for your cloths at home.) By the way, if you’ve had your Konjac for a few months now, this is a good time to get a fresh one!
2. Chemically: Ugh….scary. Unless you use our White Willow Bark Perfecting Tonic. The natural salicic acid in the willow bark is justenough to gently remove dead skin cells, without giving you lobster-face. Those with oilier, acne-prone skin can use every day, those with combo, dry or sensitive skin should use less frequently (I use it about 2x per week to keep my skin clear during transitional seasons.) It’s gentle, but effective! You may experience a wee bit of redness, which quickly subsides because of the soothing cucumber and nourishing watermelon extracts.
3. Clay-ically: (Hey, this is my newsletter and if I want to make up words oftiferous I will do so.) Clay-ically sloughing off dead skin cells is my fave way to skinsition. (Stay with me here.) Rhassoul and French Green clay, the two leading ladies in our Green Tea Detox Clay mask, use a firm yet gentle touch to deep clean your pores, including freeing them from dead skin cells, old, oxidized sebum and perhaps some sunscreen that’s been hanging out there since June. Kidding…kind of. Fortified with apple and lime extract as well as green tea, which is my personal knight in shining um, skin, when it comes to anything and everything to do with skin. (By using green tea both topically and internally, it has been proven to help prevent and repair both UVA and UVB damage people! Science!)

 Treat & Moisturize
Think of your face as being a deck, and you’re a very eager new home owner keen on keeping up your property value. (To stay with my analogy, you are the custodian of your skin, and the poperty value is the mileage you can get out of your youthful glow…which will be vastly improved if you take awesome care of your skin! I mean, deck!) <— Officially, Stark is the only skincare company to refer to it’s customer’s faces as decks. *Hears future of sales soaring off the charts.*

Back to the deck. After a summer of spilling drinks on it, you sand it down and then, because you truly care about the beauty of the woodgrain, treat it not with harsh, smelly chemicals but with a natural product that you know will instantly sink into the wood, restoring it to it’s natural luster and beauty after BBQ season. And all those flip flops.
But I majorly digress (which is the story of….all my stories. Seriously, ask my husband.) however, I couldn’t give up on this analogy because, well, the drink-spilling joke, to be honest. It made me chuckle.

Umm, so let’s talk about what you should be treating and moisturizing your skin with before you rush off to the home & garden section of your local Costco.Everlasting Calm + Smooth infusion is a skin-drink that is meant to be applied to clean, fresh skin just before you moisturize with an oil. When freshly cleansed/exfoliated, your skin is prepped to absorb the first thing that goes on it, and let me tell you: you want it to be this. A just-thicker-than-liquid silken serum infused with nutrients that, honestly, I can guarantee your skin is NOT getting enough of. (You’ll need to read the product description and ingredients to truly understand the amazing, ultra high-end ingredients in this little bad boy… I need to save space here for my cheap jokes.)

Following “ev”, use your favorite facial oil, which I have no doubt is either ourCypress Purity + Defense oil and/or our Neroli Midnight oil. (Is it?! I knew it! You’re the best.) You’ll be amazed how quickly 2 drops of oil absorbs into your skin following a good, deep cleanse, and an EV treatment to create radiant looking skin that is completely refreshed and ready to skinsition to fall!

AND NOW THE MOMENT WE’VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR: The #1 thing you’re forgetting to do right now is this:

STAY HYDRATED!

Seriously, check in with your inner hydro-meter right now…is it on low? Bet it is. As we skinsition to cooler weather, studies (that I just now made up by asking one other person) say that 100% of us forget to keep hydrated! I know, water is just not as appealing right now, which is why today is a great day to stock up on some delicious herbal teas! After 3 days of keeping well hydrated, I dare you to NOT notice how much better your skin looks. (Why would I dare you that? I don’t know. Just get some tea, k?)

With fond memories of sunny (yet dehydrated/prone to splintering) late summer decks,

Jess xo

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Also in the Stark blog.