Author: Emmie Reve

I am a beauty professional based out of Toronto, Canada with a background in Fine Arts. Besides having a passion for fashion, make-up, cooking, baking, movies, music and culture; I also make and sell hand crafted skin/haircare with gentle natural formulas. My e-store is currently in construction so please stay posted by subscribing. Contact me anytime: shop@dreamecosmo.ca

My first battle with acne came much later than my teens!

~ Emmie Reve ~ 2 Comments

So, acne.  What is it?  It is red blemishes that infiltrate your face, puff up, ooze crap and possibly get infected and leave long lasting scars.  What acne sounds like is something similar to a relationship with a bad boyfriend; unavoidable to some degree, and once its started you have to get the f*** out, with minimal damage. Yep, the bad boyfriend relationship is an accurate analogy and so is the idea that avoiding them is key.

So many things can trigger a series of pimples, cold sores or blemishes.  Recently, I went from being a blemish free beauty, to a skin ravaged freak within a couple of weeks.  I have just recovered from two really red spots of infection brought on by a harsh strain of acne bacteria, and a cold sore that would not stop looking gross and diseased until recently.  Needless to say, I survived, but not without battle scars.  My left cheek now bears two red marks, even after they’ve healed for months, and there is still discoloration from the cold sore on my upper lip that healed just last week.  And what have I learned from all of this? Acne and blemishes are something better prevented than treated, like all illnesses.

How I dealt with my adult acne so it doesn’t come back:

  1. Clean everything and sanitize everything: Wash your hands 20 times a day, try not to touch your face, there are bacteria on your hand that want to infect your pores.  Sanitize your make-up brushes by washing them every once in a while, wipe all your make-up surfaces with rubbing alcohol on a cotton swab.
  2. Boost your immune system: believe it or not, your immune system can fight off skin afflictions.  So get plenty of rest, vitamins, minerals and exercise, eat well. Bacteria and viruses cannot take over when your skin is in top form.
  3. Don’t pop your pimples, or pick at them. The odd pimple I used to have I would squeeze them to reduce swelling.  However, I found out this can cause more scarring, and redness, so now I leave them alone.
  4. Get medication.  Most of the time, my acne is mild and will go away without problems.  But sometimes medicated oitments and creams help keep the inflammation at bay and speed healing and minimize redness.  I like to use anything with salicylic acid, as it is pretty gentle and will still dry out and encourage skin regeneration after a zit has died. But don’t over use it.
  5. Wash off all traces of make-up at night.  I have dry skin, so sometimes I just wipe off make-up with coconut oil and call it a night.  While this is very gentle for your skin, it can also leave you with a clogged pore, which if bacteria gets at it, then it is game over.  Finding a balance is important.  Don’t over strip your face of natural oils and moisture, but also cleanliness is very important.

Have any of you battled with adult acne recently?  Wasn’t it embarassing?  Mine was followed with a cold sore when my immunity was weak from a cold.  Plus with spring coming into Toronto, I feel a whole new batch of germs is following suite.  We don’t want to be germ phobic, but really…blemishes are the worst.

Waahh. :( this is me first thing in the morning without make-up on, and yes, you can definitely see the red blemish scars on my cheek and the dark discoloration on the lip corner. Only time can erase these and it is going to take a while.
Waahh. 😦 this is me first thing in the morning without make-up on, and yes, you can definitely see the red blemish scars on my cheek and the dark discoloration on the lip corner. Only time can erase these and it is going to take a while.

Are glasses as cool and cute as fringe fashion trends say?

~ Emmie Reve ~ Leave a comment
I don't watch New Girl with Zoey Deschanel, but well, we can't talk about the glasses trend with out seeing her adorkable ways!
I don’t watch New Girl with Zoey Deschanel, but well, we can’t talk about the glasses trend with out seeing her adorkable ways!

When I worked at this designer/hipster store in Toronto a few years ago, I really saw the trend for wearing glasses go up.  It was a way to look cool, smart and cute, and it completed a fashion look.  Girls were all wearing big glasses with dark rims to look cute in an fringe way, but I was always left out of this trend since I have perfect vision.  Yes, by default, I never had glasses growing up or anytime because I didn’t need them.  I was not achieving my lack of eye apparel look by wearing contacts either as some people assumed. The truth was the only glasses I could ever wear were non-prescription “fake” ones that didn’t come out until recent years.

Rewind even further back in time to my art college years, when I was quite shy and not very confident.  I worried sometimes about how I would be perceived by classmates.  I even contemplated then, before glasses were in,  to wear fake glasses to help me to look “smarter” among my peers.  So now that the fashion trends have given their permission to wear fake glasses, I have recently bought a pair of optical quality non-prescription glasses, they are scratch resistant and uv protecting. And well, I kinda like them.  I really have to get used to wearing them though. I have been naked faced all of my years!

So, these are not really the black rimmed glasses I saw everyone wearing a while back, but I kinda like their boldness and colour. (:
So, these are not really the black rimmed glasses I saw everyone wearing a while back, but I kinda like their boldness and colour. (:

I read somewhere that eyeglass wearers always get protection from glare and uv  because they wear their prescription everyday for vision.  Us visually perfect people never get that kind of protection on an ongoing basis.  We get all the rain, wind, snow and sun in our eyes, and the full glare of our computer screens.  So o ther than glasses giving a fashion boost and vision correction, might they also give a health advantage too?  That’s not fair to those of us that face the harsh world with an unprotected naked eye day in and day out!

Glasses are seen as cool, but on the other hand, I also think back about how that is not always the case.  Most gorgeous gals in mainstream movies/music today and in the past don’t wear vision corrective apparatuses. I think technically, not wearing glasses is still seen as the norm when describing a good looking person.  But still, it is nice for me to see the success of hip and happening fashionistas that are just cool enough to pull off the glasses look and propel a trend that has fringe beauty appeal.  And with fashion’s green light, I can now participate too with my fake eye glasses on days that I feel like it!

What do you think?  Do you like the look of glasses? Are they fashionable? Or would you rock no glasses/contacts any day?

Silicons in Hair Products, what do they really do?

~ Emmie Reve ~ Leave a comment
On the left are products loaded with silicones...hey, they give the results, but are they evil? On the right, silicone free products from Tresseme.
On the left are products loaded with silicones…hey, they give the results, but are they evil? On the right, silicone free products from Tresemme.

As you all know I craft handmade cosmetics on a regular basis to give my face and hair a rest from the chemical stuff that is out there at pharmacies today: hair spray, lotions, shampoo, conditioner–they all have preservatives, cheap synthetic additives and little to no healthful ingredients.  At home, I stock up on things like organic natural coconut oil, cocoa butter, shea butter and use it in all kinds of handmade natural products. But as much as I believe in the benefits of natural stuff, I know the limitations, cosmetically, of what natural products can do.  I also know that some synthetic ingredients such as silicons are often over vilified based on the fact that they are not naturally derived.

Silicones, the good news and the bad news…

The most common forms of silicone are dimethicone and cyclomethicone.  The actual ingredient name may vary from product to product, but you will see some form of “icone” at the end of the ingredient name if it is a silicone.  The higher it is on the list of ingredients, the more there is in the product.  Now to explain why it has a bad rep: It is a synthetic product that is derived from sand by chemical means and is very processed; its manufacturing and the washing of it into drains is bad for the environment.  When silicons are used in hair, it fills porous areas, giving only the “appearance” of healthier stronger, more hydrated hair.  But the actual effect is cosmetic.  Your hair is not really stronger, healthier or more hydrated.  It is shinier, and thicker because silicons coats each strand with a seal that is water resistant, oil resistant…and makes hair unable to breathe because of that seal. This is the good news: Hair is not alive, it doesn’t need to breathe. Hair is made up of an organic protein called keratin. A coating of silicone on the hair is not suffocating the hair, like I hear so many say, but it actually tames it and makes it shine like diamonds!  It becomes unhealthy when it builds up, and prevents natural oils from penetrating the inner hair shaft, making it dry and brittle.  Over use can turn a little beauty trick for softness and shine into a dependency for function.

Going au naturale…

I often hydrate my hair with coconut oil in salve form on dry hair and also as an additive in my conditioner to give it more conditioning power.  Coconut oil has been known to be able to penetrate into the hair shaft and really strengthen hair, not on just a cosmetic level.  But coconut oil also makes my hair limp, greasy, dragged down, and if it builds up, it takes away shine, actually.  But my hair is actually healthy, and hydrated, even if it looks dirty and unstyled.  I have been able to grow my hair longer these years by using coconut oil and just shampooing and heat styling less.  But boy did my hair love, love, love soaking up all the silicons in this hair conditioner I tried after coloring my hair the other week.  My hair was thicker, bouncier, fluffier, shinnier, and just more smooth feeling after using the silicone heavy conditioner included in the color kit.  I saw first hand how silicones are more powerful at giving an appearance of health than using natural products, even if it is a “fake” look of health, and I couldn’t believe how soft my hair was after using the silicon loaded conditioner.

This was the ingredient list for the conditioner in the box kit. Wow... amodimethicone is the second ingredient. Amodimethicone is a heavy silicone, and hard to wash off...No wonder my hair shone like the sea after this...
This was the ingredient list for the conditioner in the box kit. Wow… amodimethicone is the second ingredient. Amodimethicone is a heavy silicone, and is hard to wash off…No wonder my hair shone like the sea after this…

So should we avoid or embrace silicones in hair products?

Silicones are not inherently bad, but if over used, they can cause your hair to form a dependency that is bad.  Also, their use and manufacturing causes damage to the environment, lakes and wildlife.  So perhaps the solution is to cut back and rely less on silicons to have healthy hair.  Get healthy hair it the hard and true way by not over heat styling or over chemically processing.  Condition hair with nutritious oils.  Also, avoid shampoos with silicones! Removing build up is key to hair health, so it baffles me why so many shampoos have silicones in them?!  It is like peeing in the tub, you’ll never get clean. Use hair conditioners with less amounts of silicone (lower on the ingredient listing) and/or only use silicones in finishing products as a means to cosmetically boost shine and maintain a style, as a last touch to give your hair the fake confidence it does need!

Shampoo is supposed to clean build up, right? On my fave shampoo I found two silicone ingredients! Not in my shampoo too!
Shampoo is supposed to clean build up, right? On my fave shampoo I found two silicone ingredients! Not in my shampoo too! I say, try to cut back.