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 Top 5 Beauty Myths 5: Steaming The Face Steaming the skin feels good and people believe it’s good for circulation. The truth is, the best way to improve your circulation is through exercise and diet, not steamy air. When steam hits the face, depending on how thin your skin is, it literally cooks the skin. It may not “feel” like it is doing your skin any damage but sunburn begins to burn before you can feel its effects as well. This is why using hot water is also damaging to the skin. If you’re prone to facial flushing (rosacea), skin sensitivity, have thin skin or dry skin, steaming can exacerbate those conditions. Heat from steam and hot water will dilate the capillaries and cause redness, which isn’t the ideal look for rosacea sufferers. This is why people assume steaming is good for circulation - the dilation of the capillaries causing the face to go red (or cheeks to “glow”) resembles that of exercise. Can steaming get rid of toxins in the skin? No. Steaming will only make your face excrete salty water aka sweat, not heavy metals or last night’s chocolate mousse. Warm or tepid to cool water is best for most skin types. Of course, using cold or ice cold water isn’t good for the skin either as the dramatic temperature difference will shock the skin. Steaming can also cause more dryness for those with dry skin. People with sensitive skin may also find the heat irritating. Steaming in facials is not necessary, even if the beauty therapist tries to tell you otherwise. The only time you need to steam the skin is if you’re getting blackheads extracted. If you see no ill effects from steaming the face, by all means continue. But if you feel uncomfortable, irritated and red after steaming, you’re helping your skin if you decide not to use this method anymore. 4: Detoxification Feet Pads “Feeling sluggish? Tired and bloated? Maybe you need to detoxify your ‘toxins’! How? Through the pores in your feet that’s how!” Does that line sound somewhat suspicious? If it does, you’re smelling a big fat sales lie. Dodgy websites on the net are selling pads that claim to “detox” your body through the feet. People stick these pads on the bottom of the feet and low and behold, the next day these pads are brown with the apparent ‘toxins’ drawn out. Most people aren't aware that the pads will go brown by adding clean water! So the pads react with moisture (which feet have plenty of) not toxins. Another reason why these pads don’t work is because there is no scientific literature to back their claims - some sites say studies have been done but further research show the claims are made from fictitious medical journals. Promoters claim these products draw toxins and heavy metals out. However if that was the case, these pads would be considered therapeutic drugs and would be classed as medical devices that would need to be prescribed by a doctor. Since anyone and their dog can sell these pads on the net, I highly doubt these are medical devices. Some try to use Chinese reflexology as a basis for why these pads work but don’t be fooled. In Chinese reflexology, different parts of the feet corresponds to an organ in the body, with treatment involving massage and pressure points not pads! So what can we do to detoxify ourselves? No, fasting on juices isn‘t the answer. Our good old liver, kidneys and lymph nodes are our bodies’ true and undervalued detoxification systems. Treat them well and they will give you many decades of cleansing. By doing regular exercise, eating a healthy diet, drinking alcohol in moderation, quit smoking (if you smoke that is) and getting regular sleep, you’ll be cleaning your body inside out and pulling out the REAL toxins. 3: Detoxification Mud Wraps Some of the claims I hear about mud wraps are just as funny as the ones I hear about detox feet pads. From drawing out toxins and heavy metals to getting rid of cellulite and causing weight loss. Detox mud wraps involve putting mud on the body and then being wrapped up in plastic or giant cling film or bandages. Promoters say it's the herbs, seaweed and essential oils in the mud that help detox the skin and cause you to lose weight. Mud (wet clay or earth) cannot draw toxins from the skin. When mud dries on the skin, it temporarily makes the skin feel tight (particularly kaolin or white clay). When it dries, it can also dry out pimples. But you’re definitely not purging anything from the skin. Mud wraps are not scientifically proven to work and the only thing it’s purging is money from your purse or wallet! You’re probably better off eating the said herbs and seaweed than putting them on the skin with mud. Can it help you lose weight? No, not a chance! What you do lose is some water from sweating. The amount of force pushed against your skin, muscles and fat from the wrapping will make it appear as though you’ve lost 1 or 2 centimetres but in an hour your skin, muscles and fat will bounce back. If you’ve ever put a bandaid on your finger tightly and later in the day disposed the bandaid, you’ll notice the area where it was wrapped is slightly indented compared to the surrounding - common sense tells you it was obviously the wrapping of the bandaid that caused it, not what the bandaid is made of. If you’re at a spa and want to pamper yourself, why not, these things do little harm - unless they‘re asking for $500 or more to rub mud on you. But don’t expect the ridiculous claims about these mud wraps to come true. 2: Cellulite Creams Cellulite, the bane of women of all ages (particularly those living near beaches and those in the tropics). Even beauties like Tyra Banks and Kim Kardashian have cellulite. Dimpled thighs are such a nuisance to women that they’ve created a whole industry in the beauty sector devoted to making money off it. Does cellulite creams work? Unfortunately no. Review of cellulite creams by the European Journal of Dermatology revealed that cellulite creams were no different compared to other regular skin creams. Ingredients said to be effective against cellulite are claims made by the companies which sell cellulite creams or manufacturers who sell them the ingredients (ie. caffeine, seaweed, aminophylline). A small study done on the popular cellulite ingredient “aminophylline” on cellulite showed dismal results. Both caffeine and aminophylline are stimulating compounds. How that relates to eliminating cellulite, you’ll have to ask the companies who make and sell these chemicals. No independent, peer reviewed studies show they work. If these ingredients were effective in any way, you could probably achieve the same results by rubbing coffee grounds or using inhalers on the thighs. But they are not effective and women still have cellulite. Spas offering body wraps also claim to get rid of cellulite, if you’re wondering if they work, read the above section under “Detoxification Mud Wraps”. Exercise and a healthy diet may help improve cellulite. However, the catch is, you can’t specify where fat will be lost when losing weight. Generally, women tend to have more fat around their hips and thighs even if you lose weight. That fat is there as an emergency energy storage system in case you get pregnant. The fat cells and connective tissue in the thighs are unique and isn’t easily lost. If you lose weight overall, you should see a slight difference on your thighs. It’s by no means a cure but the healthiest and cheapest option compared to creams. The only two therapies that have relatively good promise on the treatment of cellulite are Tri-Active and Velasmooth. Tri-Active works by using a combination of techniques to increase lymphatic drainage, trigger collagen production and smooth fat cells by suction and massage together with a diode laser. Velasmooth works in a similar way but uses radio frequency and infra-red light to suction and soften the fat underneath. 1: Fragrance In Skin Care Fragrances were originally added to skin care products to mask offending smells a benign product may have but these days fragrances are added for the main purpose to entice customers (particularly women) to buy. Short of trying the skin care product on skin, most women will first open a jar or bottle to smell the product first to see if they like it. If the smell is pleasant, they may try a little on their skin. If the product feels good and the saleswoman makes a good pitch, a sale is made! There’s a problem here, but it’s not entirely the customers fault, as the beauty industry have left customers in the dark so that they are not informed customers when they make a purchase. Purchasing skin care based on scent can be costly for skin. I understand that nobody wants to put something on that their nose isn't compatible with but does the added fragrance outweigh the potential irritancy it poses? Formulas today generally don’t require fragrance as most of them smell benign. But formulators still add them because it helps the product sell, even though the ingredient is completely useless and at worse, harmful to skin. The top two most sensitising and irritating ingredients* reported in skin care are fragrance and preservatives. Preservatives are a necessary evil in water-based skin care - without it, the product will fester in dangerous levels of bacteria and fungus (some of which can cause blindness or death). However, fragrance is not an essential ingredient like preservatives are and generally used in much higher levels. The skin on the face is more delicate than the skin on the body so it’s even more important that the skin care for the face be fragrance-free (and even more so for babies’ delicate skin). Irritation, inflammation, rashes and bumps can all be attributed to added fragrance - even the natural essential oil type (eucalyptus, lemon, peppermint, lavender, etc). *Source: Held E., et al., 1999. Contact allergy to cosmetics: testing with patients' own products. Contact Dermatitis, 40(6), pp.310–315. Copyright Cyren Organics 
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