We get a lot of questions and requests for advice here at Amazingy and since we don’t want to withhold any information from but rather “share our wisdom” (ugh) with you, we decided that every now & then we will compile some of them and post the answers in the magazine. Questions&Answers Vol.#1, covering 2 questions, following below. Enjoy!

Question 1:

I am 48 years old with very sensitive skin. I am a little bit prone to redness and coupe rose (aka rosacea). My pores are showing more now that I’m getting older and my skin tone simply isn’t really even anymore. I am also worried about getting more wrinkles. After reading an article about all the toxins that we put into our body through skin care, I want to start using something chemical free. I have done quite a bit of research and think Dr. Alkaitis looks very interesting: I love its clean ingredient list. What can you recommend?

Hi and thanks for your question! That’s quite a lot you’re worrying about, and actually the first thing I’d say (please don’t kill me) is: try to stop worrying. Being stressed is one of the worst things you can do to your health.

I’m glad to hear you already did some research and ended up finding Dr. Alkaitis. This really is a one-of-a-kind brand with an amazingly simple yet effective product line consisting of only a small amount of products that all adapt to the state of your skin because Dr. Alkaitis uses raw, living ingredients. And the great thing is that usually just a couple of products will do, and you can mix and match those as much as you like. Naturally the products all have their own name, like night cream, but we have plenty of customers who use the night cream as day cream because it’s more moisturizing. Or the other way around: when people find the night cream too much, they use the day cream at night. We always recommend ordering the trial kit first so you can get to know all the products and put together your own skin care regimen.

I don’t think a skin care regimen should be strict at all though. It should always be flexible, because just like we need different food in summer and winter, you should also adapt the products you use on your skin. In winter, some people need a richer treatment – so I advice to mix the day cream with some drops of the nourishing treatment oil. Or to use the night cream as day cream, or mix the night cream with oil. It’s really what you prefer and works for you … you can’t really go wrong either way.

After hearing your story I highly recommend the cleanser used with warm water and a warm clean wash cloth. Put two or three pumps of cleanser into the palms of your hands – add warm water and lather up in your hands. Then gently wash your face. Make sure to keep out of your eyes because it will sting. Rinse with a warm wash cloth. This is like a gentle exfoliation that you can do in the morning and evening, or if your skin is too sensitive, just in the evening. The cleanser is the first step to reducing the appearance of enlarged pores.

After cleansing I recommend the Soothing Gel, which is anti-bacterial, therapeutic, acts as a hydrator and will help your body fight rosacea / coupe rose. At first when you apply the Soothing Gel your skin might blush a little and even tingle. Don’t be afraid, this is normal and will go away within minutes. It only means that fresh blood and oxygen is carried to the surface of your skin – so this is actually a positive sign because you feel and see it’s working.

If you like, you could apply the serum / toner afterwards, which works very well for combination skin. The Soothing Gel and Serum are very similar though and most people who use the soothing gel don’t use the serum/toner anymore. There are some that do though, it’s a matter of trying what works best for you.

If your skin is a bit oily, this might be already enough for day care (what?! No daycream?!), but if it’s also dry in parts or you want more nourishment you can use the daycream or just the oil (which really is a miracle all-in-one product – and it’s a big bottle – 100 ml!). As for night care – the night cream is extremely moisturizing and nourishing and its natural vitamin complexes (that are totally different from the cheap synthetic extracts found in most skin care – which can actually harm the skin) will help your skin fight wrinkles and reduce pores. If you like using eyecream you can use the eyecream around the eyes.

While choosing the right skin care product can certainly help, don’t forget your diet. If you eat bad, smoke, drink a lot of alcohol, or don’t get enough sleep, your skin will reflect that. Eating healthy is probably the best anti-aging remedy there is. Replace bad food (like refined rice, pasta, potatoes, sweets (sugar), lemonades, etc.) by healthy food: fatty acids (fat fish), nuts, fruits, dark chocolate (70% or higher) and lots of veggies, where the ones with beta-carotene will especially work wonders on your skin. Some examples of foods containing it: sweet potatoes, carrots, broccoli, pumpkins, spinach.. and one hardly anybody knows: the famous dutch “Boerenkool” (Kale) has the most beta-carotene of ALL foods – even though it’s green!

Eating healthy will also protect you a little bit against the sun from inside out and will make it easier for your skin to heal from damage caused by the sun.

Talking about the sun, Dr. Alkaitis daycream and oil have a natural SPF of about 3 to 4 so will protect a little bit against the sun without any of the negative aspects of conventional sunscreens. When you need more protection, we advice to use a sunscreen based on just zinc oxide or a combination of zinc oxide and titanium dioxide: Vivesana, Soleo, Badger, etc. are all good brands. We also love Kimberly Sayers day creams, which have an SPF of 30 – they are absolutely great to use when you expect to be in the sun a lot and can be used next to Dr. Alkaitis without any problems.

As for the discoloration (aka hyperpigmentation) – when balance comes back from using Dr. Alkaitis products you should see discoloration becoming less. I especially advice using the exfoliation mask once a month or every two weeks though. Also, the universal mask is a real miracle worker. You can use this one weekly. Make sure to use the masks with organic goat yoghurt – this really makes a difference and it makes them much easier to use than with water. If you want, you can also add some organic honey, which has natural antioxidant and anti-microbial properties and prevents the mask from drying out. Did you know that honey by itself is also a great moisturizer? Make sure to buy a good one though, because some “honeys” are made from plain sugar. No kidding!

Also, if you are wearing make-up on your skin, like foundation or blush, make sure these don’t contain silicones or other chemicals because these will bring the skin out of balance again and it would be a waste of the Dr. Alkaitis products, which all rigorously exclude the use of any chemicals. I advice brands like rms beauty, Hiro Cosmetics (a very clean mineral make-up brand), Vapour Organics, ILIA Beauty (for lips), etc.

As an eye make-up remover I advice you to use 100% Organic Almond oil. We love the one from Balm Balm, which is cheap and 100% organic. It doesn’t get much cleaner or better then that, so paying much more just doesn’t make sense.

Question 2:

I bought the Dr. Alkaitis travelkit but am not sure which products I should use now and buy afterwards. I don’t really want to spend so much, so less = more for me. I am 28 years old, have combination skin, and don’t really have big issues, but I absolutely love Dr. Alkaitis’ products – after a week I already see the difference, and people tell me I look very healthy, haha!
I would also love to have some advice on make-up and sunscreen. In the past I used Clarins sunscreen and lots of other make-up brands, but now that I switched to organic skin care I don’t really know what to use. Can you help?

Hi and thanks for your question! Sure, we can help. First, I’ll try to explain how to make the perfect regimen for your skin. If you do not want to use too many products, I would advice the following:

From the travelkit, start by using only the Cleanser and Serum (aka toner) – for those of you with problem skin: replace this with the soothing gel.

That would already make a good start. A lot of people use the soothing gel or serum/toner as a daycream in summer which can work fine for some skin types. It’s a matter of trying.

In winter, or when you feel like you need more, just add the oil or try to replace the serum/toner/gel with the oil. You can use the Nourishing Treatment Oil as day cream, night cream, whatever you like. We have many customers who successfully only use the oil after cleansing and are very happy with it.

If you want more concentrated treatment, you can add the day and nightcream to the regimen and give up the oil. Or mix some oil with the creams – this is a cheaper way of using the products (the oil is big!) and the oil makes the creams even more moisturizing and helps making the oily parts of your skin less oily and the dry parts less dry. If you don’t want to buy both the day + nightcream at once, you can also use the daycream plus some oil as nightcream or use the nightcream as daycream – I’d just go for the one that you like best.

Lastly I would add the eyecream, but it’s quite expensive and at your age you don’t really need it yet. Buy a pair of good sunglasses instead and wear them whenever you go out :).

You can try all the masks in the travel/trial kit, but if you want to choose just one, go for the universal mask.

This way, you can find your ultimate skin care regimen.

Concerning make-up and sunscreen: Clarins is a traditional brand and adds lots of chemicals to their products. Their sunscreen is one of the worst in the industry with lots of nasty ingredients. Lancaster is another horrible one that’s always scoring very bad in German tests (but that’s another story :)). For sunscreen tips please see the previous question.

For combination skin like yours, we prefer a good, clean mineral make-up – they really don’t need more than 5 or 6 ingredients! Since it comes as a powder foundation, it allows you to distribute more of the oil-absorbing make-up where you need it and less where you don’t, without leaving visible lines (as a liquid or stick foundation would). Our favorite is the one from HIRO – it blends in beautifully, has SPF 10 to 15 from zinc & titanium oxide, and it just makes you look super healthy, not shiny and also not too matte. It’s not cheap but the jars are big and last forever.

Hope this helps!

Floris