How to Detox + Skincare After the Holidays.

I have had a few requests to write about skincare so here it goes. About four times a year I go to the spa with my sister and I get a facial. I love going to a spa with amenities because then I can spend literally the entire day there and relax - I can use the jacuzzi, the steam room, sauna, showers and iced towels - yum!

So when we first arrived they walked us over to the locker rooms and provide us with a robe and slippers, the mood is so nice I immediately relax. You have the option of going as early as you would like and “checking in”. I prefer to use the amenities after the facial. Then they walk you over to the rooms once you are changed and your therapist comes to get you.

When I get a facial, I make sure to always get one that has a glycolic exfoliator of some sort (not necessarily a glycol peel because that’s a little too intense I think) - I got the “Urban Radiance” facial at the St. Regis in San Francisco. It’s expensive but so worth it!

Product my esthetician always recommends: Vitamin C serum, hyaluronic acid, glycolic. For some reason they don't recommend retinol for me, maybe because I don’t have many brown spots? They recommended retinol to my sister. In the past, I have received a “Fraxel” laser for my face at a plastic surgeon’s skincare office, which basically took off multiple layers of my skin, my skin was peeling for almost two weeks! I believe this is why I have less brown spots & acne scars. So after the facial they give you some water and usually have a snack room. I usually grab fruit and chocolate and some champagne of course!

Then we return back upstairs to the women’s lounge which has the jacuzzi, steam room & sauna. I usually spend a lot of time in the jacuzzi but without wiping my face to save the serums they just added. Then I go to the steam room after and then lounge at the amazing pool they have.

This experience for me is a blend of skincare & SELFCARE which is so important! I love letting go of everything and existing in a space that makes you feel so far away from the rest of the world. I am big on yoga & meditation and this is definitely an addition to my practice that further supports my care.

Narcissism or Self Love?

I tend to flip the script on most things, and when I think about social media and the way people use it - to promote themselves, for example, I think of self love. Most people would call this narcissism. But if it is narcissistic to be narcissistic (woah), then so be it. Because self-love could potentially evolve into world love. And by golly let's not try to stop that. The thing is, we can't control the way people think of us. We can do our best, by dressing well, speaking well, etc. to try to influence the way people judge us and stereotype us and hopefully, respect us. But the stereotypes that have been written about people that look like me, for example - Middle Eastern with thick frizzy curly hair - will not wash off me no matter how hard I try. So the best thing for me to do is to LOVE MYSELF, and do my best to reflect the way I think and feel about myself on social media, in hopes of influencing a few people to think about me in the same way. Social media allows me to be true to myself. It gives me a space to be who I am in my mind as opposed to who I have to be in socially constructed spaces. I have never felt more ethnic than I do now that I am 33 and living in San Francisco. I never realized how diverse Los Angeles was. WOW do I miss the diversity. There are so many caucasians here, and while they are respectful towards me, they (no matter how hard they try) cannot treat me the way I fully want to be treated because of their subconscious and their limiting beliefs due to the ways they were raised. It's no one's fault. It's everyone's fault. If we all rise up to a higher vibration, and stay woke, we can all live in world peace - and wow what would that type of world feel like? Nirvana? Utopia? Wonderland? I get excited just thinking about it. xoxo Annabella