I’m a dermatologist so I know the secrets that make spa beauty treatments work – and believe me, I do them myself at home for a fraction of the cost.

I’m personally in the mood for some spa TLC right now, and am going to run a little series to share with you my favorite home spa treatments.  I make it my business to try spa treatments when I’m on vacation.  My DIY treatments are adaptations from the treatment menus of some really great resort spas.  They’re dermatologically therapeutic for our skin, hair and nails and we can do them at home anytime we need a little ‘SPA-brain’.

With my favorite DIY home spa treatments, you can get expensive spa results at home because you know what the key steps are.  You probably even have some of what you need already in your bathroom cabinet or kitchen.  Add a few more things, create a relaxing ambiance,  and you’re ready to make these simple DIY health and wellness spa treatments a part of your regular skin care routine, no expensive spa bill needed.  Combine them all for one of those giant spa packages that you always dream about doing but don’t want to spring for!

Treatment #1,  DIY Exfoliating and Deeply Hydrating Body Treatment

Step 1:  ‘Taking the Waters’

Turn your home bathtub into a therapeutic soaking tub just like at a spa.  Make it both luxuriously relaxing and deeply hydrating.

First, prepare your ambiance by lighting a candle and turning off the electric lighting.  Put on soothing music and tell the rest of the household not to disturb you.

Then begin filling your tub.  Use warm water and a handful of Epsom salts for your soak.  Add a few drops of lavender essence for de-stressing aroma therapy, it works and these two additions are the most important elements of most spa soaking tubs.  You can add a tablespoon of oil too to hydrate your skin while you soak.  We do this all the time for dermatologic skin therapy.  Use your favorite body oil, mineral oil or even one of the oils you cook with and that are undoubtedly in your kitchen.  Yes, canola oil, olive oil, peanut oil all show up in natural skin care products and they’re good for your skin.

Soak for at least 5 minutes and preferably 15 minutes or more in your therapeutic waters and breath in the rising lavender steam.  (Remember, if you add oil to the tub it will be slippery, so be careful!)

Step 2:  DIY Total Body Exfoliating Scrub Treatment

Exfoliating makes your skin soft. When you have an exfoliating scrub treatment at a spa all they’re doing is massaging your skin with a rough scrub and a luffa sponge or rough shower mitts.  You can do this in the tub and get the same results (yes it’s nicer to have the spa technician do this for you, but you’ll still get a great exfoliation this way too).

Exfoliate your body and feet after you’ve soaked for at least 5 minutes.  Your skin will be soft and ready for exfoliation.  You’ll have velvety, spa-soft skin that lasts for days or even longer after your treatment.

Exfoliate your feet using a pumice or foot file to remove rough skin.  Massage your body skin with a luffa sponge, exfoliating shower mitts or shower sponge and a little of your favorite body cleanser for slip and glide over your skin.  Or use an exfoliating body scrub. Spend a little extra time on your elbows, knees and ankles where dead skin really builds up.  I personally use my Salux Cloth with Glytone Body Wash, both of which come in my Anti-Aging Body Kit.

Step 3:  Holding On To All That Spa Goodness

When you feel ready step out of the tub, pat your skin dry and trap all that goodness into your skin with your favorite skin moisturizer or body oil.  Add a drop of lavender essence to your oil or moisturizer to continue the soothing aroma therapy benefits of lavender.  Deeply hydrating oil or moisturizer options include jojoba oil, extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil (you may want to warm this first since it may be solid at room temp).  I personally use either jojoba oil or the Glytone Body Lotion that’s in my Anti-Aging Body Kit for all the anti-aging benefits of glycolic acid.

This is a hydrating, restorative spa treatment that will unwind your nerves and leave your skin looking and feeling like you spent a small fortune at a spa!  It incorporates the essential steps of key body treatment services that are on treatments menus from some really great resort spas.  You’ll have the polished and hydrated skin of the ‘rich and famous’ 24/7/365 if you do this treatment once a week at home.

Check back for the rest of my DIY home spa treatments:

Next I’ll give you step by step instructions for how to add:

1. A mini-facial
2. Deeply hydrating hand therapy
3. Deeply hydrating scalp and hair therapy

Add them all to your tub treatment for that big spa package you’ve always wanted to do but couldn’t quite justify financially!

Ahhhhh

Photo:  Thanks and Gratitude to Dennis Wong and Luz A Villa

DIY Spa Skin Treatments You Can Do At Home is a post from: Dr. Bailey's Skin Care Blog

How do they get so beautiful?

What are their tricks?

When you look in the mirror after you’ve done your hair and makeup, why don’t you look like them? Do you feel a little pang of disappointment and inadequacy?

You look different than the models and celebrities who are constantly photographed flaunting their otherworldly beauty? Does a brief excuse run through your mind?  Is it because you’re getting older, they have access to all the best tricks, you always had skin problems, weight problems or a facial shape that just wasn’t perfect.  Is that why you can’t ever seem to look like them?

But wait, do you wonder where these gorgeous people are?  Why isn’t there at least one in your town from time to time?   They have to grow up somewhere.  Don’t the ones in pictures go to the grocery store, yoga class, drive cars?  How many have you personally seen in the last 10 years?

Here’s the secret. This really beautiful woman is on billboards.  She’s one of the modern icons of beauty that we all measure ourselves against.  In this brief video she shows you how she does it. Watch it and learn how you too can be a flawless, model-gorgeous beauty for the camera.

How To Look Like a Model is a post from: Dr. Bailey's Skin Care Blog

Are there products at DrBaileySkinCare.com that you’ve wanted to try but your budget minded self nixed the idea?  That $100 Gift Certificate would sure be a kick.  Get what you want, try something new and it’s basically $100 off if you win.

Have you been dreaming about trying the best professional anti-aging skin care, complete skin care kits for smooth and healthy skin, powerful acne products that work, the state-of-the-art under eye cream, products that I know transform skin, hmm……..

It’s super quick and easy to enter, and you’ll meet our Facebook page where some of us hang out from time to time.

Visit our page, ‘Like’ it and leave us a sentence or two about why you ‘deserve’ to win. That’s it, you’re in!  Our office will hold the drawing on Monday January 16th.  Someone’s going to win that gift certificate for DrBaileySkinCare.com products, and it really could be you!

Click here to jump on over to Dr. Bailey Skin Care’s Facebook page.

Product Gift Certificate Give Away on Facebook is a post from: Dr. Bailey's Skin Care Blog

My favorite healthy lifestyle blogger, Debby, The Healthy Librarian has a great post that’s a must read for all of us. In her sound, rational medical librarian way she always keeps her fingers on the pulse of the ‘real’ medical literature for diet, exercise and lifestyle.  She brings the ‘fat trap’ discussion back to the real issue and points out the obvious solution.

Debby’s ‘nail on the head’ solution is one that rarely get’s ‘air time’ in main stream media.  It’s also a solution that, based on real medical studies, works miracles for your heart health, belly fat woes, aging mental acuity, diabetes and cholesterol problems, cancer risks and even erectile dysfunction (yes really, cardiovascular disease has been associated with erectile dysfunction).

Cruise over to her site and digest what she has to say.  I’d even recommend subscribing to her site because her articles are all 100% valuable.  Let the Healthy Librarian be your medical librarian for the sound healthy lifestyle advances that come out in the ‘real’ medical literature, it’s what I do.

Click here and the link will take you to her site and her post on the ‘Fat Trap’

The Best Diet For Weight Loss in 2012 is a post from: Dr. Bailey's Skin Care Blog

Just a few simple daily changes to your skin care regimen can really bump up the health of your skin in 2012.

Take good care of your skin this year – it’ll show!

• Your complexion is the face you meet and greet the world with.
• Your skin is what covers the hand you shake with when you meet new friends, the feet you show to the world when you wear sandals, the décolleté you reveal in that little black dress, the forearms that don’t get covered by your summer clothing.

Healthy skin matters to you, not just because living inside healthy skin feels better, but because you can’t always hide your skin problems, and frankly, who wants to.

Follow through with these few simple skin care resolutions and have healthy skin that you’ll be proud of.  Let’s make 2012 the year!  I’ll help you.

3 Simple Health Skin New Year’s Resolutions

1.  Wear mineral zinc oxide sunscreen on all your exposed skin – every day, all year, don’t ever miss

Put wearing sunscreen right up there with brushing your teeth or combing your hair.  Don’t try to guess if you’ll be in the sun today, just apply your sunscreen.

It makes a huge impact on how your skin looks now and over time.  Every skin type and skin color suffers wear and tear from the sun. It finally adds up to sun damage (not to mention skin cancer) with irregular pigmentation, wrinkles, age spots and skin thinning.  Just say no.  Your skin will start looking younger by mid summer, really.

Why do I specify a zinc oxide sunscreen?  Because I think it gives you the best, most broad spectrum and most trustworthy protection, and that makes it totally worth the effort.  Science has made zinc oxide particles so transparent on your skin that a high quality zinc oxide sunscreen won’t leave a weird white coating once you rub it on in a fine layer.  I’ve worn Citrix Sunscreen everyday for years and it’s always invisible.  I hear it everyday too from patients who are taking good care of their skin and thrilled with how easy it is to depend on Citrix Sunscreen for anti-aging sun protection.

The Citrix Sunscreen is a dream come true!  I can apply it all around my eyes and it never burns, it never feels heavy and my foundation goes on over it fabulously.  Now there’s no excuse to not wear sunscreen everyday! Hannah D Sonoma Co

My recommendation,

• wear Citrix Sunscreen every day on the exposed skin of your face, ears, neck, decollete etc
• use a more water resistant product (Solbar Zinc) on areas like your hands that will be in and out of water all day.

My Sun Savvy Daily Wear Sunscreen Kit has both these well-priced, trustworthy mineral sunscreens.  They’re the sunscreens that I, a dermatologist, have relied on everyday for years and I’m thankful for how well they’ve taken care of my skin.

Sun Savvy Daily Wear Kit

2.  Moisturize after every bath or shower

Even if you think you don’t need it!  Almost everyone’s arms and legs are too dry. Dry skin is itchy, flaky, rough and could look so much better with this simple little skin care step.

Moisturizing traps shower and bath water IN your skin that would otherwise evaporate.  Moisturized skin looks better and is healthier. Keep a moisturizing body cream, lotion or oil handy so you’ll use it every day right after you towel dry.  See my Complete Guide To Dry Skin Care for the whys, wherefores and step by step how-to’s about moisturizing.

If you’ve got

• really rough and scaly skin,
• brown or crusty age spots,
• or if regular moisturizers never really keep your skin hydrated,

then tackle those skin problems by doing a little exfoliation when you wash your skin in the shower.  When you towel off, apply a moisturizer with glycolic acid.  It’s like magic, really!

My Anti Aging Body Skin Care Kit will whip your skin into shape and keep it dewy, soft and healthy. I put this kit together for my 40th birthday when I found an age spot on my right upper arm.  It got rid of that unwelcome little birthday reminder and it’s kept age barnacles off my skin for the past 13 years.  I love this product combo!

Anti Aging Body Skin Care Kit

3.  Target your specific skin problems

Do you have acne, athlete’s foot, scalp or facial dandruff, rosacea, crusty age spots, chapped hands etc?  Type the term into my search bar on the right side of this page or click on the topic category and see the skin care treatment tricks I recommend to my dermatology patients with your same problem.  I’ve included some links to more common problems on the bottom of this post too.

Many common skin problems are easily treated once you’re using the right treatment products. Helping you find the right treatment for your skin problems is what motivates me to keep writing.  Even with the pleasure I get from my wonderful full time practice, you’re comments, coming in from all over the world, are soul satisfying for me.  Just yesterday a reader named Jill sent in a ‘thank you’ through our website email.

Dr. Bailey -
I was looking on the web for a source for ZNP soap, to no avail.  This product was very drying to my skin, but better than nothing.  I found a link to your website and read about your Calming Zinc ® soap. I placed an order and the product was here in a matter of days.  This soap does EXACTLY what you indicated it would do.  My facial flaking was gone within a couple of days and my skin did not feel tight and drawn, as it did with the ZNP.  Your website it very informative and I appreciate your attention to detail.
Kind regards – Jill

Jill, thank you, it rocks that I could help!  So,

To all my readers,

With a few simple skin care refinements we’re off to a ‘New Year and new skin for you’ adventure in 2012.  I’m excited to put my dermatology ‘know-how’ to the task and help you do it.  I also want to take this opportunity to personally wish you a Happy New Year!

Warm Regards,

Cynthia Bailey MD, Dermatologist

Photo Thanks and Gratitude to Doctordee

Dermatologist’s 3 Simple New Year’s Healthy Skin Resolutions is a post from: Dr. Bailey's Skin Care Blog

I have a question concerning my 5 month old son. Around 3 weeks of life he developed normal baby acne that has subsequently resolved itself.  However, he has a patch of milia on his chin that do not seem to be going away. I am not sure if we should just wait it out longer or is there some sort of treatment we can use to help it go away?
Thank you,

Stephanie D

Hello Stephanie,

Milia are little pockets of dead skin cells that have gotten trapped. The skin actually folds over to encase the dead skin cells in a little sphere within the top layer called the epidermis.  I tell my patients to think of them just like a pocket in your jeans, there is a lining made of your normal skin and it’s filled with the same dead skin cells that form and drop off of your skin every day.  When milia are new, the dead skin cell collection is soft.  The longer the milial pocket of dead cells stays trapped in the skin the harder the milia becomes.

Milia can form in skin spontaneously, but they are even more likely to form when the skin heals after a rash. The skin of babies and children can form milia after any sort of a rash, including baby acne.  The skin of these tender and sweet little people is much finer than our tough adult skin.  This means that milia in babies and children are not covered by the same thick, tough outer skin layer that they are in adults.  It also means that they may well work themselves out just by the friction and rubbing of the skin that happens during the natural course of daily activities.  To help assist these little milia in working their way out sooner rather than later, I often recommend doing the routine daily skin cleansing step with a wash cloth. By gently sudsing and rubbing the skin with the wash cloth and a very mild soap such as Toleriane Cleanser there will be a nice bit of exfoliation.  The milia are so close to the surface they may gradually open and come out.  I also recommend applying a simple moisturizing cream after washing so that the skin stays soft and well hydrated, which will also aid in the natural opening and resolution of the little milia.

Really stubborn milia that refuse to come out on their own can be opened and expressed by a dermatologist, but it hurts and never makes us popular with children or babies.  Fortunately, most of the time simply adding the hydrating and gentle exfoliation that I mentioned above does the trick.

Warm Regards,

Cynthia Bailey MD, Dermatologist

If you have questions about skin care or skin health please send them to me using the Contact Dr. Bailey button at the top of the page.

Disclaimer: Please realize that availing yourself of the opportunity to submit and receive answers to your questions from Dr. Bailey does not confer a doctor/patient relationship with Dr. Bailey. The information provided by Dr. Bailey is general health information inspired by your question. It should not be a substitute for obtaining medical advice from your physician and is not intended to diagnose or treat any specific medical problem (and is not an extension of the care Dr. Bailey has provided in her office for existing patients of her practice). Never ignore your own doctor’s advice because of something you read here; this information is for general informational purpose only.

Baby Milia from Baby Acne is a post from: Dr. Bailey's Skin Care Blog

I’ve got just the right product combos to transform skin and solve frustrating skin problems for the people on your gift list.  Be the one to find that unique solution.  My regimens are affordable and make a much more thoughtful and surprising gift than the usual candle, slippers, chocolate or bottle of wine that you were going to fall back on again this year.

It’s not too late either – we can ship your gift UPS 2 day air so that if you place your order by 2pm Pacific Standard Time your package will arrive by the 24th in the continental United States.  In the holiday spirit, I’m giving you 10% off your order through the 24th  by using coupon code GR8SKIN in the shopping cart.

Dr. Cynthia Bailey’s Picks For The Best Professional Skin Care Gifts

Click on the highlighted link to see more!

AHA Facial Skin Care Kits For Frustrating Facial Hyperpigmentation

Got an intimate friend or family member who you know is frustrated with lots of uneven facial skin pigment?  Age spots, melasma, and sun damage leave unyielding pigment that really impact a person’s complexion unless a person uses the right products. Be the one that finds the miracle.  One of my glycolic acid facial kits may be just that and will thrill anyone frustrated with blotchy facial hyperpigmentation. I’d also add a Citrix sunscreen to your gift to help stop the sun from re-darkening all that pigment they lighten with these pretty darn magic products

AHA Facial Kits

Citrix Mineral Zinc Sunscreen to fight pigment darkening

AHA Body Skin Care For Soft Smooth Skin

Soft, sexy skin is fun at any age.  I’ve got the kit that turns the usual dry, rough skin we all tolerate into new wonderful skin we’ll all love.  The kit is called’ Anti-Aging’ but it works for anyone with rough skin (including keratosis pilaris, the rough bumps on the back of the arms of many teens and young adults).  Plus, everyone can use velvety elbows, soft hands and smooth calves.

For those gift recipients that use self-tanner, this is also the ultimate product combo for the perfect self-tanner application.  Add the Avene Self tanner to your gift for folks who would have fun with evenly golden-bronze skin (minus the sun’s aging rays).

Anti-Aging Body Skin Care Kit

Avene Self Tanner

Facial Redness Relief Kits

Know someone who’s really frustrated with their facial redness?  My Redness Relief product combo is bar none the best regimen to soothe facial redness that I’ve found in my 25+ years of dermatology practice.  Thrill someone on your gift list who suffers this tough complexion problem.  Whether it’s rosacea, seborrhea, sun damage or even atopic eczema, these products have helped my patients.  I love their gratitude and you can have that too when you turn someone onto this skin care duo.

Facial Redness Relief Kits

A Gift Certificate For A Heavenly and Therapeutic Professional Facial

Until Jan 1 we’ll give your recipient a certificate for one of our $90 facials for the price of $75; you pay $75 and they get a $90 facial!   We wrap your gift certificate in a pretty little gift box too.  Check out our menu by clicking the link below then call the office at 707 829-5778 to purchase your gift certificates (maybe even one for yourself???!).

Heavenly & Therapeutic Facial Menu

Photo: Thanks and gratitude to Mysza

The 4 Best Professional Skin Care Holiday Gift Ideas is a post from: Dr. Bailey's Skin Care Blog

We’ll be spending time with relatives we rarely get to see and that we haven’t seen all together in one big group for almost 25 years.  We’re thrilled!

My staff will be holding a Holiday Event in our office on November 30th from 4 to 8pm with lots of fun aesthetician treatments, information on our new mineral makeup, skin treatments and our absolute favorite skin care products.  Click here to visit our Facebook page link to learn more. Click here to visit our Facebook page. There’s lot’s of people coming and my staff have a ton of great products to give away.  They’ve done a great job and it’s going to be a lot of fun!

As for my blog, I’ll be back online the second week of December. I’ll answer any questions or comments that you send me when I’m back online.

Until then, I’d like to wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving and/or beginning to your holiday season; may you be surrounded by the people you love, a community alive with the spirit of gratitude and generosity, and all the blessings of this season.

Warm wishes to you all,

Cynthia Bailey MD, Dermatologist

Photo, thanks and gratitude to Ewan Traveler

I’m unplugged and offline for the Holiday is a post from: Dr. Bailey's Skin Care Blog

• tight empty pores,
• no unfortunately located facial hairs,
• no distracting blackheads or open milial cysts,
• bright, light-throwing skin texture

……it’s a complexion that pleases the eye and it’s well within reach.

It’s part of a put-together, well groomed look, and it’s not limited to the ‘rich and famous’.  It’s what happens to your skin when you get facials and waxing or tweezing hair removal treatments by an aesthetician – and it’s affordable.

It’s also what I needed asap before my big upcoming holiday family reunion, which is why I made sure we booked time for me this week!

It’s been my goal for the past 3 years to build the best professional skin care services in Sonoma County and have them right here in my dermatology office. I’ve been working with a team of expert, detail oriented, caring aestheticians and I think we’ve got it!  I’ve been watching clients come out of the aesthetican room after their facial services and they look amazing. I always look forward to getting in there and getting my treatments too, which I did on Monday with MaLinda – yippee! I’ve been a ‘spa junkie’ for years and I have to say that we have the best facials and hair removal waxing treatments I’ve had anywhere, destination spa or local!

To see some our our services click here for our aesthetician services menu

Our aestheticians tweak their treatments to fit a person’s goals, which can change from treatment to treatment, like mine just did. Usually I want exfoliation, pore cleaning, middle age facial hair taming and brow waxing, all done on my super-sensitive RetinA treated skin.  I’m a pretty common type of client for my aesthetician and it requires top aesthetician skill; we’ve got this ‘tight rope’ type of treatment challenge dialed in.

Monday, however, I needed more in the pore cleaning department without exfoliation because I’ve stopped my Retin A for my upcoming big, sunny family reunion trip (where that unattractively thick stratum corneum will be handy to help fend off the UV rays).  I’m seeing in-laws though that I rarely see, so I also want to look my best, all without my usual ‘leave no dead skin cell behind’ exfoliation strategy for a bright, light-throwing complexion.  To add to MaLinda’s challenge, I’m super-jangled because leaving the office always means I have tons of stuff on my must-do-now list.  Facials are therapy for the psyche as well as for the skin so for MaLinda it was like an iron-chef challenge aesthetician style.

Enter the aesthetician treatment room and MaLinda…….

80 minutes later I can cross off facial hair taming and clogged pore control from my personal pre-vacation goals.  The shoulder and neck massage, hand treatment with massage, aromatherapy and MaLinda’s expert treatment techniques reacquainted me with the ‘spa brain’ state that got me hooked as a spa junky years ago.  (A much less jangled me is something that both my husband and staff are sure to appreciate.) Plus, tight pores and a bright complexion (without exfoliation!) means I’m ready to show off well maintained facial skin to the family and friends that I rarely see.

So, there’s lots of ways for us to have and maintain a beautiful complexion – one that we’re proud of – including professional facials and hair removal treatments . You can book a treatment when your skin really needs a ‘tune-up’. Even better is to come in at the recommended 6-8 week interval (what I do), which is that perfect amount of time for taming unruly hair growth and clogged pores.

Aesthetician services are surprisingly affordable too, and they’re a great de-stressor. We’ve made it our goal to have the best facials and professional skin care treatments in the North Bay. I can tell you that I’m sure we’ve done it, which is another reason that I love my job!

To schedule an appointment with MaLinda or Sarah call the office at 829-5778.

The Best Facials in Sonoma County is a post from: Dr. Bailey's Skin Care Blog

5 Tips For Staying Healthy This Cold and Flu Season

Yes we should all wash our hands, use hand sanitizers when we can’t etc, but making lifestyle changes that keep our vitality robust, now that’ my kind of thinking!  What are you going to do for your body to make it through the cold and flu season as healthy as possible?

Great Self-Care Advice for Cold and Flu Season is a post from: Dr. Bailey's Skin Care Blog