HELENE RAVLICH: SKIN & WELLNESS

HELENE RAVLICH: SKIN & WELLNESS TRENDS TO EMBRACE IN 2021

It’s safe to say that for many of us, our usual wellness routines went out the window in 2020. We were locked out of the gym and yoga studios, and forced to cancel our long-term plans for wellness retreats. We started working out at home and definitely got on with it as best we could, and approaches to wellness changed dramatically as a result.

Trend reports say that instead of working out to the point of exhaustion, people have started taking a more holistic approach to their overall wellbeing, discovering what makes them feel happy and healthy, rather than simply the quickest way to achieve killer abs or the perfect butt.

It’s an attitude worth taking into the new year, and more than a few of my skin and wellness favourites fit right in.

Keep it cool

Skin icing – or facial cryotherapy – is one of the biggest skincare trends flooding Instagram Reels and TikTok right now, and with good reason. Apart from the mesmerising effect of watching famous faces and facialists massage ice globes onto their faces, the action of skin icing tightens and contracts the skin, leaving it sculpted and plump.

The idea of applying ice or using a cryotherapy tool in a professional facial treatment isn’t new, but the recent innovation of ice-based tools has meant it’s now easier than ever to give yourself an at-home skin icing treatment without the need to reach for a handful of ice cubes! Or you can submit to the talented hands of an expert like Kate Michelmore and her team at Skinography on Jervois Road who offer the Ice Facial which cools and sculpts the face like a dream. It also increases circulation, oxygenation and lymphatic drainage, and provides anti-inflammatory benefits. When put into practice, it causes the blood to rise to the surface which soothes and tightens the skin; any puffiness be gone.

Skinography

Float on

The benefits of climbing inside a float tank are numerous and include stress relief, ease of muscle tension and pain, improved mood and sleep patterns. Floatation Therapy is based on a revolutionary scientific approach to deep relaxation called ‘Restricted Environmental Stimulation Technique’, or REST. Floatation REST restricts or eliminates all of the external stress factors or stimuli that normally affect us every day. We are often not consciously aware of this, but they can take up to 95 percent of our physical and mental energy.

In addition, one hour of floating equals up to eight hours of deep sleep, which most of us could definitely do with more of as we tackle a bold new year. White Beauty Spa + Float Lounge in Herne Bay is the Ponsonby News team’s pick of the float offerings currently available, and gets top marks for hygiene and education too. Owner Lou Oliver, has a wealth of knowledge about floating, which she is always so happy to share.

Digital detoxes

We all desperately want to feel connected, especially to overseas friends and family we can’t currently hug in person, but there is also so much negative energy in social media and the news right now. One of my key learnings from looking inwards during 2020 is that we each have the power to decide what we take in and we can set boundaries around our digital consumption. I’m not saying throw your phone out the window, but perhaps think about restricting your time spent glued to screens and even having a digital detox every so often. A digital detox can be devoting a week, weekend, or even just a day (Sundays are a good choice) to living without your phone, social media, and TV. Instead, take more time with yourself, go for long walks in nature, meditate, read, or actually catch up with the friends and family that you can see IRL.

Embrace ‘skip care’

This is a skincare trend that I can definitely get behind and have pulled a Marie Kondo on my bathroom cabinet to prove it! A collective call for a more streamlined approach that still gets the job done – and done just as well - skip care is the antithesis of the previously popular 10-plus-step beauty routine. Just as effective, skip care involves paring down your product and ingredient load to only a few high performing essentials, and going back to basics with your morning and evening routine. You can still create little rituals, but with fewer products and a cleaner approach. If you’ve ever yearned for a more manageable skincare regimen on those nights when 10-plus steps feel like a step too far (pun intended), or you’re looking to try out a more minimalist approach in general, a skip care skincare routine might be just the thing for you.

Demand recycling transparency

Despite our well-meaning efforts, recycling beauty products is quite the challenging affair. Many bottles have intricate parts that require super stringent tossing guidelines, and some that simply cannot be recycled at all, like metal springs in pumps, embedded mirrors, and the like. And yet, for years, the beauty industry simply slapped on a recycling stamp and ‘called it a day’. As a result, products dropped in the recycling bin likely still end up in landfill, and we remain in a blissful state of ‘wish cycling’– discarding empties with the best intentions, but lacking the abilities to make long-lasting change. And as clean beauty becomes even more widespread, consumers and brands begin to realise that ‘clean’ doesn’t stop inside the bottle.

It’s time to start demanding more from the cosmetics industry, and to start embracing brands like Emma Lewisham, who has offered refills from day one of its inception. The New Zealand clean beauty phenomenon offers refills on all of its glass bottles, which include the cult-favourite Skin Reset Serum and its Supernatural products (Triple Vitamin A+ Face Oil and Anti-Ageing Peptide 72-Hour Crème), and is in the process of phasing out non-refillable packaging by March 2021. Emma Lewisham is also currently investing in new refillable technologies in the plastic vessel space, with more great products and innovation to come. (HELENE RAVLICH)  PN

Emma Lewisham

Dr Afraz Adam, Dr Rachel Lee & Dr Lucien Paul-Robie

DOCTOR360 - A NEW SERVICE FOR PONSONBY

White Cross Ponsonby recently shut its doors after many years of service to the Ponsonby community. This has paved the way for a brand new boutique medical clinic with a modern twist to fill the void.

The closure of Whitecross left behind a major gap in the health service provision for Ponsonby residents. Our well known doctors from White Cross Ponsonby felt an obligation to continue serving the community but in an inspired new capacity. Doctor360 is a medical clinic that specialises in delivering a 360 degree wrap-around service for patients. This ranges from urgent medical care, injuries and accidents, to specialist services such as, men’s health, skin clinics, cosmetic medicine and women’s health. It’s your one stop shop for all your medical needs.

Who are the team and what are their specialities/services? Our team is led by Dr Rachel Lee, who is Doctor360’s clinical director. Rachel has a special interest in skin health and appearance medicine, and has years of surgical experience in plastic and reconstructive surgery. She performs full body skin checks and dermatoscopy and minor skin surgery for skin cancers, moles, cysts and skin tags.

Dr Afraz Adam is an urgent care physician and is well known amongst patients and the medical community in Ponsonby. He helped steer White Cross Ponsonby for many years prior to its closure in October last year. Afraz runs mens’ health clinics at Doctor360 and his areas of interest are sexual dysfunction, hair regrowth, sleep optimisation, medicinal cannabis and weight loss. He is an advocate for improving physical and mental fortitude through sound nutritional health and supplements.

Dr Lucien Paul-Robie is also well known among Ponsonby residents. Lucien is well known for the excellent work and medical care that he provides. His special interests are best practice injury management.

We also have two new doctors joining our team soon. Dr Bryan Chong is an occupational health physician and will be running concussion clinics. Bryan is proficient in the use of the Eye BOX scan, the world’s only objective screening device for the assessment of head injuries. He is also licensed to conduct medical screening for driver’s licenses, pilot medicals, preemployment processes and divers’ medicals. Dr Stephanie Tovey has been a GP in Central Auckland for the past three years. Stephanie will be offering consults covering all aspects of women’s health. This includes general women’s health concerns, sexual health and STIs, contraception and fertility advice, insertion and removal of jadelles (rod implants) and IUDs (intrauterine contraceptive devices), early pregnancy care and menopause management.

Do you need to make an appointment? Our mission is to keep our waiting times to a minimum at any given time of the day, therefore appointments are strongly recommended. We are also happy to take walk-ins but these are subject to doctor’s availability. Our men’s health and skin checks are extremely popular services and these get booked out weeks in advance; appointments are necessary for our speciality services.

Plans for the future? Our vision is to be a one stop shop for all our communities health needs. We aspire to be a boutique medical center; one that will house every medical speciality you can think of, all under one roof.

We are also partnering up with a team of GPs to establish a brand new General Practice and Urgent Care Clinic at 582 K’Rd in April 2021. Watch the space!

Anything else you might like to tell us? We’ve established a later closing time to make it easier for Ponsonby residents who work the typical 8am - 5pm workday schedule. In Ponsonby, most GP services are no longer available after 5pm, so our team has committed to providing after-hours care for our local population.

We are open six days a week, Monday - Friday from 9.00am until 7.00pm and Saturdays from 9.00am to 4.00pm.

DOCTOR360, 187 Ponsonby Road, T: 09 378 1305, www.dr360.nz

ADDRESS

HOURS

187 Ponsonby Road Mon - Friday

CONTACT 9am - 7pm

Sat - Sun

9am - 4pm 09 378 1305 • info@dr360.nz • www.dr360.nz

We bumped into Santa, as you do on a night out in Ponsonby, during the run up to Christmas. The tree was dressed very simply for Christmas. It’s always great to see the bars and restaurants full with happy people.

TRANG AND PRITESH - FOUNDERS OF AMINO MANTRA PLANT-BASED PRODUCTS

Since we had our daughter four years ago, we transitioned from a mainly meat and seafood diet to a whole food plant-based diet.

We have embraced veganism fully in the last two years and we don’t intend to look back. As a household with allergies, we understand the struggle that other families go through to source and feed clean food products. We spent 18 months researching gut health, wholefood plant based nutrition, allergens and innovative bio-plastic packaging before we launched Amino Mantra in October 2018. We are at two farmers’ markets - Grey Lynn Farmers’ Market and Parnell Farmers’ Market. Amino Mantra is not only our company brand but also a manifestation of our personal beliefs - organic, allergen-friendly, ethical and sustainable.

As New Zealand’s first sustainable, top 11 allergen-friendly food start-up, our goal is to make eating plant-based easy through providing healthy wholefood options for educated consumers. We differ from our competitors by having a fully sustainable model focused on allergen-friendly (free from gluten, dairy, soy, tree nuts, peanuts, pea protein isolates, sesame, mustard, egg, shellfish, lupin & sulphites), organic ingredients, zero-waste packaging and know-how to process the ingredients in the right way to make them gut health friendly. Most importantly, our products are wholefoods, not meat mimics. Moisture is the biggest enemy of the integrity of bioplastics. We are first in New Zealand and Australia to package high-moisture, organic, vegan food products into home and commercially compostable packaging.

Despite being a challenging year as a start-up over Covid-19, we have still managed to grow from six stores in October 2019 to 30 stores in October 2020, getting into Farro Fresh, Huckleberry stores, select Foodstuffs stores and independent retailers throughout the North Island. In future, we are working to add nutrient-dense kid friendly snacks (not sugary sweets), ready-to-eat meals and increase the portfolio of our current plant patties range.  PN

www.aminomantra.co.nz

TEN ‘ESSENTIAL’ OILS

As well as smelling good, essential oils are loaded with benefits for everyday beauty, home care and wellbeing. But which ones are the absolute (ahem) ‘essentials’? Here’s our go-to list.

Lavender This versatile essential oil can support relaxation and sleep. Smelling lavender may even help to relieve a headache, while topical application may reduce itching and swelling from bug bites.

Frankincense Use frankincense essential oil diluted for massage and for grounding in meditation and yoga. It’s kind to dry skin, as well as wrinkles, age spots, and stretch marks.

cold and flu symptoms. As a bonus, it even relieves achy muscles and joints. Avoid using around or on small children. Peppermint Dilute and apply to temples to relieve headaches, or pair with eucalyptus for a decongestant. It offers some antimicrobial effect, especially combined with manuka. Safety first Manuka • Always store essential oils away from little ones. Manuka is proven to have amazing natural antibacterial, antiviral, • Essential oils have potential risks. If buying online, look for websites antifungal and anti-inflammatory properties. Apply directly to cuts, boils, with credible safety information about each oil, and use as directed. mouth ulcers and cold sores. • Look for ‘pure’ essential oils – avoid perfume oils and blends that Roman Chamomile already contain a carrier. Relieve stress by adding to a steam inhalation or in a diffuser, or dilute to calm skin inflammation and eczema (patch test for sensitivity first). • When applying essential oils topically or adding them to a bath, use a carrier oil – like almond, coconut, olive or jojoba – to prevent irritation. Rose In a diffuser, rose helps calm anxiety. Its antioxidant properties can also • Some essential oils are toxic and shouldn’t be ingested unless help to soothe acne and rejuvenate the complexion over time. recommended specifically by a healthcare professional. Lemon • Apply extra caution if using essential oils while pregnant. Debra Uplifting lemon is incredibly useful (and why we include it in many ecostore Raybern is an excellent expert reference. products). Try it in a diffuser, particularly when someone in your household is sick. • We’re not doctors. If you’re on medication, search for known contraindications to using essential oils, and talk to a qualified Eucalyptus aromatherapist if you’re unsure. Antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal – eucalyptus is great for soothing ECOSTORE, 1 Scotland Street, Freemans Bay, T: 09 360 8477, www.ecostore.co.nz Debra Raybern www.debrastarkey.com

The Laser Clinics Ponsonby team, L-R: Julie, Anusha, Celina & Josephine

MEET THE TEAM AT LASER CLINICS NEW ZEALAND PONSONBY

Specialising in laser hair removal, skin treatments and cosmetic injectables, Laser Clinics New Zealand has proudly carved a niche in the cosmetic treatment industry, inspiring confidence no matter what your age with individual treatments that deliver results.

As market leader, we believe these treatments should be available to anyone who chooses them. Our prices ensure that affordability does not get in the way of you being the best version of yourself.

Some of our most popular laser hair removal treatment areas are underarms, legs and Brazilian, and for men, beard sculpting, back and shoulders, chest and stomach. For our beginners in skin, the most popular treatments are our 5 step Microdermabrasion and the Yellow LED light therapy, which is a perfect refresh and final touch to any of your treatments.

We use the medical grade Candela GentleLase Pro and GentleYag Pro, which are the most advanced technology to achieve the most advanced results. Our advanced cooling machine used in all laser treatments cools your skin before, during, and post treatment to minimise any discomfort while treatment time can take anywhere between 5 to 90 minutes depending on the treatment area. One of the benefits of laser hair removal is that the treatment is virtually painless, especially compared to waxing. Each pulse lasts less than second, producing a slight tingling feeling. In particularly sensitive areas, such as the upper lip, it may feel like a rubber band snap on the skin.

As well as laser hair removal, Laser Clinics New Zealand also offers skin treatments, CoolSculpting® and cosmetic injectables. Cosmetic injectables are conducted by our team of doctors and registered nurses.

We offer consultations where we can provide treatment advice and a tailored treatment plan. All consultations are complimentary, and our experienced staff are able to attend to your areas of concern. We aim to reach the results you desire.

LASER CLINICS NZ PONSONBY, 97 Ponsonby Road, T: 09 951 0867, www.laserclinicsnewzealand.co.nz