Zits, pimples, blemishes, breakouts….whatever you call ‘em, the only thing that matters is that they go away!

Our secret weapons against blemishes are about become very public knowledge!
1. Triple Oxygen Instant Energizing Mask: It’s not only good for brightening and hydrating. It’s detoxifyin! Did you know: blemish-causing bacteria are unable to survive with oxygen present. Triple Oxygen Instant Energizing Mask detox-es by creating an oxygen environment on the skin which helps prevent bacteria from causing breakouts.

How is this different from an oxygenating product that contains a form of hydrogen peroxide?
The oxygen delivery system in Triple Oxygen Energizing Mask is a more advanced, efficient way to deliver oxygen to the skin surface. It is truly the next generation of skin care. Also, hydrogen peroxide based products have been known to bleach eyebrows if not carefully applied!

Can you use the Triple Oxygen Energizing Mask with other masks?
Yes! The Triple Oyxgen Energizing Mask is not exfoliating. It is energizing and detoxifying. So you can definitely use it several times each week AND still use our steep clean mask (which is enzymatic and exfoliating) or peeling groovy (an amino acide based exfoliating, decongesting, pore minimizing serum).

2. Bliss Steep Clean Pore Purifying Mask is our professional-strength mask for clearer skin. It’s a once a week, 15-minute facial in a bottle that declogs and minimizes the appearance of pores, brightens the skin, and regulates oil without drying. We use this mask every day in our instant mattification facial.

This pore plunging, clog clearing mask will transform skin into a scene of extremely clean when used weekly for 15 minutes. Intensive exfoliation, oil elimination, and deep pore purging are a perfect for all (but especially pimple prone) skin types.

Cheers to getting ‘clear’!
Miss Bliss

Q: Dear Miss Bliss,

Thanks for the tips! If possible, can you elaborate on how long of a shelf life each type of product would have? I know generally the shelf lives of makeup, but wasn’t too sure about moisturizers, face washes, and the like. Thanks!

Sincerely,
Self Life Savy

A: Dear Shelf Life Savy,

Great question! This is an easy answer. The period after opening symbol or PAO symbol is a graphic symbol that identifies the useful lifetime of a cosmetics product after its package has been opened for the first time. It depicts an open cosmetics pot and is used together with a written number of months or years.

In the European Union, cosmetics products with a shelf-life of at least 30 months are not required to carry a “best used before end of …” date. Instead, there has to be “an indication of the period of time after opening for which the product can be used without any harm to the consumer”. The EU Cosmetics Directive defines in Annex VIIIa the language-neutral open-jar symbol, which manufacturers should use to indicate this period.

The time period is most often represented compactly as a number of months, followed by the letter “M”, as in “36M” for a period of three years, written either onto the front side of the depicted pot, or to the right of it. The letter “M” is the initial for the word month not only in English, but also in many other languages.

If you flip your lovely skin care around, you’ll see something that looks like this:

This particular product would be good for 30 months after opening. So if you opened that product today 4/10/2009, it would be good until 10/10/11 *checking my mental math*

The POA (period after opening) varies by product, so I recommend checking it when you open it to ensure freshness. Hope this helps!

Bliss Kisses
Karen

What Causes Cellulite?
In the past decade, there has been extensive research to clarify the possible causes of cellulite, and many agree on the following points:
-fat cells swell due to fat storage
-capillary walls become excessively permeable causing localized accumulation of fluid
-inadequate lymphatic drainage slows the removal of excess fluid
-fat cells cluster and are bound by collagen fibers
-connective tissue strands stiffen, pulling down on their anchor points
-the changes in blood flow, lymphatic drainage, fat, and connective tissue result in cellulite-a bumpy or dimpled appearance on the skin

How to treat cellulite
Unfortunately, there is no cure for cellulite, but you can take measures to improve its (and your) appearance.

Prep/Cleanse
Our newest addition to the fatgirl-family is fatgirlscrub, a skin-smoothing, circulation-stimuating body exfoliator for less-than-perfect parts. Formulated with:
Himalayan pink salt that exfoliates for a smoother skin surface and helps re-mineralize skin, balance skin moisture levels, improve circulation to improve skin repair vitality, enhance penetration of cellulite treatments and detoxify skin surface.

Red Algae: clinically demonstrated to increase circulation to enhance skin repair functions and help diminish the appearance of excess fluid retention

Grapefruit Extract: provides antioxdant protection and refreshes the skin

Peppermint Extract: refreshes,invigorates and cools skin surface

Treat
We make the best cellulite creams! Our cellulite creams target the main causes of cellultie. FatGirlSlim targets cellulite with encapsulated caffeine to diminish the water retention that makes cellulite look even worse and fatgirlsleep tagets cellulite with lavender and sacred lotus flower extract which helps you snooze while you lose!

Camouflage
Everything looks better with a tan, but harmful UV rays? I don’t think so! My best cellulite secret – self tanner!! Spray the ultra-fine mist of my favorite self tanner, A Tan For All Seasons (not smelly, not streaky, not orange, dries fast – amazing – yes, I just sang that last word!) from waist to ankles for a toasty bronze, yet natural, goddess glow. Watch all those flaws that reveal themselves on doughy fluorescent winter white skin blur and disappear with a touch of tan!

Bliss Kisses!
-Karen

Wedding season is kicking into high gear soon in NYC! Here is our #1 tip for the Big Day!

You don’t want to have a facial for the first time the day before your wedding. Let your skin get used to having the treatment. If you wait until the last minute, you might be allergic to some cream, and suddenly you’re all puffy and broken out. Not a look you want for your wedding!

Here is our fool-proof plan to get you ‘glowing’ as you near the Big Day!

*Facial ‘freshmen’ should find a great esthetician 6 months pre-wedding. If there are specific concerns you want to minimize (blackheads, large pores, crow’s feet, hyperpigmentation), discuss them with your esthetician at the 6-month mark. That way, the two of you can work out a good in-spa treatment and complimentary at-home skin care regimen that should have your face in photo-ready form. Many treatments have cumulative effects (like microdermabrasion), so the more time you allow, the more pronounced the results will be. In fact, guests may be wondering if you’re old enough to get married…

*Facials once a month for the six months leading up to the day will keep your skin in shape. But, between appoinments, brides-to-be must do their homework with a nightly cleanser, exfoliator, and moisturizer. Bliss Tip- Try Clog Dissolving Cleansing Milk, Laboratoire Remede’s Sweep, and The Youth As We Know It

*Facial ‘regulars’ should schedule their final pre-wedding facial 7-10 days ahead of the big day. Skin will be glowing, but not potential post-facial ‘evidence’ will be showing

*The Best Pre-Wedding Facial-is our Triple Oxygen Treatment The Oxygen is a sure bet for wedding day glow. Bliss Tip- Bliss ‘regulars’ pop in a day or two pre-wedding for an Oxygen Blast which includes a quick fruit acid wash, massage with micellated vitamins, a hydrating hot-towel and enzyme pack, and a five minute oxygen spray in a customized activating solution in 30 minutes (so you still have time to finalize the seating chart for the 16th time).

Here’s to Wedded Bliss!
Bliss Kisses!
<3 Karen

Post Face Wax 411:

Help! I removed my moustache, now I have breakout bumps!

When I was in my early teens, my brother (who is nine years older than I) used to tease me relentlessly about having a moustache (I didn’t have one). Thinking “a lady shouldn’t have a moustache,” I visited the local pharmacy and discovered that LOTS of ladies evidently have moustaches! There were TONS of facial hair treatment options! You can bleach upper lip hair (then you have a blonde moustache). You can use depilatory to dissolve those hairs (really smelly right under your nose). You can shave (eww, face stubble!? please, no!). Or you can WAX!!! For me, discovering waxing was a true beauty epiphany! I officially said “bye bye” to my Mr. Lady look!

Then I discovered that facial waxing comes with a variety of post waxing concerns. You remove unwanted hair (yay!) and then many of us end up with post-waxing breakout bumps in the upper lip and eyebrow area (boo!). What’s a girl to do? Thankfully, you can ‘treat yourself’ with change your spots from bliss. Apply 4-6 hours post hair removal and then in 12 hour intervals after that to prevent and treat those darn bumps. Breakouts occur post-waxing because the hair follicle becomes vulnerable and inflamed due to hair removal. The breakout is your body’s healing response to the follicle being disturbed. The salicylic acid in change your spots takes down the breakout bumps by clearing the follicle and reducing inflammation.

Another post-waxing upper lip concern is dark, shadowy pigmentation. The actual waxing does not cause the dark skin spots. However, most waxing treatments stick to the skin and remove the top layer of skin during the waxing process.* This makes the skin more sensitive to the sun and hyperpigmentation. If you are on antibiotics, birth control pills or hormone replacement, the skin can be extra sun sensitive. The good news is spiff upper lip will help diminish those upper lip shadows AND help discourage the appearance of hair regrowth, so your waxing treatment lasts longer and your upper lip area looks brighter! Use spiff upper lip nightly for best results.

*note: Poetic Waxing Kit contains a special hard wax that shrink-wraps the hair and does not stick to skin!

bliss kisses, Donna

Symptoms of Mad Brow Disease: brows that are bushy, unkempt, and sometimes they are not eyebrows-they are an eyebrow! Imagine your eyes are a beautiful picture and your eyebrows are the picture frame. You’d want to put that picture in the nicest frame possible, right? Right! Our estheticians are truly artists when it comes to shaping your brows so they look great right after waxing and as they grow in.

My first wax brow wax was at Bliss Spa. I was getting a facial and after cleansing my skin, my esthetician looked at me and said, “You have a beautiful eyebrow shape. Do you mind if I clean them up a bit?” I’m a firm believer of the phrase “When in Rome…” so I said “Sure!” I nervously laid there and wondered, “Is this going to hurt? What will Mr. Tweezerman think of this?”

Five minutes later, my brows looked cleaner, more defined. The shape hadn’t changed, but they looked And I felt pretty silly for being nervous-it didn’t hurt at all. Poetic Wax is a skin-friendly wax. Because it is a low heat wax that ‘shrink wraps’ the hair without sticking to the skin, Poetic Wax offers a very comfortable waxing experience, even for those with sensitive skin. Poetic Wax is a hard wax, which means the wax becomes the strip… no cloth strips needed… making it a fast, quick and easy way to remove hair.

The Poetic Waxing Kit is our take-home version of the same wax we use in the spa. The Poetic Waxing Kit contains: a mug of Poetic Wax, assorted spatulas for applying the wax, pre waxing cleanser, pre and post waxing lotion.

For the full scoop on how to use our at-home Poetic Waxing Kit, see Donna’s Blog about how to wax poetic at home

For you spa mavens out there, we’re offering $20 brow waxes from 3/13-3/20. To book an appointment, visit blissworld.com or call 877-TO-BLISS to speak to a booking representative.

Later this week we will be talking about how to prevent post-waxing breakouts. Stay tuned!

Bliss Kisses!
<3 Karen

Call me superficial, but the first thing I think of when I look at this picture is “Oh, honey, we have GOT to do something with those eyebrows!” I know that waxing hadn’t quite gained popularity in the 1860’s, but if it had, Abe should have marched himself over to 49th street for a brow waxing faster than you can say “I am the 16th president of the USA” five times fast!

We’ve had the fabulous troupe of estheticians who will be working at the Hoboken spa (which will open *very* soon) in our headquarters perfecting their skills with our poetic wax, so I volunteered myself for an eyebrow wax. My wax was ouch-free as usual. Have you ever been waxed at Bliss? We use a low-heat, stripless wax that is as painless as possible. The best part is that the wax can be used on hair as short as 1mm, which means you don’t have to grow it out in order to get waxed. The wax virtually shrink wraps the hair and becomes the strip, so it’s super easy to remove and doesn’t yank off the topmost layer of skin like other waxes.

My secret weapon against ingrowns and breakouts post waxing for any facial waxing (brow, lip, chin, etc) is bliss change your spots, an invisible lightweight gel that has a the highest level of salicylic acid you can get without a prescription. The salicylic acids exfoliates away post-waxing breakouts without drying the skin. I apply 8-12 hours after waxing.

Bliss change your spots is also my purse-sized hero to banish blemishes FAST-feel one coming? Apply change your spots! Have one already? Apply change your spots and the healing time will be diminished. Have you ever had one of those post-breakout dark spots that just won’t go away? Change your spots contains licorice root, which lightens hyperpigmentation, so your skin will go back to its pre-breakout look in no time. The tube may look small, but you only need a dot here and a dot there, so it lasts a really long time.

Looking for a gentle, effective ingrown hair treatment?
If you’ve ever wanted to know how to get rid of ingrown hairs, you’ve come to the right place! A great home ingrown hair treatment to treat ingrown hair is our ingrown hair treatment pads. Our ingrown hair eliminating pads gently exfoliate with salicylic and glycolic acid to prevent ingrown hairs. Our ingrown hair treatment also soothes the skin with oat extract, witch hazel and lavender oil. They’re the best at home ingrown hair treatment because they’re gentle on the skin. The container contains 50 pre-soaked pads (don’t reuse them!) to make ingrown hair treatment a breeze.

Bliss Kisses!
<3 Karen

Whether you’ve been struck by Cupid’s arrow or have a special place in mind for Cupid to stick his bow + arrow, here are some Miss Bliss tips for having a blissful Valentine’s Day.

10. Skip the $4.99 box of chocolates that taste like wax. Book yourself a double choc pedicure at the spa and sip a cup of hot cocoa.

9. Slip into a nice hot bubble bath and grab a glass of wine.

8. Call up your girlfriends, grab some trashy magazines and start a pool of who will be broken up by the end of 2009. My vote: J-Lo + Marc call it quits by the first day of spring.

7. Get as smooth as that annoying baby Cupid’s bum + wax wherever you want to defuzz.

6. Skip the day all together. It’s on a Saturday this year. Barney’s is probably having a sale anyway.

5. Make a customized photo book so you’ll always remember the fun times you had. These make a beautiful gift-hubby made me one for Christmas. Very romantical.

4. Treat yourself (or someone else) to some serious relaxation with a massage.

3. Skip the overpriced Valentine’s day menu-the service stinks on Valentine’s Day anyway. Check out yelp.com for recommendations for delivery.

2. For dessert, light some candles, dim the lights and indulge in some chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. Edible Arrangements™ has scrumptious, juicy strawberries that are sure to be a hit.

1. If you don’t have a man, go get yourself an I don’t need a man-icure at the spa with your best girlfriends and be glad you didn’t have to spend an hour at Hallmark looking for a cheesy $4 greeting card.

Bliss Kisses!
<3 Karen

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Have a blissful Monday, everyone!
Bliss Kisses! <3 Karen

You thought the worst part of waxing was getting your hair yanked out? Think again, sister! Ingrown hairs are one of the most common conditions that make hair removal a truly hair raising experience!

What causes ingrown hairs?
Ingrown hair is a common condition that occurs when the hair curls back or grows sideways into the skin. It may or may not be accompanied by an infection of the hair follicle or “razor bumps.”

Ingrown hairs can occur when hair is broken off under the skin during waxing and tweezing or if hair is broken off short with a sharp tip while shaving. Other causes of ingrown hairs include:

- Dry skin
- Thick, curly or stiff hair
- Hair follicles that are clogged with oil or dead skin cells

After performing a bazillion Brazilians, we heard that ingrown hairs are a common concern for many of our guests. What fun is being waxed and smooth if an ingrown hair is going to come in and ruin the party. Buzz kill (or shall I say Fuzz Kill!) To cure the common woes associated with waxing, we created Ingrown Hair Eliminating Peeling Pads

Ingrown Hair Eliminating Peeling Pads exfoliate with salicylic acid and glycolic acid to slough away dulling dead skin cells that clog up the hair follicle and may cause ingrown hairs. They also soothe the skin with oat extract, witch hazel, lavender oil. They’re great for men to use to prevent beard bumps and perfect to use as a treatment for post waxing ingrowns.

Tip: because the pads contain salicylic and glycolic acids, use 12 hours after shaving or waxing to prevent stinging. I didn’t read the directions before I used them for the first time and it wasn’t the most pleasant feeling.

You still have time to book your brazilian bikini wax and say ‘farewell’ to Bush! Ingrown hair eliminating peeling pads are also 20% off until February 1st. Shop blissworld.com

Bliss Kisses! <3 Karen