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For many, stretch marks are simply a fact of life, not necessarily anything to give much thought to. But for others, stretch marks can be embarrassing and detrimental to self-esteem. If you fall into the latter category, first of all, you’re beautiful and perfect just the way you are, but also, we get it, which is why we’ve assembled these three DIY stretch mark treatments.

Simple Raw Sugar Scrub

Mix 1 tablespoon of raw sugar with a few drops of almond oil and lemon juice and massage into your skin for approximately 10 minutes before hopping in a warm shower. Sugar is a fantastic exfoliator that also promotes blood flow to the scarred area.

Whipped Egg White Masks

Egg whites contain vital proteins and amino acids which can help repair stretch-marked skin. Separate three eggs (save the yolks for an ultra-moisturizing facial mask) and whip the whites until stiff peaks form. Apply to affected areas three times a week, moisturizing after each treatment with coconut oil, olive oil, or a stick of 100% pure cocoa butter.

Ground Coffee Skin Scrub

Use a lighter roast of coffee—the high level of caffeine can help tighten and tone your skin, reducing the appearance of stretch marks. Mix 1/4 cup of used coffee grounds with a few tablespoons of olive, coconut or avocado oil. Apply to your scarred areas and massage well for 10 or so minutes.

For more skin care tips, visit Laser Smooth Company’s blog.

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Fresh pressed vegetable and fruit juices are great for your overall health. While store-bought fruit juices can be high in sugar content, juicing your own vegetables and fruits give you complete control over the nutritional value. These few juices are a great way to start your day, offering a boost of nourishment that’ll benefit your hair skin, and nails.

Glowing Green Smoothie

Recipe by Kimberly Snyder, Author of The Beauty Detox Solution

This powerhouse green juice can be prepared in a juicer or add 1/4 cup of ice and combine ingredients in a blender for a smoothie.

• 1 head of Romaine
• 1 Cup Spinach
• 3 Celery Stalks
• 1 Apple
• 1 Pear
• 1 Banana
• ½ Lemon

Hair Heroine

Recipe by Polly Noble, co-author of The Cancer Journey—Positive Steps to Help Yourself Heal

This juice recipe gets its hair, skin and nail strengthening boost from silica packed cucumber. Pour this lovely concoction over crushed ice and enjoy with a slice of lemon for garnish.

• ½ Cucumber
• 1 lemon
• 3 celery sticks
• 1 Apple

Total Health Booster

Recipe from Health.com

While the name proclaims this juice to be a boost for your total health, it’s your skin that will demonstrate just how powerful this juice is.

• 1 Apple
• 2 Pears
• ½ Cup fresh pitted Cherries

For more skin care tips visit Laser Smooth Company’s blog.

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Toning dry skin in the apex of Autumn can be challenging. There are thousands of drugstore and department store toners that promise all manner of delicious skin soothing effects, but finding the perfect product for your skin type can take time and a considerable amount of cash. Try these DIY toners for dry skin instead of shelling out for big-name products that typically contain the same active ingredients.

Cucumber Rose Water Face Tonic—This super simple DIY toner boasts only two ingredients but offers the same powerful effects as many store-bought brands. Simply peel and de-seed one cucumber. Press the cucumber flesh through a ricer or juicer to produce approximately 3 tablespoons of cucumber juice. Mix this with four tablespoons of pure rose water, pour the mixture into a small spray bottle and apply it to clean skin, post-shower.

Lemon Witch Face Tonic—Well, it’s not witchcraft, but it may as well be. This soothing toner is perfect for dry skin and also only contains two ingredients; witch hazel and lemon juice—one and two tablespoons respectively. This elixir is best applied with a cotton ball.

Coconut & Raw Milk Toner For Dry, Sensitive Skin—Just one tablespoon of unprocessed coconut water mixed with one tablespoon of raw milk (look for it at your local farmers market) and applied with a cotton ball will tone and moisturize dry, sensitive faces.

For more skin care tips visit Laser Smooth Company’s blog.

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Drugstores and department stores alike sell all manner of amazing lotion options for all skin types, but often, they contain ingredients that aren’t sustainable or that pose risk for irritation. Rather than combing through numerous brands and testing them for compatibility, you can always DIY a few stunning moisturizers and figure out what works best for you in your home.

A three-ingredient homemade moisturizer will get you acquainted with proportions so you can easily tweak the recipe to suit your skin. Start with a blend of 3/4 cup olive oil, avocado oil, or coconut oil, 3 tbsp of finely grated beeswax gently melted together in a double boiler. Pour 3/4 cup warm water, rose water, or herbal tea in your food processor or blender and slowly add the oil/wax blend to emulsify. If you like, you can finish the blend with essential oil for fragrance.

This non-greasy recipe features 1/2 finely grated cup shea butter gently melted in a double boiler with 2 tbsp of almond or jojoba oil and 5-10 drops of your favorite essential oils. Cool the mixture until it firms up (but only slightly, if it’s too hard it won’t emulsify) and then transfer to a food processor and blend until smooth.

Use an orange or citrus scented essential oil to make this lotion into an uplifting morning moisturizer. Using the same double boiler method, combine 1/4 cup cocoa butter, 1/8 cup coconut oil,  1/8 cup sweet almond oil, and 1/8 cup of orange essential oil. Cool the mixture just slightly, so it’s not quite firm, then blend it in a food processor to emulsify.

For more skin care tips visit Laser Smooth Company’s blog.

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As the Baby Foot exfoliation craze sweeps the nation, we’re reminded just how much stress and strain we put our feet through every day. While Baby Foot may be an extreme way of restoring your feet to their supple best, there are several ways to achieve soft, refreshed feet for a fraction of the cost.

And if we’re talking about supple feet, we certainly should talk about supple hands. Constant washing, exposure, and basic function can leave our hands tired and depleted. Keeping your hands well moisturized, massaged and cared for is something that should be included in everyone’s self-care regime.

A simple poultice of cooked and mashed potatoes with a healthy pour of coconut oil added is a foot soak that has stood the test of time. Cover tired, aching feet in this starchy remedy for an hour, then rinse to reveal rejuvenated tootsies. This mixture is just as effective for dry hands.

Warm milk baths are well known to soothe and replenish tired, dry skin. Gently warming whole milk and allowing your feet or hands to soak for a mere 5 minutes will leave you with smooth, supple extremities.

Another timeless DIY skin elixir is a simple mixture of one cup of rolled oats and a few teaspoons of olive oil. This tasty paste will exfoliate and rejuvenate scaly feet and refresh overworked hands.

For more skin care tips visit Laser Smooth Company’s blog.

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Laser hair removal is effective on most areas of the body that sprout unwanted hair. For many, laser hair therapy has relieved them of their few troublesome chin hairs or an unruly bikini area, but for others, it involves lasering more obscure body parts. Rest easy that at Laser Smooth Company, we’ve seen it all—and successfully removed many an unwanted body hair. There are no areas of the body unfamiliar to Laser Smooth’s singular technicians, and if you find yourself sprouting unwanted hair in any of these areas, we can typically remove it in just a few treatments.

Femmes that have not lived with hairy feet may be shocked when age presents a crop of hair right on the top of their kickers. As folks get older, body hair begins to defy convention and populate areas like the tops of feet which can be a drag for high heel/open toe stiletto loving lady types.

Even the silkiest complexions can sprout unwanted facial hair as they age. In areas like the neck, the jawline and even cheeks and forehead, unwanted hair stands out like a blemish. Bleaching, waxing, and sugaring these areas will only provide temporary relief. Laser therapy is the safest way to remove these odd outcroppings of bushy hair permanently.

A person’s backside is arguably their most consistently concealed body part. That said, a backside thick with unwanted hair, particularly newly arrived unwanted hair, can result in the same loss of confidence that a person struggling with unwanted facial hair can feel. A few sessions with one of our technicians and your backside will be smooth once more, regardless of who sees it.

Learn more about whether laser hair removal is right for you by visiting Laser Smooth Company’s Services page.

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Laser hair removal is a relatively modern procedure, but its history may surprise you. Today’s laser hair removal is mostly painless, super-efficient and largely permanent, but when laser hair removal was introduced, it was quite the opposite. The first laser created to destroy hair follicles was invented by Theodore H Maiman in 1960. This laser was produced with a small ruby gemstone. Maiman’s ruby laser was tedious, languid and incredibly painful, often resulting in severe burns. Though it was successful in minimizing hair growth it was not a permanent means of removal.

10 years later, the alexandrite laser was developed. Though it was exceptionally less painful than its ruby predecessor, it lacked the heat necessary to truly destroy hair follicles, leading to imperfect results achieved sometimes only after years of treatments.

It was not until the early 1980s that laser hair removal became essentially permanent. In 1983 scientists finally developed a laser effective at precisely targeting a single hair follicle without inflicting pain to the skin.

Today’s laser hair removal clinics offer almost entirely pain-free, permanent laser hair removal treatments. There are even laser hair removal products approved by the FDA for home use (though we would recommend visiting a laser hair removal technician rather than attempting to do it yourself).

To learn more about laser hair removal, visit Laser Smooth Company’s FAQs page.

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Having sensitive skin is never fun. In the Pacific Northwest where your skin battles sun damage, bitter cold, and endlessly moist conditions finding cosmetics that not only sooth but protect your skin is a huge proposition. Hopefully, these drugstore cosmetics will assuage your winter-sensitive skin while fulfilling your Instagram-worthy makeup needs.

Neutrogena products are legendarily great for drugstore makeup fanatics with ultra-sensitive skin. Most Neutrogena products are formulated with vitamins and minerals to replenish and condition your skin and their cosmetics feature full coverage foundations, vibrantly pigmented lip and eye colors and bright, glassy glosses.

Physicians Formula is consistently ranked by dermatologists as the number one brand for those who suffer from ultra-sensitive skin. Their cosmetics sacrifice nothing in favor of skincare, however, offering the same modern hues and products as their drugstore peers.

Burt’s Bees is known for its skincare products but has recently expanded into the cosmetic market with bold lip colors, vibrant shadows and full coverage foundations that soothe and replenish winter-chapped and ultra-sensitive skin. Featuring all the skin soothing we’ve come to rely on from Burt’s Bees, these cosmetics are a boon for makeup lovers suffering from sensitive skin. We’re particularly fond of their lengthening mascara.

For more skincare tips and tricks, visit Laser Smooth Company’s blog.

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fren One day, it’s bitterly cold and obtrusively wet, the next day you can be met with stiff, icy winds that seem to evaporate all hydration from your face, and the next day, the sun is shining, and you may even break a bit of a sweat. Keeping on top of Portland’s chaotic weather changes can be exceedingly difficult, especially if your skin is reactive to even subtle atmospheric changes. Thankfully, we’ve found a few low-cost ways to keep your skin luminous and refreshed regardless of what Portland’s irrational weather throws your way.

Consider a few basic changes to your diet. Harvest season is upon us; it’s a great time to take advantage of farmstand kale, carrots, or beets to roast, make smoothies with, or press for juices. The nutrient boost will greatly benefit not just your skin, but your whole winter bod.

Gently exfoliate at every shower to help slough off the dull skin that’s taken the brunt of the cold weather carnage. An exfoliator for sensitive skin will serve you best in cold months, keeping your skin soothed and hydrated.

DIY facial treatments that utilize pantry staples like honey, yogurt, eggs, and bananas are surprisingly therapeutic and exceptionally beneficial for rough, dry winter skin.

For more skin care tips, visit Laser Smooth Company’s blog.

CALL US TODAY for a FREE consultation