Car Paint

Redlands Daily Facts Health Section
Staff Writer

Q:Is Make-Up bad for my skin? Do I really need to wash my face every day?

Mimi:All I know about cars I learned from my boyfriends. When I was in college my boyfriend had an old blue Ford. He washed it every Saturday, but it still looked dusty and dull. I asked why he didn't wax it. He told me that if he waxed it that all the paint would come off. I ran my hand over it and off came dusty blue paint. He said that it was caused by oxidation. I had received an A in College Physics, so I knew that oxidation was caused by oxygen. But what had oxygen done to the paint?

Now I think about what oxygen and everything else in the air is doing to my car. Like most Americans I have filled my two-car garage with useless junk, and I leave my car in the driveway. Paints have improved in the past 45 years, but still smoggy, sooty air and the California sun ruin our cars. Tons of acid, gases, and solid waste are spewed into the air from cars, trucks, and factories every day. Where does it all go? When it washes to earth in rain we have acid rain. When it settles on our cars and faces it is grime. When we breathe it in, the pollutants show up in our lungs in chest x-rays.

If you washed your sheets sparkling white and hung them on the clothesline for a week, what would they look like? If you never washed your windowsills, they would be covered with black goop. We are exposing our cars and faces to this muck everyday.

I love make-up because it is GOOD for your skin. It protects your skin against all the gunk in the air. The solid particles of color in make-up that are held in suspension help block harmful sunrays.

Use make-up to keep your skin healthy. First, wash your face. Apply whatever treatment that is required for your skin. A vitamin C treatment is good for nearly everyone in Southern California. If you have problems with excessive redness or with acne, then you would use an appropriate treatment for your condition. Then apply sunscreen. Apply it to your face, neck, chest, back of your neck, top of your ears, and your forearms. If your forehead goes all the way back to your neck so you have no hair to protect the top of your head, apply sun screen to your head also. Next use a sealer to seal in all the good stuff and keep out all the bad stuff. This helps your make-up last all day. This is especially important if you use a brush-on mineral make-up. The sealer will feel like a light oil but will dry to a powdery soft finish. Most are low oil or oil free and have dimethacone in them for slip and glide so they smooth on easily.

NOW you are ready for whatever make-up foundation or base you like. Dot cream or liquid on with a damp or dry sponge, a stiff brush, or your fingertips. Smooth out to the hairline. If you have fine lines use a cream blush because a powder one may accent your wrinkles. If you use a powder foundation, fluff it on with a brush. Set the liquid or cream foundation and blush with a setting powder pressed on with a velour powder puff or fluffed on with a brush. Powdered blush can go on before or after the powder. Try both ways. Bronzing powder usually looks more natural if it is smoothed on BEFORE the setting powder.

Here is the kicker on making sure that make-up is good for your skin: At night pin your hair back and cleanse your face TWICE. The first sudsing takes off the make-up and the grime of the day. Rinse. The second sudsing cleans the pores. Rinse very well. Use a toner. Apply a treatment and eye cream. Use a moisturizer, and go to bed.

You say that you are too tired to clean your face at night? Let me tell you what is happening. You have all the make-up on that you wore all day. It has been sealing all the good stuff in and all the bad stuff out. All the goop and garbage in the air has landed on your skin all day. Now you go to bed and rub all that into your pillowcase and into your skin. YUCK. Your skin wants you to clean it so it can breathe at night. Love your skin.

No excuses. Every night brush your teeth and wash your face.

Mimi Barre is the owner of International Day Spa, 325 Cajon St., Redlands. Send your skin care questions to her at MimiB@INTLdayspa.com. She and her estheticians are available for personal consultations, (909) 793-9080.