Beautiful Skin

The pursuit of beautiful skin has helped me mature more wisely as I become more connected to my universe and environment.

When Pure + simple first opened in 2000, I found that classic esthetics and the extensive experience of my estheticians did not adequately help about a third of our clients be rid of their acne, rosacea or lined skin.

I believed the long term benefits of Natural Products for beautiful skin. So I hired a local teacher of Ayurveda, to become better at using natural skincare to solve our clients skin problems. We got that and more as we started to treat each client as an individual and not merely common skin problem.

Our success rate increased to almost 100% as we started to customize our solutions to the client’s unique characteristics both physical and psychological.
From the results both Kristen , my daughter and I invested in learning Ayurveda from Dr. Vivek Shanbhag. You can learn about Ayurveda and Skincare from a book that my daughter, Kristen Ma, wrote by going to http://www.pureandsimple.ca/

The following advice for Beautiful Skin is based on Ayurveda.

Feeling and looking your best is quite simple. Follow a diet, lifestyle and skincare + grooming routine that promotes good health. Each of us is unique, but there are basically three major routines we can choose from. Which one is best for us depends on the quality or type of energy flowing through us and in Ayurveda they are called Doshas. I will be writing about Ayurveda but if you are impatient see a summary of the Doshas at http://www.pureandsimple.ca/2005/files/products/ayurvedic.html


The following advice is general advice for those of us in our Vata years (over 40 years old). As we age we become more spirit (less physical) while it depends on from where we start. Our skin shows this by becoming thinner and dryer.

Vata’s strengths are in the emotional, spiritual and intuitive realm. Therefore we start to favour and benefit greatly from exercise that has a spiritual component. In my personal practice I have accepted my uniqueness and have left behind the guilt as I hear experts tell me that I need to do weight lifting or cardio. Every Morning I practice Chi Kung and Yoga.


Vatas can eat foods that are usually on the forbidden lists like red meat and carbs. But they need to avoid dry foods like popcorn and cold foods like ice cream. Another group are foods that promote gas like cabbage. But again that all depends on things like your base Dosha, the weather, what’s happening in your life and any imbalance in your health you are encountering. It sounds more complicated than it is. I find using Ayurveda in my life much like being a conductor in an orchestra.

Skincare for those of us Forty and Beyond needs to focus on keeping our skin moist and hydrated. Each morning skin needs to be cleansed gently. A hydrating serum packed nutrients should be applied to the face, neck and eye area. If the weather is dry and/or cold, most of us need to apply a fine layer of nourishing face oil. Then to keep the moisture in our skin cells we should apply a protective moisturizing cream. Men may prefer to leave out the oil, more because of personal preference than because of their skin’s needs.

To keep things simple you repeat it again at night.

To keep my mind body and spirit balance I have created a daily routine that I adjust according to the weather. For help in customizing your skincare and lifestyle routine go to http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=8597&post=45067&uid=2455286407#post45067 where I discuss the weather and the effects on your Doshas and your Skin daily.

If you need help in discovering your Dosha, you can take the test in Kristen’s book, BEAUTY 2.0 or make an appointment with me or any of our skincare specialists. Go to http://www.pureandsimple.ca/2005/ for contact information