November Meeting: The 411 on Skin Care with Caci Thompson

Skin Specialist Caci Thompson, Owner of Toccare (Italian for ‘Touch’), joined us on Nov. 5 to talk about skin care and looking great. Caci has spent 14 years in the industry working at various salons and spas including Carmen! Carmen! and Jeffre Scott.  She has been able to grow and learn about the skin care industry and learn about different brands.

Here's her basic philosophy:

• Be realistic about what you is going to change
• Skin care is personal
• Skin care is unique
• Skin care needs to be customized to fit your life style, it shouldn’t cause irritation and should should feel pampered and good afterwards.

The main difference between expensive and less expensive skin care? Less expensive care uses lower quantity active ingredients and it's of lower quality overall. 

Why you should consider organic:

• 60 percent of what you put on your skin is absorbed into your body.                                           
• There are 10,000 chemical ingredients found in cosmetics. Use www.ewg.org to check out the chemicals in your favorite brands. It will rate the safety of each item on a scale of 1-10.

A few especially worrisome ingredients:

• Retinol for Anti-Aging – It can be in the form of Retin A, and it takes the outer layer of skin off, causing your skin to overcompensate and produce more oil and hair.  It can also cause hyper pigmentation of the skin and make it more sensitive.
• Hydroquinone for skin lightening – it is a known carcinogen and OUTLAWED in Europe.  To help lighten skin, Caci recommends a good exfoliation instead.

For a skin care routine, she recommends you invest in a ritual you enjoy, Be Decisive and Stay Committed to your plan of action.

Her recommended skin care routine in order of importance:

• Cleanser at night – something designed for your skin type, all skin types can use Cetaphil
• Moisturize – to protect the skin, she recommends one without SPF – during the day use a separate SPF
• Exfoliate – depending on your skin type anywhere from 1-2 times a week for sensitive to 3-4 for more oily.  Two types, manual (where you do the scrubbing) or dissolving where the reaction does the dissolving (usually includes fruits and veggies)
• Eye Cream or Serum – this is where you want to spend your money – if you use a serum for your face you don’t need a separate eye cream.
• Mask – weekly to address and target what you dislike about your skin.  Do it when you are doing something else, like cleaning up or reading a magazine.
• Toners – less important and used to balance our your skin

Caci has been using skin balms to wash her face at night, it melts in your hands and removes make up and dirt.

She recommends a facial when the seasons change but if you can only do 1 she recommends doing it in the fall.

As you complete your ritual at night give yourself time to think about the things you appreciate.  Appreciate yourself and the good things in life.  Happy people have the prettiest skin

Caci did an awesome giveaway: Jill Jones won the facial and Claire Lukens won the brow waxing!!

Find Caci at The Villa, 715 Providence Rd, Charlotte, NC 28207. Phone: 704-562-1912, Email: caci@toccare.net or go to www.toccare.net  Hours are Wed-Fri 10-6, Sat 10-2, Mon and Tues by appointment. 

A big thank you to Joanna Feltovich for taking these notes, and Leslie Lowery for taking these photographs!

October Meeting: Preparing Fresh, Seasonal Appetizers

 Amanda Halter of Whole Foods Catering joined us in Sarah Rowe's beautiful new kitchen to share some delicious appetizers made from fresh, seasonal ingredients at Whole Foods. Here are the recipes

Grass Fed Beef Blue Cheese Bruschetta

Serves 15- 20ppl

Shopping List

3/4lb Proffit  Farms Beef Chuck Roast

1 ea WFM Hand Dipped Garden Blue Cheese Spread

1 bunch E.CO. Swiss chard

1 loaf Dukes Gorgonzola Bread Round

Marinade: ½ cup balsamic vinegar, ½ cup olive oil, 2-3 herb sprigs (rosemary or thyme), 2 cloves of garlic, minced

Instruction

1.    Marinate Beef 12- 24 hours , then roast in 400’F oven for 5- 7 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 115’F.

2.    Cut bread into ¼” bruschetta slices , then rub with olive oil, s&p and toast 3- 5minutes or until crispy.

3.    Wash and chiffonade Swiss chard, sauté in oiled pan until wilted.

4.    Spread garden blue cheese on bruschetta, top with wilted Swiss chard, layer beef slice then garnish with paprika.

Bacon wrapped Acorn Squash

Serves 15-20ppl

Shopping List

2 medium E.C.O. Acorn Squashes

1 -12 oz package(hormone free, antibiotic free) bacon

3 cups field greens

Olive oil, s&p

2 TSBP. Cloister Honey

Instruction

1.    Slice Squash in half, deseed and steam flesh side up in strainer over boiling water for 5- 10 minutes to soften skin.

2.    Remove, cool to handle and slice into ½” wedges then coat with olive oil, s&p.

3.    Slice bacon in ½ lengthwise, then use pieces to wrap each wedge.

4.    Roast bacon wrapped squash on sheet pan in 350’F oven for 10- 15 minutes or until bacon is crispy and flesh is softened.

5.    While warm drizzle with local honey and place upon field greens.

Pimento Cheese Crostini

Serves 15- 20 ppl

Shopping List

1 -16oz My 3 Sons Pimento Cheese

4 each Nova’s Bakery Ciabatta breads

Garnish, white or yellow shredded cheddar and paprika

Instructions

1.    Slice ciabatta and toast in 350’F oven for 3-5minutes or until crispy

2.    Cool then top with pimento cheese

3.    Garnish and serve!

Sweet  Potato  Pie  Cannoli

Makes 2 dozen

Shopping List

2 DZ. Cannoli shells from you local Italian bakery

2 med. E.C.O. Sweet potatoes

2 TBSP. Maple syrup

½ tsp. Vanilla

3 TSPB. Brown Sugar

½ cup Pecans, toasted and crushed

Instruction

1.    Roast sweet potatoes in 350’F oven for 45- 60 minutes.

2.    Allow to cool in order to handle then peel skin away

3.    Mix flesh with vanilla, sugar, maple syrup and a pinch of salt, then refrigerate to sturdy the filling.

4.    Fill mixture in pastry bag and pip into cannolis'

5.    Dip cannoli ends in crushed pecans

September Meeting: Jim Tate on Having the Hair You've Always Wanted

Hair stylist extraordinaire Jim Tate, the owner of Escape Hair & Skin Studio in South End, and hair stylist Taylor Swingle talked to us about how to have beautiful hair! Here are some of the highlights:

Hair Color
There are five main options when it comes to hair color:

• Tonal Change: This is a demi-permanent color that will last four to six weeks. This color is gentler on hair because it has no ammonia. It's a great was to try being a redhead or some other color you want to test. You can go darker than your natural color, but not lighter.What's the difference between a tonal change and a total change? "It's like pantyhose versus tights," Jim says.
• Highlights: Good highlights should look like your hair was kissed by the sun (Frosting, on the other hand, looks like your hair was "struck by lightning.") Jim says you can go for a chunky color or a fine weave, noting that a fine weave is best for more mature women. "Placement is key," he says. "You want lighter color around the face."
• Highlights and lowlights: This is great for clients who have thinner, finer hair or who are starting to go gray. It can help soften the gray so there's not as much of a contrast, and it adds a lot of dimension to all types of hair. It's also a good idea to get some lowlights if you've been highlighting your hair for a while. 
• Gray blending: This is great if you have 25 to 35 percent scattered gray hair. Basically you can blend it in with demi-permanent hair color. (Once you're 50 percent gray you need to do something else.) "It can take five to seven years off your age," Jim says. "And the growout is softer." Often, the reaction to this treatment is, "Your hair looks great, but I can't tell what you've done." 
• Gray coverage: This is 100 percent coverage. Basically you are coloring all of your hair, and there will be a distinct line of new growth. Other options include gray coverage with highlights or gray coverage with highlights and lowlights (the most expensive.)

Re-texturizing or straightening Hair
Japanese smoothing treatments and Brazilian Blowouts are the big buzz right now. "These are amazing if you have frizz or curl," Jim says. A little bit about the two main types:

• Brazilian Keratin Treatments:  This is a topical treatment that lays on the outside of the hair shaft. It's flat ironed into the hair with a 450 degree flat iron. His salon offers three options: one that lasts four to six weeks for $95, one that lasts two to three months that starts at $300 and one that lasts four to five months that starts at $350. These don't last as long if you sweat a lot or swim in the ocean or pool frequently. 
• Japanese treatments: These are treatments that change the internal structure of the hair (like a perm). They can either get rid of frizz or they can get rid of frizz and curl. His salon offers three different strengths. They often last six to eight months depending on regrowth. A smoothing treatment, which eliminates frizz only, starts at $350. A straightening treatment, which eliminates curl,starts at $550. These require a 72-hour down time of no shampooing.

Top tips from the evening
Here are a few of their tips on different topics:

• To prevent chlorine from messing up your color or turning your child's blonde hair green, GET YOUR HAIR WET BEFORE YOU GET IN THE WATER, even by spraying it with a water bottle. If you do that, it won't absorb as much chlorine. Also use a chelating or clarifying shampoo.  

• Don't shampoo every day. Taylor and Jim say every other day is OK, or longer if your hair isn't oily. Taylor says her hair is very fine so she tries to shampoo only once or twice a week. Use dry shampoo on the off days.

• How to stop coloring their hair and "go gray: Silver white is hard to create, so Jim's best advice is to stand it as long as you can and then cut it off. Taylor notes that on some of her clients, she starts lightning up their amount of color in advance so the line is more gradual.

• Try a product for at least 4 to 6 weeks before using something new. It takes that long for your hair to acclimate and for it to start to work, Taylor says.

Escape Hair & Skin Studio is located at 1440 South Tryon Street in South End. You can read more about the salon at www.welcome2escape.com. 

March Meeting: Make your backyard welcoming to wildlife

Carol Buie Jackson, the owner of Bird House on the Greenway in the shops at Piper Glenn, believes we are losing our relationship with nature and with it, the understanding that how we live impacts the world around us. She said her goal is to get people to reduce the grass in their years and create more natural areas with native plants to support our native wildlife.

Birds are the canary in the coal mine as indicators that the environment is out of balance, she said.  Habitat loss is the single biggest threat to wildlife, yet we continue to clear cut land for development, removing the natural habitat for the wildlife.  Concrete is a contributing factor to drought as the water runs off vs. soaking into the ground and replenishing the ground water. 

Grass is the single largest crop the US grows – 40 million acres.  By using a regular gas powered mower for 1 hour  it produces the equivalent pollutants of driving 650 miles in a car. 
Wildlife needs four things to survive:
* Habitat – trees, bushes and other plants
* Food – each bird, animal, butterfly and insect is dependent upon different food sources
* Water – clean water at different levels. Note: water in bird baths needs to be changed every other day. It takes 3 days for mosquitos to form in standing water. Changing water every other day will help eliminate mosquitos
* Shelter – birds nests, houses, underbrush for rabbits, wooded areas for snakes. They need a safe place to raise their young, where mother birds can see predators coming

The biggest thing you can do: Reduce your grass and plant native plants. Find a list of native plants at ncwildlifenetwork.com and ncwildflower.org.

Want to watch the butterfly life cycle? Plant parsley and watch and wait for a caterpillar to begin eating it (the Eastern Black Swallowtail love parsley). Capture the caterpillar and place it in a glass jar with holes in the lid with a piece of the parsley. You can watch the caterpillar create the chrysalis and then the butterfly will form.

Want more information? Carol's website is http://smelllikedirt.wordpress.com.

February Meeting: Top Tips for a Fresh Start

 

Melissa Zook with Fresh Start Nutrition shared her top tips for a fresh start at eating healthy, losing weight and more. A lot of the information she shared was on the handout or this page of her website but here are a few highlights that weren’t included, along with links to some of the products and recipes she mentioned.

• Detox diets. Nobody really needs these, because your liver and skin do everything. If you want to try one, try cutting out caffeine, alcohol and processed and packaged foods. Read Melanie’s other recommendations on doing a soft detox diet.

• Constantly look for ways to add veggies to your diet. Add them to soups, oatmeal, smoothies, snacks, etc. Put carrots and celery sticks on your sandwich. Frozen are just as good if not better than fresh.
• Green smoothies and popsicles. Her favorite recipe includes mangos, banana, fresh baby spinach (not frozen) and plain yogurt (not vanilla) Her go-to machine for smoothies is the Vitamix. Freeze them in push-up silicone ice pop makers.
• Oatmeal with a twist. Make a big pot on Sunday, put it in the fridge and take out some every day and add different things to it. Frozen blueberries are great for cooling it off. Other variations: pumpkin, nuts, dried fruit and pumpkin pie spice. Peanut butter. Chopped up frozen pineapple and coconut. Or make half of it with eggnog. Avoid instant sweetened packages.

• Why her family drinks 1% milk. Some whole foods advocates drink whole milk because it’s less processed, but she still worries about its high saturated fat. Because you need fat to help your body absorb vitamins, your body won’t absorb the extra vitamin A and D that it needs if you drink skim milk. So her family drinks 1%. The alternative milks are fine, too, but look for ones that are calcium and Vitamin D fortified. Some people also avoid milks with carrageenan, which is found in many soy and almond milks.
• Why she uses mostly glass storage containers. Even if the plastic is BPA free, plastics are polymers made form chemicals and you don’t know what chemical will be in the news next. 
• Mango ice cream. One of her family’s favorites, you simply mix plain greek yogurt, honey and frozen mangos in your vitamix or blender. Another favorite mango treat: mango popsicles, made by blending V8 fusion, mangos and carrots, pouring them into stainless steel popsicle molds and freezing.
• Eating organic. Stretch your food dollar by choosing organic wisely. She buys dairy and many fruits and veggies organic.
• Juicing/juices. You end up with a lot of sugar and miss out on all the good fiber that you need. No one needs juice, not even kids. If you do give it to them, make sure it’s no more than 4 ounces and water it down.
• Why you probably don’t need more protein. Most Americans get double the protein they need. It’s in almost every food except fruits. Avoid protein bars, which tend to be processed and tax your liver. You don’t need protein drinks either. (There may be an exception if you’re a professional bodybuilder or a marathon runner or something)
• On portion control. Use a smaller plate and never eat straight from the package.
• Spoil your dinner. It’s actually better to have five to six small meals a day so go ahead and fix yourself or your kids a healthy snack.
• The perfect snack. You need a healthy fat, protein and fiber. That way you will have your blood sugar under control, plus you’ll feel sated and satisfied. A few examples: An apple with a handful of almonds, a banana with peanut butter, hummus and red pepper. More ideas are on her site.
• Plan your snacks. Plan in advance and have them available at work, in your car and at home. She keeps clear bins – one in her pantry and the other in her fridge – filled with pre-portioned healthy snacks.
• Choosing peanut butter. No Jif or Skippy. Nothing that has “partially hydrogenated” in the ingredient list (that’s trans fat – the worst). Smuckers natural is good. She goes organic because the kids eat a lot of it and they grow underground, so they absorb a lot of pesticides. You can also make your own by throwing some peanuts in the blender.
• Supplements you need. Most women need a good multivitamin, omega 3s, probiotics and vitamin D. She sells supplements she believes in for kids and adults.
• The best oils. Use extra virgin olive oil (not light) or canola oil (if you need it to be hot) to cook with, real organic butter to have flavor. Avoid vegetable oil and corn oil.

• Other stuff on her site: Her favorite items for a healthy kitchen, her dark chocolate walnut oatmeal cookie recipe and her make-ahead mixes for creamy soups, homemade chocolate syrup, whole wheat pancakes and more.