Hi Everyone,

Tina here (+1 662 830 8246, info@nakedactives.com). Here is our latest blog, and Chapter 5 of our recently published book. As you might know, our sister company Terrain Publishing has published a book with Formule De Soin, with a few of our founders from Naked Actives. Every week, we will publish all 10 Chapters from this great read and published book. The title of the book is called Skincare Collective- Conversations with Friends: From all natural skincare to the impact of social media in the beauty industry.  Click the link if you want to buy the book and read it in full or read these blogs of the book here! 

Chapter 1 of the Skincare Collective

Chapter 2 of the Skin Care Collective

Chapter 3 of the Skin Care Collective

Chapter 4 of the Skin Care Collective

Chapter 5 of the Skin Care Collective

Chapter 6 of the Skin Care Collective

Chapter 7 of the Skin Care Collective 

Interview with Karen Doucet

Is Lupus Detrimental to your Skin

We sat down to speak with Karen Doucet, a woman in her 50’s who is a mom, grandma and works for a local charity to discuss skincare. Karen lives with lupus and shares some of her challenges with us. This blog covers the topic of Lupus and skincare. Enjoy!  

As a busy mom, skincare wasn’t always a priority until Karen reached the age of 30. That’s when she noticed that her skin was dull. One of her main recommendations is to start encouraging young women to take care of their skin when they are teenagers. “That’s when young  girls start to reach puberty and may notice changes to their skin. They also start experimenting with more skincare products and makeup. Make skin care a priority when you're young and then perhaps you won’t need as much makeup when you're older.”

Karen shared with us that as she gracefully ages, her skin changes. What worked before in her skincare routine, doesn’t always work now.  She shared that she used a skincare line from a popular Multi-level Marketing (MLM) company but found they started to really dry her skin out. Recently she started using a newer brand called Naked Actives and is really enjoying their products. She shared that the face cleanser puts moisture back in skin and their serum has helped to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Keeping her skin hydrated is key to helping her look younger and healthier

Diet is also extremely important for your overall health and skincare. Karen has Lupus so one of the most important things to do is to keep her diet healthy. That keeps her healthy and vibrant.  But diet is also important for her skin because she finds if you are putting healthy fruits and vegetables into your body your skin will radiate. If you are consuming junk food and greasy foods her skin becomes dull.

For our readers who aren’t familiar with Lupus.

Lupus is a chronic disease with a variety of symptoms caused by inflammation in one or more parts of the body. It is estimated that it affects over 1:1000 Canadians.

Lupus is not contagious and is not related to AIDS or cancer. It belongs in the family of diseases that includes rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, juvenile diabetes, and scleroderma.

The most common type of lupus is SLE (systemic lupus erythematosus). It is a complex and baffling condition that can target any tissue or organ of the body, including skin, muscles, joints, blood and blood vessels, lungs, heart, kidneys, and the brain.

There are other types of lupus which mainly affect the skin. A few individuals develop drug-induced lupus as a response to some medications used to treat other conditions. These symptoms disappear when the person stops taking the medication.

Who gets lupus? Anyone can: women, men, children. Between the ages 15 and 45, eight times more women than men get lupus. In those under 15 and over 45, both sexes are affected equally.

Because her role is labour intensive and can be mentally exhausting, she knows that when she puts the best quality anti-inflammatory foods into her body it helps boost her energy and also gives her skin a bright glow.

We ask all of our guests about their sun exposure and their use of SPF. Because Karen lives with Lupus, she shared with us something very interesting. She doesn’t spend a ton of time in the sun. Someone with lupus who spends 30 minutes in the sun would be the equivalent of someone else who spends 4 hours in the sun. She recommends an SPF to help protect your skin from the UV rays. She always recommends finding a wide brimmed hat, finding a great spot in the share and enjoying the sun but just in smaller doses.

Although Karen never struggled with issues like acne, she did struggle with dry skin. She believes it was some of the products that she was using. Once she started using Naked Actives, she found her skin to be healthy looking and well hydrated. 

She recommends focusing on skincare instead of makeup. She believes in teaching younger people about skincare and taking the focus off of covering skin issues up with makeup. Because she didn’t start putting a focus on skincare until she was 30, she realized that many of her skin challenges could have been taken care of if she started when she was a teenager. 

About Karen Doucet

My name is Karen Doucet, I am 57. I am a Wife, a Mom to 2 beautiful grown Daughters, a Grandma to an energetic 5 year old Granddaughter and a caregiver to my 88 year old Mom.

I have had Lupus for 25 plus years. Lupus effects many people in many different ways, mine affects my nervous system and muscles. My energy can be depleted quickly depending on the activity I am doing and if I push myself past that limit I can go into a Lupus flare up. There are days My body responds very strangely, my brain says walk but my legs don't get the signal. The other thing that responds strangely is my skin, one day very dry the next very oily, and no store bought product has settled that out until I started using Naked Actives advanced skincare serums.

It's my pleasure to share my story.