Facials are a fun and glamorous ritual for sleep overs, spa nights at home, or pre-prom beauty days…but do you know what it is they really DO?

Well… facials do all sorts of things!  Depending on their ingredients, they can add moisture, remove oil, tighten pores, exfoliate, reduce puffiness, etc etc…. and they feel nice! Doing a face mask is a relaxing way to pamper yourself and improve your skin. It also makes cute instagram -able moments!

So here are some very basic tips for doing the willa Fresh Face cucumber mask or a similar one. Skin loves cucumber! It’s moisturizing, reduces swelling (puffiness), and has lots of vitamin A.

Gather the following things: a wide soft headband to hold your hair back, cucumber slices (chilled in the fridge), the mask (can also be chilled in the fridge), a clean towel (not chilled in the fridge) and a friend!

- Start with a clean, dry face. Apply the mask in a thin layer to your face all the way up to your hairline, but avoiding the eye area.

-Set a timer for 3 minutes…(the mask should be completely dry by then)

-Lay back and gently rest a cucumber slice on each eye. (it may not need to be said, but eyes are closed)

-Relax.  Try not to giggle. Take a selfie.

- After the mask is dried, rinse the mask off with warm (not hot) water. It’s important not to leave a clay based mask like this one on for too long or it may over dry.

- Pat your face dry with a towel and apply a light moisturizer (such as willa Face Friendly clear moisturizer).

Ta dah! You will notice that your skin feels smooth and extra clean! That’s because the mask has absorbed excess oil and dirt and also removed the layer of dead skin cells from your face. nice.

If you’re feeling adventurous, you can also make your own face mask with yogurt and honey! This is a great balancing and anti bacterial facial to try if you are having break outs… or if you want to prevent break outs.

Mix 3 table spoons of plain greek yogurt and 1 teaspoon of honey together. Apply the mixture in a thick layer to your face. Adding cucumber slices to your eyes is always a good idea. (Snacking on them will also benefit your skin! ) Leave it on for 10 -20 minutes then rinse with warm water. Pat your face dry with a towel and apply a light moisturizer (such as willa Face Friendly clear moisturizer).

In case you get carried away.. it’s important to know that you should not do a face mask more than once a week unless your dermatologist has advised it.

Ok,  so go slice up some cucumbers… Let me know how it goes and share your pics with me @mywilla on instagram!!

Making your very own pair of these beauties is easy! The secret is in the glue. Meet E- 6000 industrial strength adhesive. It will solve many of your problems and is available on amazon! (perfect, if you happen to not have a drivers license.) You will need a pair of plain sunglasses. Both of these pairs are from Forever 21. The daisies are actually sew-on buttons from M&J Trimming. The multicolored flowers are from Toho Shoji bead shop.

Begin with a plan for how you want the flowers to fit around your glasses. They don’t have to be symmetrical. You can even add some to the side bars if you like! You will need the sunglasses to lay flat while you work. I propped mine up on a glass pitcher. Begin by putting a dot of glue on the back of the first flower and placing it on the outer edge of the glasses. The glue takes a while to dry..so you have time to reposition and remove the flowers! but you also have to patiently hold the flower in place while you wait for the glue to dry/ thicken enough so that the flower doesn’t slide off. It’s an annoying amount of time to not be able to text, but it will be worth it when you’re done. Put on some music. I think blowing on the glue helps it dry faster. To be safe, blow on the glue. When the flower stays in place (about 2-3 minutes of not texting), move on to glue the flowers next to these outside flowers.

Continue glueing and arranging your flowers until you are happy with the look. It takes about 20 -30 minutes for the glue to be totally dry and the flowers to be secure. So do not start this project right before your pool party.   Ta-dah!  break out your new summer look! I would love to see what you make! Tag me on instagram (@mywilla)  to share your DIY pics!

*Cotton Candy Frappucino: A vanilla bean frappucino blended with a shot of raspberry syrup…two shots for a venti.  Available at Starbucks. Try not to die…. It’s sooo good!

The Basics:

SPF stands for Sun Protection Factor. The higher the number, the more protection it provides. An SPF 20 means in theory, that it magnifies your natural resistance to the sun by 20X. If you have a low natural resistance (very light skin) you will want to be using a higher SPF number. The SPF number is only effective if you are using the sunscreen  correctly…SPF numbers above 50 are considered not to be adding any more protection. willa Born to Glow is SPF 15 and Face the Day has SPF 30!

The Science-y Stuff and Long Words:

Natural Sunscreens provide a mineral barrier to the suns rays. Chemical sunscreens absorb into the skin and through a chemical process, make the UV rays less damaging. Chemical sunscreen has many long term negative side effects…like nanoparticles, hormone disrupters, and free radicals. They can also often cause skin irritation. So of course you, smart reader, want a natural sunscreen! I recommend using willa natural SPF products.

Natural sunscreen like ours, contains Zinc Oxide and/ or Titanium Dioxide to create a natural mineral barrier. The one and only negative side effect of natural sunscreens is that they can make you look pasty bc of the white color of these minerals….Don’t fear! willa has solved this potentially lame situation by adding in a slight tint to counter the whiteness! And Born to Glow even has some shimmer, too! So that instead of looking like a ghost face weirdo, you can look lovely and glowy! ah.

The User Guide:

Apply Sunscreen before you go out in the sun, not while you sit on your beach towel..it needs some time to absorb. (Besides, it’s awkward to be massaging sunscreen into your thighs while everyone watches…)  Mineral based natural sunscreens work almost immediately.

You need more sunscreen than you think. You need 1-2 oz for your body (that’s a naked body minus a little bit of bathing suit area)..and about a tablespoon for your face. If you’re wearing a bathing suit, the easiest thing is to just put your sunscreen on Before the bathing suit. The suit WILL move.

Re-apply your sunscreen at least every 2 hours!  The most common mistake in using SPF is only applying it once. It will wear off…especially after swimming, sweating, and towel drying. So plan ahead for how long you will be outside and keep your SPF with you.

AND…Sunscreen expires: so if it’s from the bottom of the beach bag you just pulled from the back of your closet…encrusted with sand and memories of last summer, it may be past its effective date. Just check the bottle-you usually have 12- 18 months.

AND… just to be thorough… I have to tell you that if you are using an insect repellant too, your SPF will be less effective so use a higher SPF to start with.

AND…that’s the end of my SPF lesson for you. More interestingly…do you have a bathing suit yet for this summer?? Where did you get it? I’m still shopping…

Since nobody has ever successfully telescoped time to skip months, the only option I can see is to live through it. So put some socks on. Summer. Will. Happen. ….but first there will be exams. And then goodbyes.

Of course Summer is amazing and school is punishment. But you know it will all be different next year…you will never come back to this exact locker and stare at the back of those exact same heads and watch the same patch of parking lot out of the window. These days are the last pages of a chapter. You will be different next year. Maybe taller and wiser and (certainly) a little cooler. So let’s take some time to just BE here. Exactly where you are and who you are and who you are with.

So many feelings to feel!

Music says feelings better than words most of the time. So here is my moody, happy, excited, sad, sentimental, summer fever in April playlist. Listen. Absorb. Be.

Listen here.

Things will never be the same again,  jj

Goodbye, Goodbye, Tegan and Sara

Pompeii, Bastille

Princess of China, Coldplay, Rihanna

Fireworks, Animal Collective

Young and Beautiful, Lana Del Rey

Count on Me, Bruno Mars

On Top of the World, Imagine Dragons

….And tell me what you’re planning for summer 2013? Because it’s what we’re all thinking about anyway…

What you should eat: Citrus fruits, Red peppers, Broccoli, and Strawberries

Why: Vitamin C is key to healthy skin and this produce is packed with it. Vitamin C helps collagen production which is your skin’s support structure, so plenty of C equals smooth skin!

What else you should eat: Salmon, Tuna, Walnuts, and Almonds

Why: These foods contain essential fatty acids like omega-3 and omega-6 which help to build strong cell membranes that provide a protective barrier AND help nutrients to reach the skin. These are also known brain boosters. So be smart and get smarter…

Eat more: Blackberries, Blueberries, Strawberries (again), and Plums

Why: These are all super high in anti-oxidants – in fact these are some of the highest anti-oxidant foods known! Anti-oxidants help fight cell damage caused by daily exposure to pollution and even sun damage. They still count even if there’s a lot of ice cream with them.

Drink more: Water

Why: It makes sense that hydrated skin can’t exist without a hydrated body. So drinking 8 glasses of water (or 2 huge aquafina bottles, or 18 paper cupfuls….) will make a big difference in your skin. You still have to moisturize the surface of your skin, since it looses moisture through heat, dry air, and washing.

If there’s an oreo hovering between your keyboard and your mouth right now…eat it fast before you read this next part and know better.

What you should eat less of: Sugar

Why: Sugary foods and foods that your body processes like sugar (rice, pasta, etc) cause a rapid rise in blood sugar that affects all of your organs – your skin is your largest organ! This rise …and then fall in blood sugar causes inflammation which harms cells. This process can eventually (years and years and years) create a lot of damage in your skin and other organs.

SO… I am going to go make a strawberry, salmon, bell pepper smoothie right now. Not really. I am probably going to fill an imaginary shopping cart on Forever21.com and eat a fruit roll up. But tell me, how do you eat a healthy skin diet? And then go have an awesome weekend…!

Photographer, blogger, and adorable person, Gina Kim is a Willa girl!  It’s like when you think someone  is the coolest..and then you find out she actually thinks you’re cool too! And then she asks if she can do a photo shoot with you!  Inspired by Willa skincare! I love it when that happens…

Gina lives in New York City and gets her Willa at Henri Bendels. Even though she’s not quite a teen, she subscribes to the Willa philosophy and takes good care of her skin. Gina had to ponder for a few minutes before picking her favorite Willa product – the Face the Day spf lotion. But the foaming face wash is a fave too. At that moment, I was just trying to be cool and not completely fangirl her…

Gina has the cutest style and spending the day with her was amazing and just, ahh.   The whole time she worked, she looked more like part of the shoot and not like someone who would be behind the camera! We got ready listening to Tegan and Sarah and had a taco break after the first look was shot. Then we got to play around with huge W I L L A balloons that Gina had brought! Yes, she’s a genius. Pretty much a perfect day.

Look here to see more from the Willa shoot on Gina’s blog and here to see more of Gina’s photography work. It’s so much better than wandering around on tumblr… Let me know what you think!

Photographer: Gina Kim

Stylist: Francesca Harrell

Models: Mila, Nieve, Willa, Cheyenne

Start with any T shirt. Short or long sleeved. Clean or dirty.

1. Cut off the neckline and the sleeve hems. You don’t HAVE to do this, but it looks cooler to have a raw edge.

2. Fold your Tshirt in half, making the fold along the center back.

3. Using a straight edge, lightly mark out the V shape you want to be shredded/ laddered. (If your t shirt is dark colored, you can use a white pencil)

4.- 5. Keep the T shirt folded and slice strips in towards the pencil line. About 1/4″ wide. Make the slices all the way down to the bottom of the V shape.

6. Lay your T shirt flat.

7. – 8. Gently stretch out each strip till it looks more stringy.

9. Bring the top string (A) down over the next lower string (B).

10. This is where it gets tricky so listen up. Pull the third string  (C) through A and B strings. Hold onto string C and string B and let string A lay flat. String A will be looped around string B.

11. Now pull the next string in the row (D) through Strings B and C as you just did with A,B, and C. Let string B lay flat.

12. Continue to ‘ladder’ all the way down till you have pulled the last string through.

13. – 14. Lift up the last string and snip at center. (Hang on to both ends)

15. Wrap the cut ends around the string above the cut string and double knot that string into the cut string.

16. – 17. Stretch the ladder apart. Stretch the T shirt apart. Tah-da!

You can thank me in the comments later when everyone is asking if you got your t shirt from Brandy Melville… And when you get really good at laddering, you can ladder anything -long sleeves or shirt fronts and sides! (Except skirts. Don’t ladder your skirt.)

I would LOVE to see how yours comes out! Post on instagram and tag #WillaPunkTshirt !

An open top bus tour? Field day? Filming that beach scene with Logan Lerman? (anything is possible) You are covered! In SPF. But what about the rest of the time?

Even if it’s raining. Even if you’re inside. Even if it’s raining AND snowing AND you’re inside- Wearing sunscreen all year round is super important. Your skin is still exposed to UV rays – the harmful ones. Not to be so ominous, but a girl needs to know…

The science lesson:

UVB rays are the rays that cause sunburn. There are more UVB rays in the summer time. yep.

UVA rays are the rays that penetrate to the deepest layers of skin and cause lasting damage and cancer risk. UVA rays are 95% of the sun’s UV radiation and are constant throughout the year. December feels like July if you’re a UVA ray.

The practical lesson:

Windows: UVA rays are NOT blocked by normal window glass such as in most home, office and school windows.

Car Windows: It’s the same as windows, except you probably don’t sit with one side of your face 4 inches from your home window for long stretches like you do in your car. (If you do actually sit like this, that’s cool too.) Windshields are treated to block UVA rays, but side windows are not.

Cloudy days: ‘Up to 40 percent of the sun’s ultraviolet radiation reaches the earth on a completely cloudy day’ (skincancer.org) Outdoor time can add up and if it’s day time, the sun still counts.

Indoor lighting: Some florescent lights emit UV rays. It’s not enough to explain wearing sunglasses in the mall, but it’s good to know. About 3% of your lifetime UV exposure will come from indoor lighting.

Computer screens: Modern LCD and plasma screens are proven to emit no UVA or UVB rays and are perfectly safe. (I heard that huge sigh of relief for your Tumblr addiction) Much much much older monitors do emit small amounts of UV, so if you’re desktop is retro you should look into it.

The take away:

To truly protect your skin, you should be wearing an SPF 15 all year round. Every day counts. So spread the word and pass the SPF!

Are you wearing SPF right. now. ?

Willa and friends were sharing Willa skincare samples with shoppers while wearing rotating ivivva outfits. What better time to think about skincare than when you are thinking about getting all sweaty? Willa On the Go lavender towelettes are perfect to put in dance/skate/gym/yoga bags for a quick way to remove dirt and oil before it has a chance to aggravate skin! And active girls need to think about reapplying sunscreen after sweating–even if you’re indoors.

Willa and her friends each put an ivivva look together and polled instagram to help make the tough final choice. The clothes are so comfortable one shopper said she felt like she forgot to put pants on! My favorite looks were the tailored hoodies and the absolutely enormous Dance to the Beat bag. And of course, most of it comes in purple at the moment!

But the can’t-live-another-day-without piece for Willagirls is an ivivva headband! These make the BEST face washing head bands. The Slipless Headband has a rubbery strip inside that holds hair back and holds the band to your head so you can wash your face without soaking your hair. Which is a disaster if you’re like me and have hair that’s practically allergic to humidity. I’ll take one in purple, please!

We were hanging out at the only store in New York state on 83rd street/ Amsterdam in NYC! But go to http://www.ivivva.com/about-ivivva/stores to see if you’re lucky enough to have a store near you.

…And I’m dying to know how you move – Dance? Soccer? Fencing? Track? Answer in comments..