Archive for May, 2006:
Just noticed a little “side effect” if that’s what you wanna call it, on the cold smoothing I got done. Just to clarify, I still LOVE what it did to my hair, and this is a very minor issue. It actually smells somewhat like a perm solution every time I wash my hair, and also when I style my hair with any heat elements like my hot iron or my regular 1 1/2 inch barrel iron – which by the way gets very very hot!
But that almost seems ridiculous to complain about, since it gave me frizz free curls. Still lovin it.
If you’ve been purchasing products to help smooth wrinkles and fine lines, you’ve probably seen this ingredient advertised in a few products that are geared for anti aging. Hyaluronic acid is actually an excellent ingredient to include in any anti aging wrinkle cream, but it’s also good for younger skin too, because it keeps the skin looking firm and supple, and also helps keep aging at bay.
What is Hyaluronic Acid?
Hyaluronic acid is a substance that is found naturally in skin. It is what keeps the skin firm and plump. This is exactly what the acid does when a potent and effective form of the substance is included in a cream or serum. I personally prefer to use hyaluronic acid in a serum or gel form, but I also like to combine it with my other skin care products. My favorites are vitamin C, DMAE and of course sun screen!
A good form of the substance must be obtained to achieve good results, so it’s important to find one that you feel comfortable manufactures with the highest possible purity standards and most natural ingredients. In other words, you might pay a little more than usual, but it’s worth it.
I’ve done this story a couple of times, but it never ceases to amaze me, the volume of problems this fairly commonly prescribed acne drug is apparently causing, and yet it is still being marketed. First, the obvious problem with this acne drug is that it causes serious birth defects if it is taken while a woman becomes pregnant. Such serious defects, that they may actually cause death in the infant. Either that, or the infant may be seriously deformed.Second, and a problem that came to light after the pregnancy issue, is depression so severe that some accutane patients even committed suicide, with virtually no signs of clinical depression. While there is currently an Accutane registry in force where every patient must be registered through a special program to be on the drug, it seems that there should possibly be more precautions or restrictions.
Have you seen those cool commercials for the Veet women’s shaving products? It’s a lathery cream that you put on your legs for a few minutes which is supposed to help inhibit hair growth, and then you use a “bladeless razor” to shave them with. Supposedly it gives you a longer time, hair free because it is a semi permanent or permanent body hair removal product.
I thought MAYBE it was the next best thing to laser hair removal, but I guess I won’t be finding that out til I can find the product! I searched WalMart and Target around me so far. Maybe it’s just so new it’s not on shelves yet, or perhaps only a certain carrier, like Walgreens or something carries it.
I’ll keep you posted!
Supposedly, giving your mom the gift of plastic surgery is all the rage in South Korea at the moment. Women are going out and buying their mothers gift certificates to get all kinds of cosmetic work done, from breast implants, to face lifts and Botox.
I think plastic surgery may be a little more affordable in South Korea though, because the news story I heard this morning said there were a lot of plastic surgery gift cards being sold for around $800. Here is the US that might only buy you one Botox session – or maybe one and a half!
Along with the Face Bra that Entertainment Tonight had to share with women who are looking for noninvasive anti aging treatments, was a powerful combo that a lot of the most sophisticated skin care specialists are offering, of microdermabrasion and laser technology, all in one day. The woman they showed getting the treatment seemed to have marked improvement after just one treatment.
She got the microderm first, then the lasering on the face and neck.
I was watching in interesting segment on (I think it was) Entertainment tonight about some of the options women now have that are noninvasive which reverse the signs of aging, and one of them was a “Face Bra”. Yeah, I never heard of it either! It really just looks like a bunch of long wraps similar to a wrap you’d wear for a sprained ankle or shin splints.
You wrap the various strips around your face and your forehead, and you look like a complete baffoon for about a half hour or fifteen minutes. I guess you have to keep wetting the thing when it gets dry too. When you take it off, your face is supposed to have a nice lift. I think they said it must be done every day.
The way I looked at this product is that it is probably ideal for women who are getting loose necks, to pull it back up, or to reduce excess “chin”. I didn’t really see too much of a difference on the woman who did it on ET.
I’ve read now, more than once, that drinking water with a little fresh squeezed lemon juice in it is actually good for your skin. Lemon juice supposedly has a somewhat clarifying quality for your skin, when it is taken internally. I’ve read that it helps your skin due to antioxidants, and an internal astringent quality that other citrus fruits may not have.
I guess this gives me a new reason to start saying “yes” to lemon in my water at restaurants, huh?
If you use tooth whitening toothpaste, you know there are tons of options out there. Some are ok, they say they “whiten” the teeth, but they don’t really whiten noticeably. And then there are some that really do whiten but are kind of bad if you have sensitive teeth because either they’re too abrasive, or they have harsh whiteners in them.
I’ve tried them all. My favorite so far is Rembrandt toothpaste products. They have a smoker’s whitening paste as well as a regular whitening paste.
I like using this in conjunction with the Listerine Whitening Mouthwash that I reviewed earlier on, and I do notice a huge difference in the whiteness of my teeth. Just one word of caution on the Listerine – you may only want to use it once a day, no more than twice, it can make your teeth a little sensitive if it’s over-used. You can get any tooth whitening product on the link to the left (Amazon Beauty) And cheap too.
Wanna protect your skin against premature aging, like age spots, and fine lines, and just drier, less toned skin in general? Make sure you are wearing SPF on you face – and hands if possible almost all of the time, or at least whenever you know you’ll be outside at all.
Today is a perfect case in point for me. I just went on my lunch break and even though it’s only about 55 degrees right now, the sun was so strong that it was beating down on my forehead – directly – and also my hands for about a half hour. That’s all it takes for sun damage to occur!
There was just an article in the paper that they’ve been doing tests on the ozone layer and it’s “improving”, but I don’t think this means jack squat, because it is practically beyond repair at this point, and we still get burned at a much faster rate than even ten, twenty years ago. So pile that stuff on!
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