Archive for October, 2007:
I recently started using a toothpaste that is supposed to help restore the enamel on your teeth from years of acid wear and tear. Believe it or not, enamel wear and not enough enamel on the teeth are very common problems, and most likely a big part of the reason our teeth get stained more easily and tend to look duller and be more sensitive to heats, cold, and sweets. I thought that I really needed to start to help replenishing the enamel on my teeth, because I did start to have the sensitivities described, and I also felt that my teeth were starting to look dull.
I have been an overzealous teeth-brusher ever since I can remember. I thought, well, I’m scrubbing really hard, so I’m doing a good, thorough job, and that’s what I should be doing. Turns out, I’ve been scrubbing too hard all these years, and not only does that hurt the enamel on your teeth by wearing it away faster than it should naturally, but brushing too hard can also contribute to gum recession.
Receding gums happens to also be a problem of mine that’s required two oral surgeries to repair so far, and will require more in the future (unfortunately, because to be honest gum surgery is one of the most unpleasant experiences I’ve ever had!) The Pronamel toothpaste is supposed to be used for no longer than 4 week periods at a time per the labeling, although I’m not sure why, and is said to help protect against acid wear and tear (we all eat acidy foods, including coffee and some highly acidic foods like tomatoes and some fruits, vinegars and other acid based foods), and also to help replenish your enamel.
Now, I’m not sure how a toothpaste can actually help to replenish the enamel that’s worn off, but every time I used this stuff, I feel like my teeth are stronger. They are squeaky clean every time you finish brushing, so much so that you can actually hear and feel the toothbrush squeaking against your teeth, so it does feel like it’s doing something, perhaps coating the teeth in a protective layer?
Overall, I like Pronamel toothpaste so far, and will continue to use it for as long as the label indicates. I will probably use it periodically for the rest of my life, to help protect my teeth against further enamel erosion.
And for a good reason. Headbands come in so many different fabrics and designs that almost anyone can find a headband that is flattering to their face and also holds their hair well. I myself prefer either a plastic or leather headband with teeth in it that grab the hair, so it holds firmly and I don’t find myself adjusting it or redoing it every half hour.
I also like the type that you have to wrap around your head twice that are simply fabric strips. Those are my favorite because they don’t hurt your head after a while of having them on like some of the plastic or rigid ones can do. You wouldn’t think that a headband would really cause that much pressure, but boy they sure can after they’ve been on your head for a while.
I especially love to wear a headband when I’m having a day where my hair just won’t cooperate with me. It’s easy to just throw a headband on, and it always looks really fun and cool with some more dramatic eye makeup, like a smokey look that still looks good during the day.
It also looks good with a bit of natural color on the upper cheekbones, since headbands can accentuate the cheekbones when they pull the hair back. It’s almost the most revealing hair style you can wear that reveals and flatter the shape of your face. You can also choose to keep some bangs up front to frame the face if you don’t think you look good without any framing bangs up front.
I’ve also seen some women wear a headband with a pony tail or even a half pony tail, which can be a trendy and cute way to put your hair up, especially if your hair is not cooperating!
I purchased the Juice Beauty Green Apple Peel (Full Strength) online a little while ago, and have had the opportunity to use it now about four times, once, sometimes twice a week. The product also comes in a reduced strength for those with sensitive skin, as the full strength one can irritate the skin, especially if you are prone to breaking out or your skin is easily irritated. I chose the full strength because my skin seems to be pretty resilient, and it’s been through the ringer, with the microdermabrasions and other peels I’ve put it through, so I figured, why not?!
It comes in a small jar, but it will last you a very long time if you just use it once or twice a week, because you don’t have to slather a lot of the product on, just a thin layer so that you get the product in contact with all of the facial skin and can feel the tingle. The product is a greenish color, but not an obnoxious green, more like a muted green – actually not a very attractive color, but Juice Beauty is all organic, and they don’t use artificial coloring in their products.
You may feel a bit of a sting when you first put the product on, depending on how sensitive your skin happens to be to these types of treatments. For me personally, I only feel a slight sting for about a minute after applying the product, and then for the next 14 minutes I leave it on, I really don’t feel it any more.
I upped the ante a little bit and actually started to apply the product after I exfoliated with my pumice peel. I wouldnt’ recommend it unless you know your skin’s threshold for acidity, and know it well. I only did it because I want more extreme results, and because I have thicker skin and a lot of leftover acne scarring that needs to be addressed, so I’m trying to accelerate the natural exfoliation of my skin cells at a more extreme rate. Again, I don’t recommend it unless you test it out on one little area first.
Overall, I really love this Green Apple Peel by Juice Beauty. I notice my skin is much brighter and smoother the next day, like a baby’s bottom, and actually has a bit of a glow to it for a whole day afterwards. I’ve only been using it now for about three weeks, and used it twice a week one of those weeks, which seemed to really help me get the results I wanted faster. It’s recommended for those that want to accelerate their skin cell turnover and reveal fresher skin. So in other words, anyone!
I finally broke down and bought the lip plumper “Two Faced Lip Injection” at Sephora a few weeks ago while I was out shopping with a friend. I had wanted to try this lip plumper for a while, but was torn on whether to purchase a new, unknown quantity to myself, or go with the old familiar of Lip Fusion since both are offered at the store. Being the eternal experimentalist, and because it was also less expensive than Lip Fusion, I decided to take the plunge and try Two Faced Lip Injection.
I had also received a free sample of the stuff, and wanted to try the extra strength version of the lip plumper because I did enjoy the sample I was given. The extra strength version works pretty well. I can’t speak for the regular version fo Two Faced, but it is cheaper than the “super” version of the product. I wonder why it’s extra strength though, I often think this is just a marketing ploy to charge additional money for a product without adding extra ingredients sometimes, but for this it was the only one I knew worked, so I purchased it.
I like the product in a nutshell. I don’t find that it leaves my lips very moisturized though like some other lip plumpers I’ve reviewed, but it does give more of an automatic plump to the lips I noticed. It is very shiny, and tastes a tad bit like cinnamon, but has more of a cherry flavor or some other nondescript taste to it that is reminiscent of the roll on lip glosses of yesteryear. My other complaint is that the moisture is extremely short lived, and the stuff does come off fairly easily, so it has to be reapplied often, or you need to apply a coat of some extremely emollient lip balm after it has dried and sunk in.
Same as with other lip plumpers, you have to make sure your lips are completely dry and free of debris when you apply Two Faced Lip Injection lip plumper to your lips or it will not work to it’s maximum benefit. You also probably will gain a bit of benefit and more plumping power if you widen your lips and make a big smile when you apply it, so it gets in all those little crevices and plumps them out.
I do really like the shiny, glossy and sheer look of Two Faced, but it just doesn’t last long enough in the moisture department. Not sure if I’d purchase it again, as I am more into the lip plumpers that also work as a conditioner and moisturizer, and this one falls short on that. Great as a natural way to instantly plump the lips though….
This came as somewhat of a jolt to the women out there who wear lipstick on a daily basis, or even just a couple times a weak. Apparently many popular brands of lipstick contain a potentially toxic heavy metal that’s gotten a bad rap for years as being a toxin in the body – lead. Lead was required to be removed from many paints, childrens toys and tons of other products as an additive years ago by the FDA, since it was found thad lead is a toxin to the human body.
This is particularly alarming since lipstick goes on the lips, and the lips absorb everything the sits on them, so it can potentially be making its way directly into your blood stream. THe whole problem is that the FDA has not yet set a safety level for the heavy metal in lipstick yet, so technically these companies are really doing nothing wrong or illegal (perhaps unethical from a responsibility to consumers standpoint though in my opinion) by having lead in their red lipstick. It only mentioned red by the way, and I assume this is to achieve the darker pigmentation of reds.
About half the lipsticks tested of various brands, including Cover Girl, Christian Dior and L’Oreal (one of my favorites in other areas, but I don’t buy their lipstick) had lead in them. About one third of all the lipsticks tested had lead that was over the safety level designated for candy in them, and that’s not good, since lipstick is basically eated and swallowed many times, just like candy is, and can be easily absorbed by the body on the lips.
Here’s the good news though. 39% of the lipsticks tested by the consumer advocacy group had no traceable lead whatsoever in them. The panel is urging cosmetic companies to take all lead out of its lipsticks, as it is apparently possible to make lipsticks without the toxic substance in it. We’ll see if they take the bait. I’m sure the panel doing these tests has drawn some attention, and at least as a good PR move, some of these cosmetic giants will at least address the problem. You may want to look up the lipsticks that contain the lead though online, since your lipstick could potentially be one of them.
I may have a new favorite lingering in the wings to take over my current favorite lip balm, and it’s by none other than Burt’s Bees. A tube of this stuff, the size of a tube of Chap Stick, is a newer products in their lip care line, which happens to be one of their best selling lines now. It’s called Pomegranate Replenishing Lip Balm, or just “with Pomegranate oil” as it says on the label.
It’s really for nourishing and moisturizing more so than their other balms, which seem to be more aimed at protecting the lips, although most of them do not have SPF in them, which I consider a major drawback, as I’ve had burnt lips many times before and they’re not fun!
The Burts Bees pomegranate lip balm is neat because it is a bright reddish color, and yet only gives a very subtle hint of pigment when applied, almost as a cherry chapstick would, but with more of a sheen, which is what I like about it. It’s not waxy at all, which tends to be a problem with a lot of lip balms, in my book at least. It also doesn’t seem so oily that it just wears off in ten minutes either, so it’s a nice blend between the two.
And now onto the best part about Burt’s Bees new lip balm with pomegranate oil. It tastes and smells like something that you just want to eat. It’s a very strong smell and taste, and I did look on the label since I thought this had to be partly artificial, and it looks like it might be, but I can’t be sure as it just has the last ingredient as “fragrance”. I don’t really care in this case, because the flavor and smell are so good, that it’s almost a novelty wearing it just for that fact alone. For $3 a tube, I’d say go for it and try this new and fun Burt’s Bees product!
Sunburns can be one of the biggest beauty faux pas, and when it comes to keeping your skin healthy and youthful looking for as long as possible, you must keep sunburns away, or at least severely at a minimum. This is a critical part of anyones anti aging and wrinkle prevention program. Protect, protect, protect! Everyone loves to go outside on a sunny day. No matter how many times we hear that we always need to protect our skin with sunblock, there are those times we forget or we miss a few spots with the sunblock.
The best protection from sunburn is prevention. But if you do wind up with a sunburn, there are some natural remedies you can use to relieve the pain and speed healing. First of all, drink lots of water to replenish the needed moisture for your skin. Don’t drink caffeinated drinks or alcohol as they are diuretics and will cause you to lose moisture.
Try a cool to lukewarm bath and add some baking soda or oatmeal. Cool slices of cucumber placed directly on the skin will soothe your sunburn. Other items you may use for soothing are cold yogurt or a bit of vinegar.
Your quality of diet following a sunburn will effect healing. A diet rich in antioxidants will speed the healing process for your skin. You should include 5 or 6 servings of foods high in antioxidants per day. Some examples of these foods would include citrus, berries, mango, papaya, dark leafy greens, broccoli, nuts, seeds and legumes.
For the itchiness of your skin from the sunburn, try cold compresses or calamine lotion. Scratching your skin should be avoided because it will only increase pain and the chance of infection.
Ointments made with aloe or a paste made with the Indian herb, country mallow, can help to soothe and cool your sunburn. Do not apply to broken skin.
You can mix your own soothing combination for sunburn relief. Take the contents of 6 capsules of vitamin A and 6 capsules of vitamin E and mix with 1/4 cup of flaxseed oil. Apply this mixture to the affected area.
As your sunburn starts to peel, don’t pull, but gently remove any dried fragments. Topically apply hydrocortisone cream or antiseptic ointment to the area.
If sunburn is severe, with chills, fever, nausea or swelling, then it is an emergency and you could have second degree burns. In this situation, you would bypass home remedies and seek the care of a physician.
So, I am almost out of my multi purpose moisturizer, which at the moment happens to be one that’s good and I like, but I always feel the need to experiment, so I decided to go to the drug store and scope out the Oil of Olay anti aging line Regenerist, which I’ve read some good reviews on, and see if they had one that I could use at night as an allover moisturizing treatment. I figured if I like this one for night time, I will then maybe consider buying a lighter daytime formula in the same line later on.
I read the front of the package, and Olay really knows how to market their products and grab you, because it says you will “wake up looking like you had a mini lift” or something along those lines. That sold me, chump I am 
So, I took it home, and as with all the other new products I’ve ever bought, was totally excited to try this new product which was surely the one product that would really make my skin look like a million bucks. Well, it’s not that great, but I do like it so far, and that’s good enough for me. I really like the fact that this formula uses amino peptides, which are getting pretty good reviews as an essential anti aging and wrinkle cream ingredient so far, and is included in the popular and effective Revitol skin care product line for aging skin.
Olay Regeneris Night Recovery Moisturizing treatment is a very heavy cream formula that is purple in color, which I have to admit, was a bit of a turnoff for me. I really like creams that are usually free of dyes, so I prefer white and off white creams, but I figured I could get over that if I liked the feel of the product. The product is extremely thick, but not in a bad way, it’s just really emollient.
It goes on well, and doesn’t seem to leave a greasy residue at all, but it does feel “different” on your skin from other heavier night creams that I’ve tried. I think night creams are formulated this way so that they almost act as a barrier against the environment, and almost like a night mask, but I’m not a huge fan of the way they feel going on.
Now, I didn’t wake up looking like I’d had a mini lift, but I did love the way my skin felt the next morning, and it certainly wasn’t wanting for moisture. I’m going to use this product all the way through on my face and neck, and still use my regular moisturizer during the day, and I’ll update you again on if it’s made my skin improve at all in tone, texture or fine lines over the next month or two.