Archive for May, 2009:
I swear, if I had a nickel for every time an awesome, great working product in the beauty arena was discontinued that I use, I’d be rich. I finally ran out of my makeup sponges that I would always purchase from Wal-Mart. I remember loading up on them about two years ago because I had this nagging feeling that they might be discontinued because they were too good to be true. They were just as good as the more expensive makeup foundation sponges like the Laura Mercier ones that get rave reviews but run like twenty bucks for four, but these only costs about a dollar each.
They came in an egg shape, so they worked just perfect for applying foundation, and they gave you a flawless finish. Not only that, but you could wash them – I would hand wash them and let them air dry, and they would still work just as well, although I will say that the more soaked with foundation they got, the better they worked. They actually took a few uses to break them in, and once there was enough foundation soaked in to the sponges, they would work flawlessly.
Well, I went to Wal-Mart just two days ago because I finally ran out and my last one began to shred, so I need to break down and get more. And of course, they’ve been discontinued. Not only did I go to three different Wal-marts, hoping maybe just one discontinued them or they were just out of stock, and could not find them at any of them. So I finally gave up after looking online at Wal-mart.com and still not seeing them but instead seeing some crappy new ones they had that were just like any other flimsy, airy and totally non useable sponge applicator.
Well, the good news is, I found comparable sponges at K-Mart in a neighboring town. KMarts are hard to find because so many of them have closed and out of business, but this one had the egg shaped foundation sponges in a different brand, but they were definitely the same consistency of my beloved discontinued ones, almost a combination of latex and sponge, so they were almost a slippery but gripping texture. I bought one to try it out, it cost about 2.50 so if it works, I’ll be ecstatic!
The brand name of this new makeup sponge is Image Essentials, and it appears to be a K-Mart brand because it has a “shop at K-Mart.com logo on the back. It’s called a precise coverage Ultimate Blending Sponge. They have a high density so they don’t just suck up your foundation like most other makeup sponges. Looks like a winner!
Often, after pregnancy, women will lose the baby weight but retain the stretch marks on their abdominal area. Other factors that can lead to the development of stretch marks are rapid weight gain or the rapid growth spurts of adolescence. Stretch marks primarily affect women but they can occur in men also.
Stretch marks are caused by enzymes in the dermis. When the dermis becomes inflamed, this causes discolorations and skin depressions. Stretch marks happen when the skin is forcibly distended as in pregnancy or other situations. Stretch mark creams help to make the skin more naturally stretchy and resilient, so they can both help prevent oncoming stretch marks and also help to treat and reduce the appearance of existing stretch marks.
Stretch marks can be treated by laser treatments or dermabrasion which can be costly and can be harsh. Topically, there is a cream that is on the market for the treatment of stretch marks called Celtrixa.
Celtrixa is a non-prescription cream that contains the active ingredient called Registril. Celtrixa can be used as a preventive measure to protect against the development of stretch marks or actively to reduce the appearance of stretch marks that have already developed.
Celtrixa reduces the skin depressions of stretch marks and slows the breakdown of collagen and elastin. Scientifically, Celtrixa was found to promote the synthesis of collagen and fibronectin, which are essential to the skin’s health and vitality.
Celtrixa is sold with a 30 day money back guarantee and is convenient to use and less hassle than the more invasive procedures such as dermabrasion or laser treatments. If you have the problem of stretch marks, it is worth trying a topical cream that is non-prescription first before turning to more invasive and expensive procedures. With warm weather season here, it would be nice to solve this dilemna in time for swimsuit season.
Other products available for the treatment of stretch marks that are topical contain primarily shea butter and vitamin E.
Stretch marks are a big problem that a lot of women face, but it’s not just women alas, but also men who have problems with getting stretch marks. Anyone can get them, it’s just that women are the only ones who can get pregnant, which is one of the hazards most known for getting the little marks that look like reddish, purple or white scars on the body due to short bursts of weight gain or growing followed by loss of that growth.
We’ve included a new informative page here at My Beauty Space all about stretch mark creams and which ones we like best and which also have some of the best reputations for being effective against these unfortunate side effects of rapid growth. It’s called stretch mark cream reviews, appropriately, and we talk about what causes them as well as how these two creams contrast and why one may be better than the other in preventing versus treating stretch marks because of their different formulas.
You’ve probably all heard about how a lot of women go into stretch mark anticipation mode when they first get pregnant, slathering creams and concoctions on their bellies in hopes that they will avoid one of the best known side effects of pregnancy. There is some truth to the fact that stretch marks can be prevented by effectively treating the skin with ingredients that help to promote elasticity and guide the skin toward higher collagen production. You see, the more collagen your skin pumps out, the more protected you are against stretch marks since collagen essentially strengthen the bonds of the skin and makes the skin more elastic and resilient to stretching and scarring.
You may even have stretch marks now, even if you’ve never been pregnant. You see, many people even get them as children or teens during growth spurts, because essentially the body cannot keep up with the growth, and the skin gets stretched too much, making it harder for it to snap back into place without some signs of trauma, which are the stretch marks. Various creams and treatments for stretch marks have been used for years to both help prevent them and also to treat and lighten them up with varying degrees of success.
I’ve always been curious about these so called “tanning supplements” that I’ve seen here and there for a couple years now, so I did a search on which ones used different methods other than a phoney colorant that is not good for you since it supposedly can deposit orange color into your organs (yeah, talk about a bad idea). I was looking for something that claimed to help the body up it’s protection against getting burnt, maybe something that could help increase your melanin production, at least temporarily if you are a person who is pale and needed to be in the sun.
I’m personally interested in this because I know when I take my honeymoon some day, we’ll be going to Hawaii or somewhere else tropical, and I’m certainly not avoiding the sun the whole time, and wouldn’t mind having a little tan – not burn – TAN. So through my search I found a supplement that is called Tan-Aid. Tan Aid is a tanning supplement that is supposed to help your body increase melanin production immediately before you will be out in the sun fro any period of time. It does not specifically claim that it protects against suburn, but some of the women who used it claimed that when they would have normally been burnt, they instead tanned while on this product.
As far as whether it does provide any sort of protection, obviously that’s a dangerous statement to make, but if it truly can help your body produce more of a defense against burning, that’s an added bonus. It’s primary ingredient is L-Tyrosine, which is supposed to be an intermediary chemical to melanin production in the human body. It also contains a few B vitamins and some other ingredients. I’m not sure how those ingredients are supposed to synergistically work together to help you tan rather than burn though.
As an aside, these days it is hard to know what you should do. Avoid the sun like the plague? Use sunscreen but still go out in the sun? Of course tanning beds are a no no, but there is a lot of evidence coming out that complete avoidance of the sun contributes to vitamin D deficiency in a big way, and may even make you more prone to certain cancers, and less able to fend them off should you get them. I believe that a little sun is fine, just DON’T GET BURNT. This is the mechanism that causes cells to multiply irregularly and leads to skin cancers.
Believe it or not, studies have been done that show people who are out in the sun regularly, such as construction workers, since they are more accustomed to sun exposure, may actually be more protected since their skin is used to the exposure. Talk about conflicting messages. Prudence is best. Use sunscreen, but I don’t think anyone, especially women, should totally avoid the sun since we are susceptible to breast cancer if vitamin D is deficient. And always test out the latest self tanners to get a nice, deep, natural looking tan (with my help in application tips of course), and you can still be tan without all that sun exposure.
The FDA is now officially warning people that using Botox, whether for cosmetic purposes or for muscle spasming purposes and other less conventional uses for the originally cosmetic purpose, there are small chances that there could be serious side effects, even some fatal (which is indeed very rare). This drug was approved by the FDA for cosmetic purposes as an anti aging tool against wrinkles since, when injected into localized sites on the face, it relaxes the muscles that cause wrinkles such as crows feet, smile lines, laugh lines, and forehead creases. Those smooth foreheads you see in Hollywood even on forty something actresses? Most likely due to Botox!
The most incidents they have seen that are serious are in children that have cerebral palsy, and have recieved injections of Botox to avoid the muscle spasms that are uncontrollable which are a hallmark of cerebral palsy. What happens is that the toxin travels from the site that it was injected at, and causes muscle paralysis or partial paralysis in areas that it’s not supposed to. This can result in shallow breathing, labored swallowing and other potentially very dangerous side effects.
The FDA has said that while Botox injections have not been specifically approved for the use in patients with cerebral palsy, they do not want to discourage it’s use for them since this does really help a lot of young patients with uncontrollable muscle spasms, but they do want them and their parents to understand the risks involved with this choice in treatment. As far as actual Botox use for cosmetic purposes, there have not really been that many difficulties reported, perhaps because of the age of the patients as well as the fact that the injection sites are very shallow and have a smaller risk of migrating.
I have to admit, that as I age and the creases become more noticeable around my eyes, I’ve found Botox to become a bit more appealing, but after reading things like this and the fact that they really don’t have much long term data about possible long term side effects of Botox, it still makes me hesitant. I think I’m sufficiently keeping the signs of aging at bay by using my preferred choice of anti aging and wrinkle treatments, so I’ll keep taking my chances going natural for now!
When I first read about this, I thought well, why did her parents allow her to go to a tanning bed in the first place, at the young and naive age of ten years old? But then I realized that there may not be the same rules of having attended tanning salons over in Britain as there are here. That is where this occurred by the way, in Britain.
I still had to wonder about the parental oversight here, but when I read the whole story, it was revealed that the young girl went to the salon, which was unmanned, out of curiosity and without her mother’s permission or knowledge, on her way walking home with a friend. At any rate, this is a terrible story of how tanning beds can really ruin the skin, especially if one overstays their welcome in them or is extremely fair to begin with.
Looking at the picture of the ten year old girl who was burnt after 16 minutes in a tanning bed, she is very fair, and should have never been in a tanning bed. Here in the US that would have never happened because you have to be of the age of consent, or at least have a parent sign a consent slip for you, to go tanning. All responsible tanning salons also will not let pale people go in over a certain amount of minutes, nor will they let you go in without goggles.
Apparently after her 16 minute stay in the tanning bed, her mother says she came home and said she was not feeling well. At that point her cheeks were just pink. She began to get progressively more red, and said she felt cold although she was hot to the touch. Her mother took her to the hospital immediately out of concern, where it was discovered that the young woman had burns on over 70% of her body. The medical staff were even horrified that this poor young woman suffered what she did, and there is now an outcry to man all tanning salons so this does not happen again.
The girl has been advised to not go into direct sunlight for at least the next ten years because of the damage and trauma done to her skin. This is exactly why I love my self tanners. If I could just go back and in time and take away all that tanning I did when I was younger and didn’t really understand the consequences to both my health and my skin’s appearance…..I guess there’s no use crying over spilled milk, it’s just from here forward that counts now.
Girls (ehem, women) are so fun to buy for. Ask me any day who I’d rather buy for, my girlfriends, sister or mom, or my boyfriend and I’ll quickly answer any girl in my life before him. Not that I don’t love him – I do! Guys are just hard to buy for, and when you do have some ideas, it’s not really the most fun thing to go out and shop for. It’s always something like a hard drive, a tv, or some other random electronic device. Once in a while I’ll get something fun like an item of clothing or some cologne, but even that I’m buying at my own risk.
Now that brings us to Mother’s Day, which is quickly approaching on Sunday May 10th. Mom’s are fun to buy for – at least let me speak for mine, she’s very fun to buy for, because she always wants a ton of different, little things. Not only that, she loves lotions and hair care products, and new cosmetic ideas, so I find that I’m discovering new ideas in skin care when I shop for mom occasions.
One idea that’s getting popular for Mother’s Day is to treat your hard working mom to a day at the spa, or a massage. At a full service spa, your mom can enjoy things like a full service manicure and pedicure, a facial, different cellulite treatments if that’s her gig, waxing, hair dressing and treatments, and a whole catalogue of pampering, beautifying ideas that almost any woman would love to be treated to for a day.
With a gift certificate to a nice spa, she can pick any time she wants, so when she’s feeling especially stressed out and in need of some beauty treatments and good old fashioned pampering, she can go. I like the idea of buying a gift certificate that allows them to choose what services they get. Sometimes spas will run specials on gift certificates where you can buy them up to a certain amount, and the user can pick from a variety or combination of pampering services. That’s the best way because what sounds fun and relaxing, or even necessary to you, may not be your mom’s cup of tea that day.
Move over SmartLipo, there is a newer, and claimed to be better, fat removal technique and tool that has the same benefits of SmartLipo, the fact that there is much less downtime than in traditional liposuction, less bruising and swelling, and less invasiveness, that has bumped SmartLipo out of the newest fad spot in localized fat removal and inch reduction. It’s called Smooth Lipo, and it’s by a brand name dubbed “Smooth Shapes”. It does not specifically address cellulite reduction, but it does say that many patients may experience a tightening in the skin after the minimally invasive procedure is done, resulting in less visibility of cellulite.
The supposed benefits that make this a little more efficient than the already fairly efficient SmartLipo procedure are that the laser is supposed to be specifically geared toward the liquification and destruction of adipose cells, so it does not really interfere with anything else, and is guided to only the cells it’s designed to remove, so it’s a more efficient fat tissue targeting agent, and more fat may be removed as a result of that (or may not, they seem to be careful not to make outlandish claims even on their site).
I couldn’t find anything about the cost of Smooth Lipo on their website, but I’d imagine that it’s about the same as SmartLipo and traditional liposuction, which runs around 3,000 per body area. It’s still a pretty expensive procedure, but if you have tried dieting and exercise and still can’t seem to get rid of certain pockets of targeted fat, than you may want to look into something like this if you have the money and are so inclined to spend it this way.
They do caution that this is not a permanent fix against gaining back in those areas again. If you overeat or stop exercising, you will gain the weight back again in those areas and then some, your fat just sort of redistributes itself, so this is not something that should be viewed as a weight loss mechanism at all, in fact it should not be viewed as a replacement for dieting and exercise either, because if you do not incorporate those into your daily routine to begin with, you will just end up putting it back on anyways.
