Archive for the ‘Beauty News’ Category:
We all know that those photos that we all envy in the fashion and beauty magazines are retouched beyond belief. It should be a relief to know that though, because often times women try to emulate these pictures of beautifully flawless skin and seemingly size zero waists.
Although most of us wouldn’t mind a little photoshopping when we’re getting our pictures snapped to take a little bit off of our butts and maybe cinch in our wasitlines as well, there is definitely a line that shouldn’t be crossed, and they crossed it with the most popular plus size model today, Crystal Renn.
Ms Renn is a plus size model who has taken the industry by storm after modeling on the “normal” circuit for models, which means you basically starve yourself all the time, and getting sick of it and then becoming her normal, healthy weight, which happens to be a size ten for the tall stunner.
She became sort of a poster child for protesting the use of too-thin models in advertising and on the runways, and her gorgeous looks still propelled her to the top of the plus size model market. Let’s face it, most of us are not what is considered model thin, and models like Crystal represent what most American women look like today, which is a curvy, yet happy and healthy woman.
Well, a big controversy developed because Crystal was seen in an ad campaign looking like she was wittled down to a size two. Apparently the photos were retouched – a lot, and without the model’s blessing.
She said that she was upset because it sends the wrong message, that a plus size model needs to be airbrushed in order to be sexy or acceptable in the fashion world. She suffered with anorexia and bulimia for years in the modeling industry, which is a testament to the incredible stress that these women are under to stay ridiculously thin.
Let’s face it, most of us don’t have the metabolism of a humming bird, and we have to dramatically, almost punishingly reduce our calories in order to maintain that type of waifish physique for any period of time. Being through an eating disorder myself when I was younger, I can tell you that it’s very hard to beat, and it feels like your own personal hell until you can beat it.
The more I hear about Botox, the less I think I want to ever try it. And I was actually open to the idea of trying it out when I reached 40 years old, just as a sort of preventive measure against further wrinkles and sagging in my facial skin, and particularly on my forehead as well as the developing crow’s feet around my eyes. I thought well, they haven’t really come out with any studies that show it’s toxic, so why not?
Well, a lot of new developments have made me rethink this possible anti aging strategy. One, there are no real long term toxic studies on these injections, and let’s not forget that the botulinum used in the formula is indeed still a toxic protein that in extreme cases can cause full paralyses and even death when consumed. So, why would it not ever absorb into the body with each injection, and stay there forever, building to toxic levels?
That potential scares me, I won’t lie. So I’ve really resorted to more natural options first, being in my mid thirties. I use anti wrinkle creams that are high grade and natural, and I try to avoid any exposure to sunlight at all on my facial area, using a natural sunscreen by Dr. Mercola on it so that the sun’s rays don’t damage my skin there and also so that the potential toxins that are in most sunscreens don’t screw with my skin or my health either.
Then I read that Botox can actually cause wrinkles, because it makes other areas of your face show the emotions that the injected areas can’t, creating more wrinkles in another area. So in other words, damned where you don’ t get the injections, and it’s almost like you have to freeze your entire face and look like a freak to not get new wrinkles ANYWHERE on your face. And who wants to be an unemotive person?
The last thing I heard which pretty much cemented my decision to forgo ever trying Botox as an anti aging and wrinkle prevention strategy was that it may actually prevent you from FEELING emotions as deeply as you normally would. That’s right, the fact that your face can express emotions such as crying, getting upset, smiling, laughing and all that good stuff that makes you – well – human – actually triggers deeper emotional responses in your brain that help you to actually feel things on a deeper level.
While that may be good for emotions like anger, frustration and sadness, it’s not good because you also may not be able to feel joy as deeply, and who wants to live like that!?
While I was vacationing in South Carolina and then Virginia for a few days, I was in a lot of drug stores, snooping around, seeing if they had anything different in the way of beauty products that I don’t typically see here in Ohio. I found one that is in Ohio, but that I thought was an interesting concept in self tanning and hair removal or at least in minimizing shaving your legs that I bought. The product is by Nivea and it’s called Sun-Kissed Beautiful Legs Shave Minimizing gradual self tanning moisturizer. Quite a mouth full!
But that describes the product in a nutshell. It is supposed to help cut back on hair growth on your legs, and also gradually self tan them with a subtle self tanner. The bottle is ten bucks, and it is almost 7 ounces. If you use it on just your legs (I used it on my whole body the first time), it will last you quite a few tans. It’s a white cream, which I like because even though I do like the instant tan of a tinted self tanner and the instantly dewy look it gives your skin, I don’t like those types of self tanners when I’m planning on putting it on right before bed time.
It will stain your sheets, especially if they are lighter. Here’s the kicker about this product thought. I do think it helped my leg hair, maybe it made it softer, but I don’t think it actually inhibited it’s growth. I think their selling point may be that since your legs are tanner, the hair is less noticeable, because they don’t specifically claim that there are any hair growth inhibiting ingredients in it on the back label.
It says that with daily use, your hair will look less noticeable and you’ll have a beautiful tan. But I did notice there was some sort of starch in the ingredients list, and I did notice that it had a different feel to the cream itself when I put it on my legs, so I wonder if that was somehow supposed to soften the hair that was there. I’m too impatient to put it on several days in a row, so I would skip a day or two in between, which may have defeated the purpose of the shave minimizing part.
It does give a nice, subtle tan though in a few uses, and it doesn’t get splotchy at all, so I’d recommend it for your legs. As far as the shave minimizing part, you may need to use it every day to enjoy those benefits a bit more.
I read the most interesting article the other day. It got my attention because it said you should skip the popular anti aging injection Botox, and instead make sure you floss your teeth, so naturally I was interested in what they had to say. I’ve never had Botox injections, but I certainly try to use the best topical anti aging and anti wrinkle creams and products on my face to help keep it looking smooth and youthful.
I also happen to floss every night, because I do believe that flossing is key to gum and tooth health, and because I also happen to have a problem with gum recession, which is prominent in my mom’s side of the family. Apparently though, flossing may be key to keeping that youthful look as long as possible according to new findings. If you floss, you keep gum disease at bay, and also help keep your teeth in place where they should be for a much longer time, which makes you look younger.
Aging of you mouth actually has a lot to do with how young you look. They say that yellowing, stained teeth and receding gums can really add to your years in appearance, and also it has another impact that we may not have thought about.
Flossing actually helps keep the bones that hold your teeth in place in top shape. Because when you get gum disease, it often impacts the bones that are underlying in your jaw and elsewhere in your mouth, flossing helps prevent shifting and loss of bone mass. New research has also shown that your jaw and other facial structural bones, wear away with time, and this is something that cannot be fixed with surgery, which may explain why facelifts often look strange.
They don’t address the whole problem, which is a combination of sagging skin and the loss of bone mass underneath, which creates an overall less angled look. So you basically lose a lot of your underlying facial structure as you age, and flossing can help keep that structure in the right place, helping to keep you looking younger for years longer, which is something that no wrinkle filling dermal filler, face freezing injections or facial surgery can currently do.
In a startling new uncovering, or perhaps something that was known or suspected but buried to general knowledge for a long time, it has been found that many sunscreens may actually contribute to, or speed up the development of, skin cancer. That means that in addition to the many chemicals that are linked to cancer in sunscreens, like parabens and other toxic chemicals, the commonly used Vitamin A derivatives are also thought to accelerate the growth of deadly skin cancers as well.
What I found really alarming about this news on Vitamin A as well was the fact that many of us use vitamin and it’s derivatives to help reduce the signs of aging in our skin. Most notably, one of my personal favorites, retinol is even implicated!
However, what I’ve read doesn’t make it clear whether or not it’s the combination of vitamin A products AND the sun that cause the increased risk, or if just merely putting these products on your skin at night (like they do recommend for retinol products anyways) is going to increase your odds of skin cancer.
The dangerous ingredients to avoid, thus far, and this does not include parabens and other common chemicals put into skin care products like lotions, deodorants and other toiletries and beauty products, are retinol (during the day at least, as far as we know), retinyl palmitate (a derivative of vitamin A), and oxybenzone, which is thought to also promote cancer and also may interrupt the proper hormone balance of the body.
Dr. Mercola is a naturalopathic doctor who has a huge website online. I subscribe to his newsletters, and I think, although I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says 100% of the time, he has some very valid points and also happens to have some excellent products that I’ve tried that are all natural.
I decided to try his natural sunscreen, an SPF 30, because I started reading the labels on store bought sunscreens with traditional labels like Coppertone, Banana Boat and other popular brands, and saw a bevy of preservatives that are known toxins to the skin and body, and other chemical names that I didn’t even recognize.
I started to think, in my quest to be healthier by shield my skin to damage UV rays, I might actually be doing more harm than good by slathering on chemicals that inevitably leach into your blood stream. So, I bought two of his natural sun products actually. One, I bought the Mercola natural sunscreen, and two I bought the Natural Tanning oil. Both come with green tea, which I like, because green tea is a great antioxidant, and is good for the skin both internally and externally, helping to reverse and stave off free radical damage.
Both products are eco friendly and biodegradable, which is a good sign that they are also non toxic to apply to human skin. I bought the tanning oil too, because I do occasionally like to enjoy short bouts in the sun without mega sunscreen, so I can ensure I get my daily dose of vitamin D, which is proving to be ever more important in the grand scheme of things. I love the tanning oil. It has a ton of good for your skin ingredients.
You MUST shake it well before every use, to make sure the extract and oils all mix together so you get maximum benefit. It’s made of sunflower oil, green tea extract, coconut oil, which is a great skin protector, almost oil, lanolin, vitamin E, eucalyptus oil, and vitamin C. No unrecognizable chemical names – nice huh!? I have never gotten burned using this oil, and it feels great going on. I feel like it’s also protecting my skin, and I’m not putting any toxic chemicals on, so I feel safe leaving it on all day after the sun too.
The Mercola sunscreen is great too. This one you must shake well before each use also. It also contains green tea extract. In addition to almost the same ingredients as the tanning oil, it contains only the natural sunscreens in it of zinc oxide, a natural compound, and titanium dioxide, another naturally occurring compound. No parabens or other potentially cancer linked chemicals – and it works great.
You do have to reapply after going in the water, but it’s totally non toxic and you don’t feel like it’s plugging every pore when you put it on.Even the smell isn’t all “chemically” like you’re used to smelling when you open a bottle of traditional sunscreen. I’m sold!
Well, I know whenever there is any health related or beauty related news about chocolate, I’m all ears. Let’s face it, us women are genetically programmed to love chocolate. I don’t know many women who flat out don’t like chocolate, and there’s a reason why. It’s been proven that chocolate actually stimulates your “happy” natural chemicals that start buzzing around in your body. The mere act of putting a piece of delicious chocolate in your mouth can start your taste buds afire and ignite your happy mood.
Now, there’s evidence that chocolate, of course, of the dark variety since it has more of those super powerful antioxidants in it compared to lighter milk chocolate, may also help your skin to glow. It makes sense, since antioxidants in general tend to add to your skin’s youthful glow. The reason that dark chocolate may help lend to your skin’s supple, smooth glow is that it helps to fight aging.
Antioxidants, which certain chocolate bars are rich in, attack molecules called free radicals. Free radicals are the destroyers of healthy skin cells. Because they destroy healthy skin cells and can even cause skin cell death and mutation, they contribute to aging. When antioxidants are in the blood stream, they attack these free radicals, allowing more healthy skin cells to stay healthy, which means your skin looks better, for a longer time.
Now, a Swiss chocolate maker is going to make chocolate even more special. They are working on creating a chocolate bar that has tons of flavanols, which are powerful antioxidants, in it. This means even more anti aging ingredients which benefit the skin by preserving youthful attributes like elasticity, healthy tone and color, smoothness (no wrinkles), and lift.
This chocolate may be a great seller if it actually helps to do what it says. The only thing you have to watch out for with any chocolate is not to over do it. Even if it’s dark, minimally sweetened chocolate, it still contains sugar and calories. Sugar actually aids in the aging process because a high sugar diet helps to make the collagen cells rigid and fragile, which makes them break down quicker.
Collagen is an extremely important component in your skin’s elasticity, resilience and health as you age, and the depletion of collagen aids in the acceleration of the aging process of the skin. You can help boost collagen production by using anti aging products that have exfoliants in them, which increase cell turnover and help to increase collagen production.
I have to admit, I’m liking Jessica Simpson a little more these days than I used to. I used to think she was sort of this poster child for bubble headed, big breasted blonds getting high up on the food chain in Hollywood for not doing much more than singing and having a reality show. Now, I think she’s coming into her own a little bit more, ripening and maturing and finally starting to see that you don’t have to act a certain way or look a certain way, just being your goofy self is charming enough.
She seems more self deprecating too, and I’ll also admit that I got hooked into watching one of her “Price of Beauty” shows where she travels allover the place and examines the beauty trends and ideals. Sure, the show if pure fluff, but dammit, it’s kinda fun to watch!
In an issue of Marie Claire magazine a few weeks ago, Jessica did the “brave” thing of not wearing any makeup for a photo shoot and working with just air dried hair. That’s right, no fancy flat ironing, curling irons, blow dryers or anything like that. No sir! This is supposedly how Jessica Simpson gets up in the morning and looks. She looks exactly like I pictured her with no makeup. She’s naturally pretty, so you can see why she wears makeup really well. She’s got good bone structure and she has naturally great hair, so even her un-messed with hair looked really good.
And of course, you have the ridiculous, supposedly natural cleavage that looks great too! Go Jessica, it’s nice to see a makeunder that actually looks genuine, instead of one of these pseudo ones where you think you can see traces of eyeliner and other beauty enhancers snuck in there.
I swear, every time I look at the bottom of my legs, especially where my lower leg and foot meet eachother, I notice more and more spider veins. Sure, they may only be visible to me, or someone who sticks there face up right to them, or maybe to one of those zoom in lenses that they use to capture celebrity’s microscopic flaws, but hey I don’ t have to worry about that one! The thing is, I’d be lying if I said they didn’t bother me. Spider veins are something I’ve always associated with getting older. It just means that your little veins and capillaries are losing their resilience and giving out, to me at least.
They represent years of working on my feet in the waitressing field. Before I became pretty much a full time office worker, I had lots of jobs that kept me on my feet for hours at a time. Waitressing is one of the best ways to stay in shape and get your exercise, but man it wrecks havoc on your legs and your feet, and the pressure results in you blowing out some of your veins because your poor legs and feet have to carry your body weight all day long.
But spider veins don’t only occur on your legs. No sir, they can occur in a much more visible place than that unfortunately – your face! Those with rosacea seem to be especially susceptible to spider veins on their face. However, there are treatments nowadays that can zap away those little surface spider veins in seconds. Seems like we have an answer for pretty much every beauty worry these days, huh?
There is a particular laser that is useful for helping to clear these unsightly little veins away, called a V beam laser. It actually targets that specific spider vein, heats it up, and in a few visits, supposedly you should notice that the spider vein is almost entirely gone from the area. Your body expels that former vein after it is heated and rendered useless, so you actually remove it yourself, through your body’s natural processes. I don’t know whether that’s interesting or slightly gross.
The comfort level of spider vein treatments with lasers is compared to the snap of a hot rubber band, so it’s pretty quick, but many patients do report feeling some form of discomfort. As with any other treatment like this, it really depends on your pain threshold and ability to endure discomfort.
I recently go this email from a company that offers skin care products specifically designed for the special needs of cancer patients. I thought it was valuable information to share, since I didn’t even know that cancer patients required special skin care, or at least would benefit from using specific types of products, so here you go:
Beauty at its Best in sickness and in health:
As you may know, Lindi Skin is the first full line of skincare products designed to ease the burden of skin related side-effects from cancer treatments and by those who want the best in skincare. Those going through chemotherapy and radiation are still aware of putting their best face forward. Feeling good and looking good is universal.
The press release below refers to an article published in Supportive Care in Cancer, which reports the results of a study made possible by Lindi Skin and Cancer Care. The survey breaks new ground in understanding not only the physical but also the psychological impact of these side effects.
Please be sure to read this article and go to www.lindiskin.com to see the complete line.
SUPPORTIVE CARE IN CANCER UNVEILS A LANDMARK STUDY REPORTING PATIENTS’ UNANTICIPATED SKIN TOXICITIES FROM ANTICANCER THERAPIES
NEW YORK & PHILADELPHIA (January 6, 2010) – In a first-ever initiative, renowned health-care providers identify and describe how cancer treatment-related toxicities have a negative effect on quality of life from the perspective of patients and survivors. The findings of this study, made possible by CancerCare and Lindi Skin, are now available exclusively from the medical journal, Supportive Care in Cancer, at http://www.springerlink.com/content/9n31658g173g1277/.
“The impact of dermatologic toxicities was found to be unanticipated prior to cancer treatments, to a greater degree than gastrointestinal and constitutional side effects” stated Dr. Mario Lacouture, Associate Attending Physician, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. “Since these events have a negative effect on survivors’ lives, pretreatment counseling and effective interventions are vital in order to maximize quality of life and minimize unnecessary treatment interruptions or discontinuations.”
This landmark skincare study was pursued by medical leaders and centers including: Mona Gandhi, Department of Dermatology, Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine; Karen Oishi, University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX; Beth Zubal, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO; and Dr, Mario E. Lacouture SERIES Clinic, Robert H Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, now at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Advances in cancer treatments have greatly improved survival rates for many diagnoses. Yet, the lingering side effects of many cancer treatments have only recently begun to be addressed,” said Rosalie Canosa, Program Division Director, CancerCare. “This survey breaks new ground in understanding not only the physical but also the psychological impact of these side effects from the patient’s perspective, and what can be done to help alleviate them.”
The results of this breakthrough study released by Supportive Care in Cancer articulate that cancer survivors reported an increased concern regarding dermatologic toxicities, including irritated and dry skin, after receiving their cancer treatment. These events had a negative effect on their lives.
CancerCare is a national nonprofit organization that provides free, professional support services to anyone affected by cancer: people with cancer, caregivers, children, loved ones, and the bereaved. CancerCare programs—including counseling and support groups, education, financial assistance and practical help—are provided by professional oncology social workers and are completely free of charge. Founded in 1944, CancerCare provided individual help to more than 100,000 people last year, in addition to the more than 1 million unique visitors to its websites. Find out more about CancerCare by calling 1-800-813-HOPE (4673) or at www.cancercare.org.
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