Diet for Younger Looking Skin
Millions of pounds are spent every year on purchasing skin products in order to avoid wrinkles and sagging skin. But the truth is one can truly look younger by changing their dietary habits. It’s true that what we eat makes the difference in how young you seem to be.
Consumption of several types of vegetables and fruits truly help to renew one’s skin and increase production of collagen. Dermatologists highly recommend consumption of a minimum of eight servings of vegetables in order to detoxify skin. Below is a list of foods that are known to have the best anti aging properties.
It is highly recommended by the doctors to drink six to eight glasses of water in a day in order to keep your whole body and skin hydrated. Caffeinated drinks should be avoided as they will dehydrate your skin and give it a pale appearance.
Berries like raspberries, blue berries, strawberries, blackberries, cherries and pomegranate have the antioxidant anthocyanin that gives them their beautiful appearance and is extremely good to keep your skin fresh and young looking.
Spinach, kale and corn contain lutein that not only gives antioxidant benefits but also improves skin hydration.
Tomatoes, water melon, red grapefruit and pink grapefruit have the ability to reduce skin aging caused by the sunlight and counterbalance free radicals.
Black beans and black soybeans contain Anthocyanin in high quantities. Soybeans are not only beneficial for being an antioxidant but they also contain high amounts of isoflavones that are also known for their anti-aging properties.
Use of lots of seeds and nuts which are a good source of good fat help in plumping one’s skin and provide them with a large amount of essential minerals. It is recommended to eat a handful of seeds and nuts on daily basis.
Onions, cranberries, broccoli and apples contain quercetin. Quercetin is another extremely useful antioxidant which also acts as a natural anti-inflammatory agent.
We all know about the advantages of omega-3 for a nice looking skin. Use of salmon fish is extremely effective to keep your skin younger looking as it is loaded with large amounts of protein and omega-3 oil.
About Author:
Alice has been an expert in skin health writing specifically on the subject of acne. Her work has been published on various websites and magazines and provides insightful advice for natural acne treatment, skin regimes etc. For more articles on acne and its causes please visit http://www.naturalacneremedy.com/
Get In Shape With… Walking
The greatest myth about walking as an exercise is that walking helps only in reducing your weight and not toning your body the way you want it, by removing fat from specific parts of your body. Gym exercises and Swimming are looked upon as better options when body toning is in question.
This is not true, however. There is more to walking than just pleasure-walking and fast walking. There are many ways of walking and each of your body parts benefit from some way or the other.
Here’s how you can shape your body the way you want, by walking.
1. Flat Stomach – Walk downhill with small, fast steps, stomach in, shoulders straight.
Make your steps as small as possible and very fast.
2. Shapely Thighs – Walk uphill with long steps, without bending your knees, stomach in, shoulders straight. This will shape your hips as well.
3. Slimmer Arms – Swing your arms freely as you walk. Feel the pressure in your upper arms as you stretch your arms back and forth.
4. Slim Waistline – Walk at a medium pace with your hands held high in the air above your head. Keep your hands straight and maintain a perfect posture as you walk.
Continued exercising in the correct way will bring you desired results. I suggest
continuing any kind of exercise regularly for at least 40 days before expecting results.
Fine Oils To Make Your Hair Grow Faster
Therapeutic grade essential oils hold the promise for a great many people of stimulating the growth of bountiful healthy hair. Whether one is regrowing hair after hair loss, preventing the loss of hair, or just looking to make their hair more beautiful and lustrous than ever, essential oils and the carrier oils that comprise therapeutic aromatherapy formulas are very much worth investigating. We’ll first look at how and why you “build” your recipe, and conclude with a couple excellent formulations.
So What Essential Oils Have The Greatest Potential To Stimulate Hair Growth?
Many essential oils have found a place in today’s ultra-high end skin and hair products, often listed as “botanical extracts”. The active essential oils will generally fall into one of these categories: Stimulating, which enhance the “throughput” of the follicles — increasing their metabolic rate, and thus hair growth. Then there’s Nutrient Providing: several essential oils have a deep reddish or orange color, indicating a high concentration of growth promoting vitamins and vitamin-like compounds. Finally, the all-important Balancing oils create the optimum environment for the healthiest skin, follicles and hair, potentially moving out-of-balance conditions (over-oily, over-dry, or even hormone-deficient) to healthier states.
Choosing Essential Oils for Scalp Stimulation
We call them “stimulating” essential oils because they manage to signal the cells in the dermis to increase their metabolism. This means the follicles may become more active at growing new hair. This is the result of these specific oils containing natural “ketones”, chemicals with a “growth stimulating” type of signal. Rosemary Verbenone (a very specific type of Rosemary essential oil) and “Common” or “Dalmatian” Sage are the two most commonly used oils for stimulating hair growth. Of all the oils discussed here, Sage is the one that must be used by a limited population: it should not be used by pregnant or nursing mothers. Use at one percent or less in your total formula (these concentrations will be explained later with the recipes).
Getting Some Vitamins to the Hair Follicles
There are certain vitamins and vitamin-like compounds known to stimulate hair growth. Like the pharmaceutical preparation “Retin A” contains something similar to vitamin A (and does stimulate hair growth for some men), Carrot and Sea Buckthorn essential oils contain similar compounds. These are actually found as CO2 extracts, found in the same category as essential oils in stores. These oils are often used between 1 and 2 percent concentrations.
A Few Oils for Maximum Overall Health
Many, many people have either over-dry or over-oily scalp conditions which wreak havoc on hair growth. Balance is what’s needed here, and here’s the oils to do it. Lavender is the most widely used “balancing” oil, that has a wealth of therapeutic effects. If you do not have an outstanding skin condition that really needs clearing up, add a little Lavender to your blend — it is thought to really tie all the components together to help them work most effectively. If you’ve got an over-oily condition, a little Myrtle essential oil is thought to do the trick. It’s cleansing and balancing at the same time, restoring sebaceous output to proper levels. Finally, for mature women, be sure to use a little Clary Sage, thought to restore cellular estrogen levels to their optimum for the most beautiful skin and hair.
Your Formulation’s Foundation: The “Carrier” Oils
Once you’re essential oils are selected, you can create your own oil treatment formula by adding them to one or more carrier oils. The most popular carrier oils for hair care are: Jojoba, primarily used for moisturizing and giving hair a wonderful luster. Virgin coconut, while needing to be gently melted first to blend with other carriers, is fast becoming one of the most highly-praised therapeutic carrier oils. It is thought to have a very positive effect on hair loss all by itself, and like jojoba, will also result in wonderful hair texture. Evening Primrose is a very important carrier, offering essential fatty acids that we may easily be deficient in. This is best used by mature women, and also where the scalp is generally irritated. Hemp may also be used here. Finally, another very therapeutic carrier oil is Rosehip seed. It, like the nutritive essential oils, has vitamin-like compounds in it that have been shown in studies to promote youthful skin development. While it has not been as extensively researched for hair growth, there’s no reason to think it shouldn’t have as profound an effect on the scalp and follicles.
Getting Down To Business: Mixing Your Hair Growth Elixir!
Sometimes people are a little intimidated by mixing their own essential oil formula, but it’s really much easier than even baking cookies. Let’s describe how to make 1 ounce of hair stimulating blend, and then you can easily multiply the values to make larger amounts. This is best done in a 1 ounce empty dropper bottle, but again, you can start with a larger one if you like. To make the base, fill the bottle most of the way with your carriers. If you’re using using more than one carrier, estimating equal parts of each is fine. Make sure you leave a little room at the top for the essential oils! So, for each 1% of an essential oil, just add 8 drops of that oil to your bottle. Using 1% Rosemary? Add 8 drops. 2% Lavender, 16 drops. 1/2% Sage? 4 drops. To Make 2 ounces of final blend, just double these numbers — to make 4 ounces, multiply them by 4, and so on.
Great Recipes to Get You Started
Here’s two great recipes. For men, to make 4 ounces (which should last 2 to 4 months): To a base of equal parts Rosehip Seed, Hempseed and Coconut oils, add 32 drops Sage (Dalmatian or Common), 64 drops Carrot Root (also called Helio-Carrot), and 32 drops Lavender. For women, to the same base, add 32 drops Rosemary Verbenone, 64 drops Sea Buckthorn, 32 drops Lavender, and 32 drops Myrtle. Feel free to adjust as you see fit — using your intuition is an excellent means of customizing your recipe.
Now you can lightly swirl or invert your mixture until you feel it’s blended. Don’t shake it if you can avoid it, as it’s not such a good idea to introduce air into your oils too much (it can shorten the shelf life — which, by the way, should be about six months if kept in a cool, dark spot). The most effective oil treatment program is to first shampoo your hair, or at least moisten your scalp with warm water. This opens the pores and increases absorption of the oils. Then using an eye-dropper, distribute 1 to 2 droppers-full around your scalp and massage the oil in. Wrapping your head in a warm moist towel for the next 20 minutes to an hour can maximize absorption, and/or you can sleep with it on your scalp. And there you have it! A simple, effective means of supporting hair growth with the therapeutic potentials of essential oils.
Do Your Pedicure The Right Way – Step By Step
A good pedicure can offer you clean and lovely looking feet. But, do you really have to spend a substantial sum in that salon for a pedicure? Well, not if you choose to do your pedicure on your own. Here is a step by step guide that will help you with the same.
Before you get started with your pedicure, it is important that you assemble your tools. There are many things that you are going to do your pedicure on your own. These include nail clippers, nail brush, a buffer, orangewood stick and hand and cuticle cream. You will also need a nail paint remover and cotton balls to remove the nail paint.
Besides these tools, you cannot do without soapy water. For this get a bowl full of hot and soapy water. To this water you need to add lemon juice and some drops of olive oil. Some additional things that you might require during the pedicure process are foot pumice stone, anti microbial base coat nail paint and lots more. In case you would like to apply new nail paint after your pedicure, ensure that you have it with you before hand. Additionally, make sure that you also have the top coat together with the nail paint.
Now that you have all the essential pedicure tools and other obligatory things at an arm’s length, it’s time to get started.Start the method by first removing the nail paint that you have recently applied on your nails. It is essential to get rid of it totally and ensure that no sign of it is left even in the corners as it is the area where it is tricky to take away the nail paint from.
It’s a common sight to see many folks fighting the problem of firm nails. Some people have the problem like bumps, corn and hard skin in their feet as well. If you are wrestling from any of such problems you need to exercise caution. It is essential to begin the pedicure with a mild buffing of the nails first. Do not be harsh on the rubbing as it may damage the skin. A mild rubbing for some time would be adequate.
Next, you need to soak your feet in the warm water you had kept handy. Permit your feet to stay immersed in this water for no less than 10 to fifteen minutes. This will help soften the cuticles and loosen the dirt that is sticking to the nails. With a nailbrush, meticulously scrub your skin to shed any dead skin cells and dirt particles.
You might employ the orangewood stick in your pedicure process. This could help you get rid of even the toughest to remove dirt and grime that sticks on to the nails. Once your nails are nicely cleaned, it is turn to clip them to an appropriate length. Do not make the error of cutting the nails extremely short.
Now that you have all your feet cleaned properly, it is time to pay some attention to moisturizing your feet as well. For this all you need to do is to make use of your favorite hand cream or nay body lotion and dab it laboriously on you feet. Now start massaging your feet with the lotion in the circular motion. Continue the process till the time the lotion gets well absorbed in to the skin of your feet. As and when the moisture is absorbed completely, end the process by applying the nail paint of your liking.
Just go through these simple steps and you will have the beautiful feet that you’ve always wished for.
Simple Way To Remove Blackheads
There is a lot of talk about how to remove blackheads, and there are many people who will recommend excellent treatments for the condition, but the best way to get rid of blackheads is to make sure that you do not get them in the first place!
When you are thinking about how to remove blackheads, you will find that there are many topics that will come up. You may learn about use to squeeze them out, or how to use oil to lift them out, but the truth of the matter is that the best way to make sure that you don’t have blackheads is to have good skin care habits in the first place.
It is true that some people are simply more prone to blackheads than others, and people whose skins are naturally more oily are more prone to it than people who have dry skin, but the truth is that the regimen that shows you how to remove blackheads is something that is the same for just about everyone.
In the first place, when you are looking at how to remove blackheads or how to get rid of acne, you are going to find that you need to look into exfoliation. Exfoliation is essentially the removal of dead skin and it is much less painful than you might think it is. For instance, when you are dealing with your face, you can use something extremely mild and soft to the touch.
You also have to keep in mind that once you over-exfoliate your skin, it will only turn out irritated and the problem will only worsen. This is why some dermatologists recommend mild soaps for face care and mild astringents for skin exfoliation.
Another thing that you will discover when you are looking at how to remove blackheads is how well you keep your skin clean from becoming irritated in general. One thing that many people end up doing is washing their faces too much or too often. For instance, do you find that after you have scrubbed your face that it looks a little red or that it feels a little tender to the touch?
This can be a sign that you are scrubbing too hard and that you are irritating your skin. It can also mean that you are using soap that is simply too harsh for you. Some people find that they can get away with using half the soap that they currently do, or none at all!
Remember that from time to time, you should condition your skin, just like you condition your hair. There are many people who find that using a small amount of coconut oil or cocoa butter on their faces can keep it looking soft and healthy, while other people find that just using a little bit of walnut oil can be quite effective. Take a moment to consider what your skin needs. From time to time, some vitamin E oil can be excellent when you are looking into keeping your skin looking good.
When you want to learn how to remove blackheads, remember that prevention is essential. Take a moment and consider what your options are going to be and how you are going to get the skin that you love.
Fresh Make Up Tips For Teens
Ever wondered how the girls in magazines and on-screen always look picture perfect? Because they have a team of makeup artists following them around! Unfortunately, most of us don’t have that luxury, but we can learn how to do our own makeup like the pros. Read ahead for 15 great tips used by makeup professionals.
1. Moisturize! If your skin is dry, makeup will look flaky. If you have oily skin or are prone to breakouts, look for an oil-free moisturizer. It will make your skin look dewy and fresh without adding oil.
2. Use the right tools. You don’t need a ton of expensive brushes, but it is worth it to invest in one fluffy, round tip blush brush. This brush is designed to make your blush application look natural. You’ll need another good brush if you use loose powder. Use sponge tip applicators for an opaque eyeshadow application and soft bristle brushes for a smokier eye look. Finally, those cosmetic wedge sponges that you see in the drugstore really are the best thing for smoothly blending your foundation.
3. To cover blemishes, first run a small makeup brush back and forth over a concealer stick, then dip in loose powder. Use the brush to dab the concealer and powder onto the blemish, and it will stay covered!
4. Use different shades of foundation to contour your face. Your primary foundation should exactly match your skin tone, but then use slightly lighter and darker foundations to emphasize your natural contours. This should look natural, so don’t go more than one shade lighter or darker, and be sure to blend. Use the lighter foundation to highlight the bridge of your nose and your cheekbones; use the darker foundation to shade the sides of your nose and the hollows of your cheeks.
5. For longer-looking, luscious lashes, use an eyelash curler. Remember to curl before applying mascara; otherwise, you’ll lose lashes and end up with clumpy mascara.
6. Drawing thick dark lines all around your eyes will make your eyes look smaller. To avoid this, don’t close the lines—line only the outside half of your bottom lid or don’t line the bottom lid at all.
7. If your eyeshadow tends to disappear by lunchtime, apply a little foundation and powder to your lids before putting on eye makeup.
8. If you can’t decide which colors to buy, go with neutrals: browns, peaches, and plums look good on everyone.
9. White eyeliner on your lower lid will help to open up your eyes. This is especially great for those mornings when you don’t look very awake!
10. When applying blush, be sure to tap off the excess blush from your brush. Apply in soft strokes or circles to the apple of your cheek (unless you’re going for the 80s punk rocker look—then by all means streak it thickly across your cheekbone).
11. Lip liner will help your lipstick last longer and will keep it from spreading outside of your lips.
12. Pale lipsticks (like frosty pinks) make most people’s lips disappear! If you want to wear pale pink, use this color for eyeshadow; wear a lipstick that is at least as dark as your lips’ natural color.
13. Adding a little gloss to just your lower lip will help your lips look pouty and ” bee-stung”.
14. The way to look tanned and glowy is not to use a foundation that is darker than your natural color, nor should you apply a heavy bronzer all over your face. Instead, use eyeshadow, blush, and lipstick in bronze and golden brown tones. You can also use a little bronzer (gently brush over cheekbones), but use it subtly and blend. You don’t want a makeup line at your jaw.
15. Rather than applying more powder during the day, which can end up getting cakey, use oil-absorbing blotter sheets. You can buy these in any drugstore.
Follow these tips, and you’ll be a pro yourself in no time. Oh, and one final tip that makeup artists swear by: practice, practice, practice!
Article Source: http://www.upublish.info
Natural Care For Your Nails
Nails are an important part of our hands so proper care of nails are necessary. Clean and healthy nails not only add beauty to our hands but also prevent many health problems caused by germs and bacteria.
Fragile nails are very common problem that are mainly due to iron deficiency. Iron should be taken in sufficient amounts. Foods rich in iron are liver, lean red meat, seafood, beans, soy beans, lentils, whole grains, spinach, turnip greens, tofu, vegetables, asparagus, parsley, watercress, chicken and turkey, nuts, blackstrap molasses, egg yolks, dried fruits, such as prunes, raisins, dates and apricots.
There are many more home remedies and useful tips for nail care. In this article we will discuss some simple natural nail care tips and remedies.
1. Add a tablespoon of lemon juice in a cup of water and soak your nails in this solution for few minutes. Now wash them with warm water and apply a moisturizer. This is a useful tip to remove stains from your nails.
2. Another useful tip is to massage your nails with cotton dipped in lemon juice and wash them after few minutes. With regular use of this remedy, your nails will become strong and shining.
3. Olive oil is one of the widely used home remedy for a number of beauty tips. To make your nails beautiful and shiny, daily application of olive oil is very useful.
4. Beetroots are rich in calcium and vitamin D. Daily intake of beetroots will make your nails beautiful. Also include other calcium rich foods such as milk.
5. Soak your nails in warm mustard oil for 8-10 minutes. Now rub them gradually so that blood circulation is normal. This should be done daily to make your nails healthy and strong.
6. Do not soak your nails for a long time in any high alkaline content. This will make damage to them.
7. Protect your nails from dyes because they take on the color of dyes.
8. Avoid tobacco as nails of tobacco smokers get discolored.
9. Constantly soaking the hands in detergent solution can cause irritation that may lead to a chronic nail infection.
10. Wear cotton gloves in summers to absorb sweat. This will prevent infection.
11. Cut your toenails straight and not curved. Incorrect nail cutting, foot injury and ill-fitting shoes may cause small fragments of the toenails to separate at the edges and grow into the skin.
12. Immerse your nails in warm olive oil for 15-20 minutes on alternate days. This is a useful tip to harden soft nails.
Read Nail Fungus Natural Treatment to treat it naturally. Also read more simple and effective Tips on Nail Care.
Busy People! – Advices To Stay In Form
Being a busy person that is constantly on the go does not mean that you don’t have the time to stay in shape and keep your body fit while you are traveling. Unfortunately, the excuses we make do not keep us in shape nor able to keep up with the high demands of a busy life. If you join a health club, you would be making a great decision and a much easier way to stay fit.
Many health clubs offer the same types of services in other facilities. Some even have guest passes to specific spas and athletic clubs around the country. Another way to stay fit while traveling is to stay at a hotel that has spas and sporting facilities. If your hotel does not offer these things, it is highly possible that the hotel itself has spa and exercise arrangements elsewhere.
To get this information, ask a clerk at the front desk and he/she is sure to provide you with the information you need. Today, many hotels have treadmills or other exercise machines. This will help keep you active and fit. It is also important to remember that most cities or towns have a YMCA or a YWCA. Search the Yellow pages and give the facility a call. When traveling, there are many opportunities you can take to stay fit.
At times, the specific location you are in might not offer any type of exercise facility or spa for you to visit. If this happens, you can be creative and turn your hotel room into your personal gym. Before you leave to go on your trip, bring along some hand weights, exercise bands, and any other type of exercise equipment that is travel friendly. With all of these items, you can easily turn your hotel room into a gym.
Use your elastic bands are a way to achieve resistance. While in your hotel room, use furniture such as chairs or beds that will help you work out. Depending on the furniture in your hotel room, you just might want to stick to body weight exercises. These are also great ways to keep your fit and in shape. To do this, find ways to combine pushups, legups, and crunches. Though these exercises do not exercise a huge range of muscles, you will still be able to work your heart and continue to build up your endurance.
When traveling, I think we all understand that working out is not the easiest thing to put into a busy time schedule. Many people who travel have very tight time frames and do not also have time to add in a complete workout session. Fortunately, there are many other ways to still exercise in order to keep your body fit. You can simply try stretching in your hotel room or taking a long walk around the hotel or town you are visiting. Many hotels today also have swimming pools. Go for a swim.
Swimming is a great exercise that is able to work the majority of the muscles in your body. You can relax and exercise at the same time. Since there are so many ways that you can work out while traveling, you shouldn’t have an excuse for not finding some way to exercise and keep your body fit. It doesn’t matter what time you work out, just find 20-30 minutes per day to do some sort of exercises, no matter the type. Even if you cannot do the exact some workout routine you are used to, switch it up a little. Any exercise is good exercise.
Good Breath Is Everything
Bad breath, commonly referred to as halitosis, which usually originates from one of two sources – certain foods we eat or the breakdown of food particles by bacteria which inhabit the mouth.
Foods
We have all probably experienced halitosis caused by eating certain foods. We eat a meal and then suffer with embarrassing bad breath later.
The culprits are sulfur compounds found in certain foods like garlic and cabbage. These sulfur compounds cause breathe to smell bad.
When we eat, sulfur compounds from foods are absorbed by our digestive systems. Contrary to popular belief, sulfur compounds do not cause halitosis as a result of working their way back up into the mouth from the stomach. Rather, the sulfur compounds move from the digestive system into the bloodstream where they are carried to the lungs.
Here the lungs expel the sulfur compounds from the body by way of the air that we exhale! Amazingly, many of these sulfur compounds are also excreted in sweat from the skin and in urine for hours to even days after the food containing them is eaten.
Bacteria
Chronic bad breath is constant and long standing. Although a little harder to treat, it can be treated nevertheless.
The problem starts with bacteria. Did you know that over 170 different types of bacteria live in our mouths?
These bacteria feed on bits of food left on our teeth after meals. Feasting on these “leftovers”, bacteria produce sulfur compounds which once again give breath its foul smell.
Many of these bacteria are anaerobic meaning that they can not live in the presence of oxygen. How do they live in the mouth which is exposed to oxygen every time we breathe?
These bacteria hide in places where oxygen can not reach – under plaque and food debris, in the spaces between the teeth and gums, and in the deep crevices of the tongue.
This is why proper dental care is important in eliminating bad breath. Brushing and flossing:
Remove bacteria from the mouth.
Remove the layer of plaque, food debris, and dead cells which protect bacteria from oxygen.
Saliva – Nature’s Mouthwash
A very important fact to remember when battling bad breath is that saliva is our friend. A dry mouth represents the perfect environment for odor causing bacteria.
Saliva acts as nature’s mouthwash by keeping the mouth moist, washing away bacteria, and dissolving foul smelling volatile sulfur compounds.
Conditions which reduce saliva flow or which make our mouth dry can therefore lead to halitosis. In fact, the morning breath which many people experience after a long night of sleep is caused by the reduction in saliva flow that occurs when we sleep.
People often combat chronic bad breath using mouthwash as their weapon of choice. Ironically, most commercial mouthwashes are useless in eliminating chronic bad breath. Recent studies have reported that mouthwashes only temporarily mask the odor of bad breath for as little as 10 minutes after brushing.
In fact, because they contain alcohol, mouthwashes can actually make the situation worse by drying out the mouth creating a more hospitable environment for odor causing bacteria. A new breed of mouthwashes containing chlorine dioxide, however, have proven very effective in combating bad breath.
These mouthwashes do not mask bad breath odor like conventional mouth washes. Instead, the chlorine dioxide in these rinses directly attacks the volatile sulfur compounds responsible for halitosis
Periodontal Disease
If you try:
* Staying away from certain foods that are known to cause bad breath,
* Removing bacteria and food particles by brushing your teeth and flossing,
* Removing bacteria from the tongue,
* Making sure that your mouth does not become too dry (maintaining saliva flow),
…and still have bad breath, you may want to see your dentist. Your dentist should be able to detect these periodontal pockets during a routine gum exam.
These areas are difficult to keep clean and may create a continuous supply of sulfur gases. The more areas that you have harboring these bacteria, the worse the breath.