Beauty is Now

It ain’t easy being beautiful is it?

One of the body issues women struggle with is cellulite. Cellulite, apparently loves women and women’s bodies. For some reason, men don’t get cellulite as much as women do. Cellulite - the lumps and bumps formed by fatty deposits accumulating under the skin and pushing against the connective tissue to form that oh, so beautiful dimpled look of the thighs.

Losing Weight

Because cellulite is caused by fat gain, especially when the gain is rapid, a diet low in fat can decrease the appearance of cellulite, if not cellulite itself. In 2006, a study of 29 women with cellulite was done. The study showed that weight loss did not necessarily eliminate cellulite. In fact, 17 reported an improvement in their cellulite, while 9 reported an actual worsening. Over all, the appearance of the dimples improved. While some still had cellulite, the depth of the dimples were less, and therefore looked better.

Fish oil and Flaxseed Oil
Fish oil and flaxseed oil have help to build collagen and elastin. Collagen and Elastin helps the skin to look plumper and more toned, so the appearance of dimpled lumps decreases. Studies show that increasing fish oil or flaxseed oil in the diet, can produce a marked improvement in as little as 2 months.

Glucosamine
My mother takes glucosamine for her arthritic knees. Glucosamine also has a positive effect on cellulite. Glucosamine helps to keep the cells nice and plump and hydrated. Like collagen and elastin, plumper cells produce a less dimpled effect.

So if you want to lose some cellulite, exercise and try some of the above supplements.

With all the mascara we use to make our lashes long and luscious, how do we grow our eyelashes when they start to get sparse?

Eyelashes were not created to make us beautiful. They actually have a function. That function is to blink away the debris that assault the delicate area around out eyes. The hairs trap dust and other objects and actually let us know that there is something near the eye.

As we age, our hair thins. Although the loss of eyelash hair is not something that is at the forefront of most people’s minds, maybe it should be. If you find that your eyelashes are thinning, never fear, there are some things you can do to make them thicker.

- Castor oil: Castor oil is said to grow eyelashes and eyebrows. I haven’t been able to find any studies that boost that claim, but then again, there are a lot of natural remedies that scientists don’t have conclusive evidence for, but some swear by them. Simply apply them over your eyelashes at night. If you wear mascara, make sure you use a suitable oil-free eye make-up remover.

– Avoid Mascara or at least a conditioning mascara: If you are trying to grow your eyelashes, avoid mascara for a while or use mascara that does not clump or make the eyelashes really stiff, like waterproof mascara does. Waterproof mascara tends to make the hair follicles dry out.

– Put Vaseline on your eyelashes at night, of course after removing makeup. Try putting vaseline on your eyelashes, using a clean mascara brush. You might be surprised at the results. For some people, the results is not that far from using mascara. At the same time, your eyelashes stay lubricated.

Have any of you tried any of the above methods to grow your eyelashes? Let me know.

If you want to put a smile on my face, tell me I have beautiful eyes. Who doesn’t desire beautiful eyes?

Helen of troy had the face that “launched a thousand ships.” Who knows if the most prominent feature of her face was not her eyes?

We are not all born with big, gorgeous eyes, but with a little bit of embellishment, big, beautiful eyes are but 5 minutes away.

Eye Popping Tips
• – Your three best friends are eyeshadow, mascara and eyeliner.
• Eye Shadow
• – You want to apply a neutral color — not too dark and not too light to the upper lid.
• – Apply a lighter color just beneath the brow bone. Beige-white tones work well on lighter skin while gold tones enhance darker skin.
• – For a more dramatic look, apply a brighter color to the lower eyelid. This is your time to experiment with bold colors like olive green, purple, navy blue etc. Start in the middle of the lower lid and apply towards the corners of the eyes. To use the wedge technique, after applying the bold color on the lower lid, apply the eyeshadow in the wedge where the upper and lower eyes meet. Keep applying towards the midpoint of the eyelid. Blend well so there is no obvious line where the shades meet. On to eyeliner!
• Eyeliner

– Start with the upper lash area. For a more natural look suitable for work, start applying the eyeliner at the outer corners of the lid towards the inner corners of the eye. If you have fair skin, use a natural brown or gray shade. Darker skins can use dark browns or blacks. To set the eyebrow pencil so that it doesn’t smear, you can also apply a comparable eyeshadow right on the eyelash.

• – Lower lash area. One technique that goes in and out of style but remains effective is to line the lower lash area with white pencil. The light color opens up the yes. You should apply the eyeliner as close to the lash as possible. Darker skin tones can use gold or other metallic color.
• Mascara
• – Apply the mascara to the upper lash. Start more towards the middle and apply towards the outer lashes. Concentrate on the outer lashes as longer outer lashes open up the eye.

These simple tips can go a long way in making your eyes pop.

Check out Mary Kay’s New Selection of Eye Colors

Happy Popping!

It looks like my daughter’s worst nightmare came true. On Saturday, she developed a cold sore. Her graduation was today, Monday and her prom is tomorrow.

In fact, she had been having quite a bit of bad luck. The first bit of bad luck occured when she scratched her nose while sleeping on Thursday night. It left a scar. Fortunately, for her, the scar peeled and lifted and by Sunday, it was gone.

But the cold sore. Oh the cold sore.

We tried everything from garlic, to toothpaste and the cold sore was still there. Did I mention that she gets the ugliest of cold sores?

In some brilliant moment of clarity, I remembered that I had tea tree oil in the bathroom cabinet. Tea tree oil is one of those panaceas that seem to work for just about everything.

Sunday afternoon I poured some tea tree oil on her scary cold sore. By Sunday evening, it actually looked as it if had deflated somewhat. We were encouraged and continued to drench the cold sore with tea tree oil periodically.

By this afternoon, she went to her graduation with a cold sore that was only slightly unattractive, as opposed to scary.

So what makes tea tree oil so wonderful for cold sores?

Tea tree oil rocks. The reason it is a panacea is because it is an antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal. It is also a natural analgesic (pain killer). What else can you ask for?

A couple of drops of tea tree oil on the herpes simplex 1 virus which causes the cold sore soothes and heals the sore in half the time it would take otherwise.

So now my daughter will go to her prom with an almost-healed cold sore.

I’m having problems uploading pictures from my camera right now (Thanks Vista Home!), but as soon as I upload them, I will add some before and after pictures. If you are the least bit squeamish, be forewarned!

Walk in Beauty.

It’s weird how we don’t think or know about certain diseases until someone we know is either afflicted with the disease or, heaven forbid one of us is diagnosed with it, or someone in the media dies from it.

I have always known about coronary heart disease and I guess I understand the concept of being sick and not having any symptoms. However, I didn’t know it was so common that there is an actual name for the disease: Asymptomatic Coronary Heart Disease.

Tim Russert died of a heart attack brought about by a coronary thrombosis (a blood clot that forms within the coronary artery. The coronary artery is the major blood supply to the heart and a blockage can result in a heart attack. When someone has fatty deposits in his coronary artery (atherosclerosis), a thrombosis is likely to form in that location. This is what happened to Tim Russert.

Tim apparently had asymptomatic coronary heart disease which means he has no physical symptoms; however tests were able to find that he had these fatty deposits in his artery which put him at increased risk of heart attack.

Here are some facts I picked up during my research:
• In 2002, Coronary Heart Disease was the leading cause of death in the United States.
• 50% of the 1 million annual myocardial infarctions (heart attacks) that occur are a first-time event.

Risk factors:

• Diabetes
• Increasing Age
• Genetic or Hereditary
• Tobacco Smoking
• Lack of physical exercise
• Smoking
• High cholesterol
• Obesity
• Heavy drinking

Detection
• Electron-beam Computed Tomography (EBCT) – a sort of X-Ray that can identify calcium deposits within arteries. Calcium deposits are a strong indication of coronary heart disease especially in younger people in their 40’s and fifties. The amount of arterial calcium deposits naturally increases as we age.
• Angiogram –an X-Ray test that uses a special dye and camera to take pictures of the blood flow in an artery or a vein.
• Stress Test- (treadmill test) - a person is hooked up to heart monitors and begins exercising on a treadmill. The person first starts at a slow pace and then move to a fast pace. The person’s oxygen levels are tested as well as indicators such as heart rate and EKG.

Treatment
• Include moderate exercise in your daily schedule
• Maintain a low-fat, low-sodium diet
• Coronary Bypass Surgery
• Balloon Angioplasty
• Stents

Prognosis
Prognosis of asymptomatic coronary heart disease is hard to determine because it depends on the severity. Also, exercise and diet can reduce the risk of heart attack by 30%.