Friday Five

Nail Care

This week Friday’s Five is all about nails, keeping them health and making them pretty.

1. Find out which vitamin can help to keep your nails from breaking and splitting and where it can be found.
2. Fungal infection can ruin your nails permanently. Learn how to prevent it.
3. Do your nails break too much? Should you be concerned about that white spot on your nail? Learn what symptoms warrant visit to a doctor.
   Now that I scared you, moving forward to the fun part
4. Everything you need for perfect manicure, from how-to’s to trendy colors of this fall.
5. Another blog entirely dedicated to nails, and absolutely wonderful one, I must add. Whatever there is to know about nail color and designs you’ll find it here.

Enjoy your weekend!

Finding Foundation

What to consider

Finding perfect foundation can be tricky. With so many brands and products how do you find the one that works for you? Here are things you may want to keep in mind while shopping for a new foundation.

First, you need to decide how much coverage you expect. If you are looking for minimal coverage liquid or gel based foundation, or even tinted moisturizer is your best shot. Cream or powder foundation will provide medium coverage. Finally, if you are looking for heavy coverage, thick cream or cream-to-powder foundation is the way to go.

Next thing to consider is the container. Why is it important? Because, foundation in open container (such as jar) can easily get contaminated with bacteria, which can present danger to your skin. The ideal container for foundation (or any other liquid or creamy product) is a pump , as it prevents unused product from contacting with bacteria in the environment. The downside of pumps is that you have little control over how much product is dispensed. Tubes are second best option.

Next question is where to buy? Department store or drugstore? That would entirely depend on your budget. If you can afford brand name product from department store without breaking the bank, by all means, go for it. But if you have to choose between brand name foundation and having a dinner – settle for drugstore brand. I’m all getting fancy stuff, but not at the expense of necessities.

Finally, look into additional perks that some foundations offer. Do you want foundation with SPF? Would you like foundation with anti-aging properties? Or, maybe, you safer from acne and need foundation with salicylic acid?

So, you have settled on a specific product. Now the real work begins. Don’t be surprised. Now you need to find tone (light, medium or dark) and undertone (cool, neutral or warm) that perfectly matches your skin. Contrary to the popular belief undertone is even more important. If your tone is a little off, it’s not great, but if your undertone is off you can be heading for makeup disaster. Apply “cool” foundation on “warm” skin and you find yourself looking slightly orange. “Warm” foundation on “cool” skin will give you unhealthy grayish hue.

The only way to get both tone and undertone right is to apply foundation to your face. Back of your hand may seen like a good place to try foundation, but it’s not. And when I say “face” I mean “whole face”. Make sure to check if it looks right in the natural daylight. All of this is possible in a department store or, if by some stroke of luck, your local drugstore has a sample. If you are shopping in a drugstore make sure it’s one that offers 100% satisfaction guarantee (such as Walgreens or Rite Aid). That way if you are not happy with a foundation you chose, you can return it.

Acne 101

Acne causes

Acne forms when dead skin cells don’t shed properly, but instead collect in the pores and plug them. Then, sebaceous oils produced by skin accumulate under the plug. At this point a pimple is not yet visible, but comedone (future pimple) is already formed. There are two ways comedone can develop into acne: oils can push the plug to the skin surface and you get a blackhead (open comedone) or plug can stay in the pore and bacteria commonly found on skin surface causes swelling and inflammation around it and you have your whitehead (closed comedone).

There is no single cause of acne, but there is a number of contributing factors:

Genetics: if someone in your family has acne it increases your chances of getting it too. Unfortunately, there is no way to control this one.

Hormonal changes: hormones affect skin shedding and production of oil. This is why teenagers and women are more likely to develop acne.

Stress: it can increase levels of cortisol, which in turn increases oil production and slows down healing process, thus making our skin more prone to acne. Not getting sufficient amount of sleep may have similar effect.

Diet: foods high in iodine, such as shell fish and soy sauce, may cause acne. Some studies found that hormones commonly found in milk also may cause acne.

Excessive sun exposure: UV rays promote skin shedding and oil production, thus increasing likelihood of forming comedones.

Comedogenic skin care products: some make up / skin care products contain ingredients that may clog pores, thus promoting acne.

Medications: some medications may cause/aggravate acne.

Bottom line: most of these factors alone are not likely to cause acne, but each one increases your chances of getting it. The good news is that there are many treatment options. I will discuss them in the future posts.

Acne: Myths and Facts

Chocolate doesn’t cause acne, but milk does…

Myth: Acne caused by not lack of hygiene.
Fact: There is a number of things that can case acne, but lack of hygiene is not one of them. In fact, excessive washing of acne prone areas can aggravate the condition.

Myth: Chocolate, cheese and oily foods cause acne.
Fact: There is no scientific proof that these foods can cause acne. However, there is some evidence that consumption of milk can cause acne. It appears that culprit is not milk itself, but hormones commonly found in it. Also there is evidence that unhealthy diet high in simple carbohydrates (like sugar) can contribute to acne and not good for your skin in general. So, as long as you eat healthy, there is no harm in indulging in occasional chocolate bar or cheeseburger.

Myth: You need to get regular facials control acne.
Fact: There reason your skin looks better after facial (after redness and swelling go down, anyway) is absence of visible black heads. It makes your pores seem smaller and overall skin tone brighter, however this effect is temporary. Studies show that facials do not affect frequency of breakouts. I’m not advocating against facials – they do improve skin appearance and make us feel pampered; just don’t expect them to cure your acne.

Myth: Sun exposure treats acne.
Fact: Sun exposure makes your skin dryer, you may see some improvement. However, sun also promotes shedding of dead cells and production of oils. As a result, it promotes acne on a long run (and I don’t even want to get into how much it contributes to skin aging).

Myth: Acne can only affect your face.
Fact: Often acne also affects back, chest, upper arms and scalp.

Myth: If you leave acne alone you’ll outgrow it soon.
Fact: Acne is more than occasional pimple now and then. It can cause scarring, both physical and emotional; it’s important to start treating acne early to prevent that.

Myth: Acne plaques only teenagers.
Fact: Many adults in their 20’s and 30’s suffer from acne (yours truly included) and women are more prone to acne than men (not fair, I know).

Myth: Acne is your own fault.
Fact: It’s not. There are a lot of factors involved, both genetic and environmental. The good news is that there are things you can do to control you acne.

Acne cannot be cured, but it can be treated. With a number of treatment options we have today there is really no reason why you should keep suffering. I’ll go over the treatment options ranging for topical medications to oral antibiotics in future posts.

How to Reduce Puffiness Around Eyes

Black tea and cucumbers

Whenever you stay up too late, or have too much or not enough water - you are running a risk of waking up with not so pretty puffiness around eyes. Fortunately, there are some quick solutions for that.

Black tea can help to reduce puffiness around eyes. All you'll need is a very strong tea and cotton rounds (or cotton balls). Soak cotton rounds in tea and apply to eyelids. Leave them on for a few minutes. This procedure improves circulation, which in turn helps to diminish puffiness.

Tea can have a drying effect on delicate skin around eyes. So, it is a good idea to follow up with a moisturizer. Word of caution: make sure that tea is not too hot, warm or cold tea is fine. If you are wearing contact lenses, you should remove them before the procedure.

Contrast temperature is another way to control puffiness. Soak two cotton rounds in very warm (but not hot) water and apply them to the eyelids. Leave rounds on for a few seconds, then replace them with rounds soaked in cold water. Repeat 5-7 times, ending with cold water.

Chilled slices of cucumber also may do the trick. Just apply a slice to each eyelid for about 10 minutes.

Finally, there are creams designed to reduce puffiness around eyes, but, I never had much luck with them.

Hair Dryer Technology

Since my hair dryer has been acting up lately, I'm on the prowl for a new one. Since I like to do some research before purchase, I dug up wealth of information, which I decided to share here.

So, here are things you want to consider before buying a new hair dryer:


Ceramic technology

Hair dryers of new generations tend to have ceramic coils, as opposed to more traditional metal coils. Ceramic dryers are said to produce more even heat than traditional ones, thus minimizing hair damage from the heat.



Ionic technology

Ionic hair dryers emit negatively changed ions. Hair bathed in negative ions attract positive ions. This process breaks water droplets in your hair into smaller parts. Marketers claim claim that this process reduces drying time, helps control freeze and promotes shine.
Currently, there is no scientific proof of these claims, but user reviews seem to favor ionic hair hair dryers. This lead me to believe that ionic hair dryers are at least as good as traditional ones and are worth trying.


Tourmaline technology

Tourmaline is semi-precious mineral, which emits negative ions when heated. Crushed tourmaline is applied onto or infused into ceramic coils of a dryer. Tourmaline is said to enhance ionic technology. But as with ionic technology itself there is no scientific support of this claim. Hair dryers using this technology tend to be more expensive than regular ionic hair dryers.

Homemade Hair Conditioner

Feed your hair

I'm not a big fan of homemade beauty products as they tend to be messy and complicated. However, some of them worth the effort and this homemade hair conditioner is one of them.
Take 1 egg yolk, 1 table spoon of honey, 1 table spoon of olive/castor/carrot oil (whichever you have handy), and 1 table spoon of hair conditioner. Mix all ingredients and apply to scalp and hair. I find it convenient to use an old tooth brush to apply the mixture, but your fingers will do as well. Cover with shower cap, and wrap with a scarf or a shawl to keep it warm. After 1-2 hours rinse the mixture and shampoo your hair.
The result is softer and healthier hair.