Lifestyle Choices

In France, where the care of breasts is almost a national institution, they have developed a number of more or less effective salon treatments (some more, some less) that involve exercises to strengthen muscles, hydrotherapy to improve circulation and absorption by skin, and finally the application of creams and oils containing the essential oils of plants and other substances such as embryo and placenta extracts. Although most of the Western world pooh-poohs the idea that such treatment cando any good, there are thousands of French women whose exquisite breasts would belie this skepticism. (more…)

If your breasts are too small, the above kind of treatment can increase their size usually by somewhere between a half to two inches. If they are too large, the same treatment, because of its toning and firming action, will make them appear slightly smaller. But if you want a more drastic reduction, which I think should only be considered in cases of extreme size (a good bra can work wonders for the rest), the only alternative is surgery. Mammaplasty for breast reduction entails making several incisions in the breast area (just where depends on the particular patient) and then removing fat tissue. It usually also means moving the nipple itself, which results in scars around the nipple area and the strong possibility that the patient will be unable to breast-feed a child. But results from this operation are generally good. (more…)

Fear of cancer is widespread. And, unfortunately, the bulk of information about breast cancer disseminated to women concentrates only on the detection aspects how to examine yourself to check for signs of tumors— rather than on how it might possibly he prevented in the first place.

There is increasing evidence that cancer may be caused by a high fat diet. Deaths from cancer and from coronary heart disease among women are highest of all in areas where the diet is high in fat and low in fresh vegetables and fruits. High consumption of meat may be implicated too. Studies show that groups of people who eat a low meat, low saturated- fat diet tend to have a low incidence of cancer. (more…)

Most of the research and development into the use of fetal and placental extracts comes from Germany, where they are regularly used by dermatologists as medical, rather than strictly cosmetic, treatment. One such German preparation, available only on prescription, by the name of Cellcutana, made by Cybila Cytobiological Laboratories, in Heidelberg, is designed to stimulate and regenerate skin that has been either chemically or physically damaged and to prevent abnormal healing, including scars. It is an effective treatment for burns and premature aging. A filtrated extraction of fetal skin, fetal connective tissue, placenta, and suprarenal gland, it comes as a liquid suspension mixed with the supplied dilutant before use. Similar mixtures in diluted form can be found in many of the best French and Swiss treatment creams. (more…)

The Vitamins

Vitamin A applied to the surface of the skin either from a capsule on its own or mixed into cream and oil preparations has been used successfully in the treatment of dry and aging skin and acne. It appears to work particularly well in combination with vitamin D, which itself has a healing effect on the skin. (This is why vitamin D is often used in diaper-rash remedies and in burn ointments.)

Vitamin E, about which there has been such controversy, and vitamin C are certainly useful in the treatment of skin healing from a cut or burn. There is no conclusive evidence that, applied topically, it will do much for normal skin, although many women who use vitamin E regularly claim good results from it. (more…)

When it comes to treating skin, everyone is looking for the fountain of eternal youth. At one time it is thought to be vitamins, at other times plant essences, minerals, fetal or placental extracts. In recent years all of these somewhat exotic substances have been frowned on not only by many dermatologists but also by the so-called hard-hitting journalists who insist that nothing external can be done to keep skin looking beautiful and to protect it from premature aging other than to follow the three basic steps in the craft of skin care outlined in the previous chapter: cleansing, protection from moisture loss, and screening from ultraviolet light. (more…)

Not only are your eyes the truest of all physical reflections of who you are, they are also an ageless expression of beauty. For there can be something breathtaking about the eyes of an old woman, as there is about the eyes of a child. Like any other part of your body, to be beautiful your eyes have to be healthy, and to be healthy they need care.

But the care they need is quite different from what we are usually led to believe. For eyes are not the delicate, poor, vulnerable things we have been taught they are—overworked, constantly struggling against inadequate light and overstrain, and longing for some well-deserved tinted glasses to rest them. Far from it. Your eyes are tough. They were made for use, and the more you use them, to read and to see with, and the more you exercise the muscles around them, and the more they are exposed to the full spectrum of natural sunlight, the healtheir and more beautiful they will be. And not only will your eyes benefit, so will the rest of your body. (more…)

This is not to say that sunglasses don’t serve a purpose. They do. Wear them when your eyes are exposed to excessive quantities of light to which they are not accustomed—when you are near the sea, for instance, or when you go skiing. A good pair of sunglasses can be a great boon, for your eyes need time to accustom themselves to the increase in light, and wearing sunglasses can make the changeover easier. Also, prolonged exposure of unaccustomed eyes to large doses of ultraviolet light may lead to the inflammation of the cornea known as snow blindness, while too-intense infrared rays can burn the retina. The skin covering the front of your eyes is transparent. (more…)

Like plants and animals, we need light to stay in optimum health. Not only the light available through the tinted windows of the cars we drive and behind our fashionable sunglasses, but the full spectrum of ultraviolet rays one gets only when naked eyes are exposed to the sun in the open air. The work of photobiologists such as Dr. John Ott, author of Light and Health (published by Devin-Adair, Old Greenwich, Connecticut) has shown that the type and quality of the light entering our eyes can affect our hormonal balance and body chemistry as a whole, influencing energy levels as well as how we feel emotionally. (more…)

Every now and then (how often depends on whether your skin tends to be dry or oily and whether you live in the polluted air of cities or the clearer, fresh air of the country) skin needs more than everyday cleaning. It needs deep cleansing, and one of the most effective ways of getting it is from a facial sauna. In fact, the only skin condition that doesn’t benefit from facial steams, or saunas, is that in which broken capillaries appear in the cheeks and nose, in which case the warm steam could aggravate the condition. (more…)

It may surprise you to see such a common thing as air listed among the important treatments for external use on skin, but in many ways it may be the most valuable of all. It is also often the most neglected by women who tend to cover their skin day and night with heavy creams.

Although most of the oxygen your skin needs comes by way of the bloodstream, the skin also helps itself to as much as 2 1/2 percent of the body’s total oxygen from the air by direct absorption. Skin also directly eliminates almost 3 percent of the body’s carbon dioxide waste. Generally, this direct oxygen intake is used only by the epidermis, where it helps to break down nutrients for cell use at the basal layer and to eliminate wastes. (more…)

The Cause

Dried-out, dried-up skin usually comes from underactive sebaceous glands, which, due to a hormone imbalance or vitamin or mineral deficiencies, don’t produce enough of this important oily fluid to lubricate the skin and protect it from excessive water loss. It can also be the result of being exposed to excessively drying weather conditions, central heating, or air conditioning. Another, rarer cause is being on a diet too low in essential fatty acids, such as a fat-free slimming regimen. Finally, sometimes dried-out skin is due to an incorrect water balance in the horny cells as a result of their being exposed to water (e.g. in swimming) for so long that they have swollen and burst, or to their having been deprived of water for so long that they gradually desiccate. Excessive dryness of the skin also occurs in people who, unknown to themselves, are suffering from subclinical deficiencies of vitamin A or C or any one of several of the B-complex group or of linoleic acid. (more…)

The Cause

Oily skin is the result of overactive sebaceous glands, which usually occurs due to a hormonal imbalance in the body. Occasionally a diet too high in fats and fried foods or refined sugar can contribute to the condition, as can too much stimulation of the sebaceous glands by heat, the sun, or skin-care products containing chemicals such as sulfur, which, although they are designed to dry out the condition, in the long run work in a counterproductive way by removing too much oil and thereby stimulating the glands to produce yet more. Studies show that people on diets slightly deficient in some of the B group of vitamins rapidly develop whiteheads, blackheads, and oily hair and skin. (more…)

The Causes

Although allergies and allergic reactions to particular substances are not inherited, a tendency to them can be. If, for instance, both your mother and your father suffered from allergies, you have a 57 percent chance of them too. Approximately 15 percent of all women are said to be highly prone to allergic reactions, 25-30 percent are less easily sensitized (which means they will react adversely only to some substances, sometimes), and 55-60 percent are relatively allergy-free or only rarely prone to allergic reactions. But, on the whole, allergic complaints are on the increase, and cosmetic dermatitis and skin sensitivities are leading the field. For instance, in one study of skin ailments in the mid-seventies it was found that where, four years before, only 3 percent of the patients in Britain seen by dermatologists were suffering from skin reactions, in the space of a very few years it had risen to 14 percent. (more…)

Provided it is done skillfully, massage is a wonderful treatment for the face. But it must be done gently and carefully, for the muscles of the face and neck are made up of fine fibers which, unlike muscles in the rest of the body, are attached not only to bone but also to the skin itself. They are, therefore, delicate and must never be pulled hard, or massage can have a detrimental effect, rather than a helpful one. Always following the direction of the muscle fibers themselves, massage will stimulate blood circulation, which improves the tone of muscles and skin and promotes the use of nutrients in the cells and the elimination of wastes. Massage will also help the skin to absorb active ingredients in creams and essential oils. (more…)

Masks are one of the mysteries of the cosmetic world. The manufactured kinds come in many varieties and are designed for several purposes. You have to pick the right one for the right purpose. Many women don’t. This is probably why they are often disappointed. Dermatologists disagree about their effectiveness. While some swear by them, others consider them little more than cosmetic security blankets. Chosen carefully,

I believe, a mask can be a boon to beauty.

A mask is designed to perform one of the mire specific tasks: to deep- cleanse, to tone, to stimulate circulation, to moisturize the skin, or to exfoliate—that is, to remove the outer layers of dead epidermal cells so the skin is refined and left more receptive to whatever treatment product you choose to put on it after. Most commercial masks contain a great amount of water, which makes their evaporation rate rapid and gives the skin a cooling and soothing feel. But this is of little more than psychological help to the user. The deep response to elements in a mask comes through the vascular network in the dermis, where active ingredients coupled with physical tension from the mask drying on the skin bring about increased circulation and help stimulate cellular activity. (more…)

Nothing betrays your age like the state of your skin. When you are young, it is thick, glowing, soft, and elastic. As the years go by, a number of changes take place. The thickness of the skin diminishes by half. It loses its firmness. First, expression lines and minor discolorations form, then these tiny imperfections gradually become wrinkles and blotched skin, which is no longer able to retain water as it once could–skin that has lost its elasticity and turned crepey and old-looking. How fast all this happens depends not only on your genetic inheritance but also on the internal state of your body, your stress levels, and the care and protection you provide for your skin from the outside.

The aging process in your skin is really no different from anywhere else in the body, except that it can be faster. This is because, first, the skin’s cells tend to divide more often than most other kinds of cells, so genetic mutations are passed on more rapidly, and second, because your skin has to put up with so many external insults from what it is exposed to environmentally. (more…)

BEGIN BY STAYING OUT OF THE SUN

To preserve your skin from premature aging, in addition to the constant use of a sunscreen on your face as part of your everyday skin care, you should understand the art of sunbathing—that is if you want to tan at all. Ideally, of course, you would be far better off pale.

As we’ve already said, the sun is your skin’s worst “ager.” It has been proved that exposure to ultraviolet light brings about permanent fundamental alterations in the genetic material of skin cells and encourages the process of cross-linking. These changes are cumulative and irreversible. Even when sun-exposed skin from an arm is grafted onto a protected area such as the abdomen and left there for years, it still remains older- looking and darker than the skin surrounding it. (more…)

Eyeliners

Finally put on your eyeliner. A good way of emphasizing eye shape without looking too obviously made up is to use a pencil in the same tone you are using for your eye shadow, dotting it all along the upper lashes and then just under the lower ones so the two lines meet at the outer corners and form a little triangle. This kind of liner looks good when it is gently smeared with a brush or fingertip to blend it into the surrounding area and keep it from looking too heavy. You can also use another color line drawn on the inside of the lower lid if you like. If you use a light color there, such as off-white, it will make your eyes look bigger. If you use a bright color such as electric blue or brilliant green, it can look great for evening. (more…)

Light Draws the Eye

Highlighter is a powerful tool when it is used wisely. When carelessly or wrongly applied, it can make a face look positively absurd. The best highlighters are not white. Bone white is too harsh. Instead choose a pale ivory foundation to use as a lightener on the areas of the face you wish

The Eyes Have it

For most women, one of their best features is the eyes. Perhaps this is because eyes reveal so much of what goes on inside one. Makeup for eyes should emphasize this and show off the eyes‘ beauty and color. It should never be applied gratuitously, as it often is. (more…)