Lifestyle Choices

You really should indulge yourself and have a professional manicure at least once; save your baby-sitting cash or weekly allowance and go ahead and splurge! Think of it as more than an indulgence, however; learning tips from a pro will enable you to give yourself perfect manicures at home. If you have any problem tendencies, a good manicurist will point them out and offer helpful advice for combatting them.

Until you make your first appointment, study the list below, in which a New York City nail-care expert reveals her method for flawless fingers: (more…)

Your poor feet! Walking, running, dancing, jogging, basketball and pogo sticks, stiletto heels and pointy toes—do they ever get a rest from all the abuse they’re forced to take? The tips below will help get your feet looking—and feeling—their very best, day or night. You don’t have to visit a fancy beauty salon to benefit from these footwise suggestions.

1. For swollen feet that are really beat, soak in cool salt water for five minutes. Dry carefully and moisturize.
2. To step up circulation, soak feet for five minutes in shallow footbath or tub of warm water; switch to cool, and keep soaking for an additional five minutes. You’ll be ready to dance the night away.

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Other things contribute to back troubles too—like poor nutrition, which results in stored waste in the tissues and the accumulation of fat, which puts far too much strain on heavily taxed muscles. You shouldn’t sleep on a bed that is too soft either—it won’t give enough support to your spine

and there is always the danger of hanging on to muscle tension left over from the daytime or putting too much of an unnatural curve in your spine during sleep. But you needn’t go out and buy an expensive orthopedic mattress. A simple, firm mattress on top of a board will do fine. (more…)

Wash them every day, making a rich lather and massaging it over the soles of the feet. With a loofah, gently rub the tops and soles of the feet, not forgetting the heels, to loosen the dead skin cells, and with a soft nail brush, gently brush the tips of the nails from side to side. Rinse them well in warm water and if there is any hard skin to remove, rub a pumice stone over it. Finally, rinse again in warm water and then splash with cold. Dry your feet thoroughly by wrapping them in a towel and gently rubbing and patting them, then rub dry carefully between and behind the toes until absolutely all the moisture is gone. This is important in order to protect them from infection. If your feet tend to sweat, give them a light rubdown with alcohol. If they ache, massage some cider vinegar into the soles to cool and refresh them, or make a hot and cold footbath—three minutes of hot followed by thirty seconds of cold—and end with a good friction rub with a soft towel. Finally, dust each foot with dusting powder. (more…)

External treatment is almost as important as internal treatment—breaking down the pockets of cellulite physically so that stored wastes in them are released and can be eliminated from the body. There are several ways of doing it. Which you choose depends on your patience, your preference, and the state of your pocketbook. If the cellulite is hard and long-standing, if there is a lot of it—you will probably need professional help, either a beauty therapist who knows what she is doing (many unfortunately don’t) or a physiotherapist trained in corrective tissue massage or Rolfing. (more…)

Another useful external treatment for cellulite is hydrotherapy. It is part of la cure in many of the best European spas. It works on the same principle that massage does, by improving circulation and gently but insistently breaking down the pockets of tissue sludge. There are two types. The first uses powerful jets of water directed onto the surface of the skin. The second involves the alternative plunging of the body into hot and cold water. (more…)

When there is a serious misalignment in the body, such as a chronic stoop that begins to distort the soft S-shape curve of the spine, heavy, shapeless piano legs, or twists, curves, and bulges in parts of the body, that stays there even after the loss of excess weight, cellulite treatment, and exercise, then you need professional help. There are a number of different disciplines that can be useful. Osteopathy or chiropractic, through manipulation and specific exercises, can realign spines as well as eliminate pressures on nerves or blood vessels in the spinal area. Left unattended, these pressures may result in serious back pain, varicose veins, poor lymphatic drainage to the legs, and bad cellulite. The Alexander technique can help straighten a spine bent by years of discouragement and rehabilitate the personality that carries it in the process. Tai chi and yoga work slowly and gradually, but are capable of restoring most bodies to perfect alignment and balance as well. But I’ve found two other techniques—Rolfing and connective tissue massage—to be especially helpful in treating body problems that, by interfering with perfect form, mar beauty. (more…)

Bathing should be a pleasant ritual that should treat your mind as well as your body. There are a number of useful prebath techniques and tools. They are important because they can prepare your skin and body for taking the plunge and ensure you get more benefit from bathing.

A Loofah

A dry, rough-textured sea gourd that you soften by wetting it, the loofah is rubbed against the skin to slough off dead cells and to increase circulation. You can buy loofahs in their natural state (about fifteen inches long) or sewn into gloves and bands of terry cloth to be used as scrubbers. (more…)

These are not very good for your skin. Soaps are made of fatty acids taken from animals and treated with caustic soda. Many of them are also full of antiseptics that can cause irritations to the skin and be very drying. If you bathe every day, you don’t need soap to get clean. If you do use it, choose a neutral soap (one that is not alkaline) or one of the pH balanced detergent bars that are mild on the skin and don’t remove the natural acid mantle from it. Even then you probably only need it under the arms, around the genitals, and on the feet unless you have been out in the mud and genuinely need to wash away grime. Bath foams and other detergent-based products can contribute to vaginal infections such as trichomoniasis and candidiasis. (more…)

Feet not only affect the condition of the rest of your body, they also reflect it. A good reflexologist or zone therapist will be able to tell you just by taking your feet in his hands and pushing them what is the state of your liver, the muscles of your back, or your pituitary gland. Originally an ancient Chinese form of therapy, foot reflexology has recently become a popular form of alternative medicine products. It was first developed and charted in the beginning of the century by an eminent American doctor named Fitzgerald, who described the ten specific zones of the body that are regulated by different nerve complexes. Through these zones, which go from the top of the head to the tips of the fingers and toes, so the theory goes, runs a network of nerves connecting the important muscles, glands, and organs to specific tiny points on the feet. (more…)

Aromatherapy is the art of using essences of plants to treat the skin, the emotions, and the body as a whole. It is one of the most interesting areas of beauty care. For each plant essence has its own unique qualities, yet like a piece of music or a painting will evoke slightly different responses from different people depending on their personalities, needs, and tastes. Learning about aromatherapy, the essences themselves, and some of the things you can do with them is sheer delight. It is also a wonderful way of looking after your skin, calming your nerves when you are overwrought, and creating interesting atmospheres in your living and working environment. If I were allowed only one luxury I could easily dispense with makeup and trips to the hairdresser, but I would never want to be without the beauty of aromatherapy. Let’s start at the beginning. (more…)

Our sense of smell is still something of a mystery to science in spite of all that is understood about the olfactory organ itself. Current theories postulate that smells enter the nose in the form of tiny droplets of odorous substances that are soluble in both oil and water. Then, either by a chemical reaction on the olfactory area or through some kind of vibratory effect as yet undiscovered, the messages coming from the substance are transferred to the brain. Some scientists even believe that smells, rather like light rays, enter the senses through waves sent out from the odorous substances. And it is also not clearly understood why we have such immediate mental and emotional responses to smells, although there is no doubt that we do. Everyone has at one time or another smelled an odor that instantly brought back a feeling, emotion, or memory from long ago. (more…)

There are a number of ways of using plant essences for beauty. You can dilute them in oil and apply them to the face and body for skin treatments. You can use them in the same mixture on the face, at the back of the neck, and on the base of the spine for their effect on the psyche and nervous system. You can inhale them directly from the bottle or breathe them in the form of steam from a humidifier or pot of very hot water to which a few drops of essence have been added. They can also be used in your bath but always in the minutest quantities—ten to fifteen drops. Some essences will be absorbed into the skin more rapidly than others, depending on their volatility and the carrier oil in which you have put them.

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It is a good idea to start with three or four essences and then experiment, each time adding more oils to your collection as you get to know them. Some of the best to start with are jasmine, sandalwood, geranium, neroli, lavender, and cinnamon.

Always keep your essences in a cool place (the refrigerator is ideal) in dark glass bottles. Essential oils are highly volatile and easily destroyed by heat and sunlight. They have to be treated like something very precious.

Here are some of the common uses of essential oils:

Skin

To improve circulation For broken veins

For oily skin (more…)

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…)

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…)

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…)

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…)

EYES

This exercise is excellent for the eye area, which usually goes slack faster than any other part of the face. It is particularly designed to prevent or eliminate crow’s-feet. It is in two parts.

Part one Looking into a mirror, lower your chin to your chest and open your eyes looking straight ahead. Then, slowly and in eight definite steps, close your eyes by bringing the lower lids up to the upper, all the while looking into the mirror until the very last moment. Hold this position with your eyes tightly shut for four counts, then release in the same eight definite steps. Repeat four times. Once you can control these movements in definite steps, you are ready to go on to the toughy that really does the work. (more…)

One of the most useful things you can do yourself to prevent your face from aging and to correct sags and bags even after they have occurred is to practice face exercises every day.

The bones you were born with give yaw face its individual shape and structure. Short of plastic surgery or adjustments to your skull through cranial osteopathy, there is nothing you can do to change them. But your muscles are constantly changing either for better or for worse. They are made up of bundles of fibers, each of which works independently to shorten muscle and draw a part of the face into a particular expression. Just like the muscles in the rest of your body, each of these groups of fibers has an antagonistic group. This means that for each muscle that pulls an area of your face into one expression, there is an opposite muscle to pull it the other way. (more…)