Lifestyle Choices

Fashion on a Large Scale: How to Look Great with a Fuller Figure

June 03, 2008 By: arlene Category: Beauty, Fashion, Skin Care 4 Comments →

If you’re heavy, that doesn’t banish you from the realm of style and chic. You can still cultivate your good looks by following some key points:

  • Look for separates in soft, fluid fabrics—silk, wool challis, rayon that gracefully drape, not hug, your figure. Avoid nubby textures that add bulk, clingy cotton or heavy cable knits, thick tweeds.
  • Wear whatever colors suit your hair and skin, but stick to one or two colors at most and select the deepest variation of the shade: deep teal rather than pale seagreen; dusky rose rather than pastel pink. Avoid metallic fabrics, neon shades.

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HOW—AND HOW NOT—TO GET TO SLEEP

May 19, 2008 By: arlene Category: Beauty, Fashion, Stress Reducing, Women 3 Comments →

  1. Get more exercise regularly during the day. This helps burn up stress- caused adrenalin buildup in the brain, which can result in that tense, nervous feeling where you’re “up” and you can’t seem to get “down.” But don’t take strenuous exercise before going to bed, as it can set the heart pounding and stimulate the whole body too much.
  2. Don’t go to bed when you are not sleepy. Instead, pursue some pleasant activity, preferably passive. Television is not the best choice, for rays emitted from the set disturb your nervous system when you least need it.

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The Beauty of Bathing

May 05, 2008 By: arlene Category: Body Care, Fashion, Massage, Skin Care 6 Comments →

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…)

Makeup: Putting It into Practice (Step 4 Fishing Touches )

April 20, 2008 By: arlene Category: Beauty, Cosmetic, Jewelry, Lips Care, Skin Care 5 Comments →

 

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…)

Makeup: Putting It into Practice (Step 2 Blemishes & Shading)

April 09, 2008 By: arlene Category: Beauty, Cosmetic, Lips Care, Skin Care 6 Comments →

 

Covering the Blemishes

Now is the time to deal with any problems you want to conceal, such as black circles under your eyes or discolorations here and there. Concealer creams and sticks are good here, although some of them are greasy and, particularly under the eyes, tend to sink into tiny lines and make matters worse. If you use a concealer, buy one that is not too light-colored. Many brands are far too pale and, used under the eyes, make you look ghoulish.

Put your concealer on and pat it into the skin with your little finger until it blends perfectly with the surrounding area. If you add a little powder here—particularly under the eyes—even if you don’t wear it on the rest of your face, you will get just the finish you need to make the undesirable area fade into the surrounding skin tones.

 

The Magic of Light and Shade

The whole secret of successful makeup, no matter what look you are after (the natural, clean face or pure glamour), lies in using light and shade well. The rules are simple. Whatever part of your face you want to bring out or emphasize, you apply a light color to, and whatever part you want to minimize, you cover with a darker shade. In practice it becomes a little more complicated. Shaders and highlighters come in several forms: creams or lotions you put on a naked face or just after applying your foundation, powders you brush on after applying translucent powder, and simple light and dark shades of foundation you put on various areas of the face for effect. (more…)

The Magic of Makeup continue…

April 06, 2008 By: arlene Category: Cosmetic, Lips Care, Skin Care, UK, USA 4 Comments →

 

The Products

Makeup products offer you two things: coverage, which to some extent will conceal minor flaws and blemishes in your skin, and most important, color. There are literally hundreds of different makeup products on the market. From the amount of advertising that accompanies the launch of each of them—the new wand-lipstick or foam cheek color or moisture- encapsulated powder—you would assume that to do a good job of making up her face a woman needs all of them. You don’t. In fact you need very few.

Neither do colors change a great deal from season to season, in spite of the fact that each cosmetic house brings out new autumn or spring collections. If you gather together a simple range of shades for eyes, cheeks, and lips that you know look good on you, there is no reason to replace half of them with each new season’s arrivals. Yes, there might be the new shade of fuchsia lipstick which you fancy or a new-formula foundation (foundations seem to get better and better each couple of years), but the quality of a makeup product is not dependent on its price, although the package—including the little compacts, mirrors, and applicators—is usually better the more you pay. (more…)

Preoccupation with weight

March 27, 2008 By: arlene Category: Diet, Weight Control 4 Comments →

The second obvious change which happens to dieters is that they become preoccupied and obsessed with their weight. The original motivation to lose weight is complex and yet the main focus is to feel and look more attractive and to feel in control.

Yet dieting shifts the focus from feeling and looking better to what the scales say. Weight/height charts do not say that your ideal weight is when you feel good about yourself. They say you should weigh 8 stone 31/2 pounds or 9 stone 2 pounds. They precisely select and advise a weight for you. Every women has a different bone structure, a different facial structure and is a different age. What may suit a 30-year-old would make a 45-year-old look scrawny, and yet the dieting industry sells us a specific weight as if we are all the same. (more…)

Holford LOW-GL Body Plan

March 17, 2008 By: arlene Category: Diet, Food, Skin Care, Weight Control 5 Comments →

Your body is designed to move, and a certain level of exercise is needed just to keep it working healthily. However, it’s all too easy to develop a couch-potato lifestyle, or simply to run out of time to exercise. This is bad news for your long-term health as well as your weight. Low activity levels exaggerate your appetite, slow your rate of metabolism and interfere with your body’s ability to keep blood glucose levels stable.

GET THE EXERCISE HABIT

Combining diet and exercise is the best way to lose weight: that way you lose fat, not lean muscle when you diet.

Muscle burns up more energy than fat, so the less muscle you have, the slower your metabolism.

Aerobic exercise (such as brisk walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, dance, skiing, circuit training) increases your heart rate and is ideal for fatburning, whereas anaerobic exercise (using weights or resistance) builds lean muscle and improves body tone. (more…)

My Favorite Herb for Hair Care part 1

March 02, 2008 By: arlene Category: Beauty, Cosmetic, Hair Care 4 Comments →

A head of beautifully clean, bouncy, shiny hair is indeed an enviable asset. Once again, in order to achieve those smooth, shiny locks, you need to eat foods that are fresh and healthy — plenty of fruit, vegetables and salads. Drink lots of water and make sure that you get enough sleep — eight hours each night will do wonders for your hair. Regular shampooing, conditioning and brushing will further serve to beautify it and is well worth the effort. Old-fashioned beauty tips like adding egg to shampoo as a protein conditioner for dry hair, and lemon juice in tepid water as a final rinse for oily hair, ‘kill hold good. And rosemary, nettle or yarrow tea rubbed into the scalp will stimulate hair growth.

The vast array of shampoos, conditioners and setting lotions available today can be confusing. The general trend, however, is to the natural shampoos that are now on the market. Take a close look at the ingredients to find a product which is suitable for your particular hair type. To give the shampoo that extra something add a herb tea or infusion, eg chamomile, rosemary or nettle. (more…)

Put Your Hands as Your First Face

February 04, 2008 By: arlene Category: Beauty, Body Care, Cosmetic, Skin Care 4 Comments →

During winter, the relative humidity of the air declines and there are cold, drying winds. Central heating systems keep us warm but dry out the air, splitting wood furniture and doors which have lasted unharmed in the homes of our hardier ancestors. The skin loses its moisture and contracts until it splits apart just as the bottom of a recently drained lake will lose its shiny muddy surface and split into a pattern of small pieces. The earliest changes are just an accentuation of the fine surface lines but with further damage, cracks extend deeper into the skin and the surface is scaly. The skin looks and feels rough and may be itchy and sore. When the splits penetrate into living layers of skin they are extremely painful as anyone who has accidentally cut their finger-tip knows. Further damage causes more redness and swelling until the skin is weeping, completing the picture of hand eczema. (more…)