September 2007 - Health And Beauty

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Health and Beauty - September 2007

Make up Trends Spring/Summer '07/08

September 25th 2007 02:30

STARS IN YOUR EYES

Make your eyes shimmer, sparkle and dance and stock up on the range of metallic eyeshadow because it’s all about bringing focus to your eyes this spring/summer season. Opt for lighter metallic shades like white, pink or gold during the day and more dramatic shades like purple, blue and forest green at night. Apply a lighter shade of metallic eyeshadow over the entire eyelid, working into the inner corners of the eye and use a darker shade into the crease of the lid. Line the inner sides of your eye with a black or dark brown eyeliner for a smouldering effect.

Check out : Bobbi Brown’s Metallic Collections : Forest Green (green hues), Midnight Metallics (blue/silver); Burnt Sugar (copper/bronze) and Velvet Plum (purple/pink).
*image from www.bobbibrowncosmetics.com

BOLD, BUSHY BROWS

The bushy eyebrows of the 80s are back so think carefully before you pick up those tweezers. But before you can sigh with relief and say goodbye to the painstaking process of tweezing, bushy can also mean scraggly (aka Incredible Hulk), when not maintained. So treat them like the hair on top of your head – tame them with gel and brush them up.

Check out : 5 Piece Eyeybrow Kit from Anastasia Beverly Hills – includes brow powder, brow gel, angled brow brush, tweezers and brow stencils.

DRAMATIC LASHES

So that’s why more women are lining up for lash extensions these days. What better way to complement your new shimmering, sparkling eyeshadow than with long, full, almost-fake lashes? For those who would rather stay away from the fake stuff, invest in eyelash curlers and a great mascara that gives you both length and volume without the clump.

Check out : Loreal Lash Architect

NATURAL-LOOK BASE
I don’t know about you but with the warm weather upon us, I don’t like my face feeling too heavy with make-up so hearing that covering your entire face with foundation is a no-no this season is good news for me. The aim is to use as little coverage as possible and make-up artists say that most people can get an even skin tone with just a tinted moisturiser (with sunscreen). If you want to hide away blemishes, apply dots of concealer and a brush of loose powder.

Check out : I only ever use Olay moisturiser now and unfortunately, they don’t have tinted moisturisers. If you’re as devoted to your current moisturiser as I am and don’t want to switch to another brand that stocks tinted moisturisers, all you do is mix in a blob of foundation with your Olay moisturiser.

BRONZED CHEEKS
The colour of healthy, sun-kissed cheeks to complement the tan you’ll be getting this season.

Check out : Sephora Duo Bronzer

NUDE LIPS

Just because the focus is all on the eyes doesn’t mean your lips should look washed out. So your lips can get just a little bit of attention even with its nude colour, the aim is to make them appear fuller and luscious. Opt for a lipstick that will give your pout a sheer gloss and a lip plumper for a fuller pout.

Check out : Bee-Luscious Lip Tox Sheer

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Posted By: Aimzster - Category: Face, Eyes, Lips

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Do you have these in your make-up bag?

September 21st 2007 01:00

All make-up artists have their favourite tools for making their clients look fab and glam. Daily Mail lists the ten tools beauty experts deem are must-haves in a girl’s make-up bag.

1. Angled Brow Brush
Perfect when your eyebrows are looking patchy or you accidentally plucked more brow hairs than you should have. This brush allows you to precisely fill in gaps in your eyebrows with a brow powder, creating a natural even look. Tip : Apply powder in gentle, feather strokes across the brows.

2. Nail Buffer
I love this one. When I discovered this when I was 16, I said goodbye to fake nails and nail polish forever (well, except for those special occasions). Tip : don’t buff your nails more than once a week or it could damage them.

3. Blusher Brush
To apply blush powder to your cheeks naturally, you need a BIG blusher brush. Not those short, rough ones that already come in blush cases. Tip : Apply blush to the area of your cheeks where you blush naturally and sweep toward the hairline. Also, it doesn’t hurt to have a multitude of blush powders so you can blend them together and create a blush custom-made for your skin colour.

4. Eyelash Curlers
Nothing uglier than seeing someone with beautiful long lashes looking like they have elephant lashes. Eyelash curlers make your eyes appear bigger and your eyelids (for those with almost non-existent ones) appear wider. Tip : Hold curlers over your lashes in place for 30 seconds.

5. Foundation Brush
Hmm…it’s supposed to help you apply foundation over your face more evenly but I find I don’t have as much control and almost always, I have to use my fingers to ensure the foundation blends into the skin. Tip : Don’t apply a blob of foundation directly onto your face and then use the brush. Put a blob of foundation on your hand first and gradually pick it up from the edge with the brush, applying it to your face in sweeping strokes.

6. Eyeshadow Brush
Well, have you ever tried applying eyeshadow with your fingers?

7. Cosmetic Sponge
This one, I think, is better than the Foundation Brush when applying foundation. It gave me better control and allows you a more even finish. Tip : Wash your sponges every few applications with mild, fragrance-free shampoo, otherwise the built-up muck on your sponge will make your face look dull next time you apply foundation to it.

8. Tweezers
My best friend. Not only does it tame your eyebrows, but a practical thing to do during commercial breaks of my favourite reality TV. Tip : Gold-tipped tweezers are best for plucking. Tip 2 : Pluck your eyebrows just after you’ve had a shower, brow hairs are less stubborn then.

9. Lip Brush
Not only does it give you an even lipstick coverage but experts say it’s also excellent for applying concealer and covering up dark shadows under your eyes. Tip : Dip brush into foundation and apply to blemish with short feathery strokes.

10. Sharpener
Nothing worse than a stub for a lipliner that gives you a ‘bleeding’ look around the edges of your lips.

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Posted By: Aimzster - Category: Face

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Weird, Wacky (Wonderful?) Beauty Treatments

September 18th 2007 01:57

A nanny once told me that one surefire way to get rid of pimples is to rinse your face with your own periods. But before you scoff at this, check out some of the more bizarre beauty treatments that have piqued people’s curiosity enough to queue up outside certain day spas :

Nightingale Facial
Nothing like bird faeces slathered all over your face to make your skin look more translucent and flawless. This is Diamond Hawaii Resort & Spa’s signature facial and the geishas were the first to discover the benefits of nightingale excrement for the skin. Perhaps in ten years’ time, someone will discover the benefits of dog crap that will have us scurrying toward our pets with a plastic bag everytime they hunch over and we can say goodbye to swearing viciously everytime we step on one when we have a picnic…

Butt treatment
We get our faces scrubbed and exfoliated but someone had the bright idea that we should also look after our second set of cheeks down south. I call this the Buttial where your backside is cleansed, exfoliated, applied a mask to, waxed (if required), massaged and moisturised so your ass can look polished and feel oh-so smooth. Perfect for summer when you want to gallivant around on the beach with a g-string.

Cupping
Remember when sticking needles into your body drew some raised eyebrows and elicited the ‘WTF?’ Well, cupping is another form of acupuncture that’s supposed to encourage blood flow and ease muscle aches and pains. Small glass cups are lit and immediately applied to the skin. Even though clients will earn deep purple bruises that will last about a week, the process is painless. And if it’s good enough for Gwyneth Paltrow, it’s good enough for the rest of us.

Beer Spa
Here’s something that would encourage more men into day spas – in Czech Republic, Austria and Germany anyway. How’s soaking into a huge bubbling tub of warm beer sound? Landhotel Moorhof in Austria would have us believe that the yeast in beer contains vitamins that give you a better complexion while relieving the stress from your muscles. And don’t worry, before you can sit there and contemplate on whether you should dunk your head in the tub and gulp as much of beer as you can, you’re given a few pints of beer – to drink.

Ramen Noodle Spa
Immersing yourself in a tub of ramen noodles and pork broth, as you would in Yunessa Spa, Japan, supposedly boosts your overall metabolism while cleansing your skin. Just add a sprinkle of sliced green onions and a teaspoon of soy sauce and you can feel like the pork in a soup.

Snake massage
Would you pay $80 to have six snakes slithering all over your back? NO! A salon in Northern Israel now has a waiting list of clients who want the experience of having these reptiles writhing all over their bodies to soothe aching muscles and stiff joints. While Ada Barak who performs this treatment is always at hand to ensure the non-venomous snakes don’t go into certain…er…delicate areas, that’s hardly enough to convince me that this treatment is meant to be relaxing. What’s next? A crocodile rolling on your back as another form of remedial massage? No thanks.

*image from www.wikipedia.com

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Posted By: Aimzster - Category: Skin Care, Stories, Body Care

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Want flirtatiously long lashes?

September 13th 2007 01:19

It seems mascaras just aren’t doing the trick these days. More and more women (and in some cases, men) are bypassing the beauty counters to book themselves for an eyelash extensions or eyelash transplants.

My, what long lashes you have!

For around $4000 an eye (please wait while I pull out $8000 from my ass), the eyelash transplant involves pulling hair follicles from the back of your scalp and sewing them into your eyelids. The procedure takes about 1.5 to 2 hours and is performed under a local anaesthetic with a recovery time of 4 to 5 days. Obviously, the hair on your head grows so you would need to trim your lashes often unless you want to grow them straight down to your nose to get tangled with your nose hairs. Experts do warn that if the hair ‘grows in the wrong direction’, this could lead to ulcers and even blindness but, they assure us, at least they won’t fall off. At least!

The eyelash extensions, on the other hand, are semi-permanent and are steadily gaining in popularity in Australia since late 2006 with one studio in Melbourne booked out weeks in advance. The procedure is pain-free and lasts up to two hours. The extensions come in various lengths and colours and are applied to the lashes one by one by tweezers and a bonding agent. You can wear them in the shower and in the pool, just as long as you only wear water-based mascaras as oil-based (ie waterproof) mascaras apparently shorten the life of the extensions. For around $180, they are considerably less than the eyelash transplants and the likes of Beyonce, Madonna and JLO have been known to step out on the red carpet, batting them for the cameras. But, as mentioned, they are semi-permanent and they last only up to 2 months with in-fills at around $8 per lash strongly recommended every 2-4 weeks. Sounds very high maintenance, if you ask me. Take my cousin for example who recently had this procedure. Yes, her mum happened to be my mum’s sister and I know the event of my mum lining up my sisters and I at the bottom of the staircase to cut off our lashes under the idea that trimming them would make them grow quicker also happened in my cousin’s household. Unfortunately for her, my auntie wasn’t so adept at cutting and managed to cut off a small part of her lid. Anyway, dear cuz has now developed an eye irritation and is constantly pulling on her extensions in frustration, threatening to do as her mum once did – cut them off.

While I would never entertain the idea of eyelash extensions or transplants, I might consider the creams they have these days that promote eyelash growth, such as the Lipocils Eyelash Conditioning Gel by Talika. The gel is “clinically proven and guaranteed to stimulate the growth of lashes, as it conditions and beautifies existing lashes”. I read that the product has an 80% success rate with women having longer, fuller lashes in 28 days after applying them to clean lashes twice daily.

But then again, I might just stick to my old-fashioned eyelash curler and super-length mascara.

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Posted By: Aimzster - Category: Eyes

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Where do you go to for your Spa Treatment (Sydney)?

September 12th 2007 00:10

There is a beauty salon I’ve been going to in Sydney the past ten years. While they don’t offer the ambience (more often than not, you’ll find yourself in something no bigger than a cupboard, lying on a towel-covered patio chair next to a rack of shoes) or service (never book for more than two people as they tend to leave the ‘excess people’ waiting outside), this place offers the best value for money when it comes to facials. For around $55, you get a facial with a heavenly shoulder massage and the treatment can last up to 2 hours, depending on your therapist.

[ Click here to read more ]

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Posted By: Aimzster - Category: Skin Care, Face

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The 5 Factor Diet

September 11th 2007 00:05

The 5 factor diet is the latest diet craze to hit Hollywood since Jessica Simpson attributed her 20-pound loss in a month to this program (for a B-grade personality, anything she endorses seems to turn to gold. What’s the deal with that???). Created by Harley Pasternak who has an educational background in Exercise Physiology and Nutritional Sciences, the diet is based on everything ‘five’. It’s a five-week plan of five small meals to be consumed daily, consisting of five ingredients of five elements (healthy carbs, healthy fats, protein, fibre and a sugar-free drink), to be prepared in five minutes and cooked in five – should I assume to be eaten in five minutes as well?

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Posted By: Aimzster - Category: Body Care

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Couch Potato Men shun exercise for Plastic Surgery

September 4th 2007 00:35

I read an article over the weekend that had me seriously contemplating the future of men and their masculinity. In the UK’s Sunday Telegraph, they conducted a survey on men and plastic surgery. The survey showed that one in four men who live their lives entrenched in a couch, gorging on junk food and slumbering their day away after a particularly big lunch, would rather go under the knife to improve their looks than to exercise. Apparently, the number of men opting for liposuction to remove their excess fat has grown in the past two years with more and more men looking for quick, albeit, expensive solutions to stay buff and trim. Sweating in the gym three to four hours a week is just too much hard work and cuts into the time they could be spending watching DVDs or playing computer games while snacking on a bucket of KFC.

While it worries me that men – and, of course, women – see plastic surgery as their beacon of hope to stay thin and look good while stuffing their faces with whatever junk food they can get their hands on without thinking about the consequences to their general health, it annoys me more to think that there are actually men out there who are so lazy, they are willing to have their body parts sliced open, become virtual invalids as they recover for weeks from surgery, instead of spending a measly twenty minutes in the gym every day.
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Posted By: Aimzster - Category: Men, Body Care

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