Sometimes at the end of the day my face feels tense from staring at a computer all day or from furrowing my brow as I try to figure out why gas prices are so high. In order to combat stress and relieve my face of its weary appearance, I use the facial relaxation techniques below. Relax one area at a time and then move on to the next one:

1. Massage your temples with both index fingers using small, counter-clockwise circles.
2. Gently grasp your eyebrows between your thumb and your index finger, pinch and elevate your brow (starting at the center) until you reach your temples.
3. Take your middle three fingers and lightly tap around your eye sockets.
4. Move your fingers along the front of your forehead (browline) pressing lightly and lifting upwards toward your scalp.
5. With your middle three fingers, press under your cheekbone and lift upward toward your eyes for a few seconds. As you lift, inhale for a few seconds and exhale for 6 seconds as you release.
6. Use your thumbs and middle fingers to lightly pinch and lift skin along your jaw from your chin all the way up to your ears.
7. Slowly move your head to the right and then to the left a few times to release tension in your neck.
8. Lean back or lie down if possible and cover your face with your hands for a few minutes. You will feel warm and relaxed. Place your elbow on a table and rest the area between your eyebrows on the heel of your hand. Breathe deeply and make small, circular movements with your hand.

You’ll feel more tranquil and less stressed as you relieve your face from unnecessary muscle tension. Forget your everyday frustration and you’ll feel calm and relaxed in no time.
–Nolan

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You’re hair is looking great but, oh no! You have a little more than your fair share of split ends. While the only way to get rid of split ends is to cut them off, there are some measures you can take to prevent split ends from forming.

How do split ends form?

Trichoptlosis (which is just a fancy way to say “split ends”) occurs more frequently in hair that is dry and brittle when the protective cuticle around the hair shaft is stripped away.

Excessive blow drying, hair dyeing, curling and hair brushing can also lead to a head full of split ends. Once that protective cuticle around your hair is removed, that’s it. There’s no way to get rid of split ends, except with scissors.

What you can do to stop split ends

If you have dry hair, only shampoo once every 2-3 days . When you shampoo your hair you strip it of its essential oils, which keep hair soft. On the days where you don’t shampoo, just rinse your hair with warm water.

Condition your hair everyday or every other day to keep it moisturized and soft. You can also try a hair treatment like Burt’s Bees Avocado Butter for your hair.

Ease up on the styling . All the gel, mousse and hairspray you uses can wreak havoc on your hair. If you can’t leave the house without a little bit of styling, look for a product made with natural ingredients.

Instead of brushing your hair with a hairbrush use a wide tooth comb instead. This will prevent your hair from breaking. If you prefer a brush, use one with wide set nylon bristles.

Don’t brush your hair when wet . This is when your hair is most fragile and can break. If you must brush it while wet, treat it with love and affection. Be gentle!

HOWEVER, if you have curly hair, it is better to brush while wet to avoid frizz . Just be sure to use a wide tooth brush or comb.

If you like to keep your hair up and out of the way use a hair clip or a soft scunci . Elasatic bands, even the ones without the little metal piece can cause breakage in your hair.

Make sure you are partaking in a healthy diet filled with vitamins A, E and calcium. Your hair will be stronger, healthier and softer than ever before.

–Magdalena

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Getting rid of cellulite is a battle for most women. Cellulite affects 95 percent of women. Often it seems cellulite is a constant battle. We fight it, deny it, and cover it up. But we get cellulite anyway and it stinks.

Cellulite is fat that appears as dimpled skin on the thighs, hips and buttocks. Cellulite develops in the subcutaneous fat layers and occurs when fat cells push against the skin while the tough fibrous connective cords are pulling downward. This creates uneven puckering or dimpling of the skin. However, there are natural remedies to help reduce the appearance of cellulite.

Cellulite Symptoms

Some signs and symptoms of cellulite include:
• Appearance of dimpled or bumpy skin—on thighs, buttocks, breasts, lower and upper arms
• Skin has cottage cheese or orange-peel texture
• Feeling tenderness or tightness in the affected area
• Feels the dimpling while standing
• In mild cases, dimpling appears when skin is pinched
• In severe cases, skin an bumpy and has peaks and valleys

You can check to see if you have cellulite by pinching the skin around your upper thigh or buttock. If the skin appears lumpy, you probably have cellulite.

Cellulite Risk Factors

Cellulite affects more women than men because women’s fat is usually distributed around the thighs, hips and buttocks (where we normally find cellulite).

Some factors that play in role in developing cellulite:
• Genetics—cellulite tends to run in families
• Hormones—progesterone and estrogen can led to the formation of cellulite
• Stress—causes more adrenaline to be produced in the body, which is a major cause of cellulite
• Weight gain—makes cellulite more noticeable, but cellulite can be found in lean people
• Inactive lifestyle—this can cause cellulite to form due to poor circulation
• Pregnancy—hormones and fluid retention rapidly increase and lead to cellulite

Cellulite Home Remedies and Tips

Try the following tips to reduce cellulite:

• Drink an adequate amount of water to keep your body hydrated.
• Try a detox diet that is low in fat and high in fiber to help combat your cellulite woes. Eat lots of healthy fruits and vegetables while reducing your intake of alcohol, coffee, pop and cigarette smoke. A high-fiber diet will help to improve your digestive process. Make sure your diet is low in fat, high in fiber and incorporates fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
• Exercise regularly to improve blood circulation while firming your body tissue. Maintain a healthy weight. Those who are carrying around excess weight are more likely to develop cellulite.
• Reduce salt consumption to avoid water retention.
• Relax by taking hot bubble baths or meditating.
• Avoid stress or aggravation in your life.
• Yoga teaches you how to breathe deeply and gives your muscles a good stretch. It helps to calm down your muscles and relax you. Cellulite accumulates when your muscles become tense, which can happen when you’re stressed, so it’s important to stay calm.
• Those who are constipated on a regular basis normally have cellulite. Eat plenty of high-fiber foods like green vegetables and grains to help your meals move quickly through your digestive tract.
• Put your feet up and keep your legs elevated when resting.

To reduce cellulite, you may follow the below listed home and natural remedies:
• Drink several cups of green tea a day.
• Take a bath with 2 cups of sea salt in warm water for about 20 minutes. This will like your skin feeling silky smooth.
• Dry-brush your skin with a soft body brush on damp or dry skin to help improve circulation. Rotate the brush in a circular motion from head to toe or on cellulite-ridden areas. Use long sweeping motions over the affected area and work in the direction of the heart.
• Drink 3 glasses of freshly squeezed lemons in 1 cup water and a pinch of cayenne pepper day. This will also melt away the cellulite.
• Mix rosemary and fennel oils and rub on the cellulite-afflicted area daily.
• Some essential oils such as cedarwood, juniper and patchouli are effective in treating cellulite.
• Grind caffeinated coffee into a powder and mix it with cheap hand lotion. Rub this into those dimpled areas for 60 seconds a day and then rinse off.

—Nolan

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My eyebrows were never horrible. I mean I don’t look like a female version of Andy Rooney or anything. That would be rather frightening.

My brows were a little on the thick side and dark so a few years ago I decided that I would tweeze them. There were a few times where I went tweeze crazy and plucked more hair than I intended. Luckily, the hair grew back but I needed to find out more information so that I wouldn’t end up with crazy brows.

The Truth about Tweezing

If used by an inexperienced person, tweezers can cause damage to the blood vessels around the hair follicle. Other issues can occur such as tearing of the skin or poking small holes in the skin. So it’s important to know the proper steps to take for tweezing and if you’re still uncertain, consult your cosmetologist or aesthetician for more information.

Tweezing is great for removing small amounts of unwanted facial hair. You can take years off your look with just a little eyebrow shaping and maintenance.

Tweezing Treatment

Prep work

1. Make sure your tweezers are clean and sharp every time you tweeze. If you’re going to tweeze regularly, you may want to buy a pair of professional tweezers.
2. Always…always, disinfect the tips of your tweezer in rubbing alcohol.
3. Clean and/or exfoliate your face with a gentle scrub. Rinse with a hot washcloth to loosen hair follicles.
4. Reduce pain by numbing the area beforehand with any of the following—ice (I recommend this one), teething gel, or toothache gel (Orajel, Anbesol).
5. Soften the hair with conditioner or shaving cream.
6. Be sure to tweeze near a window with a lot of light coming in or under bright light.

How to Tweeze Your Eyebrows

1. Grab a pencil and hold it vertically along the side of your nose. Your eyebrow should begin at the outside edge of the pencil. If you leave more space, it will widen close-set eyes.
2. Now take your pencil and hold it to the outside of your eye. This point is where your eyebrow should end.
3. Brush your eyebrow hairs in the direction of natural growth.
4. You can use an eye shadow pencil to draw your desired shape beforehand.
5. Tweeze under the brow first and pluck in the direction of the growth.
6. Find the hair you want to tweeze and pull the skin taut to prevent excess pulling. When using the tweezers be sure to pull the hair gently but with a quick and smooth motion. Do not yank out the hair. Only pluck one hair at a time and keep checking in the mirror to make sure that both brows are even.
7. After you tweeze, use cool, wet tea bags to soothe in eye area. Your can also use aloe vera gel or an astringent to soothe irritated skin.

Tips

• DO NOT OVERTWEEZE! Be sure to continuously look in the mirror as you tweeze so that you’ll still have eyebrows left.
• Avoid plucking your eyebrows 1-2 days before (or 1-2 days after) your menstrual cycle because you may feel more pain at this time.
• Don’t drop your tweezers! This can dull the point. Keep your tweezers in a storage tube or pouch to avoid damage.
• Do not use your eyebrow tweezers for removing delicate nose hair. By adhering to this rule, you’ll reduce your risk for infection.
• Use a special tweezer for ingrown hairs and/or splinters.
• If you get crazy brows like I do (especially in the morning), you can use a brow gel to keep your eyebrows in place all day. You can also use clear mascara or a little hairspray to keep stray hairs in place.

-Nolan

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A full-on pout is painfully hot, but not everyone is born with lips like Angelina Jolie. Injections are expensive and cosmetic lip plumpers, while cheaper, end up sucking your wallet just as dry in the long run. So what should you do to plump your lips to brand new heights of fullness?

How do most cosmetic lip plumpers work?

It’s simple really: irritation. Yes, plain old run-of-the-mill skin irritation. Using a lip plumper is sort of like rubbing poison ivy on your lips. Not quite as glamorous but it would produce pretty much the same lip plumping effect. And once the irritation fades, so does the fullness. Not a fair trade, I think.

Onto the big question. Is there a natural way to plump up your lips without irritation?

Sad news but it is near impossible, especially for the long term. Women all over the world have tried many a lip plumper, from drugstore cheap to wallet-breaking high end products, all with little or no lip plumping success.

How to give the illusion of fuller lips

Use a natural, light colored lip liner to carefully draw a little bit outside the edge of your lips. The secret with this is to only line outside a third of your lips, mainly the bottom swell and cupid’s bow. When you have an even contour you’re ready for some color.

We all know that dark colors are slimming on the body. Well, the same goes for dark colors on your lips, so put down the dark red lipstick. It’s making your lips look thinner than they actually are. To give yourself a plumper, fuller look use a natural, lighter colored lipstick.

Give your lips some lip-plumping shine with a bit of lip gloss. Glossed lips reflect light a lot more than lips without. This play on light gives the impression of fuller lips.

Highlight the middle of your lips with a lighter color lipstick and blend outward. If you don’t have a color light enough, you can use a light eyeshadow or eyebrow highlighter in its place. This gives your lips natural-looking shading and more lip plumping definition.

–Magdalena

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