Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Why only cheeks, even hands can be cuddly

Our hands wriggle when we see a soft and chubby face. It becomes difficult to resist the temptation to cuddle the soft and supple cheeks of young children or babies. However, when we do that, do we also check the condition of your hands? The cheeks at the receiving end might feel the roughness of your undernourished hands.

How would you take care of it? Simple! Here we present seven easy steps towards a soft hand.

Things to keep handy:

Small bowl of lukewarm water
Two tablespoons of sugar
A soft washcloth
Moisturizing soap
Clean towel
Lotion, preferably containing macadamia oil and
Rose water

Step 1: Use running tap water or simply cold water to wash your hands. Use a moisturizing soap while you wash. Once you are done with washing, use the bowl with warm water to soak your hands. Keep it soaked for about five minutes or more in case of very rough hands.

Step 2: Once soaking is completed, take the entire amount of sugar you had kept aside and few drops of lukewarm water.

Step 3: Rub the hands just as you are applying a moisturizer. Keep scrubbing for sometime.

Step 4: Use the washcloth while putting some moisturizing soap over it. Now rub your hands with this in a circular motion. Do it both on the front and back of your hands. Wash it off with warm water.

Step 5: Now use the towel to dab dry your hands without completely removing the moisture.

Step 6: Apply the lotion on your hands now. The macadamia oil is absorbed fast by the skin. It helps you to keep your hands moisturized and fresh without a greasy feeling.

Step 7: Apply some rosewater that you had kept for the treatment. Apply the ingredients on your hands as a finishing touch. It also provides your hands with a fresh fragrance.

So along with a soft hand, you make it enchanting too.

Hand softening products and brands
Various products are also launched in the market that can be used as had softening agents.

Avon: The two hand softening products that Avon has introduced to the market are NATURALS Cucumber Melon Hand & Body Lotion and NATURALS Peach Hand and Body Lotion.
The Body Shop: The Body Shop Almond Oil Softening Hand Exfoliator has received adulation from the users of the product.

Various other fruitful products like Softsoap Antibacterial Liquid Hand Soap with Light Moisturizers, L'Occitane Shea Butter Hand Cream, MD Formulations Hand and Body Crème, Softsoap Foaming Liquid Hand Wash, Dermalogica Multivitamin Hand & Nail Cream and Softsoap Hand Soap, Lavender & Chamomile are also available in the market.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Love your nails

Your nails are the sign of your pedigree. It indicates grooming, hygiene and health in general. At workplace, at any party or among friends, people do take a note of the kind of nails you have. It might be so that you do not apply polish all the time but to keep it prim and proper, without stains and dirt, does make a lot of difference.

Tricks to make your manicure last longer
Short nails are the best. More long your nails, more chances of getting brittle. Just a quarter inch long from the finger tip is fine.
Groom your cuticles. The polishes can be easily removed when smudged on the cuticles. To keep your cuticles soft and safe apply oil on it and gently push it in with orange wood sick. That helps to keep your hands look great all the time without any fear of infection.
Clean your nails and apply nail polish. The varnish is said to protect your nails from damage. In case your nail has any stain of lotion or cream before you applied polish, the nail color would not stay for longer. Make sure your nails are wiped with nail polish remover before any application.

To look and feel good follow the nail care routine.

Pamper your nails
Use a remover to clean your nails. Most of the times we use dry cotton pads with polish remover sprayed on it. Instead of that moisten a cotton ball, put some nail polish remover and then press the polish out of your nails. Before you go ahead, make sure your nails are clean and completely without any varnish.
Use a nail file to shape your nails. Work on it in a right to left motion for a right hander and opposite for a left-hander. Shape it as your desire. Vertical see-sawing of the file will lead to broken and brittle nails.
Use soapy, lukewarm water to soak your hands. Remove the dirt inside nails. Use an orange wood stick to clean the free edges.
Push the cuticles and do not overdo it. The nail growing issue is saved from any infection caused due to extreme cuticle conditions.
Apply a nail color. Use a single color without spending too much on the unnecessary.
Reapply top coat in case you feel the first coat is too thin to bring out the actual color of the polish.
Once the polish is dry moisturize your hands, nails and cuticles. This ensures no split nails.

Highlight your own hair

Save some money now and do your highlights yourself. It takes very little time to know how to go about it but once you do, your game is on. It is a rewarding experience and a fun exercise too.
What is the length of your hair? Medium or short? You will need a kit for hair highlighting that comprises a hook, brush and a cap, then you are all set. If you have a long hair get a kit that has specialized brushes that can slide through your long hair.
Color of the hair highlight, however, depends on the original color of your hair or the color of hair you have. Do not go for a drastically dramatic highlight. Subtle is the key to your highlighting amateur career. Brunettes and dark blondes should choose few shades lighter for highlighting their hair. For black and dark brown hair, go for caramel brown or dark blonde shades to get a natural feel.
Check out the various methods that you can employ to become an amateur hair stylist.
· The cap method: Put the cap tightly and comfortably on your head. Use the hook to pull out thin strands of hair. Start at the front of your head and move backwards. Use every second hole in the cap when you pull out strands of hair. This has to be done because short hair might look blotchy if you pull out strands from each hole. In this method paint on the mixture using the brush. The hair must be completely coated. Use pressure while applying for better impact. The mixture should be evenly applied to hair and not just the surface hair.
· Long hair method: Decide where you want highlights before you start working on your long mane. Start from around your face. Part your hair and style it the way you usually do. Visualize how you want your hair to look. Start once you are done.

While painting, use the mixture as given in the “directions” section of the color container. Load the brush with the mixture and paint evenly on the strands you want to highlight. Use enough color for better effect. Inappropriate color usage would result in shabby highlights.
Sit for sometime patiently, read a book, listen to music or just watch television. Allow the color to settle. Follow the time limit as per the directions. In case you are not happy with the highlight because the strands seem lighter than you want, apply further coating and wait once again.
Wash off your hair. The mixture must be off the hair. Use a highlight-friendly conditioner to help restore moisture without spoiling your highlights.
Once you get the highlights done, check the glow in your mirror. You would be surprised at your own skill. Do not get too excited as you still have to learn to maintain your new hair color. Use shampoos that are suitable for highlighted hair followed by a conditioner. Stay away from the sun or rather cover your hair with a hat or scarf to save your highlights.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Do It Yourself French Manicure

Style gurus differ in their versions and thoughts about a French manicure. Some say it is outdated and boring, whereas others say it is the best way to highlight your nails and can never fall behind trend. Whatever the style gurus say, women prefer to go for a French manicure because of its elegance and unfailing style statement.

French manicure
The style of painting your nails with natural color and getting the tip painted in white is what a French manicure is all about. The sheer colors, faded pink or a light beige performs the intended trick of giving your nails the natural color and clean and proper look. If you have short nail, French manicure is a great option for you.

Origin of French manicure
Jeff Pink is the name. Founder and CEO of ORLY, he took this style of manicure from the fashion streets of Paris to the US and made history. This manicure was known as “The Natural Nail Look”. As Hollywood wanted appropriate nail fashion for the trendy attires their heroines wore, Jeff Pink could not think of anything better than this. In 1975, when he started ORLY, he introduced this style of manicure to the US and named it “French Manicure”. Starting from the uptown girls to professionals, dancers to actors, from the first date till wedding, French manicure has become an accessory for all occasions.

How to do a French manicure
Remove your old nail color with an acetone remover. Clean your nails and trim it to the desired shape. Once your nails are ready to be painted apply the base coat, a thin and even crust on your nails. This cover will paint the entire nail, even the tip of your nail. Now paint the tips with natural white polish and let them dry. A soft white paint will look great but a deep and wide polish will make your nails look chunky. If white is not happening, use an off white. Over this entire shading, apply a coating of transparent natural polish. Make sure the nails dry completely.
French Manicure Tip: To keep the French manicure stay longer on your nails, apply a top coat every alternate day for a groomed and polished look.

French manicure kits are available in the market. They contain ready to use ingredients for a proper manicure. In case you are not confident about doing it yourself, look around for some salon that offers the best of this service.

Bootylicious lips

Do you know how important lips are? How instrumental they can be in the game of attraction? Then play on. Check out some awesome facts about lips.

Facts about lips
Just like fingerprints, lip impressions differ with each individual.
It took Leonardo Da Vinci 12 years to finish painting the lips of Mona Lisa.
A fervent kiss can help you loose 50 kJ weight by working on 30 muscles.
The Guinness Book of Records, holds that Alfred Wolfram has a world kissing record of kissing as many as 8001 people in eight hours.

There has been so much hubbub about lips and its consequences. That makes lips an essential part of your face. To get delicious and attractive lips you need to follow the tips given below:

Use subdued purples, bronze shades and browns if you have big lips. Such colors do not make your lips look voluptuous, thus considerably reducing the apparent size.
Thin lips require lighter shades and glosses to make it look plump. Avoid the use of dark shades on thin lips.
Apply foundation on your lips, put a lip liner and then apply lipstick. This prevents bleeding of lip color.
Rather than using the stick directly on your lips, use a lip brush to paint your lips. You can considerably reduce the amount of lipstick used.
Blonds can use colors like peach, apricot and corals on their lips. These colors look great on golden hair blondes.
If you sport light blonde hair, wear the shades of wine, mauve and berry. Cappuccino is also a great color for you.
If you have an olive skin tone with blonde hair, use colors like terracotta, peaches and brown.
Peachy brown, terracotta and cinnamon colors go best with red hair people.
Brunettes look best in cinnamon's, tinted reds and terracotta.

For sexy lips
Use shimmer and gloss to make your lips look full and sexy. Light colors, neural shades, pale colors and variations make your lips look kissable and extremely attractive. To provide your pout with the “Angelina Jolie” look, apply silver or shimmering lip gloss on the centre of the lower bud.

Make your lipstick last longer
It is a trademark of Hollywood makeup artists

· Base the lip base with a foundation
· Use lip liner for defining the contour of your lips and then apply lipstick with a brush.
· Blot your lips into a tissue or blotting paper
· Use translucent power over the lip paint
· Now you can wear your lipstick. A final coat.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Stop biting your nails!

If you have been addicted to your nails for a while, quit the bad habit. Pay attention to the positive sides of your nails. Your hands and nails define the kind of person your are. Half-bitten nails, ruptured cuticles and dirt inside, does not speak very good about you. Prim and proper, well-maintained nails look refreshing, a sign of a well-groomed individual. Women pamper their nails through various kinds of manicures and keep them happy and healthy as any other part of the body.

You might also have heard of nail designs. It is not a new fashion trend. Women, since ages, have been decorating their nails in various ways possible, be it with henna or juices from the barks of various trees. In the recent times, when nail designs have become a craze yet again, the west has come up with innovative ideas in nail designing. With the progress in science and technology, such decorative ideas have evolved too. Small accessories for nails, difficult to carve out only with hands, are developed with the help of advanced technology. The embellishment for nails are mainly for the fairer sex.

You might be wondering why on earth would a nail decoration be required? If women can wear henna on their hands, beautifully designed, then why not nail art? Nails are equally the part of hand as the palms are? It can be worn to weddings, parties and various occasions. The fashion industry has chosen acrylic nail design and French manicure as the best nail decorations for any season.

Acrylic nail design

Acrylic nails are basically fake ones, developed as per your size. There are ready-made nails available too. These nails are glued over your nails. The various funky designs and cool shades are extremely fashionable and attractive. The Indian fashion industry, in no time, learned the tricks of beautiful and funky nails. Rather than hiding your nails, now it is time you can flaunt them with elan.

The fashion market in India has various products ranging from simple dots, funky stickers, geometric patterns, tattoos, abstract art, to stencil art, swarovskis, portraits, French manicure and much more.
Most popular nail accessories
· Nail Stripes: Available in versatile shapes and designs, you can apply these across your nails.
· Nail Stickers: You can apply the variety of colored designs in various shapes and sizes.
· Stars and Dots: be it stickers or nail polish, hey look attractive. The polishes may also contain glitter.
· Nail Jewels: Worn with the help of tweezers.
· Water Marbling: In a cup of water and add paint colors of your choice. With a toothpick create marbling design on he water surface and dip your nails in it. Remove nails after sometime and clean excess polish.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

For those defining arches of eyebrows

Eyebrows are perhaps the most distinct feature on your face. The curve of your brows defines your eyes. It is said that you can easily dump makeup ans sport a natural look with a perfectly shaped eyebrow. Your eyebrows must be shaped according to your facial features.

Celeb secret

According to Irish makeup artist Donna Fitzpatrick, Catherine Zeta Jones has the best set of eyebrows in entire Hollywood. She confesses that Jones is a natural beauty, but an enhanced eyebrow gives her a polished and unique look. Her looks in the movie “The Darling Buds of May” was a result of grooming her facial contour. She has been neatening for quite long and thus possesses the best eyebrows to die for.

Fitzpatrick recommends proper tweezing to achieve a natural yet groomed look rather than waxing or threading. The tweezers help to produce a better effect and finish. To get a drop-dead-gorgeous eyebrow shape keep the first half of the brows full and taper at the end. The curve of the brow should be right above the pupil. To maintain the shape, brush your brows upwards and remove any extra growth.

Vintage Hollywood eyebrows to die for

Hollywood had a store of beautiful women sporting a pair of brilliant eyebrows. Recorded hit were the eyebrows of Jean Harlow, Clara Bow, Carol Lombard, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Julie Newmar, Dolores Costello, Bette Davis and others.

Silent films saw women with slightly plucked hair whereas the Flapper age, which witnessed huge social upheaval, witnessed thinly plucked eyebrow with razor shaped looks. They turned into Baroque loops or sometimes anorexic gashes. In many instances, the studio styling artists kept shaving the eyebrows of vulnerable new talent in the industry to keep them in business. Slowly and steadily, due to over shaving, the brows stopped growing completely. Then started experimentation with various brow shapes. They became the canvass for eye brow artists.

Eyebrows to die for

Located in San Francisco, California, Eyebrows To Die For makes you repeat your visits for the services they provide. Various customer reviews mention that the salon is a residence of experts and professionals. Artist Kimberly Jones works on the customer, takes her own time and gives a wonderful finish. You would not find a reason to complain. Eyebrows to die for is a specific treatment, available at $25 to $40, which works on the brows to make a suitable frame for any face. Tweezing, waxing and trimming your brows at Eyebrows To Die For is a great experience for all the customers.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Dump these for great hair

To maintain that brilliant mane, your diet plays a significant role. There are various specialists who recommend the right diet and calorie intake for a healthy body and hair. We present some of the nutrients or food that you must avoid to maintain a healthy bounce and shine in your hair. You can sport the look your desire.

· Monosodium Glutamate aka “ajinomoto” is a dangerous chemical. Avoid using it in your food. It augments appetite, causes weight gain and affects your health. Chinese food sometimes contain monosodium glutamate. Check with your chef before you delve into any sumptuous dish.
· Hydrogenated oil is a big no no. Never cook your meals in such oil. It contains transfats that causes weight gain, heart diseases and medical hair loss issues. Be very careful when you choose your cooking oil.
· Avoid food that contains Aspartame. It is a toxin that aggravates hunger, migraine and weight problems.
· Processed sugar is extremely harmful for your health as the natural content is taken out to form a white powdery substance. Sugar also contains various chemicals used to grow sugarcane. It is also a safe way to stay away from diabetes. Diabetes is said to affect your hair and culminate into excessive hair loss.
· "Natural" or "Artificial Flavor" food are fertilized with chemicals, herbicides and pesticides. Bottom line- not safe and can be easily avoided for healthy hair. Better concentrate on leafy green vegetables for hair and eyes.
· Avoid spicy food. There are certain spices that may look healthy but actually affects your health. The manufacturers use chemicals to produce such spices. The worse kind of spices that affect the health of your hair are pepper, oregano and salt. Have it if necessary, but sparingly.
· No artificial color in food. Dye is a chemical poison. You better stay away from such ingredients in your food.
· Palm oil is said to trigger various health issues. Why go for such unhealthy ingredients when you have far better options to use.
· Avoid foods that contain dextrose, fructose and sucrose. These are chemically made sweeteners and not good for your health at all.
· Splenda and sucrose are man-made spices. They are artificial and affects your appetite, aggravates depression and results in sporadic allergies. Hair loss is furthered with the consumption of such ingredients in your food.
· Replace your refined, bleached wheat flour with organic wheat flour. The bleached flour contains no nutritional value. Use rye or millet instead. Better for a healthy mane and safe eating.
· Soy protein hampers your health. Soy protein isolate present in protein shakes and protein food bars is made of hexane, a petroleum product like gasoline. The refining and processing goes through an entire chemical procedure.
Avoid such food and go natural. Having vegetables and fruits are a refreshing way to stay healthy.

Food that makes you beautiful

Natural beauty is enhanced by the ingredients and food offered by nature. The ideal diet is what gives you all the necessary nutrition, the best of nature. So check out some of the eatables that add to your natural beauty.

Fruits: You need not be a fruitarian to grow love for fruits. Doctors, parents, relatives and almost everyone recommends fruits as an everyday affair. Juicy citrus fruits contain vitamin C that can work wonders for your skin. Wondering what can a citrus fruit do? The vitamin C content can fight cold, check pigmentation and strengthen your capillaries. The fruits that you can bank on are orange, lemon, grapefruit, kiwi, cantaloupe and strawberries.

Nuts: Almonds are really great for your skin and also for your hair. Try snacking on almonds to get a clear complexion. Nuts have high vitamin B content which triggers cell restoration of your skin, improves your hair and reduced dryness of skin. If you want to look youthful and feel energetic, do not keep your stomach empty and keep snacking on almonds. However, as almonds are tempting, do not cram your stomach with loads of it.

Spinach: Green and leafy vegetables are great for your skin and health. Children are extremely fond of Popeye who munches on spinach whenever he needs power. The bottom line is that spinach is the ultimate health food for mankind. It contains omega 3 and folates that reduces heart risk, osteoporosis and stroke.

Yogurt: Many cultures claim this to be their invention. Available in various forms, yogurt is a fermented version of milk. The process involves the growth of a multitude of probiotic organisms, which when consumed, reinforces the beneficial bacteria inside our body. This provides immunity to fatal medical conditions like cancer. You can have kefir instead of yogurt. To make things more interesting, top your yogurt with walnuts, blue berries, honey or flaxeseed in your breakfast. Soy yogurt is also a healthy option.

Tomatoes: Red vegetables are extremely healthy because they contain antioxidant lycopene. In fact, even processed tomatoes contain same nutritional value as the porous skin absorbs lycopene easily. Lycopene-rich diet can decrease your risk of health issues stomach cancer, prostrate, skin, lung and bladder problems. A glass of tomato juice a day is sufficient to infuse the desirable amount of lycopene in your body. You can also bank upon substitute vegetables and fruits like red watermelon, Japanese persimmon, pink grapefruit, guava and papaya.

Carrots: Most of the red, orange and yellow vegetables contain carotenoids. These are soluble fat compounds and reduces the chances of a wide range of cancer, asthma and rheumatoid arthritis.

You can also gorge on other foods like blue berries, black beans, oats, avocado, asparagus, salmon, tuna and many more.