Wake up beautiful

Take a little time before you sleep to take advantage of the hours your skin is left untouched (for the most part) and wake up beautiful!

1. Reduce signs of aging – lines:
A cream or serum with vitamin A or retinol will help counteract fine lines, and works  best at night since you’re out of the sun.

2. Protect your face:
On the nights you’re not using vitamin A, try a cream or lotion with antioxidants, which help fight off skin-damaging free radicals.

3. Hydrate rough feet
Rub on a foot cream, then pull on cotton socks to hold the moisture in.

4. Moisturize hands
Once a week try a moisturizing glove with hand cream. Applying an intensive hand cream nightly also helps keep hands, nails, and cuticles soft as they are not constantly being washed as they are during the day.
5. Moisturize under the eyes

Dab some eye cream on – use sparingly to hydrate and depuff the eye area.

6. Relieve chap lips
Go for the most intensive moisturizing lip balm you can find. If all else fails use good old vaseline.

7. Shrink Zits
You can make pimples dissapear by treating them with a product containing an antibacterial ingredient (bacteria can cause acne) and a sebum controller like zinc. Also go for benzoyl peroxide or sallycilic acid products.

8. Brighten your smile
Crest Night Effects contains packets of whitening gel and disposable brushes for painting the gel on and is formulated to be worn during sleepy time for 14 consecutive nights.

Look and feel younger

Great episode on Oprah. To sum it up, we need antioxidants to prevent aging. Think of an apple when you cut it and the “rust” that forms due to oxidation. Squeeze lemon juice on it and it preserves it. We need the same for our bodies.

According to Dr. Oz:
Food
Antioxidants (5 servings a day)
In brightly colored foods like blueberries, sweet potatoes, broccoli, tomatoes and acai
Green and white tea (4 cups a day)
Red wine or Concord grape juice (1 glass a day)
Fiber (25 grams a day)
In fruits, vegetables, beans, brown rice, whole wheat pasta, “100 percent” whole grain bread and chia
Omega 3 fatty acids
In roasted or ground flax seeds, walnuts, hemp, salmon and spirolina algae
Olive oil (1 to 2 tablespoons a day)
Do not heat this delicate oil to smoking point or it will be damaged and lose its benefits

Exercise
Get your heart rate up (3 times a week)
Find your target exercising heart rate: 220 – [your age] X .80
Do strength training (30 minutes a week)
Meditation
Yoga, prayer or meditation (5 minutes a day)
Releases nitric oxide, which relaxes blood vessels

Sleep and Sex
Sleep (7 to 8 hours a night)
Monogamous sex (2 to 3 times a week)

Vitamins
Vitamin D (1,000 units a day)
Calcium (600 mg twice a day) with Magnesium (200 mg twice a day)
DHA Omega-3 (600 mg a day)
Baby aspirin (2 a day, for a total of 162 milligrams)
Multivitamin (Take half in the morning, half in the evening)
Pre-menopausal women need a multivitamin with iron and 5,000 units of vitamin A. Men and postmenopausal
women need just 2,500 units of vitamin A.

My beauty secrets

Since this section is titled “beauty secrets”, I’ll share some of mine

- To make hair shinier, rinse with cold water. Also after blowdrying, finish up with the cold air setting.

- Less is more. Don’t overuse hair products. Too much actually weighs hair down and gives it a dirty feel. Also, don’t apply too much facial products even if you have acne. The skin naturally produces oils, sometimes it will produce more to compensate for dryness. So be careful not to over apply drying, mattifying, acne fighting products as it can cause the opposite effect that you’re aiming for.

- Petroleum jelly/vaseline: Apply a little to your lashes to keep them soft before bedtime. Put some on your lips to moisturize as well.

- A dab of preparation H (hemorroid cream) under the eyes can seriously reduce puffiness. Apply the night before.

- Use a daily moisturizer with tanner (Aveeno, Neutrogena, Jergens). This will give you a bit of color and you can increase the amount over time for a natural look. Your body will instantly look more toned and tight.

- For scars, try Mederma as instructed. Works best on new scars so use it immediately. Apply and rub in 3-4 times a day.

- Always use sunscreen spf15 and above. I’ve forgotten to apply sunscreen and notice a huge difference after being out in the sun. The UV rays can do some serious damage and wrinkles!