All posts filed under: Expert Advice

Your Guide To Getting a Good Night’s Sleep: Tips From Experts To Help You Improve Your Sleep Hygiene

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Sweet slumber could be yours! Sleep is a mystery, and I often want to solve it. As someone who likes to stay up late into the wee hours of the night, but also needs eight hours to function, I tend to struggle with finding a healthy rhythm. As a beauty editor I know sleep is important, not to mention the fountain of youth, yet I continue to fight it. Overall 35% of Americans don’t get the recommended seven hours of sleep each night, but an average of 6.8 hours is not that bad. Unfortunately when you start to break it down 97% of teenagers get less than the recommended amount of sleep, 6 out of 10 college students don’t get adequate sleep, and roughly 20% of Americans have a sleep disorder. 75% of people who suffer from depression and/or anxiety have problems with sleep and 45% of the world’s population have issues with sleep. There are many studies and statistics to show that on average we are much more sleep deprived than our ancestors. Many wellness and health experts have a …

Expert Feng Shui Bedroom Tips For Couples

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Making small changes in our home environment can often create a powerful shift in our mood and our lives. Take the pressure off Valentine’s Day with Feng Shui. The bedroom is where your love thrives, so make sure your environment is properly set up to help your relationship in positive ways. For expert tips we went to an influential Feng Shui consultant, Judith Wendell. Judith Wendell is a well-known New York City Feng Shui expert; focusing on design, space clearing and teaching the Feng Shui philosophy. Before construction goes up, she is the one who gets called in to clear the space. Even if you think the spiritual aspect of Feng Shui might not be for you, the Chinese concept of Feng Shui provides practical tips that can be applied to our everyday lives. The position of your bed is most important. You should have a clear view of the door without being in line with its path.  This usually means that the bed is diagonally across from the door.  If the bed must be in …

Get Headache Relief With Yoga Tips From Shahada Karim

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Headaches pain can be debilitating and rarely do we turn to yoga for relief, but Shahada Karim recommends just that. The Certified Yoga Instructor, Movement Therapist and Owner of Habibi Sport gives us tips on relieving headaches with the help of six different types of yoga poses. Child’s Pose (Shishuasana) Seated on your knees, touch your big toes, open your knees and lay your torso forward and down between your knees. Let your head rest comfortably on a mat, block or bolster. This position takes pressure off the need to breathe into the chest by lifting breath into the back and sides of the ribs, relieving compression in the head and neck associated with headaches.   Wall Butterfly Pose (Supta Baddha Konsana Viparita Karani) Lie on your back, extend legs to the ceiling and press the feet’s soles together, keeping the glutes loose; open your knees in the shape of a diamond. Breathe deeply, relaxing the abdominal muscles. Use support against a wall or with a bolster or pillow under the outer thighs to support the …

Heavenly Facial Oils For Every Skin Type

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The romance of facial oils has not worn off. In fact, we urge you to anoint yourself with enthusiasm. While we we feel we no longer need to make the case for facial oils (most would agree that they have become a widely accepted skincare hero and a genderless beauty product), some skepticism is understandable. Our best advice? You know your skin better than anyone – Turn your focus on learning to read labels for ingredients, research them, and heed advice from the professionals. With the right oil in hand you can either balance oily skin or boost moisture for dry skin. Best scanario of all, you get the most plump and radiant skin of your life, just like Chrissy Teigen does with Le Prunier Plum Oil. Yes, we’ve tried it, and yes, we love it. With so many facial oils on the market, it can be quite difficult to find the one that your skin loves the most. Here is what we tried in 2020 and will continue using going into 2021. For further …

Self Care Insiders: Fall Skin Care and Lifestyle Tips From Dermatologist and Cosmetic Surgeon, Dr. Dendy Engelman

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Seasons are changing and that means your routine is due for an overhaul. When we need advice on skin care, ingredients, skin dilemmas and even holistic, but essential, lifestyle tips – we go to the pros. By pros we mean our aesthetician and doctor. We have had lots of questions lately; from switching our skincare going into the fall to what causes rapid aging. Dr. Dendy Engelman answered. Dr. Engelman is a board-certified dermatologist located in New York, and a Director of Dermatologic Surgery at Metropolitan Hospital. Let’s get right into it. Cultivated: What skincare products or ingredients should we look for when switching from summer to fall/winter routines? Dr. Dendy Engelman: When it’s cold, there is less moisture in the environment. When you compound that by wind and central heating which further lessens the moisture. In this state, water is lost from the skin cells (keratinocytes) leaving skin dry, flaky, chapped. Even if skin does not seem dry, it still needs that layer of protection. The best way to combat it is layer, layer, layer! …

Book Reviews: Your Ultimate Guides To Natural Living, Better Self-Care & Self-Sufficiency

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The Women’s Heritage Sourcebook by Lauren Malloy, Ashley Moore, Emma Rollin Moore & Audria Culaciati The Women’s Heritage Sourcebook could not have come into our lives at a better time. Whether you recently embraced gardening, tried new recipes, or attempted and succeeded at canning – know that you are not alone in learning to be more self-reliant. Why look into this sourcebook? Firstly, this is more than a book. It is a guide and a valuable resource that was birthed out of a combined effort between four authors. Secondly, their shared affinity for skills and crafts, that have been around for centuries, has helped create the ultimate guide to homesteading for your every day life. The way the sourcebook displays recipes makes it easy to learn valuable life skills: preserving, making homemade tomato sauce, botanical cocktails, lacto-fermentation, raising chickens, herbalism, DIY beauty and a lot more. Share this sourcebook and their recipes with the women and men in your life because you will never regret learning to be more self-sufficient. You will likely cherish this sourcebook so …

Wellness Month: 10 Ways To Effectively Lower Stress and Anxiety

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In 2020, stress and anxiety has become a universal issue. Let’s dedicate August, also known as the Wellness Month, to improving the health of our immune system by alleviating stress. While taking care of the mind and body is more important than ever, some of us hesitate to embrace tried-and-true ancient remedies. This is the time to keep an open mind, educate yourself, ask questions, and have a sense of adventure. No matter how silly you feel, using your common sense, and wanting to feel better, is at the core of all all our suggestions. As a mental health advocate, and depression sufferer, I know it takes saying “enough is enough” to start a wellness journey. Here is a list to get you started. Grounding – Grounding has become a type of buzzword in the wellness community, but this is no trend. Athletes, famous actors and doctors do it. I was lucky to grow up in a natural setting; in a village surrounded by mountains. As a child, running barefoot in grassy fields, or climbing …

Zoom Makeup Calling: Simple How-To From Aveda

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Want to look refreshed on zoom? Look no further than this zoom makeup tutorial from Aveda’s Global Artistic Director for Makeup, Janell Geason Aveda’s Global Artistic Director for makeup, Janell Geason, shows us how to execute a simple makeup look for all your zoom calls. This makeup how-to is natural, fresh, and gives you that bright-eyed and bushy-tailed look you need to look professional.

Talking Stress, Grief & Anxiety During 2020 With Psychotherapist Asha Tarry

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2020 forces us to take a real look at the disparity in our communities. Whether you see them or not, the problems in today’s society effect us all. Economic inequality can result in poor mental health and seeking help can be even harder in the midsts of a global pandemic. The health crisis has shown us what many already knew. Too many live with the reality of being one pay check away from not being able to pay their medical bill, from being homeless, from putting their mental health at the bottom of the to-do list. Maybe that one person is you. The coronavirus in particular has effected the black community in much larger numbers, but to people of color, these health disparities are not new. If you just started to wake up to these inequalities, if the pandemic effected your mental health, if you feel grief for George Floyd, if you know it is not about you, but you could not imagine the same type of treatment happening to someone you know, then keep …

Understanding How Your Skin Works & The Importance Of It’s Wellness

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Our skin never seems to get enough credit for its fascinating abilities to be there for us. It is our largest organ, one that holds everything together, yet we often neglect to think of its importance. Here are some examples of what skin does: our skin acts as a protective barrier, regulates our body temperature, shows off our overall well-being, and sends information to the brain through a network of nerve endings. How incredible is that? Since we spend a good chunk of our money on skincare and depend on our skin for its functions, I think educating ourselves on this organ is vital. HOW SKIN WORKS You might already know that skin is complex and greatly affected by our lifestyles. By understanding how skin works, you too can decode its complexity. Every day our skin absorbs and reacts to what we eat, how we feel and what products we see. The products you choose to put on your skin get absorbed into your body, and might end up in your bloodstream. In fact, one …

Skin Therapy: 10 Best Hydrating Lotions, Creams, Balms & Salves For Soft Hands

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There is no argument that proper hand washing has been on everyone’s minds and lips, however all that washing may effect the health of our skin in the process. Skin is our largest organ and provides vital protection, but only when it is well taken care of. In addition to protection, the skin on your hands is thinnest, and it is one of the first places to show signs of aging. Did you know that Grace Kelly was adamant about consistent hand cream application? She believed that keeping her hands young and healthy was important, and she was right. We made it our mission to find non-drying hand sanitizers and hydrating hand creams. For further help with skin health, especially for the hands, we sought advice from Dr. Alpa Patel. How can we protect the skin on our hands from the constant washing and cleaning (especially if you have dry skin)?  Use lukewarm water versus hot water. Hot water will dry the skin out faster. Use a moisturizing hand washing soap that incorporates ingredients such …

Talking Hair & Reinvention With Aveda’s Senior Vice President of Professional Global Artistry, Antoinette Beenders

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No one understands reinvention better than a hair artist. Even in lock down, we reinvent beauty according to our feelings, surroundings and experience. The crisis of today’s pandemic calls for unwavering beauty and expression. Aveda’s Senior Vice President of Professional Global Artistry, Antoinette Beenders, captures the spirit of rebellious women with perfection. She gives us a fresh new take on defiant beauty and what she calls “Youthquake”. More and more we see our youth rallying to take charge, especially when it comes to climate change. Aveda SS20 creative collection, The Revolution of Reinvention, is a combination of punk, teddy girl, and 1950s French New Look. The women and men of past sub-culture and reinvention. Our Q & A with Antoinette Beenders takes a closer look at this award-winning hair stylist’s career with Aveda. The visionary explains how a new collection gets to be born, plus she gives us quarantine hair tips. Cultivated: I read that you started working with Aveda in 1997. What made you stick with Aveda all those years and how does the …