The Blonde Diaries

More Skin Care Tidbits

I love my daily emails from Daily Candy and HungryGirl. Between the two of these I learn something new almost everyday that can be useful or applied to my life. Today the HungryGirl newsletter happened to be the source of my gained knowledge. By the way, if you are not already a subscriber, you should go sign up. Both are free!

Today HungryGirl was talking about foods that are good for your body. I was unaware of one tidbit and pretty familiar with the other but wanted to share nonetheless.

Help prevent Sunburn:
How? Try eating these foods: blueberries, almonds, spinach, or papaya.
Why? Because these foods are jam packed with Vitamin E which can stop skin cells from becoming sunburn cells. Now that is something cool to know

Go for the Glow:
How? Guzzle your daily recommended glasses of water each day
Why: Because who doesn’t want glowy, beautiful skin. Water flushes out toxins and keeps you hydrated, so it really does keep skin looking healthy and beautiful.

Research: Plastic Surgery

If you’ve seen some of my other posts you will notice that I love to “research” things. I like to pick a topic that I have been pondering or would like to know more about and then I’ll start googling to find answers. Today I got a bit of a hair and decided to research plastic surgery. See I have been interested in a breast reduction since high school (almost 10 years now!). A little lipo wouldn’t be bad either but we’ll start with the main pain in the you know what area on me.

What I ended up running across was Beverly Hills Liposuction at the PARS Institute. The PARS Institute actually has 4 locations in Southern California but the Beverly Hills location is the most popular of course. Their site was actually very informative. The PARS Institute’s doctors perform multiple procedures including the breast reduction that I have mentioned, tummy tucks, liposuction, rhinoplasty, and neck and face lifts. If you are in the area and are interested in one of these procedures you can schedule your surgery or consultation any day of the week and there is around the clock care at the clinic. All prices quoted include the entire cost of the procedure from the operation, doctors fees, anesthesia (which is very expensive), and the operating room’s fee. The prices were very reasonable once you add all of those items together and were much less than I thought it would run. If you are not sure what will be involved and would like to prepare before your consultation there are both before and after pictures on the website so that you can get a feel of what the results will look like and maybe some ideas if you are not sure what you want.

Skin Prep

I am not one that really takes care of my skin. I wash my face every morning and evening and make sure to wear sunscreen every day but that is about it. I’m not a huge fan of lots of moisturizers or acne treatments because my skin goes to the extremes with either getting too oily and acne-prone with over usage of moisturizers or too dry due to harsh chemicals in acne treatments. But with an upcoming wedding I have decided that maybe I should be paying more attention to my skin and treating it well. I have found a really light weight moisturizer that is not too greasy/oily (DDF Daily Moisturizer) and I have been trying a natural acne treatment which consists of eating more fruits and vegetables and drinking water. By just changing my diet, my skin has definitely improved. I decided to search for a few other things I can do naturally to treat my acne so I can continue to avoid harsh chemicals which lead to flaking and dryness. Do you have any tricks that work?

Summer PSA: Sunscreen is your friend!

I have been wanting to write this post all week but had yet to figure out how to start it out. I realized there really is no fun or witty way other than:

Sunscreen is Your Friend!!!

So what is this post about? Well, we are only 1 week away from the official start of summer vacation (Memorial Day weekend) and many folks will be heading to the beach and doing more fun outdoor activities in the hot sun. Sunscreen is a very important part of the equation that many people forget and they should not. Not regularly wearing sunscreen can do many things to your skin: cause wrinkles, leave scaring from 2nd and 3rd degree burns, burn you and cause you to flake for 2 weeks, and lastly can result in skin cancer. I’m not sure about you but those potential side effects of the sun do not sound appealing to me.

How to prevent unflattering side effects: obviously wear sunscreen and wear something that will do the job every time you go outside even if its only for 30 minutes. SPF (skin protection factor) is a factor and you should go with one that you are comfortable with. Many dermatologists will tell you that after SPF 30 they are all the same. I tend to go with the highest number I can that also does not clog up my pores and reapply a thin layer of spray sunscreen every hour or two hours I am outdoors. I really love the Neutrogena line of sunblock and they have a fabulous feeling spray sunblock that cools you off. Also, look for waterproof sunscreen but realize it’s mainly waterproof against rain, drizzling showers, and short swims. Waterproof does not mean you can get in and out of the water and not reapply. You should reapply sunscreen each time you towel off from a swim.

If you do end up with a burn - aloe vera is soothing and healing. Aloe from the actual plant works the best I have found followed by green aloe at the store - not sure what is in the blue version but that tends to make my burns worse. Also sleep and some IB Profin help speed up the healing process.

Have a happy and safe summer in the sun!

Are you ready for Mother’s Day?

Mother’s Day is May 11, 2008. Are you ready with a gift in hand? If not maybe these ideas will help you out. I will admit I was not quite sure what to give my own mom for Mother’s Day this year. I ended up creating a goody box at Sephora and shipping it to her. I focused on items that I enjoy and that I knew she’d never buy herself like whipped body butter and a metallic blue case with 5 makeup brushes included. I also purchased a summery beauty palette that I thought would work well for her vacation next week so I hope it looks as good in person as it did online!

But if beauty items aren’t her thing or maybe you can’t make it to the store for a last minute gift then think about possible online shopping sprees tomorrow afternoon. Many online sites are running specials this weekend for Mother’s Day with free shipping or a % off the total order.

One last reminder for this Mother’s Day: don’t forget your mom-to-be! With the weather changing and new fashions arriving in the stores daily maternity clothes would be an excellent option along with a much needed foot massage/pedicure I’m sure.

Well I hope you all have a fabulous Mother’s Day tomorrow and if you haven’t finished your shopping you better start moving!