Latest Liposculpture Craze

What's better than liposuction? Probably Lipo-Sculpture. Even if you're thin and toned, you may not have the perfect body image you desire. That's where liposculpture comes in, targeting only the small problem areas you need to.

Liposculpture is a technique of body contouring and skin conditioning. It reduces the appearance of cellulite and helps define the figure. Liposculpture is not supposed to replace or subsitute good diet and excercise. Instead, it is supposed to help you remove stubborn areas of fat that have not responded to other weight loss methods.

Celebrities everywhere are jumping in on this craze. A session could cost about $5,000 and most patients can go back to work the very next day. Here's a great link for common questions and answers on the procedure.

Multipurpose Powder

Powder has many purposes than you may think:

- Set lipstick in place and prevent feathering and lipstick bleeding.

- Dry up excess oils from scalp

- Powder applied over foundation keeps the makeup in place longer

- Apply loosely under the eyes to catch loose makeup

- Powder softens any look, eliminates shine, and keeps foundation from creasing

Mascara Tip of the Day

Avoid pumping the mascara brush in and out of the tube. This will only let air into the tube and dry out the mascara. Try rotating the wand in a circular motion and pulling it out.

To prevent the mascara from clumping, dab a tissue around the wand and remove excess color prior to applying.

Make Sure Your Designer Glasses Have UV Protection!

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun can burn your skin AND the corneas and conjunctivas of your eyes. Plus, long-term UV exposure can lead to eye disease like cataracts and macular degeneration. Sunglasses that block UV light are a great way to help protect your vision, but you don’t need to spend an arm and a leg on them.

The American National Standards Institute has set some guidelines that can help you pick the right pair. They say that glasses should block UVB by 99% and UVA radiation by 95 percent. Make sure the glasses are clearly labeled with the type of protection the offer. The glasses should indicate the level of protection they provide. If the glasses aren’t labeled with a specific UV claim then they're not worth buying. Special lenses such as blue blockers, polycarbonate, and polarized lenses may block some UV light but without special coatings the lenses do not meet the UV minimum blockage requirements.

Look for these voluntary industry labels that manufacturers should be using:

- Cosmetic = 70% UV reduction
- General purpose = 95% UV reduction
- Special purpose = 99% UV reduction
- UV-400 and UV absorption up to 400nm = 99% UV reduction

The UV protectant coating doesn’t have a color, so don’t think that darker lenses provde better protection. The tint or color of the lens simply doesn’t matter.

UV labeling is what you should look for, not a high price tag. Taken from the Glaucoma Research Institute:

" The good news is that sunglasses don’t have to be expensive to protect your eyes and they can often be found at the local drugstore. Unfortunately, a high price is not always a guarantee of high quality and protection. Part of the difficulty is that standards and labeling regarding UV protection are voluntary, not mandatory-and can be confusing."

Tips for Asian Shaped Eyes

Found a great video to accentuate the asian eye and create a crease. Enjoy!

Tips for Bug Bites on Your Beautiful Skin

26 bug bites and counting - that's what I experienced after my recent travels. So I learned a few tips the hard way!

- Do not puncture, poke at, or pop the wound or blister. When I did this, the site turned red, and another one spread the venom from the bite. The logic here is to release the toxic stuff from your body. You can try it but be very clean and cautious.

- Take Benadryl. It works wonders for itchiness. Watch out for the marked drowsiness though.

- Apply a little hydrocortisone. Not too much though. Not sure if I put too much but my bites (compared to friends) turned out big, swollen, and a deep red. Looked pretty scary!

- Do not apply tiger balm or white flower serum (found in asian stores). The mintiness seems to irritate my bites and made them bigger and worse.

- Keep the area clean, and do not scratch!!

- Pop your multi vitamins. Not sure if it's the fish oil tablets or vitamin b supplements but my body seemed to heal faster this way.

The rest you will just have to wait it out, be patient and they will heal!

Understanding Sunscreens

Sun Protection Factor (SPF) is a multiplier of your skin’s ability to resist burning. So if normally your skin burns after 10 minutes of sun exposure, applying sunscreen with an SPF 10 will increase the exposure time to 110 mins before you get burned.

Sunlight is composed of radioactive rays, which get filtered out by the atmosphere layers of the Earth. Of all the dangerous rays that the sun emits, the ones that reach our skin are the UV rays.

UVB rays stimulate vitamin D production, appearance of moles, and can lead to sunburn with overexposure. There are more UVB rays in sunlight in the summer. UVA rays are responsible for tanning of the skin, as well as negative effects of sun exposure like as wrinkles and melanoma.

The SPF rating that comes on sunscreen bottles is determined by an FDA required in vivo test which involves exposing volunteers’ skin to the sun until it sunburns and then evaluating the protection factor that the sunscreen gave that skin.

Some studies have shown that sunscreen’s protection factor doesn’t rise as evenly above SPF30 as it does in the ratings below. Recently this number has been raised to 50 but keep in mind that SPF50 isn’t twice as good as SPF25.

Look for products labelled as UVA/UVB broad spectrum, and don’t forget to check the ingredients for zinc oxide, titanium dioxide, avobenzone, and ecamsule (aka Mexoryl) which are all effective at blocking UVA.

Hair be gone - depilatories

Depilatories (such as Veet, Nair) contain chemicals that dissolve the proteins in the hair so the fibers break off. The chemical process is actually a more extreme version of the permanent wave process, which is also related to hair relaxers.

Since skin is made of keratin protein, it can also be attacked by the thio reaction. Beware of skin burns or irritation of the hair follicle (folliculitis). Using depilatories can sometimes cause ingrown hairs as the broken hairs grow beneath the surface of the skin. Follow the manufacturers’ instructions and test a small patch to assess for irritation or allergic reactions. Don't ever use these products on eyebrows, near mucous membranes, or on broken skin.

All about hair coloring

Temporary hair color is basically a colorful gel or cream that coats your hair (sometimes even sprays). It lasts a couple of shampoos at best. Use this type for fun! Get wild and make your hair super red, pink, blue,or even orange!







Semi Permanent Dyes use ingredients known as “direct dyes.” They stain the hair and take several shampoos to wash out (some last up to 6 weeks). They are a great way to let you experiment with a touch of color without long-term commitment.









Permanent hair color (oxidative) is the most serious type of color. It typically involves bleaching your hair to remove the natural color, then adds in color molecules to lock inside the hair shaft. It should last until your roots grow out but some fading from washing will occur. Although the color can last months and look great, the chemical process is damaging to the hair.

Daily Tanning Lotions to the Test

Ok, it's time to get some color! I've tried a few of the popular brands, pictures of my color to come :)

Jergen's Daily Glow Moisturizer $4.99

Original product for tanning plus moisturizer in one! Works great actually, the only setback is the fragrance. The tan builds gradually as it claims!

Jergen's Express Daily Moisturizer $6.99

I would like to like this express version, but for some reason I developed a yellow tint and my friend developed an orange one. Fragrance is better than the daily version.

Aveeno Custom Color Daily Moisturizer $7.99

This version you can turn the dial to go from light to darker in seconds. This one worked ok, slightly yellow, but I didn't care for the smell.


Loreal Sublime Daily Glow $6.99

This one is as good as the Jergen's daily formula, but with added shimmer. It smells better, but my skin had a reaction to the sparkling ingredients.

Sweep your way to beauty

Instant clean up tip: Try a brow gel or a brow 'pomade' and sweep the brows up and out. Anastasia has great products for this.

The Browfix was a thick pencil that instantly held the hairs together in place. However, since I have thin eyebrows it seemed to sweep mine all together.



I prefer Anastasia's Brow Gel, a little goes a long way. One tube lasted me 3 months! It also makes sweeping the brows up with a shadow/brow bush easy so the hairs don't all stick together into a thin line. Worth every penny $21 (even comes in colors)

Beautiful Skin in your 30's

Cleanser: In the morning, use a cleanser with alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs) to encourage exfoliation. In the evening, wash with a creamy cleanser.

Moisturizer: In addition to SPF 20 with UVA/UVB protection, your moisturizer should contain antioxidants, like green or white tea, pomegranate, or vitamin C, which will protect your skin from damaging free radicals.

Use an eye cream daily.
For dark circles, use one with licorice or kojic acid
For brightening, try vitamin C or soy
For puffiness, look for one containing caffeine

Night time treatment: Choose a night cream or serum with Retinol.

Safety of Botox Questionable?

Cosmetic surgery is SURE to get rid of wrinkles, temporarily at least. But what are the long term effects?

Despite their hype, most wrinkle creams do not have a significant effect on actually reducing wrinkles (I'm still in denial though!). The creams are typically just great moisturizers with an added special ingredient or two that makes for a good campaign but doesn’t actually do anything.

The exceptions are products with effective levels of retinoids. Keep that in mind when purchasing products!

So, what really removes wrinkles? Celebrity favorite - Botox - does. Unfortunately it’s expensive and involves numerous surgical procedures. Botox treatments have been around since the early 1980’s and were approved by the FDA in 2002. But is it safe?

Scientists have found evidence that the toxin used in Botox treatments was shown to migrate into the brains of treated rats. They say there were no observable negative effects, but consumers need to beware of this. They could be exposing their brain to a known toxin ...but there has been no indication that treatments have caused any damage yet, so we'll have to wait years to see what science finds!

Quickie: Bronzer Tip

To achieve the most believable and real sun-kissed look, apply bronzer around the perimeter of the face and then blend in. Then, add the pinkish "sun" color to the apples of your cheek. Apply a copper eyeshadow onto the lids and a pretty pink lipgloss to keep it natural.

Stain for Spring

A new trend this spring is the "stained" look for lips and cheeks.

Apply stain to freshly moisturized cheeks and lips. Simply smile and dab onto the apples of the cheek by softly patting with fingers. Pat onto moistened lips as well to create a very soft, simple and sexy look.

Keep the eye simple with a taupe shadow, and line only the upper lash line with a navy pencil. Finally, take lashes to the extreme with two coats of jet black mascara.