Clear, Youthful Skin Tip: Remove Makeup Before Exercise.

Exercise is great for the body, it helps remove toxins through sweating.  Exercise can be great for the skin too, but you need to make sure you remove your makeup before exercise so that your body can properly sweat.  It will also prevent any buildup of dirt on your makeup from getting into your poors while your exercising.  I like to just use my makeup remover to remove all the makeup on my face, and then rinse off with cold water and tap my face dry with a towel.  It’s no secret that my favorite eye makeup remover is Mary Kay’s Oil-Free Eye Makeup Remover, and I use it to remove all my makeup.

Appreciation

“Business will go where it is invited & return where it is appreciated.” ~Mary Kay Ash

Youthful Skin: The Four Major Signs of Aging

Here, a rundown on the four major signs of aging:

1) Uneven Skin Tone. This can be characterized by patchy color, ashy, or just uneven pigment — for example a darker color in cheeks and chin and visibly lighter elsewhere.  Whether or not your skin tone is even is actually the first thing people will notice when they look at your skin (conciously or otherwise).  This is why foundation is so popular.  It immediately and instantly evens skin tone.

2) Fine Lines and Wrinkles.  This one is a gimme, but fine lines and wrinkles scream older skin!  You simply don’t see young children or teenagers with wrinkles!!

3) Saggy Skin.  Think of really old people.  If they haven’t properly taken care of their skin, not only are they riddled with wrinkles, but the skin visibly sags on their face.

4) Rough Skin. This can happen just when your skin is dry (sorry dry skin, but your skin ages faster), but the “older” skin gets, the rougher it gets too.

Young skin is even, smooth, elastic (i.e. it doesn’t sag), and is soft and supple.  But you don’t have to be young to have youthful skin!  The best thing you can do is make sure you have a good skin care regimen with the right products.  Just like brushing your teeth, do it every morning and every night.

Life is fun.

“…it IS fun. LIFE is fun, when you allow it to be!” ~Bob Doyle, from his book Wealth Beyond Reason

Clear Skin Tip: Rinse Off Toothpaste.

Toothpaste, if not rinsed off properly, can get into pores and clog them!  So this is a short one, but after brushing your teeth make sure you rinse off toothpaste (instead of just using a towel to wipe it off) before applying your moisturizer or any other skin care products.

Half the Fun of Getting There.

Have you ever watched kids

On a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain
Slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?

You better slow down.
Don’t dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won’t last.

Do you run through each day
On the fly?
When you ask How are you?
Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done
Do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?

You’d better slow down
Don’t dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won’t last.

Ever told your chil d,
We’ll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste,
Not see his sorrow?

Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die
Cause you never had time
To call and say,’Hi’

You’d better slow down.
Don’t dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won’t last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift….
Throw n away.

Life is not a race.
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over.

Thou shalt weep.

I remember almost 17 years ago when my little brother, Ben, died.  He was almost six months old.  We knew of the possibility of his passing, he’d had so many close calls in his short life though, that we, at least I, believed he’d come through the heart surgery.

I was walking home with my older (by two years) sister Liza, and a family friend, Tiffany Van De Graaff.  It was the last day of school and I was lolly gagging home.  Liza and Tiffany were not bemused and repeatedly gibed me so I’d pick up my feet.  I didn’t.  Eventually though, we turned the corner home and I had the first view of the lovely house I called home.  Daddy’s car was in the driveway, early.  He had told us they, Mom and Dad, would not be home until Ben had healed from the operation which would be quite some time.  In my young mind I just figured Ben got better really fast and would get to see him.  I immediately took off yelling, “Ben’s home! Ben’s home!  Ben’s home!”  I barely noticed that my sister and her friend did not follow so quickly.

I was met by my father’s sad, red, tired face at the door.  He stopped me.  Asked Tiffany to go home, and then walked Liza and I into our front room.

Grandma Denning, Mom’s Mommy, was there and she smiled at me.  Mom did not.  Then they broke the news.  That Ben had lasted through the long surgery, but it had been too much and he passed away that morning.  My heart stung.  Ben had gone home, but not to us, to God.  Grandma Denning told me Ben’s spirit was still around and he’d hear us tell him we loved him.  So we held his body and cried, and told him we loved him.

Grandpa Denning held me at the funeral while I cried and cried.  And Grandma and Grandpa Newren were ever present, as they always were in our lives.  Our family loved and loved each other and held each other up, and cried when anyone else cried, which was a lot, so we did a lot of crying, and laughing, and being grateful we had each other and that we got to have Ben, even if only for a little while.

Grandpa Newren died about five years ago from cancer, and though we missed him terribly and it was hard, and we cried a lot, we still had each other, and we still had Grandma Newren.

Early April this year, Grandma Newren passed, and it’s been hard.  She was the cornerstone of the family.  Her house was a gathering place.  And her children loved her.  She stayed for a long time, all the while wanting to be with Grandpa, but not wanting to leave us.  But under heaven there is a perfect time for everything, and a time appointed for our passing, even those we can’t bear to part with.  So we let Grandma go.

But, we still have each other. This is not the time to give up, or despair.  Every death is hard, but it’s a reason to hope and love more.   To grow deeper stronger bonds between us, as we did when Ben died, to feel in the hole they left.  The pain never goes away.  You never stop loving or missing your Ben, your grandpa, your grandpa, your friends, your family.  But it’s all the reason more to love more, to hope more, to have faith more, to be grateful more.  Love those who are still here more, and help them.  Hope more for happiness.  Have faith more that we will all be one day united once more.  And be grateful for the time that we’ve been given with those we love now, in the past, and in the future.  Only love can fill our hearts so that, even though we miss our passed love one, we can fill up our hearts to overflowing, and love still even greater.

I don’t know how to end this except to say that God said,“Thou shalt live together in love, insomuch that thou shalt weep for the loss of them that die” (D&C 42:45)  And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Dream

“Just dream, visualize, and then start doing something.  Do the next thing that you feel you should do in accordance to that dream, and keep on moving.” ~David Cameron from A Happy Pocket Full of Money

Instantly Firmer, Younger, More Radiant, and Healthier Skin!

Just hydrate your skin!  Like I said in my last post, the best way to hydrate is to drink enough water.  But what do you do when that’s not enough?  And how do you even tell if it’s not enough?

You know you are drinking enough water, but how do you tell if your skin is still dehydrated?  Okay here’s a quick test: if you put on your moisturizer (and it’s the right one for your skin type) and you feel like you still need to put on more moisturizer, what you really need is a hydrater.  A moisturizer only helps your skin keep in its own natural moisture, a hydrater is like drinking water right into your skin.

If you want to do a different test, after applying your moisturizer, apply a hydrater to half of your face.  If your skin is at all dehydrater, then after a few minutes to let your skin absorb the hydrater, then you’ll notice that the side you didn’t apply the hydrater too looks dull, has mor lines, and looks like it sags (especially around the eyes).  Whereas the side you applied the hydrater to looks firm, radiant, and uplifted.  that’s becuase dehydration is the number one cause of lack of life in the cell.  Which makes sense doesn’t it.  Our bodies are after all mostly water and water is what helps us stay healthy.

Keeping your skin hydrated is going to help it look younger, more radiant, softer, supple, and help keep it healthier.  If you have a particular problem with acne, then it is extremely important to stay hydrated because dry skin will flake off into pores and cause more breakouts!!

I personally LOVE Mary Kay’s Oil-Free Hyrdating Gel for normal to oily skin.  I put it on when I feel that I need it.  I tend to dehydrate more in the winter so I use it once or twice a day.  When the days are warmer however I can go by using it only once or twice a month.

For those dry skin types I recommend Mary Kay’s Intense Moisturizing Cream.  If that’s not enough, then add Mary Kay’s Extra Emolient Night Cream to the mix.

Good luck!  And happy summer!!

More to Life

“There is more to life than increasing its speed.”

~Mahatma Ghandi

Aye, sometimes one must take the time to slow it down.