Tips for makeup beginners

These days there are so many makeup products to choose from that it can be overwhelming when deciding exactly what to buy. It can be confusing and frustrating to know the difference between lipsticks, lip stains and lip plumpers, or, eye colors, eye bases and eye primers. Being new to makeup doesn't mean you need to learn about everything all at once. In reality, there are only a few essentials you need to add to your kit if you are just starting out. Save all those bells and whistles for down the road as you gain confidence in your makeup application skills. Below is a list of items that I like to call the perfect 10. These items are the basics and the essentials. No matter how advanced and ever changing a person's makeup kit is these are the items that will always remain constant.

1) Face Primer: Primer for makeup works the same way primer does for the walls inside your home. It allows for a base, and because of its consistency makeup naturally wants to stick to it. It also allows for a layer of protection from the makeup to prevent breakouts.

My Recommendation: Smashbox Photo Finish Foundation Primer

2) Liquid Foundation: Whether you prefer sheer, medium or full coverage, liquid foundation is a great way to get smooth and even coverage on your face.

My Recommendation: Revlon ColorStay Foundation

3) Concealer: Using a concealer after applying your foundation is a great way to spot treat areas that the foundation was not able to cover.

My Recommendation: MAC Studio Finish Concealer

4) Eye Primer: For the same reason we use face primer we should use eye primer. It gives our eye shadow an extra pop as well as all day staying power without creasing.

My Recommendation: Urban Decay Primer Potion

5) Neutral Eye shadow:When starting out with eye shadows for the first time it is a good idea to keep it pretty natural. While vibrant colors are great they can look out of place and unflattering if applied incorrectly. My suggestion is to buy a palette of neutrals and then work your way up to brighter colors.

My Recommendation: Urban Decay Naked Palette

6) Pencil Eyeliner: Eyeliner helps our lashes look fuller and provides a completeness to our look. Start out with a pencil liner. Once you are comfortable you can venture out into the world of gels and liquids.

My Recommendation: Make Up Forever Aqua Eyes Eyeliner

7) Mascara: Help lengthen and create volume to your lashes by using a few coats of mascara after your shadow and liner are complete. This will help you look more awake and allow your eyes to appear larger.

My Recommendation: Covergirl LashBlast Volume Mascara

8) Blush: Using blush helps bring color and life back into our face after we have muted it out with our foundation. It helps us look healthier and provides a bit of a glow.

My Recommendation: MAC Gingerly Blush

9) Lipstick:Using a lipstick helps complete our entire look. I like to compare it to the icing on a cake. Lipstick has the wonderful power of tying everything together in a neat little bow. All you need is one or two colors that suit your skin and your face and it will help any look pop.

My recommendation: NYX Matte Lipstick

10) Translucent Powder: Powder will be the final step in your makeup application. It helps set everything in place while pulling the shine out of your face.

My Recommendation: e.l.f Studio High Definition Powder

Follow Sana Alam Cordeaux on Twitter: www.twitter.com/makeupbysana

Awesome exercises that are good for your body

Fitness professionals praise simple, sustainable and modifiable moves.

From boot camps to SoulCycle to early morning dance parties, there’s no shortage of fitness trends with a devoted, young, fit following. But when it comes to exercises that even the oldestand most out of shape can (and should) add to their workout repertoires, most fitness professionals advise keeping it simple. Here are their votes for the 10 best exercises you can start doing today – and stop doing, well, never.

1. Walking

The votes are in, and the consensus is clear: Nothing quite beats walking. The exercise is functional (you can do it to get places), accessible (no gym needed) and “suitable for all ages and abilities,” says Michelle Walters-Edwards, chair of the Department of Health and Human Performance at Marymount University. Best of all? Walking can reduce your risk of premature death, diseases likehypertension and symptoms of depression, says Adam Wright, an athletic and personal performance consultant based in New York City.

2. Running

Want to take walking up a notch? Break into a run. The activity strengthens the legs and core, keeps knees and hips healthy, boosts heart health and spurs your body to burn more calories even at rest, says Joe English, a running coach in Portland, Oregon, and contributor to the U.S. News Eat+Run blog. “As we age, we may need to slow down,” he says, “but running keeps aging bodies active and fit, yielding great benefits for us all.” 

3. Squats

If  squats leave your legs as wobbly as “a newborn baby deer,” you need to do them more, says Christopher Stepien, a sports therapy and chronic pain specialist at Barefoot Rehabilitation Clinic in Parsippany, New Jersey. The move helps prevent lower back, hip, knee and ankle injuries; boosts flexibility and balance; enhances communication between the brain and muscles; and even promotes bathroom regularity by “improving your body’s fluid and nutrition distribution to all your tissues, organs and glands down in the nether regions,” Stepien says.

4. Turkish get-ups

Never heard of this funky-sounding exercise? Listen up. The activity, which involves holding a kettlebell above your head as you move from lying to standing and back down again, “is the most practical full-body exercise,” says Kelly Coffey, a personal trainer at Strong Coffey Personal Training in Northampton, Massachusetts. Even if you only complete one part or perform it kettlebell-free, the move can still improve strength, coordination and balance, she says.

5. Swimming

Break out the goggles and start splashing. Swimming is the perfect exercise for all ages, says Kevin B. White, a personal trainer in Bethesda, Maryland, and author of “School Yourself Into Shape.” Not only is swimming a great cardiovascular workout, but “the water provides resistance to strengthen the muscles, while also protecting the joints,” he says.

6. Push-ups

You may think of a pushup as an arm exercise, but it’s truly “a whole body exercise” that works the upper body, legs and core, says Arwen Fuller, assistant professor in the University of Utah's Department of Exercise and Sport Science. Want a challenge? Push up with your feet on a bench, or build power by pushing up as hard and fast as you can and catching some air on your way up. Need a break? Push up on your knees or against a wall while standing​, Fuller suggests.

7. Plank

While the plank is often touted as an ab-toner, it’s so much more,says Heather Worthy, regional director of wellness innovation at the YMCA Anthony Bowen in the District of Columbia. The exercise builds core, arm, shoulder and back strength;improves balance and posture; strengthens your lower body; and helps reduce back pain. To make it harder, raise one leg – and then the other – a few inches off the floor or plank on a decline. To give yourself a break, try it on an incline, Worthy suggests.

8. Pull up

You may have retired the pullup after elementary school gym class, but there’s every reason to do it at any age, Worthy believes. “This exercise builds strength in your trunk, arms, shoulders, abdominal muscles, pelvic floor, hands and forearms by pulling up one’s body weight,” she explains. Depending on available equipment, you can adjust the pullup’s difficulty by, say, adding a weighted belt (for a challenge) or using an assisted pullup machine (for a boost). 

9. Stretching

Speaking of elementary school gym class, no need to get much fancier than thestretches it taught you (such as toe touches or side lunges), says Shane Allen, a personal trainer and sports nutritionist in Dallas. You'll still reap the benefits. “Stretching keeps your body flexible and your muscles healthy,” he says. It’s meant to help prevent injury – not cause it – so be sure to ease up if stretching gets painful, Allen says

.

10. Healthy diet

Competitive eating aside, dining isn't exactly exercise. But food is “the most important part of any fitness routine,” says Allen, who works for the meal delivery program Personal Trainer Food. “Working out is secondary.” Maintaining a balanced diet of fruits, vegetables, lean protein, whole grains and healthy fats will support any exercise routine and give you results. And when it comes to the best (actual) exercise? “The single best exercise,” Fuller says, “is the one you will do."

What to take into consideration when trying to lose weight

Gym membership, food diary, portion control: Check, check, check. Clothes that fit, cardio, emergency snacks: Three checks again.

You think you know everything there is to know about dropping pounds, but a recent survey commissioned by healthcare services company Orlando Health proved there's one thing most of us are overlooking: our mental health.Blame this neglect for why an estimated 95 percent of diets seem to fail us. 

In a national survey of more than 1,000 Americans, 31 percent of respondents said they believe lack of exercise is the biggest hurdle to achieving weight loss, followed by 26 percent who believe it's what food you eat and 17 percent who pointed to the financial expenses of a healthy lifestyle. Only one in 10 of the respondents mentioned psychological wellness as a barrier. 

"When you talk to anyone about weight loss, they will tell you they don't exercise enough and that they eat poorly," Diane Robinson, a neuropsychologist and program director of Integrative Medicine at Orlando  Health, told The Huffington Post. "But we also need to understand why we're eating."

For many people, eating is an emotional experience. We are given "comfort foods" during hard times and we're rewarded with sweet treats for good behavior when we're kids. Many American holidays are focused on food, and often, we have a nostalgic or personal connection to what's on the table. 

"If we're aware of it or not, we are conditioned to use food not only for nourishment, but for comfort," Robinson said. "That's not a bad thing, necessarily, as long as we acknowledge it and deal with it appropriately."

After devouring a delicious meal, the brain releases dopamine, a chemical that's associated with pleasure. Your body is satisfied, and you feel good. But emotional attachment to food becomes problematic when people heavily rely on food for that feeling. As the Mayo Clinic puts it, "Sometimes the strongest food cravings hit when you're at your weakest point emotionally."

Understanding the emotional aspect of our food behaviors is key to maintaining holistic health. Previous studies, including one published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology in 2014, underscore the complex relationship between mood, food and overeating. Hunger and food intake are regulated by much more than our biology: Emotion plays a critical role in determining what and how much we eat. 

This new survey points to the fact that there's work to be done on the inside in order to shrink the outside. At a time of year when so many of us resolve to improve ourselves, Robinson said smaller steps are key to real acheivement. As for weight loss, she said, "If you want to make a real resolution, resolve to get to know yourself better."

Robinson said she suspects we have such difficulty checking in with our emotions when dealing with food because as humans, it's difficult to look at ourselves through that lens. "It's hard for us to label emotions and realize it's the emotion that's driving a thought or behavior. We don't want to piece that together because it makes us uncomfortable," she said. So many of us overlook the mental health aspect of weight loss because while we prioritize our physical health -- you'd go to the doctor for a broken arm or virus -- our emotional well-being is much more abstract: How do you know if you're "sad enough" to see a therapist?. 

While there's more research to be done on the relationship between mental health and weight loss, Robinson said there are things people trying to lose weight can do today to get the brain to work in tandem with other weight loss efforts. If you keep a food journal, for example, you might also log your moods and track unhealthy patterns. Before you grab a snack, check in with yourself: Are you eating because you're hungry, or for another reason? If your answer is the latter, you might consider looking deeper into the reasons behind motive. For some, working with a therapist may be the key to unlocking some of the emotional aspects behind food behavior. 

How to avoid catching flu from makeup

First step: Empty out your cosmetics case and clean it out.

Whenever one of your girlfriends asks to borrow your red lipstick or liquid eyeliner, we wouldn't blame you if gave them the side-eye as if they've lost their mind. It's not that we are against swapping beauty secrets, it's just that we are absolutely against swapping any germs now that flu season is upon us.

We're pretty sure you've read or watched health news reports on the not-so-pretty side of the makeup counter. By the time the salesgirl has finished giving you a mini makeover, you're likely to walk away with much more than a few new beauty products. So, what's stopping the bacteria fest from spilling over into your makeup bag? Nothing at all.

To stay healthy during flu season, we asked makeup artist and groomer Janis Marino and internist Beth Ricanati for their tips on how keep our beauty products, brushes and bags germ-free.

Think like a makeup artist

Ninety-nine percent alcohol, hand sanitizer and antibacterial brush cleanser are always stocked in Marino's kit. These essential makeup artist tools are ones that everyone should use to clean off the top of your lipsticks. Simply use a butter knife or Q-tip to scrape off the top layer of your lipstick. Then, dip the lipstick itself it in a small glass of alcohol. Place the tube of uncovered lipstick in the freezer overnight to kill bacteria, and it will be ready to use in the morning. A pencil sharpener is also handy as it's the quickest and most efficient way to keep your brow, eye and lip pencils sanitized. Sharpening with each use also guarantees the added bonus of a fresh tip, according to Marino.

When updating your makeup bag with your daily must-haves (or nighttime beauty needs), Ricanati recommends starting with a clean surface to transfer everything.Clean the bag thoroughly (inside and out) using anti-bacterial wipes or baby shampoo, allow to dry and replace the contents. If you use makeup brushes, be sure to wash them several times a month; at the very least, when they are visibly dirty.

This is also the perfect time to take stock of what you actually use. There's no point in keeping products that you don't use, and this will lessen the likelihood of holding onto something too long, Ricanati noted. To minimize bacterial growth, store everything in a cool, dry place. But if something looks discolored, toss it!

Not sharing is caring

Both experts wave the red flag on sharing makeup, especially lipstick, gloss and balm as the mouth is the quickest way to spread germs. Not to mention, the mixed use of brushes should be avoided at all costs. Lip brushes should only be used on the lips, and the same goes for eyes, Marino warned. And Ricanati cautioned that a mascara wand is extremely dangerous because it carries bacteria with every swipe and can easily be transmitted between people. Always replace your favorite lash lengthener every three months.

Consider making the switch to plastic

Marino prefers plastic over canvas cosmetic cases as powders and dyes latch on to the material, and start to look quite filthy. Plastic makeup bags can be easily cleaned with a cleansing wipe, making them look as new as when you first got them.

Don't ignore that sore

New facial rashes, including small bumps and red acne patches, should never be overlooked, according to Ricanati. See a physician if you recognize any physical changes in your skin, as it could be a sure sign of germs picked up from makeup. Keeping your hands clean is another great way to cut down on the spread of infections.