Day: April 3, 2019

April 03, 2019 at 01:00PM by CWC Long before Lordes Leon set out to make the unibrow cool again, girls in my middle school mocked the patch of hair between my eyebrows incessantly, calling me names both to my face and behind my back (kids are the worst, huh?). While I’ve managed to get over their crappy teasing in the past decade and a half and learned to love my bushy brows, the few hairs that live above my nose and fuse my two eyebrows into one still drive me nucking futs. No matter how frequently I tweeze them—which is pretty much every day, and still after a decade and a half makes me sneeze every time—the hairs pop up out of nowhere. It’s the worst. But last year, while traveling through Asia, I discovered eyebrow razors—and the eyebrow primping game had officially been changed. The cute little single-blade razors (which can also be used to shave or exfoliate your face, ICYWW) are great for removing pesky hairs, especially ones that are too short for tweezers to grip onto. They’re small and easy to maneuver, and they don’t hurt or make me sneeze when I use them. And for what its worth, it looks like I’m not the only one who’s realized how great these babies are: Earlier this week, they rose to the throne as the number one beauty product on Amazon. Plus, they’re only 4 dollars for a pack of three—a serious steal. I recently asked celebrity eyebrow artist Joey

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April 03, 2019 at 12:58PM by CWC Why am I not getting stronger?  I’ve groaned the same question at least three times a week over the past few months to friends, coworkers, trainers, and anyone else who would listen. I’d muscled through 92 workouts over the course of 90 days thanks to an intense dedication to my 2019 fitness resolution, and simply could not understand why my body felt—and looked—exactly the same as it did on January 1. My suspicions were confirmed when I took a mobility test with Under Armour, and the results I received after a series of one-legged squats, push-ups, and wall sits were…startling. Not only was I not getting stronger, but my body was a complete mess—I scored a 46.44 on the Fusionetics Movement Efficiency Test, which fell into the “poor” range. As someone who prides herself on working out every day, this felt like a pretty major blow. What the hell was going on with my muscles? The answer came in the form of a question from Dan McDonogh, Under Armour’s Senior Manager of Performance Training: “Well, are you recovering properly?” My response was a resounding: “No.” Over the course of those 90 days, I had taken only a handful of days off, and made up for few mornings I slept through my alarm by doubling up on the weekend. I was overworking my body without giving it time to recover, and it was effecting my performance and ability to build muscle. I’ve read—and even written

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April 03, 2019 at 10:49AM by CWC Remember puberty, when we suddenly woke up one morning with a face slicked with grease and breakouts that didn’t seem to stop for like five years? It was the worst. As most of us learned the hard way at some point between the ages of 10 and 17, the hormone-skin connection is no joke, and that’s a lesson that keeps on expressing itself, up until menopause. Menopause—which hits most women at some point between the ages of 45 and 55 (though some symptoms can start as early as your 30s)—is associated with changing hormone levels in your body, particularly estrogen. While many of us are familiar with the common side effects, like hot flashes and an MIA period, the shift can also have a pretty major impact on skin. Namely, it dries it the hell out—or it does the exact opposite of what happened during puberty. According to a 2013 study, post-menopausal estrogen deficiency results in a lackadaisical complexion and more rapid aging. Similarly, a separate set of researchers found that women experienced a 30 percent loss of collagen in the first five years after entering menopause, which shows up as skin that isn’t as tight as it used to be. Traditionally, doctors have solved for this by recommending that patients try estrogen pills and patches to help even things out. But in addition to adding estrogen into your skin, that also introduces estrogen into the rest of your body, which may not

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April 03, 2019 at 09:20AM by CWC Ever since I became more serious about my wellness game, I’ve incorporated more into my life than just avocados and workouts. Like, you can now find me lighting palo santo to chill out at the end of a day, tucking crystals under my pillow for different vibes and intentions, and imbibing adaptogens like it’s my job. (I mean, it is.) But if there’s one wellness ritual I do that I’m a little unsure of, it’s saging, which is derived from the sacred Native American practice of smudging. “Saging is the act of wafting the smoke of white sage around yourself, your home, and your belongings to cleanse the energy,” explains Deborah Hanekamp, AKA Mama Medicine, a seeress and energy healer in New York City. “Smudging is the act of wafting the smoke of various dried herbs like palo santo, or even a cinnamon stick, around your home, yourself, and your belongings for various different spiritual reasons, like blessing, or protection.” “It’s common to feel a sense of peace and light after saging yourself.” —Deborah Hanekamp You’ll want to try saging when you or the space you’re in needs to be cleansed and emptied out of past energy. “Sage not only cleanses the spirit, but it also purifies the air around you,” she adds. “It’s common to feel a sense of peace and light after saging yourself.” Saging is good to do around times of change. “I think it’s great to do around the

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April 03, 2019 at 08:58AM by CWC The first few months I spent at my big-girl, full-time job, I was terrified about letting my sense of humor loose on any coworkers. I’d been previously indoctrinated into believing a desk is a space for serious business emails (Sincerely, Official Member of the Workforce) and torturous mental obstacle courses (read: spreadsheets). While there’s certainly space in my day-to-day for that kind of stuff, research suggests cracking up with colleagues deserves some on-the-clock time, too. Especially LOLs of the variety that poke fun at yourself. “A good laugh can be refreshing and relieve tension, which is a great advantage in the workplace,” Barbara Plester, PhD and author of Laugh Out Loud: A User’s Guide to Workplace Humor, tells Thrive. The only caveat: The type of wit you employ (ha, a work pun, get it?) really, really matters. You want your brand of funny to be about yourself—not others. Dr. Plester warns that potentially inflammatory forms of humor like teasing, sarcasm, and ridicule are a no-go in a cubicle environment. So leave your inner Joan Rivers at the door and replace her with your inner Ellen DeGeneres. “A good laugh can be refreshing and relieve tension, which is a great advantage in the workplace.” —Barbara Plester, PhD That said, there is such a thing as too much of a good sense of humor. To avoid going so overboard with the self-mockery to the extent that your lunch buddy starts to worry about your self-esteem,

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