Month: April 2019

April 16, 2019 at 07:36AM by CWC There are a lot of differences between 21-year-old me and 27-year-old me. For example, one of us spent Saturday nights dancing on tables with her friends from college, while the other spends Saturday night on the couch with takeout and six straight episodes of Friends from College. But one thing we do have in common? We both love to shop for workout clothes at Forever 21. Sure, the store is a utopia for sparkly going out tops and mini-skirts that my high school principal would have been positively horrified by, but it also happens to have some of the best activewear in the game. Not only are the shelves stocked with every iteration of black legging your heart could possibly desire, but they also have all sorts of fun, trendy gear like neon bike shorts, color-blocked windbreakers, and a whole lot of tie-dye. And because this is Forever 21 we’re talking about, you’ll be hard pressed to find a single article of clothing that costs more than $30. While I wouldn’t necessarily recommend running a marathon in the merch (you’re probably better off sticking with some sort of performance wear for that, anyway), having spent the better part of  the last decade rocking F21 workout-wear to actual workouts, I can confirm that the pieces actually happen to be impressively functional. The leggings hold their shape without stretching out, and the sports bras offer enough support to keep my boobs from bouncing around in even

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April 16, 2019 at 07:00AM by CWC If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the four years I’ve spent writing for Well+Good, it’s that drinking water is mad important—maybe even the most important thing you can do for your health. CBD oil and adaptogens are cool and all, but unlike water, they’re generally not essential to human life. And yet hydration is the one habit that I’ve never managed to master, despite the fact that I really should know better by now. Most days, the majority of my fluid intake comes from coffee. If I drink more than a few sips of water to take my supplements in the morning and at night, I consider it a victory. The thing is, I’m rarely thirsty—I feel deeply seen by the desert-dwelling kangaroo rat, who drinks zero water but eats so many carbs it doesn’t even matter—and as such, I just never think to carry a water bottle around or pour myself a glass while I’m at home. Not drinking water is so engrained in my DNA that no hydration hack has ever managed to break it. So when I got an email about a new, free hydration app called Pee & See, I was intrigued. It records how often you take a leak—which some experts say is the best way to gauge how hydrated you are—and if it’s been three hours or more since your last pee, it reminds you to drink a glass of water. I liked this better than

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April 16, 2019 at 06:45AM by CWC The sun is shining, the warm breeze is blowing through your hair, and the breakouts are coming in hot. What gives? If you can’t seem to figure out the cause of your acne flareups, a summer essential might be responsible for warm-weather breakouts if you don’t know how to clean sunglasses properly. I wear sunglasses almost every day, but I’ve never thought twice about giving them a thorough cleaning. A quick wipe-down on my shirt always seems to suffice. Unfortunately, that bad habit might result in a pimple or two in the area where my sunglasses rest on my face. “Anything dirty that touches your face can trigger a breakout by transferring bacteria,” says Dendy Engelman, MD, a New York City-based dermatologist. “Sunglasses can trigger acne since we tend to wear them in warm, humid weather. The combination of occlusion, sweat, dirt, and friction can clog pores, leading to a breakout.” To make sure protecting your eyes from powerful UV rays doesn’t mess with your complexion, sanitizing your sunglasses is a must—especially during the warmer months. But don’t go grabbing those chemical-filled, store-bought wipes that can irritate your skin even more. The best way to get rid of pimple-causing germs is to grab something you already have on hand at home. “Simple soap and water will do the trick. Or use a gentle, skin-friendly spray like Lumion that can be sprayed on the skin and sunglasses to help keep bacteria at bay,” Dr. Dendy

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April 16, 2019 at 03:00AM by CWC Celebrity deaths happen often, and often unexpectedly, leaving fans who didn’t personally know the deceased in a confused cloud of grief. Because logically, it doesn’t seem to make a whole bunch of sense to feel sad about losing someone you didn’t actually know. Still, on March 4, when I learned that Luke Perry died at the too-young age of 52, a week after he suffered from a massive stroke, there I was, grieving my one-sided relationship with the ’90s heartthrob I knew first and foremost as Beverly Hills, 90210‘s brooding Dylan McKay. Well, it was me and countless other fans around the world, sharing their feelings, and reactions, and general anguish. But pros say this reaction to mourn a celebrity crush makes total sense, especially when the person was someone we admired who served us interactive art that could leave a memory imprint. Like, yep, TV stars we grew up watching (and daydreaming about) and musicians who soundtracked our seminal milestones. Our relationships with celebrities don’t necessarily follow typically understood measures of time and space, making them seem subconsciously immortal to us in a sense. They don’t age with us—they’re bound, time-machine-style, to the fictional characters who they play and whom we’ve became attached to. “They’re never supposed to die, and they’re always 25 in our heads,” says Seattle-based therapist and grief counselor Jill Gross, PsyD. “When they die a little part of us dies, too—our innocence dies with them.” Still, she says,

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