Month: June 2019

June 19, 2019 at 07:00AM by CWC There are certain humans on this earth who actually glow. Michelle Obama is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of those humans. Take one look at her parading across the stage in a pair of silver sparkly boots, hugging one of her adoring fans, or posing for vacation photos with her family, and that much is clear. It is makeup artist Carl Ray’s job to make that glow even more evident. Ray has been Obama’s go-to makeup artist since 2009, and chances are that any look you’ve seen her rock—from State Dinners to many trips overseas—was created by his expert hand. So needless to say, I had a lot of questions for him. Read on for his tips to help achieve Obama-level glow. 1. How can you use makeup to look more awake after a seriously shortened night of sleep? Michelle Obama’s schedule isn’t exactly the most sleep-friendly (…being an international icon takes a lot of time out of the day), but Ray has a few genius tricks for helping her look more awake on days when getting eight full hours of shut-eye is a pipe dream. “Put a little bit of concealer on the inner corner of your eyes,” he suggests. “There’s usually dark spots on the inner part of your nose. If you lighten that up with a little bit of concealer that makes it looks like you had a couple extra hours of sleep. And don’t always glob liner

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June 19, 2019 at 05:00AM by CWC After years of enduring dead-end doctor’s visits with the goal of treating my mystery health issues, a sudden acceleration of symptoms finally leads me to a diagnosis on a fateful day in July: Lyme disease (with co-infections). At the sickest I’d ever been and at the precipice of a grueling treatment regimen, I decide to—for the first time in my life—start dating with a chronic illness. Microbes and medications may be manipulating every part of my body, but I can still choose what I do with said body—and with whom. The previous November, my nearly four-year relationship ended, so at age 25, I went to stay at my parents’ house for what was supposed to be a few weeks to recuperate. But as I became increasingly ill, weeks gave way to months. Finally in July, I receive my diagnosis, which comes with an unexpected dose of existential musings. The myriad health mysteries that dotted my years since childhood, like crippling leg pain and chronic nausea, suddenly added up: I realize my physical struggles are neither my body’s way of gaslighting me nor my fault. ad_intervals[‘399639_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘399639_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’);}); } }, 100); In some ways, the epiphany is liberating, but I still felt beholden to side effects of all my medications. I’m compromised in my ability to work, exercise, socialize, travel, create, and eat most foods, which makes me realize how easily I could disappear into the layers

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June 19, 2019 at 04:00AM by CWC A few months ago, when K-Beauty queen Charlotte Cho told me that the concept of the 10-step skin-care regimen was, in effect, totally misunderstood, my jaw dropped straight onto the table. For the last few years, so many of us have been living by the more-is-more edict when it comes to what we put on our faces. My own nightly routine, for example, involves a micellar water, a cleanser, a toner, two serums, a facial oil, a moisturizer, and a sleeping mask… and that’s not including the actual electronic devices I use to help the products work harder. But as any dermatologist will tell you, there is a such thing as too much of a good thing, and your skin could wind up paying the price. With so many powerful active ingredients on the market these days (ILYSM, retinol), it’s not exactly hard to slather on a whole lot of powerful stuff at once. So how can you tell if you’re overdoing it? “If you’re asking that question, your skin is probably burnt out,” says board-certified dermatologist Dr. Ellen Marmur, founder of Marmur Medical. “Your skin should feel like you just gave it a big hug, it should feel happy. It shouldn’t feel tight, squeaky, clean, dry, crinkly—it should feel supple and soft to the touch.” She notes that any sort of irritation or redness is a sign you’re doing too much. Another major giveaway? A shiny forehead, which is the first sign that

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