August 01, 2019 at 01:31PM by CWC Welcome to “Dear Derm,” our brand-new beauty series in which dermatologist Mona Gohara, MD shares some serious skin-care realness. In each episode, she’ll answer your most burning beauty questions—like how to apply sunscreen, what to do if you get a sunburn, and more—and give you all of the tools you need to up take your glow game to the next level. I’m going to drop a hard truth on you here: Even the most diligent sunscreen wearers will, at some point, wind up dealing with a sunburn. If you’ve ever come back from a run with a sports bra burn, or woken up from a beach nap in your sunnies with some raccoon-style redness, you—like me—have learned this lesson the hard way. Because no matter how dedicated you are to protection, as board-certified dermatologist Mona Gohara, MD puts it, “it’s hard to be perfect at applying sunscreen.” ad_intervals[‘412341_div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘412341_div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’);}); } }, 100); In the first ever episode of Well+Good’s new beauty series, Dear Derm by Beauty Geek, Dr. Gohara drops some real, unfiltered skin-care truths, including what to do if you’ve had a little too much fun in the sun this summer. “Every sunburn—or tan for that matter—leaves damage to the skin,” she cautions, pointing to the instantaneous redness, plus more longterm problems like fine lines, pigmentation, and of course, skin cancer. But if you’ve found yourself looking slightly more crispy than you’d like, she’s
Day: August 1, 2019
Mercury is out of retrograde, but the ‘retroshade’ lingers—here’s what that means
August 01, 2019 at 01:25PM by CWC The only push notifications I allow on my phone are from Apple news, and the three astrology apps I have downloaded. Last night, I got a glorious notification from The Pattern, alerting me that Mercury retrograde was finally—finally!—over. Not to be dramatic (but definitely to be dramatic), this past Mercury retrograde felt like it went on forever. But turns out there’s this two week period post-retrograde, called Mercury retroshade, that can have quite the astrological impact. To quote the woman responsible for the majority of my IG captions, Taylor Swift, are we out of the woods? “The shadow period is about a two-week period after Mercury stations direct, when it travels along the path it was moving before it went retrograde,” explains intuitive astrologer and healer Rachel Lang. “It’s a time to clean up anything that happened during Mercury retrograde or to integrate any lessons you learned along the way. Often during Mercury retrograde, so much awareness about the past comes to the surface.” Other hallmarks of a Mercury retrograde: communication is off, technology is on the fritz, there’s general pandemonium, and everyone on social is blaming their bad choices on the planet (it me). Mercury retroshade is an opportunity to review big decisions in your life, reflect on the past, and reconnect with distant friends or exes. Lang says Mercury retroshade is an opportunity to review big decisions in your life, reflect on the past, and reconnect with distant friends or
This Is What’s Possible When A Workplace Prioritizes Wellbeing
July 31, 2019 at 10:00PM Watch as they upgraded their weekly office Happy Hour into a next-level Harvest Happy Hour. Continue Reading… Author | Life by Daily Burn Selected by CWC
The case for period ‘neutrality’—because positivity isn’t always realistic
August 01, 2019 at 11:01AM by CWC For nearly two decades starting in middle school, Sallie Sarrel, DPT, believed the soul-crushing cramps she experienced around her period were just a part of her life that she had to accept. “I was ashamed that I hurt so badly. The bloating made me hate myself,” she says. “I felt like a failure.” Sarrel says that she went to over 14 different OB/GYNs to understand what was going on, only to be told that everything was fine. She was finally diagnosed with endometriosis 10 years ago, and went into surgical menopause at the age of 34. Now a pelvic health physical therapist who specializes in treating women with endometriosis and the co-founder of The Endometriosis Summit, Sarrel, 45, has a different take on periods. “Here I am all these years later, surviving the torment from the hormonal ups and downs, never able to have a child, not realizing the last time I had cramps was my last time ever. I am happy to be off the rollercoaster that my period put me on, but I am devastated that at such a young age I have all the menopause symptoms of a 50-year-old,” she says. ad_intervals[‘412174_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘412174_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’);}); } }, 100); By opening up the discussion around periods and increasing awareness around conditions like endometriosis, the period positivity movement has taken some of the stigma out of menstruation. That’s been positive for the endometriosis community, Sarrel says,
Sephora’s best-selling shampoo has 50K loves and is like a blow-out in a bottle
August 01, 2019 at 09:00AM by CWC I’m a serial monogamist with a lot of beauty products (I’m looking at you, active serums and everything from Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare). But when it comes to my shampoo, I’ve gotta admit that I’m a cheater. A true paradigm of infidelity. Truth be told, nothing that I’ve ever sudsed up with has left my hair looking quite like the Keanu Reeves-esque strands that I dream about. It’s a tragic story, but I’m thrilled to report that I’ve actually just discovered magic in a bottle: Olaplex No. 4 Bond Shampoo ($28). Sure, I’m late to the game, considering how the hair product has been raved about by celebrity hairstylists for years now, but the real proof is in the customer review pudding. On Sephora, it’s literally the best-selling shampoo and has racked up 50 thousand hearts from satisfied customers. “Olaplex is one of a kind, and that’s why it’s so popular,” says Danielle Lint, an expert colorist at Warren Tricomi salon. “It protects the hair from professional color. It’s the only additive we have to protect the hair from breakage with color.” ad_intervals[‘412069_div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘412069_div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’);}); } }, 100); What makes it special is that it’s a bonding product, which literally works on the bonds of your hair on a super science-y, chemical level. “Right now, there are only three bonding products out on the market,” says celebrity hairstylist Paul Labrecque with Paul Labrecque Salon and Spa.
Demisexuality is the cousin of asexuality that includes the experience of attraction
August 01, 2019 at 08:11AM by CWC Many who are navigating the current landscape of dating would likely agree that the new order of operations includes intimacy and sex more toward the front end of getting to know one another. And if sex on a first date or anywhere near the beginning of a relationship works for you, that’s amazing. After all, there’s no wrong way to cultivate a relationship so long as everyone involved feels good about it. But, this model simply doesn’t serve everyone. Like, let’s say you identify as demisexual, and don’t experience sexual attraction at all until an emotional bond has been established—then what? First things first, the online-advocacy platform Demisexuality Resource Center describes demisexuality as a sexual orientation in which doesn’t someone feel sexual attraction with someone until an emotional bond is formed. It falls under the asexuality umbrella, but with the key difference of the word “until.” “While folks who identify as asexual never (ever, ever!) experience sexual desire or sexual attraction, demisexuals do have the capacity for sexual desire,” says clinical psychologist Carla Marie Manly, PhD, author of Joy From Fear. ad_intervals[‘400189_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘400189_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’);}); } }, 100); And according to the DRC, the specifics of that established emotional bond looks different for everyone. For Tillie Eze, founder of women’s wellness retreats company Moon Me who identifies as a demisexual lesbian, it looks like this: “It’s the kind of relationship you have with the person you would call
This is what it’s really like to be involved in an intervention
August 01, 2019 at 07:49AM by CWC By the time she was 30 years old, Peg owned a house at the beach, was building a career—and was, as she puts it, a full-blown alcoholic. “I started drinking in eighth grade, and I drank heavily from day one,” she recalls. “I never went out for just one drink, even for business.” During her 20s, she lived in New York City and was able to hide her habit from her family members by avoiding them as much as possible. But when she moved back to her hometown in New Jersey, it wasn’t as easy to keep her big secret—and, at the same time, alcohol was clouding her mind to the point that she started to fall behind on her bills and other responsibilities. Naturally, her loved ones started to worry. Then one summer, Peg* returned home from a trip to Ireland and found her brother and mother waiting at her house. “They said, ‘We think you should get help,’ and they had paperwork with them from a [treatment center] called Hazelden,” she says. Caught off guard, Peg blew up, ordering them to leave and refusing to consider their offer. “At that time, although I knew I needed help, I just didn’t think I could stop drinking,” she explains. “I was afraid I’d lose my relationship and my job.” ad_intervals[‘406124_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘406124_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’);}); } }, 100); But over the next few months her situation got progressively worse,
This is how the world’s most famous makeup artist applies foundation in 2-minutes flat
August 01, 2019 at 07:22AM by CWC When I get a notification that Pat McGrath—the mother of makeup—is going live on Instagram, I drop literally everything I’m doing to tune in. Considering she’s been trusted to perfect the faces of pretty much every uber-glamorous famous person you could fathom, and her work has appeared on countless runways and magazine covers, it’s likely that she’s got some tips worth taking to heart. So last night, after three(ish) glasses of wine, I watched a solid 20 minutes of McGrath putting foundation onto a model’s face, and let me tell you—I learned a lot about the right way to do it. Fast. McGrath, who just launched a line of foundation of her own, uses what she calls “the system” to make foundation look flawless. And after years of practice, she’s able to do it in under two minutes. She starts by applying primer with her fingers, then moves on to foundation. To begin with, she puts the product in the palm of her hand—which is particularly helpful if you need to mix to shades to achieve the perfect match—then uses the Skin Fetish: Sublime Foundation Brush ($55) from her own line to apply it. She starts on the model’s cheek, and blends outward from her nose in soft, short lines. Then, she focuses on the facial contours around the chin and hairline. For the most natural looking, seamless results, McGrath also takes great care to apply the foundation to her neck and ears (something I’ve never
Meet orthosomnia, the on-the-rise (and counterproductive) cultural obsession with hacking your sleep
August 01, 2019 at 05:00AM by CWC Like many people, my mom is pretty obsessed with her fitness tracker. We could be walking the dogs, completely immersed in a deep conversation about life, death, and the meaning of it all, only to be interrupted by her vibrating wrist and her subsequent message she just has to relay the message to me about how she hit her step goal for the day. While fitness trackers provide a metric for daily activity (and whether we’re getting enough of it), the next iteration is coming for your sleep. In fact, for many, it already has—Well+Good even called for sleep tech optimizing the bedroom experience being a 2018 wellness trend. Need evidence? Consider the Apple Watch and certain FitBit editions, which promise to not only tell you how many hours you sleep a night, but how much of that is deep sleep. Then there are smart beds and mattresses, like Eight Sleep, that give you a “score” of how well you sleep each night. Or, you could consider the Oura Ring, which uses body temperature and heart rate to let you know how much time you spend in light, deep, and REM sleep. ad_intervals[‘409252_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘409252_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’);}); } }, 100); On face value, this seems like good news for our data- and metric-obsessed culture that intends to invest in and use such information to better our lives. For example, if you know you’re only 150 steps away from
4 actually helpful empathetic phrases, since you can’t *know* how someone feels
August 01, 2019 at 04:00AM by CWC A few lonely months back, I was having a conversation about how I shed friends like a snake sheds its skin. This reality is largely because I live in New York City, have no plans of leaving, and it seems like no one else I’m friends with in New York City shares my sense of geographic loyalty. As it stands, the majority of my top-tier friends have long left for other cities, and the ones who remain seem to always have half their attention on a one-way plane ticket to Los Angeles. And when I recently tried to express to a friend my sense of isolation as a product of what feels like a scattered social standing, her reply fell short because her attempt at words of empathy didn’t really land. In response to me waxing poetic about people I love living thousands of miles away, she tried to relate with her personal situation: “I feel like even living 30 minutes south of the city has affected my friendships,” she said. ad_intervals[‘410387_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘410387_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’);}); } }, 100); Yeah, that’s like…not the same. Admittedly, this is a low-stakes example because it didn’t leave me feeling misunderstood in a dangerous way by any stretch of the imagination. But, it does highlight the reality that words of empathy have their limits. It’s a common knee-jerk reaction to try and share in other people’s pain by offering vignettes of what