Month: November 2019

November 14, 2019 at 03:00AM by CWC I hate to be the one to introduce you to “sebum plugs,” but if I can’t un-hear it, neither can you. Unsure as to what it was myself, I asked some experts to explain, and it turns out you can take the term literally. “Generally speaking, a sebum plug is an accumulation of the skin’s natural oils within your pore,” says dermatologist Joshua Zeichner, MD. Basically, the sebaceous glands—which accompany every hair follicle on the body—create an oily liquid (sebum) that, when mixed with dead skin cells and bacteria, plugs the pore, says dermatologist Rachel Nazarian, MD. “Sebum plugs are essentially the foundation of our blackheads and whiteheads, and often even our painful cysts,” she says. Dr. Nazarian describes them as “thin waxy strands” (when pulled from the pore), which are typically light in color but turn dark upon oxidation—which is why they’re then called blackheads. In fact, Dr. Zeichner admits the distinction between the two is not all that solid. “The definition is definitely a gray zone, and it is not clear whether it differs from a true blackhead,” he says. Regardless, sebum plugs can be found anywhere on the body, though they typically plague people on the nose, chin, and forehead. Here’s the right way to layer your beauty products: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgq640YmGjI] Common medicinal topicals are the best treatment option for sebum plugs. “Salicylic acid is a beta hydroxy acid that helps remove excess oil and exfoliate dead cells from the

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November 14, 2019 at 02:00AM by CWC We demand a lot from our beauty products. Of course, a product needs to do its job, but it also has to look, smell, and feel good while getting to work in our complexions. It’s rare to find a single ingredient that has figured out how to do all three at once, but bergamot—which you’ll find just as frequently in your skin-care formulas as you will in your fragrances—has somehow managed to fill that tall order. Bergamot is a fruit that looks like the result of a love affair between a lime and an orange, and gives off a sweet-yet-bitter (and sorta-kinda spicy) citrus scent that has a number of benefits. “Emotionally it’s thought to help calm stress and nervous tension, and spiritually it’s often spoken of as a supporter of self. Overall bergamot is a wonderful balancer that helps encourage healing in combination with our own rhythm,” says ONDA Beauty founder Larissa Thomson. Studies have shown that bergamot essential oil can decrease stress and anxiety, making it great for sniffing at your desk during the day or dripping a few drops into a diffuser while you sleep. It’s frequently used as a top note in fragrances (like Tom Ford Neroli Portfino, $150, which happens to be one of my favorites), and pairs well with florals and spices. But bergamot’s calming scent isn’t the only thing the ingredient is lauded for: It’s got antibacterial and astringent properties, which means it can be used

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November 14, 2019 at 01:00AM by CWC When you think of workout snacks, one word typically comes to mind: protein, protein, protein. People load up on whey powders, munch on nuts or grass-fed beef jerky, or stash some protein bars in their gym bag. Protein is the watchword, friends. But we’ve all been wrong about our pre-workout nutritional needs this entire time. Because today I learned that the best snack to eat before exercising for energy, endurance, and recovery has nothing to do with anything protein-related at all. Apparently, we should all be eating a banana before we work out. Wait, why bananas before a workout? The TL;DR version: the banana’s nutritional profile is just what the RD ordered for a snack that provides the energy required to get through those tough, sweaty workouts. “A medium banana is nutrient rich, providing 24 grams of carbohydrates—14 of which are sugar and three of which are fiber,” says Kelly Jones, MS, RD, CSSD, LDN. “The fiber in bananas, along with the gram of protein, keeps the rest of the carbohydrate from being absorbed too rapidly, but there isn’t so much that the food will sit in your stomach,” she says. That may sound like a lot of carbs at once, but Jones says you need that digestible fuel right before you exercise. “The energy you absorb into the blood stream—ingested as both fructose and starch—is able to either get to muscle cells or maintain blood sugar levels, depending on how much carbohydrate

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