March 07, 2020 at 10:00PM by CWC When you’re dealing with acne, it can be tempting to pile on as many zit-zapping ingredients as possible in the hopes that they’ll come together to magically banish your breakouts. You need them to work fast, and logically a “more-is-more” approach seems like the best way to get the job done. But in reality, that’s not quite the case. Contrary to what you might think, the best way to treat pimples actually isn’t by going full throttle with every anti-acne product in your arsenal. Instead, it’s about trusting only the best-of-the-best acne ingredients, and using them properly to get tried-and-tested results. The magic number, according to dermatologists? Four. From a product standpoint, that’s generally all it takes to clear your pores, fight inflammation, and stimulate cell turnover in order to get rid of your current breakouts and fend off future ones. Of course, some situations are more serious than others, and may require attention from a dermatologist to deal with. If the over-the-counter stuff just isn’t doing it for you, be sure to schedule an appointment with a doc. In the meantime, scroll through for the best acne ingredients to stock your arsenal with—your breakouts don’t stand a chance. The four best acne ingredients, according to dermatologists Photo: W+G Creative Benzoyl peroxide is known to be the most effective OTC acne treatment out there—you probably know it well from the ingredient label of nearly every pimple product you’ve ever used. It lowers the
Day: March 7, 2020
This month’s full worm moon is also a supermoon—here’s what that means for your sign
March 07, 2020 at 08:00PM by CWC This month’s full moon (appetizingly nicknamed the full worm moon) is one of four supermoons taking the sky this year. It happens on Monday, March 9, which is also the day Mercury finally stations direct. Given all this powerful energy swirling in the cosmos on that day, we’re all going to feel the effects of the moon at an amplified level. Because it’s in Virgo, this full moon is an especially great opportunity for clearing, decluttering, and detoxing, says Rachel Lang, intuitive astrologer and healer. But because Pisces is also majorly involved, you can expect the fish’s dreamy, impractical tendencies to show up. “The Virgo-Pisces axis line brings about the practical and earthly versus the world of dreams and the unseen realities of life. Virgo is meticulous, ordered, and discerning, while Pisces is open to impractical possibilities and is mystically minded,” Lang says, adding that these are likely the themes you will see during this full worm moon. “Try to eliminate perfectionism, and become more at peace with the messiness of life,” she says. “This full moon is not a time to make definite decisions; rather, enter a discernment process.” —astrologer Rachel Lang Lang adds that the energy of the day will skew heavily spiritual, thanks to the the sun being in conjunct with Neptune. “You could glean insights from guiding messages in your environment or from others in your life,” she says. And with Mercury coming out of its retrograde transit on
Everything you need to know about straightening natural hair
March 07, 2020 at 06:00PM by CWC From ages 6 to 18, I got my hair chemically straightened every six weeks. Then, in college, I started my natural hair journey, finding refuge in big, curly wigs and sleek box braids. I’m loving the journey of embracing my natural texture, but sometimes, I still like silky-straight hair. And if you’ve ever tried to straighten kinky curls, you know the struggle of maintaining the look without also frying your hair—but it can be done. Here’s how. Choose a stylist and method—carefully The first step, says Anu Prestonia, a hair care consultant and the founder of natural beauty line Anu Essentials, is finding a stylist who has extensive experience with various hair textures. That stylist can help you choose between two straightening methods: a blowout or a silk press. Both straighten the hair, but one can work better for you depending on your hair texture. “A blowout usually works best for someone with naturally straight hair or hair that straightens easily,” says hairstylist Ursula Stephen, who’s touched the heads of stars like Rihanna and Laverne Cox. Prestonia adds that blowouts are also appropriate for people with super-fine hair, since the less-intense heat is better for hair that’s susceptible to damage. But a blow dryer alone isn’t enough to get thick, kinky curls pin-straight. For people with naturally curly, coarse hair, Stephen suggests a silk press. “The hair is blown out, then flat-ironed to give it a sleek, shiny finish,” Stephen says. This style
How I’m preparing my skin-care routine for an extra hour of daytime
March 07, 2020 at 04:00PM by CWC I dread the changing of the clocks at the end of winter because, let’s be honest, it’s the bad one. As terrible as it is, “spring forward” has to exist in order for us to have “fall back,” wherein you can have an extra hour of sleep. There can be no good without evil. On March 8 we have to face the evil and turn our clocks forward an hour. But on the bright side this means we get an extra hour of daytime. Since my face is going to be bathed in more sunlight than it has during the winter, I was curious if there were any tweaks I should make to my daytime skin-care routine. So I called in the experts. First up: sunscreen. It is skin-care canon that everyone should wear sunscreen every single day. Ninety percent of aging comes from unprotected UV exposure, dermatologist Mona Gohara, MD, told Well+Good in a recent episode of Dear Derm. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLlrv7VBPPU] There are two types of sunscreen: chemical and physical. Dr. Gohara says that if you see words like avobenzone and octinoxate on the label, it’s a chemical sunscreen. She also notes that chemical sunscreens have that “piña colada” classic sunscreen smell. If you see zinc oxide or titanium dioxide on the label, it’s a dead giveaway that it’s a physical sunscreen. Chemical sunscreens work by being absorbed into the skin, while physical sunscreens form a physical barrier on the skin. There
How I’m preparing my skin-care routine for an extra hour of daytime
March 07, 2020 at 04:00PM by CWC I dread the changing of the clocks at the end of winter because, let’s be honest, it’s the bad one. As terrible as it is, “spring forward” has to exist in order for us to have “fall back,” wherein you can have an extra hour of sleep. There can be no good without evil. On March 8 we have to face the evil and turn our clocks forward an hour. But on the bright side this means we get an extra hour of daytime. Since my face is going to be bathed in more sunlight than it has during the winter, I was curious if there were any tweaks I should make to my daytime skin-care routine. So I called in the experts. First up: sunscreen. It is skin-care canon that everyone should wear sunscreen every single day. Ninety percent of aging comes from unprotected UV exposure, dermatologist Mona Gohara, MD, told Well+Good in a recent episode of Dear Derm. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLlrv7VBPPU] There are two types of sunscreen: chemical and physical. Dr. Gohara says that if you see words like avobenzone and octinoxate on the label, it’s a chemical sunscreen. She also notes that chemical sunscreens have that “piña colada” classic sunscreen smell. If you see zinc oxide or titanium dioxide on the label, it’s a dead giveaway that it’s a physical sunscreen. Chemical sunscreens work by being absorbed into the skin, while physical sunscreens form a physical barrier on the skin. There
8 vegan jerky recipes you can make using your air fryer
March 07, 2020 at 02:00PM by CWC In the past few years, traditional beef jerky has gotten a major glow-up, revamped from the ultra processed sticks ubiquitous at gas stations and remade to be sourced from grass-fed meat and lower in sodium. The jerky space has also expanded to include new, vegan varieties. A run-down of the few options on the market: mushroom jerky, watermelon jerky, and soy-based jerky. Still, the vegan options definitely aren’t as easy to find as their animal-based counterparts. No worries, you can make your own! If you are the proud owner of an air fryer, it’s easier than you may think to DIY. Rounded up here are eight vegan jerky recipes using the beloved kitchen appliance. Scroll down for eight vegan jerky recipes, all made using the air fryer Photo: Monson Made This 1. Smoky soy curls Part of what makes traditional jerky a good snack is all the protein, and using soy to make a vegan version ensures you don’t miss out on that front. This recipe calls for liquid smoke, hoisin sauce, cayenne, garlic powder, and onion powder, which makes it taste like it was cooked over an open fire and seasoned with your pantry’s all-stars. Photo: Healthy Slow Cooking 2. Southern-style soy curls If a smoky taste isn’t your thing, try this Southern-inspired take instead, which uses nutritional yeast, Cajun seasoning, and poultry seasoning (don’t let the name fool you—it’s still vegan). Cornmeal is used to give a breaded texture; this take
Slept wrong? Try a professional stretchers 4 best moves for working out the knots
March 07, 2020 at 12:00PM by CWC Opening your eyes first-thing to realize you have a kink in your neck or back kinda gives a whole new meaning to “waking up on the wrong side of the bed.” You don’t have to go ahead and consider the day a wash, though. According to Keren Day, DC, a chiropractor and professional stretcher at Racked NYC, what you do next will make or break the time between now and your next sleep. “A common mistake people make when they wake up with aches and pains from sleeping in the wrong position is overcompensating with intense stretching,” says Dr. Day. It may seem like a contradiction, but taking the edge off your sleep borne pain is all about smart, simple stretching. “While it might be satisfying in the moment, avoid pushing into the area that hurts to the point of pain when moving or stretching as it can cause even more irritation,” says Dr. Day. Before you even think about doing a neck roll or a backstretch, though, Dr. Day recommends hopping in the shower. “This places systemic heat into the entire body and helps increase circulation through your body helping warm up the area that has become stiff,” she says. Once you’ve toweled off, going for an easy-peasy walk to relax your muscles and allow blood to flow throughout the entire body. Then (and only then!) are you ready to stretch. Dr. Day says that you should feel (almost) brand-new after you
Is it just me, or can your deodorant completely stop working? A dermatologist explains
March 07, 2020 at 02:00AM by CWC Raise your hand (or, erm, maybe don’t) if you’ve ever gotten a ripe whiff of your armpits in the middle of the day and wondered, “what the hell is going on under there?” Well, it may be that your deodorant has stopped working. Yep. According to dermatologists, it is fully possible for your favorite old-faithful D.O. to betray you. In order to understand why, it’s important to understand why your armpits smell in the first place. Contrary to popular belief, it’s actually not solely because of your sweat. Instead, it’s because of how your sweat interacts with the bacteria living on the surface of your skin, which can release an odor. Pure deodorants work to mask this odor with fragrance and alcohol, which acidifies the sweat and makes it a less hospitable place for bacteria to live. Antiperspirants—a category that some, but not all, deodorants fall into—use an active ingredient (usually aluminum) to plug up the sweat glands. This stops sweat from making it up to the surface in the first place so that bacteria can’t feed on it. When either type of product is working properly, the result is going to be a reduction in body odor. If that’s stopped happening, though, it may not technically be the deodorant’s fault—it could be due to some underlying cause in your body. “Perceived differences in smell may have to do with how much the person is actually sweating,” says board-certified dermatologist and founder of LM Medical
I’m a professional chef, and this anti-inflammatory salad recipe is good enough to eat every day
March 07, 2020 at 01:00AM by CWC [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNBjXk0c65I] If you’re feeling fatigued with the standard cold desk lunch, all you need is a handful of hearty veggies to make a nourishing warm salad recipe. In an episode of Well+Good’s video series Cook With Us, Sam Kass—cookbook author and former White House chef to the Obamas—is challenged to create an anti-inflammatory meal that’s vegetarian, uses turmeric, and can be put together in under 30 minutes. The result is an anti-inflammatory warm salad recipe that’s good enough to eat every day. To create this warm salad recipe, Kass roasts broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, carrots, parsley, and shallots. “Roasting is one of the best ways to prepare vegetables. It brings out so much flavor, and it’s super simple. You just throw them on a sheet tray and throw them in the oven,” he says. The vegetables are filled with vitamins and minerals, but this warm salad recipe is anti-inflammatory because of the dressing. In addition to turmeric, the dressing includes a dose of fresh ginger. “Ginger also has wonderful anti-inflammatory properties,” he says. What you’re left with is a quick, flavorful meal that provides all the benefits. And don’t worry—there’s more than enough for leftovers. Anti-inflammatory warm salad recipe Ingredients Salad: broccoli cauliflower Brussels sprouts carrots parsley shallots Dressing: olive oil Dijon mustard lemon juice garlic ginger turmeric 1. Toss the vegetables in your oil of choice, and add salt and pepper to taste. 2. Roast at 350°F for 10 to 20 minutes.
Will shaving really make your hair grow back thicker? Derms weigh in
March 07, 2020 by CWC There are plenty of old wives’ tales in the beauty world: that your skin needs to feel squeaky-clean (not true), your pores can actually shrink (also false), and—one of the biggest—that your hair grows back thicker after shaving. Well, good news: Dermatologists are busting that myth for us, once and for all. “It is definitely not true that after you shave, your hair grows back thicker,” says Shirley Chi, MD, a board-certified dermatologist based in Los Angeles. If this were the case, she jokes that everyone would be shaving their heads so that we could all have thicker hair. (Imagine!) Mona Gohara, MD, a Connecticut-based, board-certified dermatologist, echoes this: “Hair grows as thick as Mother Nature made it! Razors don’t change that.” “Hair grows as thick as Mother Nature made it! Razors don’t change that.” —Mona Gohara, MD If you’re finding it hard to digest the fact that your hair grows in at the same thickness, note that there’s a valid reason why this misconception exists in the first place. “The reason why your hair feels like it’s thicker after you shave is because of the blunt-cut ends of the hair that are growing out,” Dr. Gohara says. “It can feel stubbly and therefore thicker. But it’s not actually thicker or growing back any faster.” But if you give it some time, that won’t actually be the case. “If we let it grow longer again, it would taper just as it normally does,” says Miami-based