March 05, 2020 at 05:00PM by CWC My high school best friend scored a part-time job selling makeup the summer before our senior year. I watched in awe as her cosmetic bag turned into Wonderland, and she became fearless Alice, braving the before-uncharted lands of cream blushes, whisper-soft makeup brushes, and slick eyeliner. Since that fateful summer, I haven’t had such close proximity to bottomless blush; yet recently, after sneaking a peek inside Ulta Beauty pro artist Deney Adam‘s beauty bag, I felt that same feeling of tumbling head-first into Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland: makeup edition. When I ask Adam his criteria for choosing makeup products, he tells me he loves to think about the trends that could be, rather than what’s popular currently. “I am a seasonal-type makeup artist, and I aspire to create trends; therefore, I tend to go through different products quickly,” he says. “There is so much innovation out there and makeup formulas just keep getting better and better.” Earning a permanent place in Adam’s cosmetic bag is next to impossible, but four next-level makeup products have done it. Keep scrolling to find out which ones. 1. NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer, $30 All Photo: Ulta “NARS concealer applies like butter and the texture is so light and creamy, it just melts into the skin. I also like that it has buildable coverage so I often use it as a foundation, and it works well on all skin types,” says Adam. The compact tube means it slips into your
Category: Beauty
How to style the OV exercise dress for winter, because we’re team no pants all year round
March 05, 2020 at 05:00PM by CWC Many months ago, I packed away my shorts, skirts, and dresses for winter—already wishing that I could rewind the “lazy-hazy-crazy” days of summer and sport them all once more. There’s was one wardrobe exception, though: the Outdoor Voices Exercise Dress ($100) in winter proved too versatile to be exiled to the back of my closet. So with the help of fashion stylist Alyssa Sutter, I learned how to style the garment come sun, slush, or blizzards. “My general rule for styling summer dresses in the wintertime is incorporating layers and textures,” says Sutter. “You can layer a turtleneck or tights under your dress, or pair it with a knit sweater and boots.” Since the dress itself is made with a thin, sweat-ready combo of nylon and spandex, you’re going to want to make sure the rest of the ensemble is built around staples that keep you warm. To help you do just that, Sutter dreamed up three ways you can wear the exercise dress no matter the weather forecast. Then, once you get to the gym or barre class, you can peel off the under layers and get down to doing things. 3 ways to sport the Outdoor Voices Exercise Dress in winter 1. The LB(exercise)D “This LBD can be your new winter go-to if you want to look effortless,” says Sutter. “Pair it with a fitted turtleneck under and a great pair of black, sheer, or opaque tights.” To switch things up,
Just chill, because I’m about to tell you everything you’ve ever wondered about CBD gummies
March 05, 2020 at 04:00PM by CWC CBD or cannabidiol, the non-psychoactive element of the cannabis plant, continues to be the most-talked-about ingredient in wellness right now. From leggings to deodorants to lube, that good (wellness) kush is in almost too many things—including squishy gummy candies. But given that there are so many different ways to consume CBD—from powders and supplements to tinctures—are CBD gummies’ effects worth spending your hard-earned cash on? Here’s the thing: People turn to CBD for a number of reasons: to support thier sleep, quell anxiety, or fight inflammation. And boy do they sound great when your grandmother, sister-and-law, and coworkers sing their praises. But when you’re deciding whether CBD gummies (or CBD in any form) are right for you, remember that the science has yet caught up to most of CBD’s fanfare. “There is very little data from rigorous scientific research on the therapeutic effects of CBD,” J. H. Atkinson, MD, of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at the University of California, San Diego previously told Well+Good. Still, though, the massive market for CBD (which is estimated to reach $24 billion by 2024) suggests that many people can make an anecdotal case for the ingredient. And Jessica Mulligan, founder of gummy CBD company Winged, believes that peoples’ interest in CBD in its gummy form (and others) really comes down to a need to calm the nervous system in a world that’s stress-inducing and fast-paced. “CBD nourishes an important system in our bodies called the endocannabinoid
The ‘overhead squat assessment’ tells you everything you need to know about your mobility, stability, and coordination
March 05, 2020 at 03:00PM by CWC Sometimes it really feels like you’re playing whack-a-mole with your fitness routine. You get your strength under control at the price of your mobility. Or you head to yoga to tackle stability and end up losing your strength. It’s hard to find the right balance of movement, but one trainer-approved tactic called the overhead squat assessment tells you everything you need to know about your body in one rep. According to the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), the overhead squat assessment (OHSA) determines how all of your body parts work as a whole. “The overhead squat assessment is the best measure of how healthy your client’s kinetic chain is,” reads NASM’s website. “This assessment enables the trainer to analyze every part of the kinetic chain for proper function. Since an overhead squat will utilize all musculature from head to toe to successfully complete, it’s the perfect movement to measure overall musculoskeletal function.” From an outsider’s perspective, it may look like you’re just performing a squat, but don’t talk about OHSA that way! The move deserves way more clout than that. Because the trainer will ask you to raise your hands overhead and repeat the movement 15 times, the exercise reveals your body’s weaknesses and where it’s really, really strong. For example, if your knee moves slightly inward when you complete the overhead squat assessment, NASM says that could mean your glutes and hamstrings are underactive and a move like ball squats could strengthen
6 common things that cause sudden facial breakouts, according to dermatologists
March 05, 2020 at 02:30AM by CWC If you’ve ever looked in the office bathroom mirror after lunch, noticed a brand-spanking-new zit, and wondered “where the hell did that thing come from?” this one’s for you. Some facial breakouts seem to come up out of nowhere and ruin your afternoon, but chances are those surprise pimples have been brewing for some time—and there are a whole lot of things that might have caused them. To find out where exactly they come from, I asked dermatologists to share the most common reasons behind sudden facial breakouts. The good news? Nearly all of them are avoidable with a few lifestyle tweaks—though sometimes, IMHO, a midday zit is well worth the extra scoop of ice cream. Common causes of sudden facial breakouts 1. Stress If pimples are popping up before a big presentation or a nerve-wracking first date, stress is likely to blame. “We know that stress has a significant impact on our skin,” says board-certified dermatologist Joshua Zeichner, MD. When you’re stressed, your brain releases a stress hormone called cortisol, which causes your oil glands to go into overdrive. They start to produce more sebum, which ultimately leads to acne. While many hormonal breakouts are unavoidable, stress pimples can be put to rest by chilling out. 2. Your diet Breaking out the morning after binging Ben and Jerry’s and The Bachelor (aka the bets way to spend a Monday night)? Those are probably sugar and dairy pimples. “Certain foods like dairy and
The cannabis world has a diversity problem, but Cannaclusive’s founders are seeking to change that
March 04, 2020 at 11:00PM by CWC On the surface, it looks as though the cannabis industry is wide open with opportunity right now. By 2025, the market for the medicinal plant is projected to be worth $66.3 billion, expanding at an annual growth rate of almost 30 percent. In five years time, experts say 625,000 people will be employed by hemp-related businesses, triple the current number. But look a little more closely, and you’ll see that those currently profiting from the marijuana boom are largely white men—a reality that prompted Charlese Antoinette Jones, Mary Pryor, and Tonya Rapley-Flash to launch Cannaclusive in 2017. Their mission is big but simple—to give people of color a stake in the burgeoning cannabis world, both as business owners and consumers. “We originally came together out of frustration,” says Pryor, who was named one of Well+Good’s 2020 Changemakers along with Antoinette and Rapley-Flash. Most of the time, when they would attend cannabis industry events in Los Angeles, Pryor says she and her business partners were the only women of color in the room. “We were all interested in doing work in the industry and had a shared respect for the plant, but we were not being met with opportunities because of [racial] microaggressions.” According to Pryor, there are many reasons why the cannabis scene isn’t as diverse as it could be—racism, sexism, murky government regulations, and lack of access to capital among them. Then there’s the fact that people of color are four times
8 of the most name-dropped skin-care products that are worth the splurge
March 04, 2020 at 07:00PM by CWC If someone were to suddenly win a few million bucks, there would surely be a list of things they’d run to put that money to: vacation (and probably debt), for obvious starters. And unquestionably: beauty products. It’s the golden age of skin care, when drugstore products churn out major results; however, it’s undeniable that even with all of the pocketbook wins, there are some skin-care products that are worth the splurge. In Well+Good’s Beauty Geek Facebook group (join it if you haven’t yet!), we posed the question to our readers: If you could splurge on one beauty product, what would it be? And our followers happen to have wish lists full of dermatologist-recommended skin-care essentials. Their picks range from science-backed brands like SkinCeuticals and Augustinus Bader to California cult-faves like Vintner’s Daughter. To see their picks, and hear why these items really are worth the splurge, keep scrolling. 1. SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic Serum, $166 Photo: SkinCeuticals This is the vitamin C serum that skin-care devotees mention as their dream product time and time again, and it’s one that Mona Gohara, MD, a board-certified dermatologist and our Dear Derm host recommends on the reg. It’s potent, effective, and truly brightens your complexion. One reader says it’s “amazing” and “worth the high price tag.” 2. Dr. Barbara Sturm Enzyme Cleanser, $75 Photo: Dr. Barbara Sturm A lot of Well+Good readers cited Dr. Barbara Sturm products in their splurge-worthy picks, including this cleanser. The product basically works
I tried vibrating ‘Bond bracelets’ to bring a sense of physical touch to my LDR
March 04, 2020 at 02:00PM by CWC It’s Sunday night, and yet again I’m FaceTiming with my boyfriend (let’s call him, Joe) who resides 1,000 miles west of New York City, where I live. We’ve been doing the whole long-distance dance for a few months now, and while grateful that technological advancements have let us stay in contact to this extent, we could, well, use some extra help in terms of bridging the physical space between us using alternate methods. Enter: Bond Touch bracelets ($98 for a pair), the wearables that “mimic your partner’s touch” via mutually exchanged vibrations that you can exchange from anywhere in the great, wide world (using cell service or Wi-Fi, that is). “I can just tap the bracelet and your wrist will vibrate,” I tell Joe. “Isn’t that cool?!” The good sport he is, he agrees to at least try it out to humor me. So I order a pair and give him his during a recent weekend visit. We connect our two bracelets via the Bond Touch app and choose our digital color (which you can change at any time). The bracelet then registers my full tapping pattern and sends an exact copy to his, so decide to make up a language—our very own Morse code of sorts—for our vibrational combos. Here’s what we decide: One tap: “Hi!,” “hello!,” or some equivalent greeting Two taps: “Good morning” or “good night”—depending on when the tap comes in Three taps: “I love you.” Four taps: “I’m
Hate meditating? Here are 3 ways to reap the self-compassion benefits without sitting on a cushion
March 04, 2020 at 01:00PM by CWC Like cilantro, meditation is a divisive topic: When the practice comes up in conversation, people either offer words of enthusiasm (“It works wonders on my mental health!”) or dismiss it with the verbal equivalent of the shrugging emoji (¯\_(ツ)_/¯). The latter crowd may well be interested in the results of a recent study because it found that it’s entirely possible to reap the brain-boosting benefits of meditation—specifically the practice’s ability to boost compassion toward yourself and others—without actually sitting down on your cushion. How? Well, it turns out that self-compassion is something you can exercise and practice with your eyes wide open. Published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, the study of 828—only half of whom would label themselves as “meditators”—used a statistical technique called structural equation modeling (SEM) to study what, exactly, makes mindfulness so effective. Ultimately, researchers concluded that the brain benefits include finding deeper meaning in life, better overall mental health, and, yes, way more self-compassion. But even if you don’t meditate, psychotherapist Michele Burstein, LCSW says you can still get in on the goodness of that final particular benefit. Researchers found benefits of meditating include finding deeper meaning in life, better overall mental health, and more self-compassion. But even if you don’t meditate, you can still boost your self-compassion. “In order to have self-compassion, you have to give yourself understanding, acceptance, and, of course, forgiveness,” says Burstein. “We usually are our own toughest critics and give ourselves little room for
I got into a hyperbaric chamber to speed up the healing process—here’s what happened
March 03, 2020 at 11:02PM by CWC [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lvYjoV2tpA] What does a hyperbaric chamber do? Watch the video to find out. We know a thing or two about recovery here at Well+Good. We’ve tried everything from gymnast-led stretching classes to cold compression cuffs. In the latest episode of What the Wellness, host Ella Dove dives into a hyperbaric chamber for the ultimate recovery. A hyperbaric chamber is a big tube that kind of looks like a tanning bed, but instead of harmful UV rays, this machine floods your body with oxygen. What does a hyperbaric chamber do? “They speed up every biochemical healing process,” says Johnathan Leary, PhD, a chiropractor and CEO and founder of Remedy Place. “It doesn’t matter if its expedited recovery after surgery, recovery after a long fight or a late night out, this does everything.” Remedy Place is a social wellness club in West Hollywood dedicated to recovery. In addition to the hyperbaric chamber, the club offers an infrared sauna, a cryotherapy chamber, a meditation room, compression boots, IV drips, and movement therapy. Dr. Leary says the hyperbaric chamber is the most powerful tool their arsenal. “Fully saturating the body with oxygen, it just helps in speeding up every biochemical healing process,” he says. “Think of it as every single reaction in the body to maximize recovery is just being enhanced.” For the claustrophobic among us, the door is glass so you can see out. And for people who feel like they might have a hard