March 03, 2020 at 10:49PM by CWC This week was supposed to mark one of the biggest wellness events of 2020. Every year, more than 3,500 health brands and over 85,000 attendees descend upon Anaheim, California for ExpoWest—the world’s largest healthy product convention—to showcase what they’ll have to offer in the coming months. Brands spend thousands of dollars to attend, and for many startups, it’s their major chance to pitch products to retailers. But as of Monday evening, the massive event got postponed indefinitely, after hundreds of brands starting pulling out from the show just two days before it was slated to start. Why? Organizers and brands hoped to keep those who would be traveling from all over the world safe from COVID-19, and reduce the risk of the illness becoming even more widespread. “Ultimately, we listened to our community, and the position of our community changed very rapidly over 24 hours, due to the COVID-19 situation and its mainstream media and social media coverage,” says Carlotta Mast, the senior vice president of content and market leader for New Hope Network, which hosts the event. “By the afternoon of March 2, it was clear that despite the city of Anaheim being open and operating as usual and the continued assurances from local Anaheim authorities that the city was prepared to host Natural Products Expo West, the majority of our community wanted the show postponed.” Mast says she recognizes the conflicting emotions many are feeling about the postponement. Many, she says,
Category: Beauty
The expert-approved products to buy at Dermstore’s Beauty Refresh Event
March 03, 2020 at 08:00PM by CWC When it comes to finding the best of the best skin-care products online, a great first stop is the expert-curated Dermstore. (It was founded by dermatologists, after all!) Because stocking up on everything on your wish list can add up quickly, it can definitely be worth waiting until the prices drop—and this week there’s a massive skin-care sale called the Beauty Refresh Event you can take full advantage of. Dermstore’s Beauty Refresh Event is currently in full swing, where you can score some of your favorite products up to 20 percent off through March 9. Now, I’m not going to lie—sifting through hundreds of products can be intimidating. Plus, who has time to read through that many product descriptions? That’s why we put together a list of the options skin-care experts can’t get enough of that you’re sure to fall in love with, too. The 7 best products to order at the Dermstore Beauty Refresh Event 1. Dr. Dennis Gross Alpha Beta Universal Daily Peel Packettes, $120 for 60 When half of the Well+Good editors use the same peel pads, you know they’re good. I mean, one editor said—and I quote—she’d sell her soul to get a lifetime supply. They contain alpha hydroxy acids and glycolic and beta hydroxy acids, which together provide all the exfoliation and brightening powers your skin will ever need. 2. Bioderma Atoderm Cleansing Oil, $16 If you’re not already using a shower oil, now’s the time to start.
The 8 Myers-Briggs cognitive functions can help you understand your personality on a whole other level
March 03, 2020 at 04:36PM by CWC When most people hear “Myers-Briggs,” they think of the personality test, and the four letters associated with their resulting personality type: introverted (I) or extroverted (E), intuitive (N) or sensing (S), thinking (T) or feeling (F), and judging (J) or perceiving (P). But these traits only tell part of the story. Did you know you also have four key MBTI functions that correspond to your type? Psychologist Carl Jung (essentially the father of typology) talked a lot about the cognitive functions, which Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers then utilized to create the MBTI system we use today. These eight functions are critical to understanding how you operate in the world, and are worth knowing as a tool to help you delve deeper into how you and anyone else ticks. Using descriptions of the MBTI cognitive functions is also how I’ve learned to get a sense of people in real life, without them needing to take the personality test first. These eight functions are critical to understanding how you operate in the world, and are worth knowing as a tool to help you delve deeper into how you and anyone else ticks. There are eight total MBTI cognitive functions; let’s break down what makes up each below. The 8 MBTI functions 1. Extroverted Sensing (Se) Extroverted sensing is using taste, touch, smell, sound, movement and sight to easily absorb information in the physical world. As strongly observant, these people pick up on
This $17 skin balm has 101 different uses—here are 5 that will change your life
March 03, 2020 at 03:00PM by CWC In the beauty world, multitasking products are a dime a dozen. There are tinted lip balms, SPF moisturizers, and blush-highlighter hybrids that look just as gorgeous dusted over your eyelids as they do dappled onto the apples of your cheeks. But with all of these things, “multi-use” really maxes out at two, maybe three different options. But prepare to have your mind blown, because we discovered a $17 ointment that has a whopping 101 ways to use it. Lanolips 101 Ointment ($17) got its name because it has 101 different uses, and a more than two-thirds of them are related to your beauty routine. It’s made with lanolin, a by-product of sheep’s wool that’s famous for its dry-skin saving properties (and don’t worry—their version is harvested humanely and is cruelty-free). The ingredient holds 400 times its weight in water, and helps skin hydrate from within, while also acting as a barrier to protect it from the elements. Because of all this, the 101 Ointment is commonly used for things like chapped lips, windburned cheeks, and dry nostrils—the usual dry skin issues that tend to pop up during the winter months. While all 101 uses make the stuff well worth adding to your arsenal, we sussed out five that will legit change your life—or at least your hair-care, skin-care, and makeup routines—for the better. Photo: Lanolips 5 genius uses for Lanolips 101 Ointment 1. Make retinol more tolerable: If you’re one of those people who
A laughing yoga session in India gave me the most powerful sense of human connection I’ve ever felt
March 03, 2020 at 02:00PM by CWC “We’re going to be late!” Our tour guide, Umesh, had us park our bikes outside Jaipur’s morning vegetable market, and told us to run. After eight straight days of unlimited naan while on a solo tour of India with a group called Flashpack, that was not exactly an easy feat, but I followed the direction and took off into a dead sprint through the vendors. I weaved through the streets as quickly as I could, with absolutely no idea where I was going, avoiding stray animals and women carrying hundreds of pounds of vegetables on their heads. Ten out-of-breath minutes later, my nine travel companions—who were complete strangers before we’d touched down in Delhi a few days prior—arrived at a park. It was just before 8 a.m., and the grass still smelled like dew. “This,” I thought to myself as I looked from the empty patch of grass to the faces of my confused companions, “is a strange thing to have to sprint for.” As if he could hear my thought, at that moment, Umesh asked us to stand in a circle, then put two fingers into his mouth and wolf-whistled into the air. Within a minute, a group of 15 Indian men who had been hanging out in various other parts of the park made their way toward our little congregation. “These men are going to let us join them for laughing yoga,” he says. What is laughing yoga? Laughing yoga involves
There are 3 different types of smiles, and 1 of them isn’t so friendly
March 03, 2020 at 01:00PM by CWC I never trust anyone with a Cheshire grin, smiling ear to ear with an alarmingly devilish glint in their eyes, because those are the kind of smiles that get people swindled, deceived, or even heartbroken. That’s why I’m often left confused when I hear people talk up how forcing a smile can boost your happiness or fuel your workout, that smiling makes the world go ’round, and that a smile is basically a hug in mouth form. As it turns out, my confusion makes sense, because there are actually several types of smiles, and not all of them are of the objectively pleasant variety. Research has found that there are three types of smiles—smiles of affliction, smiles of reward, and smiles of dominance—and many more strains fall under those bigger umbrellas. “Smiles of reward are the same as smiles of affiliation; they are just positive smiles,” says body language expert Patti Wood. “Smiles that show dominance are complex, and can easily be seen as acquiescing.” To get more detail about what constitutes these main types of smiles, below Wood describes each. Affiliative smiles Affiliative smiles denote happiness and friendliness without the person displaying one having reacted to anything in particular. It’s the smile someone makes when, after a long day at work, their Bernese mountain dog greets them hello at the door. This is a smile of camaraderie that communicates a general sense of good-naturedness and understanding of trust—it’s called “affiliative” because it
Wonder what flaxseed oil will do for your skin? We polled pros to find out
March 03, 2020 at 03:00AM by CWC Putting flaxseeds in your smoothie is pretty much wellness 101. The seeds are packed with omega-3 fatty acids and are a rich source of nutrients that help your bod in day-to-day life—and as it happens, these wellness sprinkles also help your skin. Using flaxseed oil on your skin has legit, science-backed beauty benefits, and pros agree that it’s well worth integrating into your regular routine. The ingredient can be used both orally and topically, and offers legitimate benefits through both delivery systems. “It has lubricating and anti-inflammatory properties, and I’m a big believer in the ingredient,” says celebrity esthetician Vicki Morav. To find out why, scroll through all of the benefits of flaxseed oil for skin, then test it out by adding it to your own routine. What is flaxseed oil? Flaxseed, otherwise known as linseed, is a blue flowering plant primarily grown in Canada. The benefits of flax have been utilized for thousands of years—the grain was among one of the first crops to be grown in human civilization, and historical texts show that people have been eating it since as early as 1200 BC. According to Ayurvedic principles, flaxseed has a number of different benefits including balancing skin pH, improving elasticity, treating dryness, and removing blemishes. Flaxseed is one of the richest plant-derived sources of omega-3 fatty acids on the planet. Omega-3s occur naturally in our bodies, and serve an important function for the health of our skin cells. We need them
The 4-minute Tabata workout that an ex-Marine swears by for ‘instant sweat’
March 02, 2020 at 11:00PM by CWC More often than not, trying to fit a workout into a hectic day can kind of feel like you’re playing a game of Tetris. This is why one of our 2020 wellness trends is all about the “Blue Zones” approach to fitness (aka fitting movement naturally into your day), and why shorter workouts are on the rise. And it just so happens that I’ve found the shortest one yet: a four-minute Tabata workout created by a fitness trainer-slash-ex-Marine. Erin Oprea is a trainer, with a client roster that includes stars like Carrie Underwood and Kasey Musgraves, and her fitness M.O. is to make the most of her clients’ time. “Being a Marine taught me structure and discipline, and to celebrate the gift of movement,” she says. The day she stumbled across Tabata, she became an instant devotee. “It’s seriously the best. It’s go-time with minimal rest.” Tabata is a form of high-intensity interval training, and the idea behind it is that you work hard for 20 seconds, then rest for 10, and so on. That means there are millions of different workout combos that you can string together based on the formula, but Oprea is all about doing them in four-minute sessions “because they’re really practical and you can easily fit them in whenever,” she says. It may sound impossible to get a decent workout in under the length of a song, but Oprea stresses that Tabata leaves no room for slacking. “In
Not all hand sanitizers are created equal—here’s what germ experts want you to know
March 02, 2020 at 10:30PM by CWC The latest update from the World Health Organization reports that COVID-19 has infected approximately 90,000 people in 65 countries. In response, hand sanitizer is flying off the shelves (with accusations of price gouging by third-party sellers on Amazon) as the number of stateside cases continues to mount. According to an immunologist and a microbiologist, though, all sanitizers are not created equal; the most effective options all share one thing in common. Immunologist Tania Elliott, MD, an attending physician at NYU Langone Health, says hand sanitizers containing less than 60 percent of alcohol are not effective. “Studies have shown that hand sanitizer’s with 60 to 95 percent alcohol are more effective at killing germs than those that contain less or are not alcohol-based,” says Dr. Elliott. Her personal favorites include good old fashioned Purel and Dr. Bronner’s Lavender Hand Sanitizer, “which is about 62 percent alcohol, but also is infused with lavender oil giving it a nice relaxing scent that also helps to moisturize the hands.” Microbiologist Jason Tetro, author of The Germ Files, says that the way you apply the product matters just as much as what’s in it. “Put a squirt in a cupped hand, then start to move it around the palms first, and then the backs of the hands followed by the fingers including the sides and then the thumb,” says Tetro. “Don’t forget the thumb as in personal observations, people seem to forget that very valuable digit.” In total, your
Dermatologists say everyone in their 30s should be using *this* skin-care product
March 02, 2020 at 04:00PM by CWC Plenty of ingredients are glow-inducing multitaskers that give your skin more than one benefit (think: vitamin C, which brightens while fending off future damage from free radicals or glycolic acid, which resurfaces while plumping up skin by creating new collagen). But there is only one beauty product that dermatologists will recommend, whether you want to zap redness, plump up fine lines, or even out skin texture—and that ingredient is retinol. “Retinol is the best multitasker that exists,” says Loretta Ciraldo, MD, FAAD, a board-certified dermatologist and founder of Dr. Loretta Skincare. “It’s excellent for acne, for anti-aging, and for pigmentation.” She points out that retinol is one of the two most studied ingredients (the other is vitamin C) in skin care that have been written about in peer-reviewed literature, “so we know it’s not a marketing gimmick—it really works.” And though you can use it preventatively in your 20s, she says you definitely want have a tube by the time you’re in your 30s to keep your complexion healthy. As collagen production slows late in our 20s, often we need to supplement skin to help it make more. Retinol does just this, which in turn, helps with the aging process.”You actually get a molecular response where your skin starts to make collagen,” says Dr. Ciraldo. This reaction occurs because retinol is a bioavailable ingredient to our skin. That means that once we slather it on, skin knows exactly how to utilize it to promote