Category: Beauty

February 19, 2019 at 10:31AM by CWC Forget the male power tie: As women, we’ve got red lipstick. At least, that’s how the team behind Fempower Beauty wants you to think about it. The brand, which launched earlier this month,  was founded on the principle that women should feel empowered every time they swipe on their lipstick. Founders Alexis Androulakis and Christina Basias, who are both life and business partners, were inspired by the 2016 election and the army of women who stood up to Washington in the first women’s march. “We decided to emotionally activate our lipsticks,” says Androulakis. And what, exactly, does that mean? “Women are emotionally connected to the products that they’re using, and they’re not always cognizant of it. So it’s often been said that red lipstick is the equivalent of a male power tie, and we want to help people understand what these emotions are. Once they understand them, our hope is that they can feel empowered every time they use it.” As someone who—much to my mother’s chagrin—didn’t put on lipstick until I was 26 years old, this struck a chord with me. When I was a teenager, I loved playing with makeup (mostly for the sake of covering my acne scars) and eventually learned to create a mean smoky eye that carried me well into my early 20s, but finishing things off with a swipe of bright red or pink always made me feel ridiculous. In wearing a bold lip, it seemed like I was yelling

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January 29, 2019 at 07:28AM by CWC In 2019, drinking soy milk is about as cool as Cady Heron at the beginning of Mean Girls. (Translation: Not very.) Newcomers oat milk, almond milk, and even sesame milk have taken precedence on store shelves and in alt-milk drinkers’ hearts. So why has the OG dairy-free milk missed out on the glory of the current alt-milk revolution? “I think the main reason soy milk isn’t as trendy as some of the other options out there is because it’s been around for decades and people always want the latest and greatest thing,” says Mark Messina, PhD, MS, the executive director of the Soy Nutrition Institute, a research organization created by the US Soybean Association and industry executives. But there are other elements beyond the “cool factor” at play too, he says. Dr. Messina, who has studied soy’s health effects since the 1990s, says that there have been a lot of misconceptions about the plant (and its associated products like soy milk) over the years. But some of those concerns…well, they aren’t totally justified. Here’s the low down on what you should actually believe about soy milk. 1. Soy milk is one of the most nutritious alt-milks A 2018 study found soy milk to be the most nutrient-dense plant milk compared to rice, almond, and coconut milks.  Soy is actually the plant-based option that mostly closely resembles dairy milk in terms of its nutrient profile. “It can be a source of protein and calcium, especially for people that are

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January 22, 2019 at 12:59PM by CWC You know that famous expression about porn—how you know it when you see it? The same can probably be said for hot flashes because as any menopausal or perimenopausal person would tell you, you know when you’re having one. “As a 52-year-old friend said to me recently, it’s like there’s an oven on inside of you,” explains Aviva Romm, MD, author of The Adrenal Thyroid Revolution. “A hot flash can come on as a slow roll of heat from the inside out, or it might start at your head and work downwards, or the other way around.” Fun! For some women, hot flashes can be mild. For others, they’re so uncomfortable that it makes them want to jump out of their skin. “The sensation can last for seconds or persist for several minutes, and may be accompanied by sweating and then feeling cold after as the sweat evaporates and you cool down,” says Dr. Romm. Hot flashes are one of the most common side effects of menopause. Unfortunately, you can still get them for years after menopause ends, which is just great. Luckily, there’s a lot you can do to regulate symptoms, says Dr. Romm. Here’s what you need to know. First of all, what causes hot flashes? From a physiological perspective, hot flashes are caused by a decline of estrogen in the body, which naturally occurs as women age (cough menopause cough). Not every person who goes through menopause has hot flashes, but

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January 17, 2019 at 10:43AM by CWC Whenever I come home late from a (quite rare) night on the town, I always stick with a tipsy-and-tired-friendly pre-bed beauty regimen: Swipe on the micellar water, and then hit up my silk pillowcase. It’s so good and easy that—despite being a firm believer in double cleansing—I’m sometimes tempted to use the micellar water on, well, regular nights, too. The magical, makeup-removing water has so many perks: Time saving! Gentle! Gets rid of all makeup! So it’s enticing to incorporate on the reg and leave the rest of your cleansers to gather dust on your beauty shelf. But it begs the question: Can micellar water really replace your cleanser? To perhaps change everyone’s lives, I sought out a derm for advice. “Micellar water is a super gentle method of cleansing skin. It gets its name because it contains micelles which are oil-in-water suspensions that attract dirt, bacteria, and makeup, but gently—without stripping moisturize from your skin,” says Rachel Nazarian, MD, a board-certified dermatologist with New York’s Schweiger Dermatology. If you’re the type of person who doesn’t wear makeup or isn’t applying more skin-care products after cleansing, then you’re good. “In this scenario, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with using only micellar water as your cleanser,” she says. The thing with micellar water is that it can kind of stay on your skin after you use it. “I find that the residual micelles block other products from absorbing into the skin effectively, so I usually

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