August 16, 2019 at 07:53AM by CWC A lot of things from the ’90s have come back with a vengeance in 2019, but haven’t necessarily improved in their second iteration—I’d like to submit the new version of Four Weddings and a Funeral and that time N’SYNC performed at Coachella without Justin Timberlake as evidence. Thankfully, plumping lip gloss is outdoing many of its fellow popular ’90s fads, and is not only back, but it’s better than ever. “Plumping lip products seem to be having their moment again, and I’ve been seeing new ways brands are using healthier ingredients to plump,” says celebrity makeup artist Neil Scibelli, pointing to heroes like hyaluronic acid and peptides as the new plump perfecting agents favorited by lipstick brands. “Whether you want your lips to look more hydrated, or you want to fill in any vertical lines, brands have really started speaking to those lip concerns.” And no matter what you’re looking to get out of your plumping product—whether it’s a quick, high-shine blast or some longer term volume—there’s something on the market that will help you get it done, whether or not you want to feel the buzzing, stinging magic, or not. Shop our picks, below. Photo: Milani Milani Keep It Full Nourishing Lip Plumper ($9) Milani makes these new nourishing lip plumping glosses, which use hyaluronic acid and peptides to fill in the lips and give them a “healthy” plump, without the stinging. Their glosses are also pretty pigmented (and cruelty free), so they
Category: City
Use ‘the newspaper test’ to judge how much detail about your love life to share with friends
August 16, 2019 at 06:58AM by CWC I have a large group of female friends, and we all know one another quite well, both individually and in the scope of our group dynamic. Perhaps as a result of shows like Sex and the City, The Bold Type, and countless others spanning different generations that have normalized the desire to confide in someone (or a group of someones) to work through issues relating to romance, my friends and I often discuss is dating. Like, it’s a given whenever we catch up. But after one of my closest girlfriends introduced me to my now-long-term boyfriend, our conversations took a turn for the censored. Several of my friends knew him before they knew me. And obviously I knew them before I knew him. Now that we’ve been dating for over a year and a half, they have questions, and I’m not sure if I cough up the answers. There comes a point in every relationship when loyalty shifts toward your partner, and dishing about private goings on can feel disrespectful. But when does this line reveal itself, and the timeframe different when there are mutual friends involved? According to clinical psychologist Lindsay Jernigan, PhD, relationships are one of the most crucial parts of our life, and thus require delicate care to uphold. Sometimes, we can be too harsh with our partners, and we need people to hold us accountable. Other times, we need a second opinion about whether we have a right to
9 healthy eating experts relive the romance of the first meal they cooked for their partner
August 15, 2019 at 08:28AM by CWC It’s often said that the way to someone’s heart is through their stomach, and there’s something really vulnerable about cooking for someone. You’re spending your time and energy in hopes of making that special someone feel nourished and cared for. And hey, cooking is a skill! All of that makes choosing what to serve a new SO for the first time challenging. Not only is it hard to predict what someone will like, but the whole cooking process is unpredictable, too. No one is immune to the occasional #foodfail. Here, nine people in the wellness space get real about exactly what went down the first time they cooked for their significant other. From what they decided to make to how it was actually received, the stories are both heartwarming and inspiring. Ready for a little dose of food romance? Keep reading to see their stories. 1. “We still make it three years later” Registered dietitian and Well+Good Wellness Council member McKel Hill, RDN, went big with the first meal she made with her now-husband. “We were about a month into dating and we made curry-baked tofu, red peppers with fresh parsley, lemon, and olive oil. We also made a massaged kale salad with nutritional yeast, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and dill,” she says, adding that they ended their meal with some store-bought coconut milk ice-cream. Ambitious as the dish was, it turned out awesome, Hill recalls. “It was perfect for so many reasons,” Hill
6 things I wish I’d known before freezing my eggs
August 15, 2019 at 05:00AM by CWC I’d written about egg freezing pretty extensively for multiple outlets—including Well+Good—before I decided to give it a go. For this reason, I thought I knew what to expect of the process: lots of shots, of course, and some sticker shock (to the tune of $15,000). I wasn’t even remotely nervous. I want babies and am not currently in a place to have them, so the idea of being proactive in some way about my fertility energized me. Friends who’d been through a freeze were reassuring, too. It wasn’t the favorite thing they’d ever done, but it “wasn’t that bad,” either, and now felt like they had a fertility insurance policy. “Not that bad” seemed like a pretty good trade-off for some peace of mind. However, there were a few aspects of the process for which I was in no way prepared, despite all of my research and advanced planning. Keep reading to find out what surprised me, and what I and other woman—polled after-the-fact—wish we had known before starting the freeze. 1. That first fertility consult can be super emotional (and disheartening) My fertility doctor sounded something like this during my first appointment: “Bad news, bad news, bad news, oops, now you’re crying, bad news, goodbye.” This was traumatizing because I hadn’t expected to hear anything negative. I was there to preserve fertility; I assumed that I was in good shape considering that my cycles were regular and I’m not “old” by fertility practice
Scientists take steps toward a vaccine for chlamydia, one of the most common STIs
August 14, 2019 at 09:32AM by CWC A new study published Tuesday in The Lancet shows promise for a chlamydia vaccine in the near future. As STI rates reach a record high, it can’t come soon enough. In 2016, the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported more than 2 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis. The mounting statistics have created a renewed urgency in making scientific steps to prevent these life-altering—and sometime life-threatening—diseases. Chlamydia, which is the most common sexually transmitted bacterial infection in the world, proves especially tricky because of its under-the-radar symptoms, reports Time. While the STI can be remedied early on with antibiotics, it can increase an individual’s risk of infertility and pelvic pain if left untreated. The World Health Organization (WHO) has also warned that chlamydia is often resistant to antibiotics; in rare cases, even early treatment proves ineffective. The trial—which included a small sample size of 30 healthy women between the ages of 19 and 45—seeks to prevent people from receiving the STI in the first place. Participants in the study received one of two vaccines formulations or a placebo. Because the trial is still in its early stages, researchers haven’t yet assessed women who tested positive for chlamydia. Instead, they evaluated the ability of a vaccine to kickstart the production of the antibodies necessary to fight off the bacteria responsible for the disease. One vaccine proved slightly better than the other, and scientists will likely move forward by testing it on people
This $15 vitamin C serum sells every 4 minutes, so I tried it to see what all the fuss is about
August 12, 2019 at 07:50AM by CWC Beneath the foundation I’ve been dutifully applying for many years lies a map of my past: acne scars from the time before my college best friend told me she’d stop hanging out with me unless I went on Accutane (yes, I did regretfully go on Accutane, and no, the friendship did not make it very far into adulthood); sun spots from the carefree days of a childhood spent under the not-so-watchful eye of a hippie mother who did not “believe” in sunscreen; and now, wrinkles that even the foundation can not cover from lots of subsequent sun, so many smiles, and a smattering of super aggressive sobs. I don’t dislike this map; however, I’m not evolved enough to display it for all the world to see on a regular basis and yet I do dislike being enslaved by foundation. So, I’ve been working hard to even out my skin tone in pursuit of the glow-y complexion mere non-model mortals like myself find it difficult to achieve. This endeavor led me to a serum which, according to the brand that makes it, sells every four minutes on Amazon. InstaNatural Vitamin C Serum (currently on sale for $15) includes hero ingredients like hyaluronic acid, ferulic acid, and sea buckthorn oil, alongside its star component. It promises to brighten the skin (yes, please), lighten dark spots (good luck), and reduce the appearance of fine lines (okay, show-off!). ad_intervals[‘414309_div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘414309_div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’);});
Nicole Cardoza believes wellness is a human right—and she’s putting her money where her mouth is
August 09, 2019 at 08:34AM by CWC Nicole Cardoza, a yoga teacher, entrepreneur, and advocate, opened Instagram in late June and was surprised to see her own face smiling back at her from Yoga Journal‘s feed. The photo was part of a post asking readers to vote on who should be featured on the next cover of YJ, and Cardoza was surprised because she had already done the photo shoot for said cover. But now, the publication was asking its readers to decide whether she (a black woman) or a white woman would be a better fit. The magazine claimed that the either/or survey served to predict which woman’s picture would sell more issues (and they later apologized for posting it), but Cardoza was unconvinced. To the entrepreneur, whose work focuses on widening the wellness space to include an increasingly diverse audience, the survey was a giant step backward. And she told her 12,000-plus followers as much in an Instagram post of her own. “Look at these two photos. Two people, in casual dress and casual postures, giving the camera warm and welcoming vibes. There’s no names, no storytelling, no context about what we might offer between the pages. What are they asking the community to choose between?” she wrote.”I don’t have the answers. But I know how this made me feel. I know how this comparison has made me feel for my entire life.” ad_intervals[‘409190_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘409190_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’);}); } }, 100); The handful
These 9 ultra-hydrating lipsticks are basically skin care in a tube
August 08, 2019 at 05:00AM by CWC In today’s skin-care obsessed world, I’m no longer surprised that the foundations I wear double as skin-boosting formulas and that I can swipe on mascara that also makes my lashes grow. The latest hybrid craze I’m swooning over? Lipsticks that are basically skin care in a tube. Sure, I’ve applied some seriously hydrating hyaluronic acid lip balms—which are fab. But now we’ve also got the option of getting some more pigment on that pout while beefing things up with moisture that lasts. Meet the lipstick-skin-care-combos of my bold lip dreams. “There are a few ingredients that when included in lipsticks actually make the lip product moisturizing,” says Shirley Chi, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in California. “They are petrolatum, shea butter, lanolin, beeswax, and sesame oil.” These essentially lock in the moisture produced on your lips. (That said, she says not to rely on them like you would a lip balm or it’ll mess with your lips’ natural moisturizing oil production.) ad_intervals[‘413566_div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘413566_div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’);}); } }, 100); Seriously though—lipsticks that go on and cake-up or make your lips shrivel from drying out are so extinct. Just look at these nine magical skin-care-lipsticks below and let that moisturized shine do the talking. Photo: Lancome Lancome L’Absolu Mademoiselle Shine, $30 This is the product that got me on a quest for more skin-care-lipsticks. It was love at first swipe—my entire beauty team is absolutely in love with these Lancome tubes, because they
Please, let’s all take a moment to swoon over Keanu Reeves’ beauty routine
August 06, 2019 at 09:00AM by CWC Much like hair scrunchies and Birkenstocks, Keanu Reeves has—thanks to all that is good and pure in the universe—become “trendy” again. He’s currently considered the “Internet’s boyfriend” after playing a parodied version of himself in Always Be My Maybe (and the voice of Duke Caboom in Toy Story 4), and an increasing number of fan stories are coming out that solidify the fact that Reeves is truly a bona fide Nice Guy™. But I would like to take a second pivot everyone’s focus away from Reeves’ sparkling personality and wildly successful career to two equally impressive, yet oft overlooked, things: his skin and his hair. I initially began swooning over Reeves during my teenage years, when first I laid eyes on him in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. But I’ll admit he faded as a focal point of my romantic daydreams somewhere around The Matrix era, and then I sorta forgot about him altogether when I started to date dudes IRL and stopped pining over celebrities. Le sigh. His resurgence is exciting, though, and I’m thrilled to see that his perfect hair and dewy complexion have remained exactly the same over the past two decades. Like, he has not aged. At all. ad_intervals[‘411549_div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘411549_div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’);}); } }, 100); But after some extensive research by way of online stalking (in the name of #journalism, of course) I can’t find a single article detailing anything that Reeves has ever revealed about his
New startups aim to make it way easier to find a legit holistic health provider
August 05, 2019 at 03:00PM by CWC If you’re looking for a new psychiatrist or OB/GYN, it’s not the easiest task in the world but there are plenty of places to start your search: your insurance company’s “Find a Provider” tool, online databases such as Zocdoc, or telemedicine apps like Maven Clinic, to name just a few. However, if you’re seeking a practitioner who falls outside the Western medical canon—say, an energy healer, a holistic health coach, or a private meditation guide—your options have traditionally been a lot more limited. (Mostly just sending a group text to your most wellness-obsessed friends and hoping that the person they recommend isn’t a fraud.) This has been a missed opportunity since holistic healing is no longer a fringe discipline. According to a CDC survey conducted in 2012, nearly 40 percent of American adults have used some form of alternative medicine, with $30.2 billion spent on practices like Ayurveda, nutritional therapy, hypnosis, and acupuncture in that year alone. Given that this study took place before the wellness revolution truly took hold in the mid-2010s—and social media platforms like Instagram began opening peoples’ eyes to practices and healers they may have never considered before—it’s safe to say that those numbers likely are even higher now. ad_intervals[‘412363_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘412363_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’);}); } }, 100); Thankfully the tech world is taking notice, and finding a real-deal alternative health practitioner is quickly becoming as seamless as swiping right for a Friday night date. Digital