September 30, 2019 at 10:19PM by CWC Now that pictures of football Sundays and apple picking have begun to dominate our Instagram feeds, it means that dehydrated skin season is upon us. As the weather changes, so too do the needs of our skin: We need all the hydration we can get. As far as getting our faces nice and lubed up in order to combat what the cold air is doing to them, we generally have two options—moisturizer and oil. But which one reigns supreme in the battle against dehydrated skin? The answer, to put it simply, is… both. “A cream contains more hydration because they are composed of both oil and water,” says board-certified dermatologist Rachel Nazarian, MD. On the other hand, she explains, oils “work best to ‘lock in’ moisture.” So using them together is like a double whammy for your dewiest complexion. To understand how this works, it’s important to know the difference between “dry” and “dehydrated” skin, terms that are often used interchangeably but actually mean different things. Dry skin is a skin type, meaning you’re born with it, while dehydrated skin is a skin condition, meaning that it’s impacted by things like stress, products, and yes, the environment. In order to keep your skin from experiencing either this time of year, you’re going to want to address both. “Creams are better at penetrating skin because they are partly water-based, and can deliver ingredients that improve the ability of skin to maintain moisture, and are thus more
Category: You and your body
Butterfly pea flower is Thailand’s buzzy blue ingredient that’s full of antioxidants
September 30, 2019 at 10:00PM by CWC I went to Thailand recently with next to no travel cred, if you know what I mean—my companions had heavily-stamped passports, while my favorite island is Staten. The one exception where I was worldly, though, came in the form of ultra indigo butterfly pea flower tea. While my companions were baffled by this brightly hued drink that we saw on practically every menu, I sipped on mine like, “Wait, you’ve never been to a Met Food?” Fun fact: I am a capital-S Sucker for colorful beverages, so I’ve long been enjoying it in Honey Drop’s Galaxy Lemonade. But seeing it offered in Thailand massage parlors as a premium spa drink, I knew there had to be something special here. Sure enough, butterfly pea flower or blue hibiscus is the raddest of ingredients. For one thing, it’s a gorgeous, Georgia O’Keefe-style flower; its scientific name is Clitoria ternatea because it looks like that part of your anatomy. Big win for the matriarchy. And it could come with a side of health benefits. “This is a beautiful plant with a wide range of uses—from agricultural to medicinal, nutritional and otherwise,” says herbalist and holistic health practitioner (and host of Well+Good’s YouTube series Plant Based) Rachelle Robinett. “Which is, frankly, the case with so many plants in the world. Also common is our only beginning to understand and test or study the active compounds in them.” Fair. So we did a little bit of investigating to see if
If your shoulder mobility is the pits, meet the ‘scapular push-up’
September 30, 2019 at 09:54PM by CWC After a week when I’ve skipped a yoga class (or two, or three), the simple act of raising my arms over my head feels near impossible. The shoulder tension sparked by #desklife is all too real, and something Casey Chiro, DC, says is best solved by everyone’s favorite strength training move. The one, the only push-up. Or, more accurately—a scapular push-up. “The Serratus anterior plays a major role in helping you raise your arms above shoulder height,” writes Dr. Chiro in an Instagram post, describing the muscle at the vertebral border of scapula. “It also helps stabilize the shoulder, protects against neck pain, and helps you hold good posture.” Scapular push ups summons the strength of the Serratus anterior, and helps the shoulder work with both strength and a complete range of motion. In other words, it’s a win-win. Ready to learn the best move out there for improving shoulder mobility? The scapula push up has you covered. View this post on Instagram The Serratus Anterior plays a major role in helping you raise your arms above shoulder height. It also helps stabilize the shoulder, protects against neck pain, and helps you hold good posture. ⠀ ⠀ Scap Push Ups effectively recruit the Serratus Anterior, and strength of this muscle is essential for optimal shoulder performance. ⠀ ⠀ Here’s How To Perform Scap Push Ups⠀ 1⃣Start with your hands on a wall, bench, or floor, with your hands directly under your
WTF is a coregasm… and how can I have one?
September 30, 2019 at 08:45PM by CWC Six-pack abs are a lie, but I just learned about something that’s making me double down on my core regimen in a way I haven’t in years. And no, it’s not J. Lo’s age-defying turn in Hustlers. Thanks, Reddit, for awakening my awareness of the “coregasm.” According to Kinsey Institute fellow Debby Herbenick, PhD, MPH—who literally wrote the book on the topic with The Coregasm Workout—not only are coregasms (or exercise-induced orgasms) real, they’re also not all that uncommon. “In a U.S. nationally representative probability survey, we found that nearly 10 percent of Americans had experienced an exercise-induced orgasm at least once in their lives,” she tells me. “A smaller percentage experience them with regularity.” Dr. Herbenick also tells me coregasms are an equal opportunity exercise perk. Her first study on the topic was performed on women, and after she published it, men “came out of the woodwork,” emailing her from all over the world to tell her about their own exercise-induced orgasms. So you want to coregasm—which exercises are your best bet? There’s a reason this type of climax is known as a “coregasm” and not an “exergasm,” aside from the cute rhyme: Not just any type of workout will turn your gym into the diner from When Harry Met Sally. “Exercises most commonly associated with coregasm include those that are what I call ‘core-demanding,’ that ask a lot of core abdominal musculature,” Dr. Herbenick tells me. Crunches are one way to
Find out how your longevity compares to the people with the longest lifespans in the world
September 30, 2019 at 08:14PM by CWC I have a pretty bad case of existential denial. Anytime I find myself contemplating the day of my death, I start humming Pink’s “So What” to distract myself from the Grim Reaper’s eerie shadow. If anyone’s going to make me contemplate the possibility of a long life, however, it’s the people of the Blue Zones, who just so happen to be the healthiest, longest living human beings on the planet. Blue Zones studies the lifestyles of the longest-living people on Earth from places like Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; and Nicoya, Costa Rica. They’ve applied all their knowledge to the Blue Zones “True Vitality Test,” a quiz that will determine your lifespan based on your background, outlook on the world, movement patterns, diet, sense of belonging, and environment. You know: everything that’s important for living a a good life. All in all, the True Vitality Test will take about three minutes to complete, running you through multiple choice questions like, “Over the last year, how has your health changed?” and “During the past 7 days, how many servings of fresh vegetables did you consume?” The test then takes a “10 points for Gryffindor!” approach to the scoring process. As you select an answer for each, you’ll see days either add (yay!) or subtract (boo) from the duration of your life. Then, at the end, you just plug in your email and get your score sent straight to your inbox. When I gave it a
7 healthy canned pumpkin recipes that are anything but #basic
September 30, 2019 at 06:57PM by CWC I’m not one of those people who goes out and orders a PSL at the first sign of fall—promise. And come October, I’m not lighting pumpkin spice candles or filling my home with pumpkin-themed decor. But one thing (basic or not) that I’m totally happy to do this time each year is search for inventive and delicious pumpkin recipes. Gutting pumpkins isn’t exactly how I want to spend all my time, so I take a much simpler approach when making pumpkin recipes and head for the canned foods aisle at the supermarket (or get some on Amazon). There are so many different ways to use it. Whether you’re into pumpkin mac and cheese, cinnamon rolls, or—believe it or not—hummus, you’re in for a real (trick or) treat. These canned pumpkin recipes aren’t #basic at all Photo: Beaming Baker 1. Pumpkin pie smoothie Green smoothies are cool and all, but this one uses pumpkin purée, maple syrup, and coconut milk for a drink that tastes just like pumpkin pie. Photo: Vegan Richa 2. One-bowl pumpkin bread Banana bread, who? This pumpkin-y option is where its at. Photo: Chocolate Covered Katie 3. Pumpkin mac and cheese With this canned pumpkin recipe, mac and cheese gets a majorly seasonal—not to mention creamy!—upgrade. Photo: Flora & Vino 4. Pumpkin hummus Give your hummus the fall treatment by blending up canned pumpkin and almond butter with your chickpeas. Photo: Minimalist Baker 5. Vegan pumpkin pie ice cream This
If your nails won’t stop breaking, make this one change
September 30, 2019 at 06:05PM by CWC No matter what I did, my manicure almost always got ruined by a broken nail. Something I can fully blame on being a longtime nail-biter. (Thanks, former self.) That’s not the only reason it used to happen so frequently, but I didn’t know how to strengthen nails to prevent breakage in the first place. Until now. According to the American Osteopathic College of Dermatology, brittle nails are also commonly caused by a cycle of repeated wetting and drying of the fingernails—something experts say only gets worse in low humidity and in the winter due to the dry heat. Breakage can also be caused by exposure to chemicals found in nail polish removers (especially acetone). Even with all the things working against your nails, there is a way to help keep them from breaking 24/7. If your nails break easily, first shape and file them daily to prevent further damage. The AOCD recommends finishing it off by applying a clear nail polish that contains a lesser-known nail-strengthening ingredient: tiny nylon fibers. While there are plenty of options you can use, those that contain nylon are a top choice because they add a powerful shield of sorts to the nail, making them thicker and more protected against cracks and breaks. To strengthen your nails at home, try Sally Hansen Advanced Hard as Nails with Nylon ($10), which also contains retinol and omega-3 to hydrate and improve the look of your nails, or Nutra Nail Bullet-Proof
The fine line that separates compulsive liars from over-exaggerators
September 30, 2019 at 05:42PM by CWC One summer day when I was little, I found out that my mom was taking my sister shopping—without me. Understandably, I was enraged. And so I did the only logical thing: I hid our mother’s wallet in the mailbox so that no one (no one!) would be getting new school clothes. Whenever my mom retells the story now, embellishments pop up right and left. (In one version, I also pocket $50 and raid the candy store across the street.) So does that make my mom a compulsive liar—or just a lover of over-exaggeration? Good Therapy defines compulsive lying as “a condition in which a person tells falsehoods out of habit, sometimes for no reason at all.” The term is interchangeable with pathological lying, mythomania, and habitual lying. But it’s different than mere embellishment, according to ThriveTalk. Just because you, or someone in your life, likes to alter the banal details of a memory to make it a little more juicy doesn’t necessarily make them lies. According to the official dictionary definition of “embellish,” the term means “to heighten the attractiveness of by adding decorative or fanciful details.” The major difference between ornamenting a story and telling a straight-up lie is that embellishments find their grounding in real events (like, say, a wallet being stashed in a mailbox). Lying, on the other hand, is defined as “[making] an untrue statement with intent to deceive.” Not with the intent to make a story more interesting. Thus,
All you need to make any skin type happy is just 3 products, according to a dermatologist
September 30, 2019 at 05:38PM by CWC In general, we tend to talk a lot about finding “the one.” The perfect partner, the perfect job, the perfect apartment—so much of our lives come down to discovering that one single thing that’s right for us. Skin care, though, is not like that. When it comes to our faces, no matter what skin type or concern we’re dealing with, it’s actually the combination of ingredients we use—not just one—that really make a difference. But similar to finding the perfect partner, job, or home, finding the perfect skin-care routine can be a massive undertaking. To make things slightly less overwhelming (and dare I say… fun?), we worked with New York City dermatologist Joshua Zeichner, MD to turn the entire thing into a game (the most fun game of all: Bingo). Here’s how you play: Scroll to find your skin type, then note the three ingredients or products on each card. Pick one from each column, and slather ’em on. Before you know it, they’ll be working synergistically to have your skin shouting: “Bingo!” in no time flat. Mix and match to your heart’s desire to come up with the perfect three-product routine—really, you can’t go wrong, and the more you experiment, the more fun you’ll have along the way. Photo: Well+Good Creative For acne, try benzoyl peroxide, salicylic acid, and sulfur Benzoyl peroxide: PCA Skin BPO 5 Percent Cleanser ($39), Jan Marini Benzoyl Peroxide 10 Percent ($42), Vivant Skin Care BP 10 Percent
There are 5 flirting styles—learn yours to transform how you communicate desire
September 30, 2019 at 04:45PM by CWC Knowing how to flirt is confusing because the act can take so many forms. Maybe it’s a bit of teasing or a laid-back date invitation to hang out. Maybe it’s a playful tap on the arm or even a dare. Maybe it’s even as small as a mere wink. Since flirting can encompass any of the options above and then some, being able to interpret signs of interest is more challenging, nuanced, and interesting than you might have imagined. But, by knowing the five basic flirting styles, you’ll give yourself a leg up in mastering the skill. According to research from the University of Kansas, there are five flirting styles. In a 2015 study, researchers paired 51 sets of opposite-sex strangers who had previously taken the Flirting Styles Inventory (which is available here) to determine how they convey interest. After watching the interactions, the research team also noted specific traits corresponding to a participant’s specified style and level of interest in their partner, which the participants revealed in a survey after the experiment. “The reason we’re bad at seeing when people are interested is because they show it in such a variety of ways.” — Five Flirting Styles author Jeffrey Hall, PhD “We’re really bad at detecting if people are flirting with us,” Five Flirting Styles author Jeffrey Hall, PhD, a professor of communication at Kansas said in a press release. “We‘re great at knowing when they’re not interested. But the reason we’re