January 31, 2020 at 03:00PM by CWC “There’s an entire Instagram account dedicated to people who want to buy this perfume,” my sister-in-law Nicole tells me of Francis Kurkdjian’s best-selling Baccarat Rouge ($300) fragrance as we inhale the warm, smells-like-a-pretty-teacher aroma at the dinner table in Texas. For a scent I’ve caught on actors going through airport security in Chicago (Anthony Anderson, I’m talking to you!) and praised on FatMascara’s beauty podcast, it was enough to spark the question: What makes cult favorite beauty products? Is it a game of numbers and sales? Is it simply the power of word of mouth? Even as beauty staples evolve into more natural formulations and eco-friendly packaging, our lens on aspirational purchases remains fixed on classics like Creme de la Mer (from $90) and Diorshow mascara ($30). To gain a clearer view of what makes a product a sensation, we went straight to the sources. Take the numbers game, for instance. As the top prestige loose powder foundation in America, one jar of BareMinerals Original Loose Powder Foundation ($32) is sold every 25 seconds. It’s a powerhouse brand carried by almost every major beauty retailer; plus, it was one of the first mineral SPF options on the market–so that loyalty began decades ago. Cartier’s most iconic scent, La Panthere Eau De Parfum ($129), sells 1,111 flasks of fragrance every day. The storied house carries the kind of clout that makes customers clamor for its classic red and gold designer logo, even if just emblazoned on the shopping bag. Amika,
Category: Your Healthiest Relationship
4 factors that determine whether you actually get the pay raise you asked for
January 31, 2020 at 02:00PM by CWC You stayed up until midnight doing salary research. You set up a meeting with your manager at their favorite coffee shop. You even prepared an airtight case for why you deserve a pay increase, complete with visual aids. Now all you have to do is ask, and your direct deposit will be fatter by next month, right? Well, not necessarily. Asking for a raise is just the first step in what’s often a months-long process of receiving one—and your job performance is only one contributing factor that goes into whether you get the financial bump. “There’s a lot of misconception about what goes into giving people a raise,” says Lauren McGoodwin, career expert and founder of Career Contessa, who formerly worked as a recruiter for Hulu. “It’s not as simple as you asking, and then [your boss] thinks about it and approves it.” Timing, budgets, and your coworkers’ performance also play a role in the outcome of your ask. When you know about these factors ahead of time, you can avoid surprise disappointment and preemptively strategize ways to overcome some of the obstacles that you might face. “There’s a lot of misconception about what goes into giving people a raise. It’s not as simple as you asking, and then [your boss] thinks about it and approves it.” —Lauren McGoodwin, founder of Career Contessa Below, experts lay out four common considerations that go into granting someone a raise, along with actionable tips you can use
More than a million people take this personality test each year to better understand their relationships
January 31, 2020 at 01:00PM by CWC While there are many different personality typologies, each has a primary focus: Myers-Briggs examines how you take in information; enneagram zeros in on your core fears; Gretchen Rubin’s four tendencies reveals how you handle expectations. And another personality indicator, taken by more than a million people each year, distills how you operate with others—at work, in your personal relationships, and beyond. This indicator is for DISC personality types. The DISC theory of personality is credited to psychologist William Moulton Marston, PhD, who also invented something (or rather, someone) else you may know: the comic book character, Wonder Woman. Based on Dr. Marston’s theory that understanding your own behavioral patterns and how you engage in the world can help you achieve your desired results, assessments were developed so all people could place themselves on the four-personality DISC continuum. As you may have guessed from the four-letter acronym, there are four central DISC personality types. Some people identify strongly with their type, and others people have blended traits, where one trait is strongest, but another is moderately strong and still influential in their personality. Ready to level up your problem-solving skills? Take a free test here to learn your type, and then read up on what each means below. What the DISC personality types mean in practice Dominance (D) Dominance types are ambitious, tenacious, and driven. They get results, no matter what it takes, even if they seem to discount feelings in the process. D
A registered dietitian shares the best healthy foods you can buy at Aldi—and they’re all under $10
January 31, 2020 at 12:00PM by CWC When it comes to keeping the fridge stocked with healthy foods, there are two obstacles many people cite: cost, and having no clue what to buy. It’s true that walking into a big supermarket can be overwhelming (So.Many.Aisles.), which is why it helps to take a lap with a dietitian who not only knows the lay of the land, but also is super clued into what’s worth adding to your cart. Get ready for the next best thing to shopping with a healthy eating pro IRL. Here, registered dietitian Ellie Krieger, RD, reveals her top eight finds at Aldi, the discount supermarket chain popular in the South and Midwest. These are the foods that are staples in her house because they’re all super healthy and versatile enough to enjoy lots of different ways. Oh, and by the way, nothing is over $6. Happy shopping! Keep reading for an RD’s take on what to buy at Aldi: 1. SIMPLY NATURE CREAMY ALMOND BUTTER, $4.89 “Almond butter is my go-to snack any time of the day,” Krieger says. As a dietitian, she loves it because of the balance of healthy fat and protein, key to staying full between meals. “I admit I sometimes just scoop some out and eat it right off the spoon—no double dipping though!—but I also love to spread it on apple slices or banana, and I often add it to oatmeal or a smoothie at breakfast,” she says. 2. SEASON’S CHOICE
You’re building your salad wrong—here’s how to spice it up, according to an RD
January 31, 2020 at 03:00AM by CWC It’s easy to think of salad as boring—something you only eat because you know you should. The truth is salads are really only dull if you make them dull, and if you’re not fully enjoying every bite of those beautiful greens, there’s a simple explanation: You’re building it wrong. But don’t worry—there are so many things you can do to make your salad is always on-point. A Twitter thread from Elan Gale, the TV producer behind The Bachelor, recently went viral. And, IMO, it might be the most dramatic salad-related thread of all time. In it, he dropped a major truth bomb: If your salads are lame and flavorless, it’s because you’re forgetting some prime steps in making them—aka you’re counting on dressing to do all the work. A bowl of greens you really, truly, want to give your rose to requires a little more work than that, and these RDs have all the tips you’ll need to find your salad soulmate. How to make salad taste good, according to the pros 1. Switch up your greens First thing’s first. If you always use the same exact base, it’s time to switch things up. “There are a ton of variety in greens that you can mix and match for salads. Popular types include spinach, romaine, arugula, kale, radicchio, mixed greens, cabbage, dandelion greens, iceberg, butterhead, frisée, and endive,” says Allison Scheinfeld, RD, a Brooklyn-based registered dietitian. “It’s not only good to mix and match
The Gottman Institute says there are 5 components of trust—and only 1 is honesty
January 31, 2020 at 02:00AM by CWC Trust feels like an alien idea when your road to romance has been littered with red flags, and yet it’s a key component (if not THE key component) to having a healthy relationship. We want to trust our partners, but that begins with finding someone that seems, well, trustworthy. And if you’re early stages of dating and need a good vetting process, the Gottman Institute recently released the five major components of trust. “This is a great way of looking at it because it’s easy to translate these into actions,” says clinical psychologist Aimee Daramus, PsyD. “That will make it easier to tell if someone shares these values.” So how do you identify someone you can’t trust versus someone who is True Blue? Here are the five components of trust. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Gottman Institute (@gottmaninstitute) on Jan 27, 2020 at 10:30am PST //www.instagram.com/embed.js Honesty Ask Yourself: Does this person seem like a liar? It’s the best policy, although we won’t tell if you tell a white lie about having seen The Big Lebowski on your first date. Generally speaking, though, this is the bottom of the totem of trust. If someone shows up on to a date barely inching towards 5’9” and their profile boasted 6’1”, you’re not inclined to trust them after that, right? Transparency Ask Yourself: Is this individual being shady? You want to be with someone who takes your hand and
Bless up that the conversations surrounding “good” and “bad” skin are finally shifting
January 31, 2020 at 01:00AM by CWC Cleopatra famously bathed in milk to make her complexion more beautiful, so it’s safe to say that for centuries, the skin-care industry (and I guess in Cleopatra’s case, the dairy industry) has operated under the notion that we should all be striving for “good skin.” That translates to a complexion that’s free of pimples, blemishes, and other “imperfections.” By contrast, “bad skin”—one that has any combo of those things—should be quickly remedied with a purchase at your nearest skin-care shop. “The absence of acne often suffices as ‘good skin,’ when you can actually have damage below the surface that will appear years later,” says board-certified dermatologist Dennis Gross, MD. That pretty much means the way that we’ve described complexions for years has been flat-out wrong. To help get a better picture of why it’s time to stop with the skin shaming, we talked to dermatologists and industry vets. Keep scrolling to hear what they had to say. Having acne is more than skin deep It’s some kind of cruel joke that, though acne is largely physically symptomatic skin condition, most of its ramifications are mental ones. A 2018 study found that acne can have a major impact on mental health, and another report found that those who had acne were six percent more likely to develop major depression than those who didn’t. There’s also a significant amount of research showing that acne has a direct correlation to low self-esteem. The way that we’ve
Why a dietitian wants more people to expand the way they think about the Mediterranean diet
January 31, 2020 at 01:00AM by CWC At this point, the Mediterranean diet has dominated so many headlines that even people with a minimal interest in eating healthy know the gist of it. Ask a random person what the staples of the eating plan are and they’re sure to rattle off things like olive oil, fish, and whole grains. Watch the video below to see why the Mediterranean diet is so good for you: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGnyqti9wsw] While that’s definitely not wrong—so gorgeous Greek or Italian spreads can live on in your mind—registered dietitian Maya Feller, MS, RD, CDN says Mediterranean food is more expansive than many assume. “The Mediterranean diet, the way that we talk about it in the US, we’re really referring to the Mediterranean as Italy. However, we know that the Mediterranean expands to Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa,” Feller said at a recent Well+Good event. Feller pointed out that in reality, there are 21 countries that actually are part of the Mediterranean region. When adhering to a specific eating plan, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut of having the same handful of meals on repeat. By keeping in mind just how far the region extends, it opens up new types of cuisine that otherwise wouldn’t be considered. “The Mediterranean diet refers to the patterns of eating that are rich in fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and monounsaturated fatty acids,” Feller said, adding that filling your plate with these foods and
The best way to stretch the largest muscle in your legs, according to a physical therapist
January 31, 2020 at 12:30AM by CWC Of the hundreds of muscles that make up your body, the quadriceps are one of the largest. They’re made up of four main muscles, which share in the work of holding you up and helping you move… hence why they’re often so sore. And the leader of this 4-pack? The vastus lateralis. This muscle—which Stretch*d program director Jeff Brannigan calls “the most powerful” of the bunch—specifically works to extend the lower leg and allow the body to rise up from a squatting position. “It’s an important muscle because outside of its main task, it also affects tracking and position of the knee cap,” says Jaclyn Fulop, physical therapist and founder of Exchange Physical Therapy Group. So if it’s not properly stretched, she says, you could wind up feeling it in your knee. “Vastus lateralis tightness can cause a tracking problem at the knee, pulling the patella laterally, which can cause pain and discomfort,” says Fulop. Plus, she notes that you’re using it all the time without realizing it, so that tightness can make activities like going up stairs or getting out of a chair uncomfortable. Brannigan says that the vastus lateralis is one of the most”overused” muscles in the body, and can get stressed in many different ways, whether through high intensity workouts or prolonged inactivity. “Sitting for long hours will allow the hip flexors and quadriceps to become very tense and tight,” he says. When it comes to stretching, though, the vastus
6 ways to level-up your sustainable grocery shopping skills beyond using a reusable tote bag
January 31, 2020 at 12:00AM by CWC With everyone finally waking up to the realities of the climate crisis, it’s safe to say that many healthy eaters are wondering how they can help our current state of affairs. For some people, that might mean cutting back on meat. For others, that might mean signing up for a CSA to reduce their food’s carbon footprint and support local industry, or paying renewed effort to their food wasting habits. But beyond using reusable tote bags at Whole Foods, our grocery shopping habits don’t always get a ton of scrutiny for their environmental impact. However, just like bringing your own bags to the grocery store and farmer’s market, there are other super simple changes that can easily become automatic, while being big wins on the sustainability front. The key is knowing what they are. To that end, we asked some sustainability experts to share tips on how to tweak our current grocery shopping behaviors to be better for the planet—without totally overhauling how or what we eat. 6 simple changes for more sustainable food shopping 1. bring your own produce bags Some states have already banned plastic bag use—or are charging extra for them—but the little plastic bags in the produce section remain a staple. “To cut down on plastic, don’t buy pre-wrapped fruits or vegetables, and bring your own reusable produce bags,” says registered dietitian Diana Rodgers, RD, creator of Sustainable Dish and author of the upcoming book, Sacred Cow. Reusable produce