September 14, 2019 at 08:00PM by CWC Concealer is kind of like your favorite skin-care serum: You can’t really see it, but it does some heavy lifting behind the scenes. Once blended under your foundation, it chameleons those uninvited pimples, dark spots, or bits of redness away. Oh and wouldn’t you know, it can still act like an invisibility cloak for your blemishes should you decide to skip the base makeup—if applied correctly. Follow the below tips for using concealer without foundation—which the pros call “spot concealing”—from top makeup artists, and you’ll be able to avoid looking like a splotchy, half-filled-in paint-by-numbers. 1. Set your skin The first step, according to celebrity makeup artist Aliana Lopez, is to make sure your skin is prepped and moisturized. “This will help [the concealer] glide on and blend effortlessly,” she says. 2. Pick the right shade People are often told to use a concealer that’s a bit lighter than their foundation, but Jeannie Vincent says that’s a myth that can lead to the “dreaded blotch effect.” To find the right shade and “ensure the closest match” to your skin tone, she says, “be sure to test the product in as close to daylight as possible…The concealer should basically disappear into your skin.” 3. Go Goldilocks on coverage When you’re using concealer without foundation, it can be tempting to pick the strongest one out there—but Vincent says to go for, at most, a medium-full coverage option. “A full AF concealer will look straight up weird—unnatural—when
Tag: Well+Good
Your 5-step guide to keeping your meal-prepped salad fresh, according to a dietitian
September 14, 2019 at 06:00PM by CWC Even if the rest of your life seems to be in disarray, grabbing a meal-prepped salad out of the fridge for lunch somehow can make you feel like you have it all together. It radiate vibes of, I am someone who meal preps on Sundays. I’m an organized boss. The downside of pre-prepared salad: It tastes great the first day or so…until it starts to get limp and soggy. A fork full of wilted lettuce is just…sad. Fortunately, registered dietitian and meal prep expert Lindsay Livingston, RD, has some tips on how to keep the salad in your fridge fresh for longer than just a few days. How to keep salad fresh when you’re meal prepping 1. Keep the dressing separate According to Livingston, drowning your greens in dressing ahead of time is a sure way to shorten a salad’s lifespan. “You want to keep the dressing separate until right before serving,” she says. Invest in a small container that you can pour your dressing in versus pouring it onto your greens during meal prep or in the morning before you head out the door. “Another option is to make mason jar salads and layer the dressing at the very bottom, toppings in the middle, and greens on top and then dump into a bowl and mix just before serving,” Livingston adds. 2. Dry your greens thoroughly before putting them away Drying your salad base after washing it—whether it’s between towels or with
3 back extension exercises that whisk away the effects of sitting at a desk all day
September 14, 2019 at 04:00PM by CWC I’m surprised that my back isn’t permanently in the shape of a C by now. The majority of the time, I’m hunched over my desk as I type away all day, or I’m curled up on the couch as I binge-watch something on TV. So night-after-night, I turn to back extension exercises to help me counter all of the curved spine sitting I do each day. “Spinal extension is the opposite of spinal flexion, which is curling forward—think crunch or articulation,” explains Helen Phelan, a health coach and Pilates instructor. “In extension, the spine is bending backwards, recruiting the muscles that are responsible for standing, lifting objects, and overall spinal movement like twisting.” If you’re anything like me, pushing your shoulders back to engage the trapezius muscles doesn’t come as easily as rounding them. “Back extension is a movement that’s more limited and comes a lot less naturally,” says Jeff Brannigan, program director at Stretch*d. If you’re not combatting all of that arching with back extension exercises, you’re most likely going to wind up with an imbalanced body. “Spinal extension helps correct this muscular imbalance that’s basically unavoidable in the modern world.” —Helen Phelan “Daily life can encourage the development of imbalances in the front and back body,” says Phelan. “Spinal extension helps correct this muscular imbalance that’s basically unavoidable in the modern world.” Her take? There’s a high chance people aren’t extending their backs nearly enough for good spine health. And “enough”
Everything to know about what makes an uber-ambitious Capricorn personality tick
September 14, 2019 at 02:00PM by CWC If you were born between December 22 and January 19 (AKA smack-dab in the midst of the holiday season), you’re a Capricorn. And just like with every other sign in the zodiac, Capricorn personality traits have their own special flavor. Sure, your whole birth chart will reveal more nuanced details about what makes you tick, astrologically speaking, but your sun sign (what you consult when you check out your horoscope) can still fill in a lot of the blanks. So whether you’re a Capricorn yourself or there are a few special sea goats in your life you’d like to better understand, it’s worth checking out what astrologers identify below as unique facets of the Capricorn personality. These details—traits, strengths, weaknesses, compatibility with other signs, ideal career paths—are great to bookmark for knowing what really makes this Earth sign happy. Key Capricorn personality traits Ruled by the planet Saturn, which represents the limits of space and time, “Capricorn is born with a keen awareness of this Earthly limitation and is thus determined to make things happen during its lifetime,” says astrologer Elisabeth Grace. “They’re known for their serious focus, especially in youth.” “Capricorn is born with a keen awareness of this earthly limitation and is thus determined to make things happen during its lifetime. They’re known for their serious focus, especially in youth.” —astrologer Elisabeth Grace Olga Verk, astrologer at Not Retrograde, adds that Capricorns feel most comfortable when they have set rules to
All of the reasons you should try this legendary lash-lengthening serum, stat
September 14, 2019 at 12:00PM by CWC I like my eyelashes to feel like actual butterflies sitting on my eyeballs, protecting them from crap in the air while making my eyes look pretty and feminine. With lots and lots of length. Some people get annoyed by eyelashes that they can literally feel open and close and hit your under-eye area with every blink, but not me. While I’ve used everything from lash-lengthening mascaras to heated eyelash curlers (and hell, even a lash lift), my favorite lash booster is the cult-favorite Grandelash MD Lash Enhancing Serum ($65). It’s beloved by lash lovers everywhere (and has 60,000 loves on Sephora) for a reason. Nothing else has made such a visible change in my lashes as this serum. Shirley Chi, MD, a California-based dermatologist, isn’t surprised by the popularity of Grandelash serum. “It has a lot of amino acids and peptides in it, which creates a good environment for hair to grow,” she tells me. “If you have a good environment, then the hairs are more likely to grow longer.” Of course, this doesn’t actually mean you’ll have more hair follicles; she points out that it simply means your lash strands are going to be more nourished, so they’ll give you that fuller butterfly look. “Your lashes will look thicker, not only because of the conditioners that are in the product—which do make your hair look more voluminous—but because the proteins and plant extracts make a good ambiance for your hair to grow
Why experts say emotional eating isn’t always a ‘bad’ thing
September 14, 2019 at 01:00AM by CWC There’s a reason why the phrase “eating your feelings” exists. Whether it’s eating chocolate cake like Miranda Hobbes or a tub of ice cream like Rory Gilmore, everyone at some point or another has engaged in some kind of emotional eating. And surprise—it’s not necessarily a bad thing. The term “emotional eating” has pretty negative connotations. It is usually used to refer to when people crave and eat foods as a direct response to negative emotions, like stress or sadness. That’s not quite accurate; according to Paige Smathers, RDN, CN, it is “eating for reasons other than hunger, such as using food to cope, numb, or deal with a difficult emotion, thought, or feeling.” Many healthy eating experts recommend learning to overcome or avoid emotionally driven eating patterns, especially since most people gravitate towards unhealthier foods during these times. Some researchers have found that emotional eating can become a crutch to avoid or suppress negative thoughts and emotions. Others have proposed that it may be indicative of poor interoceptive awareness, a confusion of hunger and satiety cues with the physiological symptoms associated with emotions. However, some experts say that emotional eating can have a valid place in anyone’s life. “I believe that it is normal to engage in emotional eating,” says Smathers. In some cases it can be effective in the moment—a recent small study found that eating snacks improved mood in people experiencing negative emotions, specifically food that was considered “tasty.” (However,
30 percent of millennials are lonely, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing
September 14, 2019 at 12:00AM by CWC When YouGov released its survey of 1,254 adults this summer, the results—which found that 30 percent of millennials are lonely, making them the loneliest generation—made headlines all over the internet. Many found the stats to be surprising (for instance, one in five reported feeling as though they have “no friends”), but to me, they weren’t in the least: A few weeks prior to the survey release, I found myself sobbing to my therapist about how lonely I, a millennial, feel every single day of my life. Instead of encouraging me to get out there and find a community, or do something to otherwise “solve” for my predicament she asked me to try and embrace it—to figure out how to deal with loneliness and make the best of it. Having never received advice like this ever before, I was skeptical. But after consulting three other pros, I’m convinced it checks out: One of the best things any of us can do in this situation is to challenge ourselves to learn how to deal with loneliness. Because as soul-sucking as loneliness can feel, there are certainly ways to reframe the way you think about it—even into a positive that can actually benefit your life. “All emotions serve an evolutionary purpose—they’re signals meant to keep us alive and procreating—so loneliness is meant to feel uncomfortable and to motivate us to connect,” says therapist and executive coach Megan Bruneau, adding that connection helps us to “turn off”
How to strength train your ’emotional resilience’ before disaster strikes
September 13, 2019 at 11:23PM by CWC Not to brag, but I think I’m on my way to wining the gold medal in emotional resilience. Emotional resilience, ICYMI, is the ability to adapt to a stressful change or recover from a painful experience efficiently, and my year has had plenty of that. But, uh, is there a way to toughen up yourself up emotional without going through traumatic events? Well, like a paralyzing fear of change, research long suggested the emotional resilience was something relatively genetic or inherited. My suspicion: if you’re highly neurotic like me, the predisposition to be resilient is not really there. Like, you fear change, and then you cry about it. The good news, though, is that you can build up emotional resilience like you can build up washboard abs (I mean I can’t, but someone can). In fact, there are courses in the United Kingdom and New Zealand that teach emotional resilience. If you don’t have the cash for a plane ticket, though, we do have some advice on hand. To psychologist Helene Brenner, PhD, author of I Know I’m In There Somewhere, emotional resilience isn’t about effortlessly bouncing back from disaster with a big grin on your face. It’s about exerting emotional control in a healthy way. “You’re human, you have emotions for a purpose,” says Dr. Brenner. “Often, resilience is more like quick recovery. You’re thrown off balance, but you feel it, you go through it, but you bounce back pretty quickly. You
A breakup makeover is a *real thing*, and I went on a shopping spree to prove it
September 13, 2019 at 11:00PM by CWC In the movies, a makeover montage is all it takes to un-eff-up your life. Somehow, stepping into a changing room and awkwardly fumbling into cute little outfits turns you into a Confidence Queen (capital letters). Cue Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman,” cue Jill Sobule’s “Supermodel.” In real life, though, when you find yourself at the lowest point of your personal rom-com, fixing things isn’t as simple as buying a new outfit or changing your hair. Last month, everything from my living situation to my well-planned marriage timeline shattered when my boyfriend broke up with me, and I’m currently being pushed to evolve and adapt in ways that—big secret—I don’t wanna. I have a paralyzing fear of change that makes me inherently averse to doing things like wearing a crop top or getting a pixie cut. And so when a friend with Big Cher (Horowitz) Energy sent me to TJ Maxx’s The Changing Room for a movie-style makeover in the midst of a the-floor-fell-out-from-under-me moment, the whole thing seemed scary AF. With The Changing Room, TJ Maxx is hitting the road with stylist Africa Miranda and Life Coach Danika Brysha to give one-on-one sessions to women across the country in order to help them embrace change and show their individuality. In other words, what Cher and Dionne did for Tai around the one-hour mark in Clueless. Stepping into the Changing Room with Miranda, I was quickly advised that embracing change isn’t about needing to go 180 with
This sequence of yoga breaths will help you chill the eff out
September 13, 2019 at 09:30PM by CWC [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prYSOPVobeU] De-stress in minutes with this yoga breathing exercise—watch the video here. If you’ve taken any yoga class ever, you know that breathing is an essential part of the experience—yes, even that one dude in the back of the class who groans loudly on every exhale. “You’re likely practicing vinyasa yoga as we know it today,” yoga teacher Tess Koenig says in the latest episode of Good Moves. “And all that vinyasa really means is that you’re intentionally linking breath with your movement.” There’s a good reason why you feel infinitely more chill by the end of a yoga class—breathing correctly helps you take in more oxygen and has a calming effect on your body and mind. Thanks to Koenig, you can now replicate that feeling at home with this calming yoga flow that focuses on breath work and simple moves. Try this vinyasa yoga for beginners routine to feel calmer ASAP Ujjayi breathing: Stand at the top of your mat with your feet together, keeping your knees soft. Place one hand on your chest and one hand on your belly, then close your eyes. Take a few natural breaths, and take this time to feel your feet on the ground, and your breath moving under your palms. Exhale completely, and take a deep breath in through your nose, then open your mouth, and breathe out. Repeat, but pause at the top of your inhale for a moment before breathing out. Do