Beauty Digest: Illegal Beauty

With the growing pressure to look young the popularity of plastic surgery grows every day. Plastic surgery as we all know very well, is extremely pricey. That's why many women decide to turn to underground cosmetic procedures. In the recent story (featured on cnn here) a young woman died after she received injections of a substance, supposedly sillicone, into her buttocks. The procedure cost her 1800 $ and was performed at an airport hotel by a singer known as Black Madam whom police has identified as Padge Victoria Windslowe, 41.

The number of similar insidents is growing. Women are literally dying to change their bodies to "fit" a beauty image currently popular in the society. And it seems to me there is no solution to this problem. Because first it was the pressure to be extremely skinny and people would starve themselves into oblivion. An effort was made to change the "wrong" perception of a female body in the media and as a result we have now the other extreme. Being bootilicious is sexy now and women are having illegal sillicone injections to get volumptuous forms.

Why are we forcing it? Can't we just accept ourselves for what we are and be happy?

Sources:
article about Black Madam on philly.dom
discussion about the crime on websleuths.com

Beauty Digest: Jessica Simpson’s Beauty Show on MTV

Have you seen Simpson’s beauty show on MTV and vh1? It's called The Price of Beauty . I love the idea! Together with her two friends CaCee Cobb, Jess' ex-assistant, and Ken Paves, hair stylist, she is traveling the globe and discovering what’s considered beautiful in different countries. At the same time Jess is learning about various beauty secrets and tricks and sharing her discoveries with viewers. I’ve always been curious about differences in beauty perceptions and beauty values between different cultures. In some places it’s hair or thin ankles that are key attractive features in a woman, in others being thin is beautiful in others the same virtue is considered a sign of sickness. It’s also interesting to find out what the roots of those differences are. And even more captivating is to learn about beauty secrets and measures women take around the world to achieve perfection and to fight skin aging. For example, I know that Japanese women believe in consuming collagen infused foods/drinks to help them fight aging, in Slavic cultures they have hundreds of herb and fruit based recepies to help achieve or retain skin beauty and youth. Unfortunately I don’t have time to watch each and every episode of Jessica’s wonderful show but a couple series I saw were lots of fun and very informative.

Beauty Digest: Beauty Reading in July

Here is a short overview of articles from various fashion and beauty magazines I have been reading this July.

Editors of the of Marie Claire UK are concerned that, while the summer is at its peak, we have not yet made the right decision about the sun block and might be cooking ourselves to a crisp at the up-coming vacation. So Marie Claire features an easy-to-understand guide to skin type (according to Fitzpatrick system) and the perfect SPF. I am definitely a skin type III: “usually able to get light tan in time but, without care, you’re still prone to burning.”… It appears I can use “any type of sunscreen, as your skin won’t be that sensitive”. And, in fact, as it is recommended in the article I do usually use spf 15 on the body and 30 on the face… However, last two years I have been developing sun allergy on vacations by the sea, so I use 30 SPF on the face and body and lie in the shade.

Elle Magazine US has a spotlight on Hyaluronic acid, interviews makeup artist Mark Carrasquillo on makeup tricks and best products, and reveals favorite beauty products of superstars such as Leona Lewis, Lil’ Mama, Estelle, etc. A skin remedy from Leona Lewis caught my attention. She uses Huggies baby wipes to remove her makeup after a hard day at a shoot or a concert. Interesting idea! For those who feel enslaved by their hair salon, Elle runs a long and detailed article on how to break free. I am hardly enslaved but would never experiment at home alone, so I kind of skipped this piece. I did read the article Terms of Endowment revealing that if you decide to have a breast augmentation, it most probably won’t be your first and last one… That is what statistics show. Various unpredictable side effects of the operation resulting from scar tissue formation to changes in body fat level and leakages will land you at the doctor’s once again sooner or later.

Further on the topic of plastic surgery, German Jolie magazine featured an article on plastic surgeries/corrections gone bad. And you can see how bad in the photos. When deciding on a plastic surgeon, they recommend to be critical, “trust your gut feeling”, be very careful with OPs (that are much cheaper) in foreign countries and make sure you are in the hands of a professional.

Russian Vogue with the beautiful Natasha Poly on the cover reminds that aqua colors are in this summer, gives not a very timely explanation on how to do makeup in style of noir “for a gothic party”, Carnival and Halloween . It also runs a very useful article on moles and their potential carcinogenic danger. The advise is to remember about the ABCD rule. Be worried if: A (asymmetry) – your moll is asymmetric in form or color, B (border)- borders are not smooth, C (color)- is uneven, D (diameter) – is more than 6 mm.


In Style US gives great advice on how to do a Minimalist Makeup, writes about ways and products that can help you to get a brighter smile and features A Lazy Girl’s Guide to Your Best Abs. In the latter you will find several “no-sweat” excercises that you can do while indulging into things you love. I personally think this will work only for those who are good at multi-tasking. As for me, I cannot enjoy a novel while lying on the floor with feet flat, exhaling as I “pull in at my navel and the abs just below it” and at the same time curling my bottom slightly up. BTW, don't miss a fun interview with Cameron Diaz!

Best Beauty: Eve Reveals Best Beauty Buys 2008

UK beauty magazine EVE revealed a list of best beauty buys for 2008 in their February issue. The products have been selected by readers as well as a panel of judges which included Eve's experts as well as make-up artist, stylist, beauty experts from Harrods/Selfridges etc.
Curious? Well, I thought I will go through the list of the the best ones. For the 2nd, 3rd and 4th places in each category look up Eve's February Issue!


Eve’s Superhero of the year 2008 was selected to be SK-II Air Touch Foundation: “it leaves your skin looking as if it’s been professionally air-brushed.”

The product described at SK II website sounds really hi-tech. it comes with a build in “ionisation technology” for “a most precise and natural coverage”. - I am almost sold - … “no mess, caking or streaking” and it contains “miraculous ingredient, Pitera, and moisturising agents to provide skin caring benefits and hydrate skin”” – Pitera appears to be a liquid that is extracted during the yeast fermentation process when making sake -… the skin “appears smooth, translucent and radiant - much like a baby’s skin”

Here is a video I found on YoutTube explaining in detail how Air Touch Foundation works magic and how to apply it.

Wow! I’m sold!... only need to come to terms with the price tag… 85GBP = 166.294 USD = 112.570 EUR

Women’s Skin Care Hero: Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Concentrate
This product won a couple awards from beauty magazines already in 2007.
When used for 21 consequtive nights, promises to restore your skin and “boost your skin's natural ability to repair” the everyday damage


Women’s Fragrance Hero: Tom Ford Black Orchid

Hairstyling Hero: Redken Urban Experiment 7 Velvet Gelatine
“.. gives your hair bounce and shine without any stickiness” Zoe Irwin, Headmasters

Men’s Skin Care Hero: Liz Earle Naturally Active Cream and Hot Cloth Kit
“a really gentle shaving cream” Tom Dunmore, Stuff magazine

Men’s Fragrance Hero: Gucci Pour Homme II

Body Hero: Dior Plasticity Body Beautifying Micro-Peel
Combines exfoliating and anti-cellulite effects and promises “refined and smoothed” skin

Self-Tan Hero: Olay Total Effects 7X Touch of Sunshine
Allows gradual build up of color and leaves your skin feeling pleasantly moisturized.

Eye Hero (Make-Up): Guerlain Eye Shadow Duo and Liner
“Great Texture, colours and packaging” Mary Greenwell, make-up artist

Lip Hero (Make-Up): Givenchy Rouge Interdit Satin Lipstick

Face Hero Make-Up: SK-II Air Touch Foundation

Bath and Shower Hero: Olay Body Wash Plus Cream Ribbons
Comes with almond extract and “is so creamy and hydrating, you don’t need to use a body lotion afterwards” Joanne King, Urban Retreat, Harrods

Haircare Hero: Kerastase Ciment Thermique
Gives volume and shine to weakened hair.

Beauty Digest: Are You Afraid of Aging? Do You Prefer to Believe that Aging is “Optional”?

There were several interesting articles addressing the issues of aging in November and December beauty magazines. Amelia McDonell-Parry wrote an article titled “Age-Orexia” (Marie Claire, UK Nov.2007) which focused on the recent trend for young people between 18 and 34 to resort to invasive cosmetic procedures including fillers, Botox, liposuction etc. in order to prevent signs of aging or to enhance their looks. Alison Admond, Harper’s Bazar creative/fashion director, expresses her views on Botox and states her desire to “try never to resort to the face-freezing charms of Botox” in an article “Saying No to Botox” (Harper’s Bazar, Nov. 2007). Marie-Luise Wenzlawski writes about the new trends in Botox industry “Botox for Breakfast” or so-to-say “Botox to Go” (Myself, Germ. Dec 2007). Nora Ephron expresses her feelings about aging and dealing with observing those signs of aging in the article “Throat Never Lies” (Cosmopolitan, Germ. Nov.07).

The thought that I see going through all of these aging related articles is the growing fear of aging among women, and unhealthy perception of the process of aging due to the contemporary beauty standards. Aging is viewed as a disease that can and should be treated and “prevented”. Young people who are only in their early 20s are afraid of aging, get obsessed with retaining their youth as long as possible and try to prevent any signs of aging before they happen. They turn to the popular cosmetic procedures such as Botox injections or fillers. This trend is growing not only in the USA but in the UK as well. Amelia McDonell-Parry quotes data from American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPs): “more than half a million Americans aged 19 to 34 had non-surgical cosmetic procedures in 2006. Younger patients accounted for 317.000 doses of injectable facial fillers…An additional 8.000 Botox treatments were administered to people under 18”. As for the UK according to approximate estimations, Britons spend 225m GBP (appr.465m USD) a year on cosmetic surgery and other anti-aging procedures and a quarter of those treatments is for people aged between 19 and 34. (Marie Claire, UK Nov.2007)

Is this an unhealthy trend or just a natural development due to the progress in the modern world? Why is this happening? What are the reasons for this trend and the obsession with Botox?

Alison Admond from Harper’s Bazar thinks women resort to Botox and get addicted to it because of “their level of self-esteem”. She writes that she knows gorgeous
women “who think so little of themselves that they become obsessed with looking younger. Their self-image becomes distorted from the reality… The inevitable comparisons follow, and self-criticism takes over, unless you are strong.” Alison speaks about her daughter being one of the main reasons why she doesn’t want to have Botox injections. She wants her daughter to have a template of natural ageing like Alsion had in her beautifully and elegantly aging mother. She writes about the “incredible and unrealistic pressure to look perfect” by the society. However the author does not think that media, beauty magazines in particular, featuring young women with perfect youthful skin is the source for those unhealthy comparisons and distorted self-image. “It’s important to remember that we photograph these girls because they’re beautiful, because they make the clothes look the very best they will ever will – not to force the comparisons of age.” Yes, of course this is very logical, for example, nobody wanted young teenage girls to start obsessing with model looks. However many did fall into extreme dieting and finally developed anorexia. The thing is because you think “these girls” are beautiful and because you fill the pages with their images, we receive the visual message of what is the beauty standard and form our perception of it. It is very natural for people to desire to possess the values that are perceived by the society as important, favorable and successful. It is also very natural to form one’s perceptions on certain aspects of life based on the society’s perceptions on these aspects, otherwise there would have been anarchism and chaos in the world.

I agree it is really helpful to have strong self-esteem and clear independent vision so that you can separate yourself from the world looking at you from the glossy glamour pages. But it is just not possible for everyone to shut out those visual messages and form independent perception and values. Also this statement that one can be “strong” and not start to do associations and comparisons seems to me contradictory and conflicting. So, on the one hand, we should follow the fashion featured on the pages of magazines and accept it as the current standard for beautiful looks, but at the same time we should ignore and shut out the images of young girls who are actually modeling those trends.

Of course obsession with looking forever young is not only due to the images in glamour magazines. Sources for this obsession involve role-models from Hollywood who are openly having surgeries and who start to resort to cosmetic procedures at younger age now. Another aspect supporting the trend is how socially acceptable cosmetic procedures are and the way that invasive procedures are pitched to women by experts like something completely normal, easy treatment that will give you the looks of your dream. I am not advocating the other extreme to feature wrinkled aged people only, but wouldn’t it be healthier to have a balanced visualization of a human face and more images featuring women older than 25 with some signs of aging.

Women are afraid of aging because of society’s negative views on it. Nora Ephron describes her aging related negative emotions in the article “Throat Never Lies”. She writes that at certain point of her life she started to avoid looking in the mirror, and now tries to do it as seldom as possible. (Cosmopolitan, Germ. Nov.07.) It is obviously quite hard and it seems at times painful for her to deal with the signs of aging that she has developed and is developing. Is the same going to happen to me? Because I do have fears of looking one day into the mirror and seeing those feared signs of aging. I do hate the unfavorable light in the bathroom and I do think I look best in dimmed evening light. How can I develop healthy perception of aging when everyone around me says aging is bad and you have to fight it. And again I don’t want to go to extremes and I do not have anything against anti-aging cosmetics and beauty treatments such as peelings, massages, acupuncture etc. I don’t think we need to just stop taking care of our skin and do our best to delay those premature sign of aging. However I don’t want to obsess about it and focus on retaining something that I will inevitably loose.

Right now it seems like the trend of looking forever young and Botox obsession will continue to gain momentum. Trying to imagine what will happen, I think that eventually Botox will become like a normal anti-disease injection that most of us will get around our 20s. Then the much feared frozen Botox face will not only become accepted by society but actually will be the must-have look.

Beauty Digest: Sugar in Competition with UV Light for Number One Cause of Aging

Bitter news for Sweet Tooth!

Sugar is in spot light as a leading cause of aging. The first time I got a premonition that some negative energy was gathering around sweet things in life when reading a German issue of Elle for November 2007. The statement that sugar “gets converted into Glucose in the blood that attacks collagen fibers” caught my attention. I just could picture my collagen fibers under attack and felt very curious about what exactly is the physiological process referred to in the article. However, I did not start to look into it till when a couple days later I saw a headline on the cover of a Harper’s Bazar November British issue reading: “WHY SUGAR IS YOUR SKIN’S WORST ENEMY”. Then, I knew I was in for a piece of bitter-sweet news.

It appears that when we eat sugar-containing products as well a simple carbohydrates, sugar turns into glucose in our blood and binds with protein or lipid molecules. This binding process is called glycation. As we know, collagen and elastin are the proteins in our skin vitally important for having wrinkle-free, elastic, young looking complexion. As a result of glycation skin becomes stiff and loses its elasticity which leads to the formation of wrinkles. In addition to this as Dr.Maes, Vice-President of global research and development for Estée Lauder, explains “Glycation impairs the body’s ability to produce and utilise antioxidants.” ( see article by Notebook Magazine)As a result we become more vulnerable to the damage from free-radicals.

Many other well-known skin experts and dermatologists have expressed their concerns about sugars in our diets and the glycation as a process extremely damaging to our skin including Dr.Perricone, expert on facial rejuvenation and author of “The Wrinkle Cure”, and Dr.Brandt, New York Dermatologist and Author of “Age-Less”. (You can see their opinions quoted at the end of the post)

Let’s Not Go to Extremes
Glycation does not mean that we should exclude all sugar containing products and all the carbohydrates from our diet. In fact, our body does need sugar for normal function. Besides, our body is very smart and has a way to control the level of sugar by means of insulin. Where the danger lies is in a rapid peaking of blood sugar level when we eat simple sugars (like sweets, chocolates) or simple carbohydrates (like potatoes, bread) that quickly get converted to glucose in our blood. Because of the rapid increase of blood sugar level, our body does not have enough time to react to the and balance it. That is when the damage happens.

What shall we do about our diet?

Experts recommend:
1. Do not indulge into simple sugars and carbohydrates like cakes, chocolates, potatoes, pasta, bread etc.

2. Watch out for hidden sugars

Dr.Maes stresses that “It’s the hidden sugars” that we should watch out for in our diets as “These add up, giving us an excess of sugar, and that’s where the damage starts.” Those hiding sugars are especially dangerous and hard to control as we don’t even realize that we are consuming them. They can be found in very unexpected products: low fat foods, cereals, yoghurt, processed meats etc. (British Issue of Harper’s Bazar, November 2007)

3. Learn to read the label
First of all, it is helpful to know various names the sugars are hiding behind. The ending –ose (as in fructose, glucose) is a good hint.
In addition here is a list from Harper’s Bazar:
glucose, glucose syrup, corn syrup, dextrose, maltose, invert sugar, treacle, golden syrup.

It is also recommended to become “GI-Aware” – the less GI the better. GI stands for Glucaemic Index and shows how quickly certain foods get converted into sugar in the blood. GI's of 50-55 or below are considered low, and 70 or above are considered high.

4. If you are a sugar junkie
You must be quite upset by now. Coming to your rescue: Dr.Perricone recommends a way to get out of the loop of rising and falling sugar blood level and rising and falling along with it moods. You need to get your sugar blood level under control and just for a couple days “stay away from bad carbohydrates and eat more protein”. As soon as your blood sugar stabilizes you will feel free from those cravings and will be able to control sugars in your diet. Interview to Health and Beauty

How to fight the damage?

1. Remember about anti-oxidant protection such as vitamin supplements

2. Counteract the damage by using topical antioxidants
There is a big selection of antioxidant serums and moisturizers on the market nowadays so you won’t have a problem finding one. In addition, Dr.Brandt came up with “Lineless Anti-Glycation Serum” in response to the sugar danger – “a powerful serum targeting collagen and elastin to prevent and minimize the effects of glycation”. (More about this product at Dr.Brandt Skin Care
In some press reviews it has been mistakenly ascribed the power to completely “prevent glycation”. Which is impossible taking into consideration that glycation is a chemical reaction in our body that cannot be controlled topically.

What Experts Say:
Quotes on Glycation

What Dr.Perricone, an expert on facial rejuvenation and best-selling author of The Wrinkle Cure and The Perricone Prescription, says about sugar in his Interview to Health and Beauty
“I believe that inflammation is at the basis of aging in all organ systems, including the skin. One of the reasons inflammation occurs is from a rapid rise in blood sugar, which causes biochemical changes in the cell that result in accelerated aging”…. “Of the internal causes of inflammation, one of the big ones is diet. In addition to biochemical changes, sugar causes damage to the skin in another way: When blood sugar goes up rapidly, sugar can attach itself to collagen in a process called "glycation," making the skin stiff and inflexible. Losing this elastic resilience of young skin will give you deep wrinkles and make you look old.”

What Dr.Maes, vice president of global research and development for Estée Lauder is quoted to say about sugar in an article by Notebook Magazine

"We’ve all heard the saying ‘You are what you eat’. Now we believe ‘You age as you eat’"

"Glycation impairs the body’s ability to produce and utilise antioxidants”… “The effect on the skin is the deterioration of collagen and elastin, which ages the complexion."

And talking to Harper’s Bazar (British Issue for November 2007) Dr.Maes says:
"We now know that between 40 and 50% of skin ageing is cause by glycation - the damage directly resulted from eating sugar. It’s one of the worst skin agers; more than sun, more than the environment."

Additional resources on Glycation:

Glycation explained by Wikipedia

Glucaemic Index explained by Wikipedia
Harper’s Bazar, British Issue November 2007, Article "Sweet and Sour"