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Are you comfortable in your skin?

Skin care is one of the most important and most talked about topics concerning both beauty and health. You live in your skin, play in it, sleep in it, and do … everything in it!

Good skin care is easy with a little education about how your skin works - so here are some tips and facts to help you take good care of your birthday suit.

What Your Skin Needs To Be Healthy And Beautiful

Your skin benefits from the things inside and outside your body. A well balanced diet, plenty of water, and adequate rest are important for healthy skin. Exercising helps improve circulation and blood flow to your skin which helps it to renew and repair itself more quickly. 

On the outside, regular cleansing, moisturizing, and shielding it from the elements is important. Massaging also helps to promote blood flow and the shedding of dead skin cells. Using a loofah sponge in the shower is a great way to massage, scrub away dead cells, and in general, cleanse your skin all at the same time.

While oily skin can be more prone to acne, it has the benefit of retaining its youthful look a lot longer than other skin types. A good diet and skin care regimen help to ward off acne which occurs when the oils block your pores. Working up a sweat with regular exercise also helps to flush out the pores so that dirt and bacteria don’t become trapped inside. Your skin might break out the first time you do a serious workout if your pores are already blocked up, but over time regular exercise will keep them flushed out and your skin will clear up.

The Sun And Your Skin

Coco Chanel is credited with making the suntan popular in the 1920’s after returning to Paris from her vacation in Deauville on the French coast. We now know that tanning has some good, healthy effects on the skin, but it can also cause blemishes, wrinkles, and skin cancer.

The good: Sun exposure speeds up cellular turnover because the skin is working hard to protect itself so it sluffs off dead cells and replaces them with fresh cells faster. This helps to keep your pores unclogged. It also keeps your skin free of dry, dead skin and creates a clear, healthy complexion. A light suntan will also camoflauge acne and minor skin imperfections. Tanning stimulates the pigment melanin which is where the bronze coloring comes from and is what gives the skin more protection from sunburn.

The sun also helps your body make vitamin D which helps to regulate calcium and phosphorus to build strong bones. Milk and cereals are often fortified with vitamin D, especially in climates that don’t get that much sunlight to make up for the lack of it.

The bad: Ultraviolet rays from the sun or from tanning beds can have a lot of harmful effects. UV rays can cause premature wrinkling and age spots. Wrinkling is caused as the UV rays penetrate your skin and destroy the collagen fibers inside. They also dehydrate the skin which gives it a tough leathery texture over time. Severe dehydration causes dryness and flaking after the initial tanning glow wears off which can be very uncomfortable and itchy.

Incidents of skin cancer have been on the rise for decades. Removing cancerous cells from the skin can be very disfiguring, but not catching it and treating it can have deadly consequences. The more often you get sunburned, the greater your chances are of getting skin cancer later on.

What to do: Always wear sunscreen with a high SPF (sun protection factor) and keep yourself covered as much as possible. You can get a bad sunburn or damage your skin in as little as fifteen minutes so limit your exposure to ten minutes at most. Try to stay out of the sun during the middle of the day - when the sun is high in the sky, its rays are at their harshest.

And after having fun in the sun, it’s a good idea to wash your face and body thoroughly to get rid of the excess oil and sweat that can clog up your pores.

Winter Skin Care

Humidity is a natural moisterizer and the humidity is lower during the winter. Low humidity and cold wind both contribute to drying out your skin very quickly. Even the sun can be just as harmful during the winter as it is in the summer. The winter chill means you don’t feel the heat as much as you would during the summer so exposed skin could be getting more rays than you think. Especially if you’re out in the snow on a bright, clear day.

What to do: Protect your skin and bundle up. Wear scarves and gloves. And moisturize your skin regularly. During the winter, you typically don’t sweat as much as in the summer and hot showers will remove a lot more of the natural oils from your skin. If the weather is nice, take your sunscreen snowboarding with you.

Pollution And Your Skin

In the city, smog does perform one good function for your skin. It blocks out some of the sun’s harmful UV rays. That’s about all the good it does. Air pollution is mostly bad, especially for your lungs, and it can leave a fine sooty residue on your skin which can provoke acne outbreaks.

Indoors, heating and air conditioning systems rob the air of moisture and can dry your skin out. Sanitizers, cleaning agents and room fresheners all contribute to drying out your skin - especially the aerosol sprays.

What to do: Wash your face more often, especially if you’re acne prone. Once or twice during the midday will prevent the dirt and grime caused by pollution from building up and clogging your pores. Indoors, try to keep the thermostat at a more moderate temperature. Another good thing to do is to keep a window open while you sleep or invest in a humidifier. Good ventilation helps keep the humidity level normal and the amount of airborne household chemicals down.

How Smoking And Drinking Affects Your skin

Smoking constricts the blood vessels in your skin and robs it of its blood supply. Smoking turns a healthy, color filled complexion to a dull grayish yellow. It also causes premature wrinkles.

Drinking alcohol dilates the blood vessels and gives your skin a warm glow. At least, moderate drinking does. Heavy or frequent drinking will turn that pretty little glow into a web of broken blood vessels over time that show up as little red lines.

What to do: Stop smoking, and not just for your skin, but for your health in general. If you drink, do it in moderation. After drinking alcohol, make sure you drink plenty of water or fruit juice soon after - this is also the best way to prevent a hangover because that wonderful pounding sensation in your head the next day is caused by severe dehydration.

Facts About Your Skin

• Skin is an organ. In fact it’s the largest organ your body has.
• Your skin covers about 19 square feet of surface area.
• In women, skin weighs an average of seven pounds. For men it’s ten pounds.
• Skin varies in thickness between one-thirtieth and one-eighth of an inch. It is thinnest on your face, neck and eyelids, and thickest on your palms, the soles of your feet, and your back. Your abdomen is where the skin is the most stretchable - great for pregnancies (and beer bellies).
• Your skin has about two million sweat glands which have a very important function. They help regulate body temperature through perspiration and they also discard waste water and minerals
• Your skin takes good care of itself. Not only does it work hard to repair cuts and bruises but it is constantly shedding. You get a whole new skin about once a month.
• Vitamins B and D synthesis is anothe rimportant job of your skin.

“Beauty is but skin deep”

~ Sir John Davies

Bird Songs is a really cool coffeetable book that you won’t be able to put down. In addition to the full color pictures and descriptions of 250 birds, Bird Songs has a built in digital audio player that plays the songs or calls of each bird shown in the book. 

The book was edited by renowned bird biologist Les Beletsky with a forward written by bird expert Jonn L Dunn. Most of the recordings come from the non-profit Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The library is the largest source for recordings of animals of all kinds in the world and they have an extensive bird collection. They also have a number of free bird song recordings that you can download.

It’s a great book for avid birdwatchers, kids, or anyone who enjoys nature and the outdoors.

Find out more at Amazon: Bird Songs

Even supermodels look a little worse for wear in the morning. The Dove Campaign For Real Beauty shows everything that goes into a great photoshoot behind the seens including all th extensive photoshop effects.

Notice how, in the finished half of the picture the models eyes and lips are bigger than normal and her face is narrower. 

Go and check out the whole video.

The fashion industry creates a surreal idea of beauty and women put unrealistic expectations on themselves every day. After all, you don’t get professional hair and makeup and a digital facelift every day before you head out the door. Dove is working to raise the self esteem of women and girls and their site has an array of rescources to help. They have links to books, movies and music that celebrates real beauty. They also have sections with inspiring stories and self esteem advice.

The DSEF

The Dove Self-Esteem Fund works to raise self-esteem and give young people a positive body image. The fund develops education programmes like BodyTalk, uniquely ME!, and Beyond Compare.

BodyTalk is a program created for schools in the Uk by the Eating Disorders Association. It’s designed to help girls understand and deal with their feelings regarding their own physical appearance.

Uniquely Me! is a partnership with the Girl Scouts USA to promote self-esteem with activity booklets and simple confidence building exercises. It focuses mostly on underserved communities where other pressures compound the esteem and image issues that girls experience.

Beyond Compare helps challenge the notions of what female beauty is. Dove’s self-esteem fund helped the National Eating Disorders Information Centre (NEDIC) take the Beyond Compare exhibit on tour around Canada by raising more than $50,000.

The True You workbook

The True You! workbook for mothers and daughters is free to download at the Dove site and helps moms discuss self-esteem and body image issues with their teens. Download it, print it out and work through the questions and esteem building advice together.

Get a free t-shirt

After purchasing $15 of Dove beauty care products, you can download a form from the campaign for real beauty site and send Dove your receipts. Then, they’ll send you a free 100% real beauty t-shirt. They have three different shirts to choose from. Not a bad deal if you already buy Dove stuff anyway.

If you’ve been working like a dog all year and haven’t had time to stop and smell the roses, now’s the time to get away. A lot of businesses other than retail are slow around the holidays so it’s a great time for many people to take a few days and get out of town. A romantic getaway during the holidays will recharge your batteries and your relationship before you head into the new year.

The best places to go

Think ski resorts. Whistler and Aspen have evrything you could ever want for a romantic holiday. Or you can check out any one of hundreds of other resorts at ifyouski.com.

Whether you want to lock yourselves away in the hotel for some serious downtime or hit the slopes all day and the clubs all night, resort towns have it all. A lot of them have world class accomodations, dining, and shopping too. With so many options it’s easy to find just the right mix of relaxation and fun.

The best time to go

The best time to get away for a few days over the holidays is between Christmas and New Years. That way you can take care of all the family festivities and then be on your way. It also leaves you the option of extending your holiday away past New Years. This is a great idea if you’re going to a resort town because they always an assortment of New Years celebrations from parties and nightclubs to fireworks.

What you need for a romantic getaway

• Reservations. December is a little late to be making reservations but don’t be deterred. There are hotels, chalets, condos, and bed & breakfast spots and they all have last minute cancellations. Hunt around and you might even find a good deal.
• Snow. You absolutely have to have it. It makes that roaring fireplace, the steamy hottub, and those midnight walks that much sweeter.
• Great food. Find all the great restaurants that you want to check out where you’re going. And find the quality take-out and delivery joints. You  can kick back with a couple bottles of wine and get some food delivered if you feel like spending a romantic evening at your chalet instead of going out. If you do a quick grocery run once you get to your destination, you van grab an armload of indulgent snacks and some bubbly.
• Gifts. Save an extra little after-Christmas gift to give to your partner on the trip. It makes a nice surprise.

Most offices have all the ingredients needed to spark a romance. In fact, you’ll find a lot of the same elements in an office that make high school and college the fertile dating grounds that they are. Every office romance has the potential to end badly. They can destroy careers or make a once great working environment intolerable. Finding your perfect soulmate at work is also possible - just ask Bill and Melinda Gates.

Although many companies and employers have rules against dating in the office, they usually only manage to protect the company against litigation and dissuade people from inappropriate flirting. Rarely will they stop two people from starting a romance once the chemistry between them takes charge. The best thing that you can do is be aware of the risks and the benefits of romantic relationships at work and figure out how it will affect your work, your career, and how those things will affect the relationship itself. Then you can decide whether it’s the right thing to do.

How office romances happen

When men and women spend forty or more hours a week together they get to know each other pretty well after working together every day for several months. You get to see each others strengths, weaknesses and everything in between. After awhile we all tend to gravitate towards people who share similar interests, a similar outlook on life, or a sense of humor that never fails to make us smile. All this time we spend with the people we work with is the first part of the equation.

You probably spend more hours each week with your coworkers than you do with your friends or going out to socialize and meet new people. That’s the second part of the equation. It’s pretty simple - you’re most likely to find a romantic spark in amongst the group of people that you spend the most time with. Especially if it’s a large office with a diverse collection of people.

The single biggest advantage to love that starts in the workplace is all the time you’ve spent getting to know each other. You already know what it’s like to spend a lot of time with them - maybe even in high pressure or competitive situations. You both know all the same inside jokes. You might even share your individual strengths to manage the work load more easily.

Bad ideas for office romance

There are a lot of things that can go wrong when you’re sleeping and working with someone. Here’s a list of things to be aware of, and to try to avoid.

• One of you might have to fire or demote the other, or you might both be competing for the same promotion.
• A personal relationship can create favoritism for your partner that leaves others you work with disillusioned. On the other hand, you’ll both expect a certain sense of loyalty and inner circle treatment and disrespecting that will hurt the relationship. This is a difficult thing to balance and can force you into having to make very difficult choices.
• Spending all day and all night with each other can get on anyone’s nerves after awhile. Every couple needs some down time to hang out with other friends or enjoy personal pursuits. And all the time spent together at work may not count as the real quality time that you need to spend with each other to really enjoy your relationship.
• Rumors and gossip will start to spread as soon as the office chatterbox spots those innocent smiles you throw at each other that aren’t so innocent. If you manage to keep your dating a secret then the flirtations of other people in the office towards one of you could spark jealousy or even confrontation.
• If you break up, and especially if it’s messy or sudden, your workday could turn into eight hours of absolute hell. Sometimes the best thing you can do is throw yourself into your work after a breakup to move on and get your mind onto more productive things. That’s not going to help you if you have to see this person every day.

Office romance etiquette

• Always be professional at work. Kissing, flirting or talking relationship stuff is only going to annoy or distract everyone else. And it will make the higher ups question your ability to focus on the job.
• Don’t put little hugs and kisses on memos or in your emails to each other and never talk about personal plans or intimate encounters. A lot of companies monitor email to monitor worker productivity. They also store copies of emails and instant messages in case they need a record of internal or external communications for a legal dispute.
• Never gossip with each other about anyone you work with or about the clients, suppliers or other companies your company does business with. If the relationship goes sour, this will come back to haunt you in a big way. It could destroy your career and your options for finding employment elsewhere if you can’t continue to work with each other.
• Sooner or later everyone will find out what’s going on. If the relationship is serious then it’s often best to demystify the speculation and let everyone know that you’re dating. Don’t make a big production out of it - just state the facts briefly and segway the conversation back to work related topics. Keep the private details private.

Office romances are like any other romance - some turn out great and some don’t. The best advice is to take it slow and get a feel for the good things and the bad things that might come with it, and how you’ll handle the road ahead no matter what happens. Hopefully, your next step will be to figure out how to make moving in together work.

Every day people make, take, and just can’t shake annoying cell phone calls.

Technology is supposed to make life more convenient. It’s not supposed to spark a world wide contest to find the most annoying person alive. But somewhere in between the search to find the silliest ringtone ever created and the quest to perfectly juggle every free minute of airtime available, cell phone etiquette died. And it took social etiquette with it.

It’s time to change all that. Stand up. Spread the word. These are the five rules for cellphone etiquette:

1. Turn it down. Sometimes, no matter where you are or what you’re doing, you have to be available to take an important call. Maybe you’re on call for work or family members need to check in routinely. The best thing to do is put your cell phone on vibrate so it doesn’t disrupt others. At the very least turn down the volume down and stay away from annoying ringtones. Use a simple ringtone that doesn’t play endlessly and make dogs howl at the moon. 
2. Turn it off. Life worked out just fine before we all needed to have a pager, a cellphone, a BlackBerry, a satellite phone, a digital camera and an iPod with us everywhere we went. Here’s a deep thought - if it didn’t, we wouldn’t be here now. Practice leaving your collection of electronic gizmos at home when you go out. Get creative and find new ways to communicate with people like talking to them in person. It’ll be an adventure and you might even survive it.
3. Be discrete. Get people to text you if they can’t get a hold of you on the phone. You can read the message and determine how important a call is right away without interrupting others during a meeting. If you have to answer your cell phone or make a call, excuse yourself from everyone and take a walk to do so.
4. Be where you are. The absolute most annoying thing in the world is to hang out with someone who spends more time talking on their phone than they do talking to you. If you’d rather be somewhere else talking to someone else then that’s where you should be! You’re in the wrong location. Get out of there!
5. Cut the leash. It’s just not cool anymore to be a slave to a tiny piece of plastic and the world of people on the other end of the line. Even though important people get important calls which they need to answer immediately, more important people check their messages later and call back when it’s convenient for them.

It’s a good idea to call everyone you know and make sure they’re aware of the rules for cell phone etiquette. If you have trouble getting hold of anyone, call their cell.

Somewhere in between Fear Factor and Survivor is real life adventurer Bear Grylls’s show Man vs Wild. He eats everything from bugs to zebra carcasses and braves the most hostile places on Earth from Utah’s Moab Desert to the European Alps.

Every week The Discovery Channel drops Bear Grylls into some remote, beautiful, and rugged spot to survive the wild and find his way back to civilization. A lot of the time all he gets to take with him is a bottle of water, a knife, and a flint for starting fires. He eats whatever he can find, builds shelters to stay warm, and tries to stay out of the way of everything from sharks to volcanic lava flows. Along the way he might pee on a t-shirt and wrap it around his head to keep cool from the scorching desert heat. Or he might squeeze the water out of a mound of yak dung to stay hydrated.

Bear is a life long adventurer and has done everything from climbing the Himalayas to circling the entire UK on a jetski. A lot of his extensive survival training came when he served with the British special forces Special Air Service, and as a motivational speaker, he passes on the wisdom of his experiences and teaches people how to push through their fears with inspiring real life stories.

Man vs Wild is really funny, and although it might gross you out a bit, it’s guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat. And who knows, you might be stranded out in the sweltering desert one day with nothing but a t-shirt and a full bladder to save you.

Naughty Nads is functional and fun. It’s a complete waxing and design kit for where the sun doesn’t shine. With the kit you get the Naughty Nads Mango and Peach scented wax in a 140g jar, spatulas for applying the wax, orange sticks for creating perfect lines, Soothing finishing wipes and a complete instruction booklet.

The fun part comes with the design templates also included in the kit. There are four different shaping templates; the landing strip, the bermuda triangle, the love heart, and the lightning bolt. Pick the one that best fits your personality or the one people would never expect in a million years. And if you think you’re going to have trouble with this little art project then get the help of a friend or partner and make an experience out of it.

Naughty Nads is a great natural product from a family run company called The Lifesource Group. Sue Ismiel created Lifesource’s first natural hair removal gel in her kitchen out of completely natural ingredients. Since then they’ve created a number of products including their WYLD line of natural aphrodisiacs and one to help you shape the perfect eyebrow. And Nad’s isn’t just for women - they have products for men as well.

Bikini waxing tips

• Wash the area you are going to wax thoroughly. You want to make sure the area is dry and free of oil before you apply the wax.
• Heat the wax using your microwave until it’s the consistency of thick honey. Try a test spot on the inside of your wrist to check the temperature before applying it to more sensitive areas.
• Trim the hair you want to wax off down to 5mm or a quarter inch. You want the wax to bond to the base of the hairs close to the skin and trimming will help you do this without using a ton of wax and making a big mess.
• Hair doesn’t grow straight out. It grows out at an angle which in most spots is downwards and away from the center of your body. Apply the wax in the same direction as the hair grows out and remove it against the direction of hair growth.
• The wax will take about fifteen to thirty seconds to cool down so that it’s soft and pliable and ready to remove. As you pull the wax off, pull it quickly and pull it at an angle that’s close to your skin. Don’t pull it straight out away from your body.

Use it AND lose it

When you think bikini wax you think summer. But you can use Naughty Nads to make smooth lines for your next winter hot tub party or just to create a sexy surprise any time of year.

Whether you’re Christmas shopping or just shopping, Ralph Lauren has a great line of clothing that contributes to a great cause - breast cancer. Ten percent of the proceeds from Pink Pony products go to benefit the Pink Pony Fund. The fund supports programs for cancer early diagnosis, education, treatment and research.

You can buy different items for anywhere between $10 and $700 which means you’re contributing between a dollar and 70 bucks to the fund with your purchase. On top of that, the Pink Pony logo emblazoned on all the products helps get the message out there to others.

So when you’re out shopping this season, think about getting something for yourself or someone you care about that has the true holiday spirit in mind. It’s a good cause, a hard battle to fight, and a lot of people will benefit from your support.

Breast cancer is not just a women’s issue - it affects all of us: the brothers, husbands, fathers, children, friends. Pink Pony is our effort in the fight against cancer.

~ Ralph Lauren

The online virtual world, Second Life, recently crowned it’s first real life millionaire. This milestone brings home the fact that virtual worlds with real economies are going to be a huge part of the internet’s future. Maybe bigger than YouTube in the same way that video games overtook the revenues of the film industry simply because players can interact with the story. In Second Life you are the story.

Second Life is a world of almost 2 million people where your avatar (your three dimensional character) can meet and chat with other people. As John Chow recently commented on his blog, virtually anything is possible. Big corporations hold meetings in Second Life. Reuters recently conducted an interview with Nintendo President Reggie Fils-Aime in Second Life. NBC sponsored a tree lighting ceremony that mirrored the annual tree lighting in Rockefeller Center. You can buy, sell or rent land. You can create your own clothes, house, or working spaceship.

Alright, so how do you make money in this Second Life?

Getting started with Second Life

The first thing you need is a good, fast internet connection and a good, fast computer with a great graphics card. Basically, the same thing you would need if you were into online gaming. It’s a three dimensional world and the graphics are intense.

Then you need to sign up to Second Life. They have a free basic account and this is a good place to start. You can upgrade to a premium account for 10 bucks a month once you get the feel of things.

Linden Dollars

Every person in Second Life gets a stipends or weekly salary of a few hundred Linden dollars ($L). Linden dollars can be converted into US dollars at around 250 to 1. That means that 1 Linden dollar is worth about a half cent in real money.

In addition to the stipends, you can work for someone or start your own business to earn Linden dollars or you can buy them at online currency exchanges with real dollars. This feature of Linden dollars and US dollars being interchangable makes it possible to turn your virtual income into real income. So much so, that Congress has met to discuss the future of taxing this income.

Earning a Living in Second Life

There are a number of things you can do to earn money in SL. How much you can earn depends on your skills, your creativity and your business savvy, just as in real life. There are many people who earn a couple or a few thousand real dollars every month from their Second Life work.

Minimum Wage Jobs

There are lots of these. They typically pay 2 or 3 Linden dollars per 10 minutes of work and they involve kicking back in a chair and chatting with your friends. What? They pay you to relax?!! Yes or at some places you can push a broom or stand on a dance pad that animates your avatar. Basically you get paid just to be at the location.

The reason business owners will pay you just to be there is that people go to second life to meet new people and chat with them. The Second Life satellite map is a lot like Google Earth. People are drawn to places where there are groups of other people which is shown in the map as a collection of green dots. So having traffic will bring you more traffic and you can make enough money to pay your ‘employees’ and earn a profit by selling your wares or offering casino games.

Dancing, Hosting and Management Jobs

If you’ve got a hot avatar, which you can design yourself or purchase, then you might find work at one of the clubs as an exotic dancer. As a dancer, some places will pay you a wage and you can earn tips.

If you’re outgoing and a great chatter, you might be able to earn a little more as a club host, hostess or manager.

Design and Construction Businesses

With 3d modeling, photoshop or programming skills you can start to make some good money. If you have two or all of these skills, then the sky is the limit.

• 3d modeling. You can build and sell anything you can imagine from custom avator bodies to vehicles, plants, homes and commercial buildings. Pretty much anything. If it’s well designed, people will buy it. You can download Second Life’s basic avatar bodies and modify them yourself using Poser.
• Photoshop. Creating custom textures for anything from clothing design to marble flooring can earn you good money. Fashion in Second Life is big business just as it is in the real world. Everyone wants to look good.
• Programming. SL script is used to animate avatars and objects. It can make your avatar dance. It makes a slot machine work or a spaceship fly. Programmers bring SL to life with animation and functionality.

Become a Real Estate Mogul

Anshe Chung is an SL property developer and may very well become Second Life’s first billionaire. She has amassed property and holdings worth over $250 million Linden which translates into $1 million dollars in the real world - She’s the first real world millionaire with income earned entirely from virtual world profits.

Second Life has a First Land program which allows first time buyers to purchase a small plot of real estate below market value. In addition, you can buy land from other residents or at auctions. You can even buy your own private island.

The key to real estate is to buy land, subdivide it into plots and develop those plots with an optimum mix of commercial and residential buildings. Then you can rent these plots out or sell the development.

Like most real world big businesses, Anshe Chung has been at the heart of some controversy for establishing zoning rules on the land she holds - in other words you can’t build a commercial business on a residential plot. She has also evicted renters from land she has purchased, so that she can develop it into a more profitable neighborhood.

Where’s It All Going?

As you can see, many real world business models are possible in Second Life’s virtual world. The few key business opportunites being utilized now will expand as more people develop new ideas. The key is to look at what’s possible in the real world and find a way to bring it to the virtual world.

Then, you just might be Second Life’s next real life millionaire.