So many girls dream of being as tall and thin as catwalk models.

They admire them, envy them, think that nature favored them with such figures absolutely undeserved.

Probably girls of this shape really look well but in many cases they have to work hard to have the body that is a dream of millions.

And skinny girls know for sure that not all garments look well on them and they must choose carefully to avoid too long and lean look.

For the girls who are the type described these tips maybe helpful in the process of selecting clothes.
Things to remember:

1. Dress in layers, they add interest and disguise thinness.
2. Avoid wearing bare, short and clinging clothes.
3. Create the illusion of fullness and softness. In summer when your thinness is the most seen wear soft, fluffy fabrics.

Continue reading …

What is Tea Tree?

Tea Tree - Melaleuca Alternifolia is a native plant belonging to northeast coastal region of New South Wales, Australia. Tea Tree has very strong therapeutic and medicinal values. When crushed and distilled, the leaves of this plant yield a 100% natural oil which is an antiseptic, a fungicide and has numerous uses as listed below. Tea Tree oil contains more than 48 compounds, main constituent being terpinen-4-ol which is responsible for tea tree oil's antibacterial and anti fungal properties.

It helps with mouth ulcers, varicose veins, hemorrhoids, fatigue, respiratory infections, strengthening the immune system and the female reproductive system. Tea Tree also helps to clear acne, lice, cold sores and gingivitis.

History of Tea Tree Oil

- Bundjalung aborigines of northern new South Wales - viewed lagoon where tea tree leaves fell and decayed for hundreds of years as having tremendous healing properties.
- First report of medicinal use: Medical Journal of Australia (1930) - Sydney surgeon used: solution of tea tree oil to clean wound -
". . . it dissolved pus and left the surface of infected wounds clean so that its germicidal action became more effective without any apparent damage to the tissues ... most efficient germicides destroy tissues as well as bacteria.."

- World War II - tea tree oil issued to soldiers to use as a disinfectant.

Tea Tree Oil - Uses and Benefits

    * antiseptic - considered by many to be the ideal skin disinfectant.
    * anti fungal.
    * good penetration, lack of irritation.

    * Effective against:

    Candida albicans
    Propionibactenum acnes
    Pseudomonas aeruginosa
    Staphylococcus aureus
    Streptococcus pyrogenes
    Trichomonas vaginalis
    Trichophyton mentagrophytes

Clinical Usage and Dosage of Tea Tree Oil:

Skin infections:

- broad-spectrum antiseptic.
- mixes with sebaceous secretions and penetrates epidermis.
- apply oil two to three times per day.

Acne:

- alternative to benzoyl peroxide.
- less side effects (dryness, redness, pruritus, stinging, burning).
- 5% tea tree oil gel applied daily.
Common Foot Problems:

- tinea pedis (athlete's foot) foot irritation.
- bromhidrosis (severely foul-smelling feet).
- 8% tea tree oil emollient massaged into feet daily.
Fungal Nail Infection:

- 100% tea tree oil twice daily.
- improvement in nail appearance and symptoms (with long-term use).

Vaginal Infections:

- germicidal activity versus Candida albicans and Trichomonas vaginalis.
- 40% tea tree oil solution emulsified with isopropyl alcohol and water.
- used tampon saturated with this tea tree oil solution (once wkly for 4 to 6 wks).
- for treatment of cervicitis and chronic endocervicitis.
- daily vaginal douches (1 quart water with 0.4% tea tree oil) prescribed.
- for treatment of trichomonas and candidacies.
- no irritation, burning, or other side effects noted.

Cold Sores:

- mix essential oil with 10 times its volume of carrier oil.
- dab on affected area as soon as developing cold sore starts to tingle.
Nits:

- eggs of head lice on the hair.
- put a few drops of oil on a fine comb and comb hair well.
- OR...add 5-10 drops of oil to shampoo or hair rinse and repeat daily.

Remarks

- extremely safe for topical use.
- oral ingestion not recommended.
- being 100% natural it has no side effects.

While you may think of pumpkin only in terms of being a big orange thing that you carve on Halloween or eat in a pie at holiday dinners, pumpkin actually has therapeutic properties that make it a key ingredient in many beauty products.  Did you know that pumpkin has natural UV protectors, powerful anti-inflammatory benefits, and is the perfect exfoliant for those with sensitive skin? 

Read on to learn about various pumpkin-oriented beauty products and ways to scent yourself and your home with the lush, delicious scent of pumpkin.

Don’t be scared, because this stuff will haunt you in a good way! Philosophy’s Haunted House includes 6 oz. bottles of Black Licorice, Caramel Apple (my favorite) and Pumpkin Spice Muffin, which can be used as shampoo, shower gel and for luscious bubble baths.  The packaging is an adorable haunted house, so this would make a really fun surprise gift for Halloween!

Don’t miss this Pumpkin Potion Leave-In Conditioner with a combination of Pumpkin Enzymes and Ginger Root, plus Safflower and Jojoba Seed Oil. It revitalizes dry, brittle, damaged and over-processed hair while giving you that fabulous smell of pumpkin and ginger.  Great if you battle frizz or unruly curls on a daily basis!

For me, Demeter Pumpkin Pie fragrance is a fall staple; I spray it on myself and all over my house.  It is a sweet yet tart fragrance and it truly conjures up visions of a perfect pie leaving a hot oven, or better yet, a fork coming toward your open mouth with a big bite of pumpkin pie on it. Get this now!
   
demeter pumpkin pie fragrance, beauty, pumpkin, beauty products, beauty tips, fall beauty, holiday beauty, benefits of pumpkin, autumn beauty, pumpkin products, pumpkin fragrance.

via divavillage.com

Eye bags are not the best beginning of a day, definitely. If you wake up with eye bags more and more often, it is necessary to start an active struggle against this unattractive cosmetic defect.

What is the reason

But before passing directly to councils, let’s understand the reasons. And this unpleasant phenomenon has enough reasons. What can lead to occurrence of eye bags?

First, bad heredity. Between skin of eyelids and hypoderm there is a thin membrane which can be both dense, and thin by nature. Membrane thinning leads to formation of small apertures through which fatty tissue passes. As a result, eye bags are formed. If as a result of heredity you have thin membrane, this means, at you have every chance to deal with eye bags in the near future.

Reasons leading to occurrence of eye bags also include, among other, lack of sleep, allergy, hormonal changes connected with a woman’s monthly cycle, superfluous quantity of water in an organism, stress, bad food and frequent use of alcoholic drinks.

What to do

Take care of skin round eyes every day. For make-up removal it is recommended to use not flavoured clearing means. It is not necessary to rub eyes unduly. If at the first use of cosmetic means you notice skin reddening, watering, you should refuse its use.

Every evening apply a humidifying cream or means for skin care in the area of eyes. It is necessary to wash face with cool water in the morning, put ice-cubes to infraorbital area. During summertime it is necessary to use sun-protection means. Also it is necessary to struggle with stress, accept polyvitamins regularly, do eye gymnastics (put hands on temples and try to shift skin by means of mimic muscles back. Exercise should be repeated several times during a day).

The most remarkable means in eye bag struggle is healthy dream, complete rest, moderated water consumption, regular and balanced food, absence of stress (or ability to cope with it!). If usual folk remedies cannot already help you getting rid of eye bags, there are also surgical ones: blepharoplasty (elimination of skin surpluses in eyelid area and removal of a fatty pillow under eyes), and also application of CO2 laser (smoothes skin round eyes, makes it more elastic).

Irreplaceable recipes

Time passes, medicine progresses, but nothing can replace old grandmother’s advice! Let’s address to them!

1. Brew a teaspoon of black tea in 1/4 glasses boiled water, leave for 30-40 minutes, filter. The compress is applied for 10 minutes. Put wadded tampons impregnated with tea for 1-2 minutes, changing them 3-4 times. After the procedure termination make a compress of cold water and put a nutritious cream on eyelids.

Daily short-term sponging with ice infusion of sage, camomile or beggar-ticks.

2. Put 1 table spoon of cornflowers in a glass with boiled water, leave for 20 minutes, filter. Put tampons moistened with warm infusion on eyes for 15-20 minutes.

3. Boil a jacket potato . When it becomes warm, knife and put on eyes for 30-40 minutes.

4. Make compresses of sage broth (cold and warm). Fill in a teaspoon of sage leaves with half of glass boiled water. Brew under a lid for 10-15 minutes, filter, half cool, other half warm up. Put wadded tampons, moistened in hot and cold infusion to eyelids by turns. Do this procedure before going to bed, then cream.

Care of yourself, love and feel sorry for yourself - and nothing in your appearance will show signs of weariness.

womanspassions.com

I know I'm practically shoving the Marc Jacobs BB bag to your face but please allow me to do so before Fall 2008 fades into oblivion. We all know the Spring 2009 shows are just around the corner and I want this good feeling to last! One of my readers (thanks Regina!) sent me scans of the August 2008 issue of Nylon magazine and lookie lookie at what she found. It's the Marc Jacobs Sunburst BB bag in baby blue!

Isn't it gorgeous? Marc Jacobs BB bag, US$1295 @ Marc Jacobs. It comes in different colors. I'm telling you... it's the bag of the season! I want YOU, yes, YOU to get one as well!

Meanwhile, Cole Mohr may rock those Fall/Winter 2008 Marc by Marc Jacobs frocks but for me, I'm happy with this US$68 (3,000 pesoses) runway "Off The Deep End" top. They're now available at Shopbop where shipping within the USA is free and yes, they also ship internationally, too! I went to the Marc by Marc Jacobs store here in Manila and they're still carrying Spring 2008 merchandise (some are still at full-retail while others are on 20% sale). Go go go buy buy buy!

bryanboy.com

It is almost a century since the US economist George Taylor came up with the revolutionary "hemline index" - the idea that when the economy is good, women's skirts get shorter, and when times are hard hemlines fall. Now the fashion world has finally offered up an alternative indicator of the country's economic state. Cropped, bobbed or floor-sweeping, the length of women's hair may no longer be seen as a result of the vagaries of fashion, but as an accurate barometer of the nation's wealth.

Japanese researchers have found that when economies are doing well, women wear their hair long; when there is a slump, they cut it short. While many may be sceptical of forging a link between the disparate worlds of finance and fashion, that the current vogue for short hair comes at a time when the British economy is experiencing its biggest downturn for decades is proving too much of a coincidence for some to ignore.

"There could definitely be a pattern in the UK too," said Susanna Sallstrom-Matthews, cultural economist at the University of Cambridge and author of The Consumption of Beauty. "People enjoy fewer material pleasures in periods of recession, so want more visual pleasures, and there's more variation among short haircuts than long."

With the rising cost of living keeping shoppers off the high street, it seems the style-conscious among us are choosing to update their look in a more economic way – with an edgy haircut.

After more than a decade in which long, largely unstyled hair has been the order of the day – years in which the country was also enjoying uninterrupted economic growth – the current influx of short styles certainly offers more variety.

"Long hair was so popular in the 1990s, it was really dull ... I think we might be moving away from this conservatism in fashion now," said Caroline Cox, author of Good Hair Days: A History of British Hairdressing.

Meanwhile Robert Frank, author of The Economic Naturalist: Why Economics Explains Almost Everything, pointed out that "shorter hairstyles require more regular cutting ... The trend for shorter styles is a bit of a puzzle".

While model of the moment Agyness Deyn's edgy blonde crop has attracted the most attention this summer – and been imitated by celebrities and ordinary women alike – bobs are also proving popular.

"We are receiving a number of requests for an 'Agyness' from our more adventurous clients," said Tori Markham of high-street hairdressers Toni & Guy.

Deyn's crop may have been described by Vogue as "the haircut of the decade", but the eagle-eyed may have noticed that her style appears to have been borrowed from an icon of another era – 1980s model Jenny Howarth. With a snip of the scissors and a liberal application of bleach, Deyn has tapped into Howarth's punky, anti-establishment style – a look that also coincided with a recession.

A browse through the fashion annuals reveals numerous other parallels. Jean Harlow's sassy short style was the perkiest thing about the Great Depression of the 1930s; as economic prospects improved in the 1940s, hair got longer, was set and pulled back from the face in the "victory roll" style.

Such a vogue for long locks continued well into the Fifties, when the glamorous styles of the film actresses Elizabeth Taylor and Vivien Leigh were much emulated, while floppy ponytails were popular among younger girls.

"In periods of prosperity, people are busy, so they have no time to consume – or produce – beauty. In the 1950s the country was very prosperous, but terribly boring aesthetically," said Ms Sallstrom-Matthews.

This fashion for long hair continued through the 1960s and 1970s, with Audrey Hepburn's chic up-do giving way to the long, centre-parted hippy look.

"It is difficult, because in most eras you have more than one significant style. Late 1980s Britain had the short, punky look, but also the mainstream, big-haired Dynasty girls," said Ms Cox.

"Since the early 1990s hair has been getting progressively longer – so long that hair extensions became perfectly acceptable – and now we're having to go short. Long hair has started to have connotations people don't want, like footballers' wives."

While the huge power of celebrities to spark, or to extinguish, a trend cannot be underestimated, the jury is still out on whether other economic forces might be at work here too.

www.independent.co.uk

Buying women's perfume can be confusing when there are so many different options out there. If you are overwhelmed by the available choices, a good way to pick womens perfume is to select a fragrance family that matches your personality.

Most women's perfumes fit into one of six fragrance families: fresh, fruity, floral, foody, oriental, or woody (also known as chypre). There are also subcategories within each of the main categories, but the differences among them are slight, so beginners shouldn't concern themselves with them.

Fresh fragrances are clean, youthful, and energetic. They feature marine notes intended to simulate the smell of the ocean, or other water-based scents. They frequently have the words "water","ice","rain" or "cool" in their name and are often colored blue or packaged in blue bottles. This fragrance family is ideal for sporty, active women. Some popular fresh designer fragrances are Issey Miyake L'Eau de Issey, Bulgari Blu Notte, Marc Jacobs Rain, Giorgio Armani Acqua di Gio, and Davidoff Cool Water.

Fruity fragrances are similar to fresh fragrances in their casual vibe and energy, but they also add sweetness to the mix. Most fruity fragrances have citrus notes such as lemon, lime, orange or grapefruit, although apple, grape, cherry, peach and raspberry are also popular choices for fruity women's perfume. Women who love fruity fragrances are usually outgoing optimists. Some of the most popular fruity fragrances on the market today are Fresh Sugar, Acqua di Parma Colonia, L.A.M.B. by Gwen Stefani, and Cartier Eau de Cartier.

Floral fragrances are self-explanatory; one or more flowers are the dominant notes in these women's perfumes, with rose, jasmine, gardenia, and tuberose being the most popular. Floral fragrances are favored by feminine and romantic women. Floral fragrances are the most popular fragrance category, and Dior J'Adore, Stella McCartney Stella, Yves Saint Laurent Baby Doll and Salvatore Ferragamo Incanto Charms are just some of the many floral perfumes popular today.

Foody fragrances, also known as gourmand fragrances, are a relatively new category and are designed to appeal to a woman's (or her man's) sweet tooth; most of them feature chocolate or vanilla as the dominant note. Foody fragrances appeal to women who are nurturing and affectionate. Some currently popular foody fragrances are Aquolina Chocolovers, Thierry Mugler Angel, Britney Spears Fantasy, and Comptoir Sud Pacifique Vanille Abricot.

Oriental fragrances have warm, spicy top notes such as cinnamon, amber and musk. This type of women's perfume is favored by sophisticates with a sense of drama who are not afraid to be the center of attention. Some well-known classic oriental fragrances are Yves Saint Laurent Opium, Guerlain Shalimar and Calvin Klein Obsession.

Woody or chypre perfumes are spicy like orientals, but more mellow and natural. They feature wood and moss notes such as cedar, sandalwood, patchouli and vetiver, and are the most unisex of the six fragrance families. Women who prefer woody scents are likely to be free-spirited and earthy. Some currently popular woody fragrances are Gucci Rush, Fendi Palazzo and Miss Boucheron. 

Aloe Vera: Widely known for treating burns and sunburns. Aloe vera also helps in healing wounds and minor skin irritations such as itchiness and rashes. This plant produces anti inflammatory, anti bacterial, and anti fungal properties. It also contains folic acid, zinc, and vitamins C and E.

The best way to reap the benefits of aloe vera is to use the actual fresh gel from the plant. At the time of application, slice off a portion of the leaf and directly apply the gel to the affected area.

Calendula Cream (Golden marigold): It iswidely used in Germany, it is used for reducing inflammation and treating diaper rash. Experts say that Calendula works by stimulating the production of white blood cells that aid in destroying harmful microbes. You may purchase the cream from the pharmacies and health food stores. You may also use the actual herb by mixing it with boiling water, add one cup of the boiling water to two teaspoons of the herb. Steep for about ten minutes. Once the mixture is cooled, apply to the affected area with a clean cloth.

Chamomile: Has anti inflammatory properties that soothes and eliminates irritations. Chamomile is also used in treating eczema, psoriasis, and sunburn. People who are allergic to grass and ragweed may acquire an allergic reaction to chamomile.

Jewelweed: Provides relief from poison oak, poison ivy, and poison sumac. To use it, you should crush the fresh leaves and spread over the rashes.

Wild pansy: Soothes and relieves itching associated with eczema. This is also used for soothing acne.

Witch hazel: Acts as an astringent that relieves itching and minor skin inflammation. Also used for treating sunburns. For maximum benefit, use fresh witch hazel bark. Simmer one ounce of the bark with one pint of water and leave for ten minutes. Strain and cool. Apply with a clean cloth and leave it on for about thirty minutes

Many people in the world has the black hairs which are more brittle and more prone to breakage. Black hair needs special care because they are fragile and difficult to control. Black hair are always almost curly, although the degree of wave varies enormously. As a general rule, black hair is brittle and has a tendency to split and break. This is because the sebaceous glands produce insufficient sebum to moisturize the hair. They need special attention and special tips to make them last longer.

In addition, because the hair is tightly curled, the sebum is unable to travel downwards to condition it naturally. If the curl forms kinks, this makes the hair thinner and therefore weaker at each band.

Other type of black hair can be very fine making it difficult to style and hold a set.

To treat excessive dryness choose a specialist formulation that replace the natural oil lacking in black hair. If the product is massaged daily or whenever necessary, the hair will become more manageable with improved condition and shine. It is also important to deep condition the hair regularly.

Tips on black hair caring

• Hair need to be strong and healthy to take any type of chemical treatment. To check hair strength and natural elasticity, pluck out a hair and hold it firmly between both hands, then pull gently. If the hair breaks with hardly any stretching, it is in week and poor condition, in which all chemical treatments should be avoided.
• One of the most effective ways of styling very curly hair is to crop it close and short. With this type of cut you just need to shampoo, condition and finish it with soft wax.
• Massage the scalp regularly to encourage oil production.
• If you use hot combs or curling tongs, make sure you shield the hair by using a protective product.
• If the hair is pulled too forcibly too often, it will disrupt the hair folicles, cause scar tissue to form and ultimately hair loss. To help prevent this, avoid braiding or pulling the hair into tight braids.
• To prevent frizziness and maintain the definition of curls, special lotions called curl actibators and moisturising sprays can be used to revive and preserve the formation of curls.
• Black hair should be colored with caution because of its natural dryness and porosity.
• Once a month, try a hot oil treatment which will lubricate dry scalp condition as well as moisturise brittle hair.
• As with all chemical treatments, relaxing and pumming can be potentially harmful to the hair, removing natural moisture and leaving hair in a weakend state. For this reason it is advisable to get skilled professional help and advice.