Dry Winter Skin: How to Deal with it

Your skin in winter can become very dry - even to the point of being painful. I myself began feeling the effects of the cooler weather in early October. It usually doesn't hit me this hard but this year I'm having a real difficult time with it. My lips became tender and chapped, and I had to switch to a different formula of daily facial cleanser because the exfoliating beads in my current cleanser were irritating my skin. My face became red and flushed. I'll have to limit my daily exfoliation to just twice a week. Also my hands and feet became very dry.

Ah, winter. It can be so peaceful yet so unforgiving. Indoors you're subjected to dry heat and outdoors you're bombarded with harsh winter UV rays from the sun and chilling winds. Yes, the sun's rays are still just as dangerous as they are in the summer and they will reflect off any snowy surfaces, bouncing the rays right back on to you. You're going to need a good facial moisturizer with SPF in it.

Here are some more tips to help you combat dry winter skin:
1)Use a lip balm (preferably with SPF) and do not lick your lips under any circumstances. That just makes it worse.
2)Keep your hands moisturized with a good quality hand cream. Make sure you have a tube of hand cream with you at all times.
3)Drink plenty of water and limit your alcohol intake. Alcohol is a dehydrator.
4)Buy a humidifier if you don't already have one. It may help keep your heating bills down as well. You know, the whole heat and humidity thing. Think Amazon rainforest.
5)Use a shower filter. It will filter out the skin-drying chlorine in your tap water. Avoid using hot water in the shower even though it feels so good on a cold winter morning. It will only strip your skin of its natural oils and cause water to evaporate more quickly. Use warm water onyl. Also, it pays to switch from soap which can dry the skin, to a silky body wash which will help your skin retain moisture. Pat your skin dry when exiting the shower, don't rub. Apply a nice moisturizer while your skin is still damp to help seal in moisture.

When the humidity drops to 50 percent or less, you will need to pay even more attention to your moisturization routine. Stay away from harsh scrubs or cleansers since they will eliminate most of the skin's oils and dry your skin out more easily. This applies to skin care products as well as cleaning products.

My favorite winter skin care tip is before you go to bed, apply a thick, rich moisturizer to your feet, concentrating on the heel area. Then put on a nice cushy pair of socks. When you wake up your feet will be soft and smooth and well-hydrated.

Not paying attention to extremely dry skin can lead to health issues and act as a welcome mat for rashes and skin infections. So take good care of your skin and enjoy your winter!

Perfumes For Men And Women

If you want people to think that you are beautiful, attractive and good, then the easiest way to do it is to select the right perfume.

From its inception in human history, cosmetics have always played different roles in making people presentable. Perfumes are one of the most used cosmetics since then, even though they were not made of synthetic contents as of today. But the fact remains that in ancient times, perfumes were used as part of ritual cerimonies. Back then aromatic grasses, wood and spices like cinnamon, cardamoms and fenugreek were squeezed into fluid to produce perfume.

The word "perfume" has originated from a Latin word "parfumare" meaning "through smoke". Archeological researches say the concept of perfume came from Egypt. Of course, followed by other Chinese, Indians, Romanians and Greeks before the whole world made it daily-essential in their lives.

Even though in the ancient culture perfumes were considered womanly affair, in today's world there are as many male versions of perfumes as female ones. Some of the famous brands of male perfume are: Dolce & Gabbana, Hugo Boss, Jean Paul Gaultier, Tommy Hilfiger, and Weekend for men and many others.

Beware that brand perfume by itself is not considered a fragrance. There are style conscious men who wear perfume according to their moods. There are perfumes that go with their schedule, for instance corporate, semi-casual or casual perfumes. Some of the corporate brands of perfumes for men are Sean John, Armani, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, and Hugo Boss which are the most chosen perfumes internationally for corporate getup. While Armani has a few corporate fragrances with woody flavors, together with Calvin Klein perfumes are supposed to be most luring with a heavy masculine touch.

Also, Hugo Boss has been a famous brand, for both its cost and class. You don't have to earn like a CEO to wear Hugo Boss, but it certainly does make everyone to smell good!

There is a range of must-wear perfumes for party freaks, avid bikers or those to want to smell great even on weekends: Weekend for men, though is a new brand, does have a whole range of fragrances to make one's weekend sensual. Hugo Boss new collection with aqua elements are always recommended for casual wears. For bikers or car race fans - Ferrari, DKNY or Tommy Hilfiger are among great choices.

Where should a woman wear perfume? The answer is simple wherever they want to be kissed! We cannot talk about perfumes if we don't talk about women. Perfumes play a great role in women's sensuality.

All time favorite for any woman when it comes to perfumes are Christian Dior's collection: Dior's Jadore and Addict that have been in the market for a long time. For women who want to smell a bit sweet and yet want to leave a whiff of smell behind, it is suggested the latest collection of Burberry perfumes. And if sensuality is something your partner is luring for, go for Nina Ricci's spring-summer collection. The other perfumes that you can pick are Escada, Gap, or Tommy Hilfiger's exclusive girl's collections when you want to accompany him on a car race.

Apparently, a perfume is bottled to blend with natural odor to create a distinctive fragrance for your personality. So, you must use a single brand of perfume to make your signature style perfect over days and days. Last but not the least, you must not wear perfume over sweaty clothes to cover bad body odor, it makes the vicinity around that personal intolerable. Perfumes, as the saying goes were used as a tribute to Gods so they must be sprayed when you are clean.

Facts To Know About Perfume

Perfume (Latin "per fume" meaning "through smoke") was highly favored by the Egyptians, Romans, and Arabs. In East Asia, perfumes were incense based. People used to make perfumes from spices and herbs like bergamot, myrtle, coriander, conifer resin, and almond. The use of flowers came only after Avicenna, an Iranian doctor and chemist showed the process of distillation, whereby oils could be extracted from flowers. In 1370, at the behest of Queen Elizabeth of Hungary, the world's first modern perfume - "Hungary Water" was made by blending scented oils in alcohol solution.

The composition of a perfume is of vital significance and is handled by an expert known as a perfumer, who deals with primary scents like rose, jasmine, cola, etc; modifiers like esters; blenders like linalool and hydroxycitronellol; and fixatives like resins, wood scents, and amber bases. The resulting scent is explained in a musical metaphor of three 'notes', namely, top notes (consisting of fast evaporating small size molecules) like citrus and ginger scents; middle notes (consisting of slow evaporating medium size molecules) like lavender and rose scents; and base notes (consisting of slowest evaporating largest size molecules) like fixatives etc. All these notes work together like a musical chord.

Perfume oils contain volatile compounds in high concentrations and thus have to be diluted by solvents, so that injury is not caused when applied directly on skin or clothes. The common solvent is pure ethanol or ethanol mixed with water. Fractionated coconut oil or wax, neutral smelling fats such as jojoba, can also act as solvents and dilute the perfume oil. The perfume oil is further mixed with other aromatic compounds. Generally, the percentage of aromatic compounds in perfume extract is 20% to 40%; in eau de parfum is 10% to 30%; in eau de toilette is 5% to 20%; and in eau de cologne is 2% to 5%.

The oil concentration in a perfume along with other aromatic compounds, determines the intensity, longevity, and price of the perfume and thus it is a closely guarded secret of every perfumer and perfume house. By adjusting the percentage level and the notes of the perfume, variations on the same brand may be created like Chanel's Pour Monsieur and Pour Monsieur Concentree.

Classification of perfumes is never complete, due to its ever-evolving nature. The traditional classification comprises of categories like Single Floral, Floral Bouquet, Ambery, Woody, Leather, Chypre, and Fougere; while the modern classification comprises of Bright Floral, Green, Oceanic/Ozone, Citrus/Fruity, and Gourmand. In 1983, Michael Edwards, a perfume consultant, created a new fragrance classification "The Fragrance Wheel", which classified and sub-grouped five standard families, namely Floral (Floral, Soft Floral, Floral Oriental), Oriental (Soft Oriental, Oriental, Woody Oriental), Woody (Wood, Mossy Woods, Dry Woods), Fougere (has fragrance elements from all the families), and Fresh (Citrus, Green, Water).

Perfumery has used a number of aromatic sources like plants, animals, and synthetic sources in the making of perfumes. Plants are used as a source of aroma compounds and essential oils. The parts of plants that are used are:

1 - Bark (cinnamon, cascarilla);
2 - Flowers (rose, jasmine, osmanthus, tuberose, mimosa, vanilla);
3 - Blossoms (citrus, ylang-ylang, clove);
4 - Fruits (apples, strawberries, cherries, litsea cubeba, juniper berry, vanilla, oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit);
5 - Leaves and Twigs (lavender, patchouli, citrus, violets, sage, rosemary, hay, tomato);
6 - Resins (labdanum, myrrh, gum benzoin, Peru balsam, frankincense/olibanum, pine, fir, amber, copal);
7 - Roots, Bulbs, and Rhizomes (vetiver roots, ginger and iris rhizomes);
8 - Seeds (coriander, cocoa, mace, cardamom, anise, nutmeg, caraway, tonka bean);
9 - Woods (agarwood, birch, rosewood, sandalwood, pine, birch, juniper, cedar).

Animal sources include Ambergris, Castoreum, Musk, Rom terpenes, Honeycomb, and Civet. Other natural sources include Lichens and Protists. Synthetic sources include synthetic odorants synthesized from petroleum distillates, pine resins, etc. Modern perfumes are mostly made from synthetic sources as they allow fragrances not found in nature, like Calone is a synthetic compound that imparts a marine metallic ozonous fragrance. Synthetic aromatics are more consistent than natural aromatics, and are hence, widely used nowadays in modern available perfumes.

How to Obtain Optimal Health

You should already know that nutrition is very important to your quality of life. If you want to have a healthy life and lifestyle, you will need to have a healthy diet with proper nutrition. You might hear all the time that your nutrition greatly affects the way you live and your quality of life but have you ever really thought about why? Do you really understand why it is so important?

If you really want to take the steps to live the long life that you deserve and to be as healthy as possible and enjoy those years, than you need to learn all you can about the importance of optimal nutrition. What you eat really affects your body and health.

1. What is optimal nutrition?
2. What nutrients do you need to be healthy?
3. What foods give you these nutrients?

Importance of Optimal Nutrition
Optimal nutrition is very important to your overall health and fitness. Studies have shown that people can actually live longer if they have healthy nutrition. It is proven that there is a link between optimal nutrition and long life and long term health.

If you take a look at society, you will notice an increasingly large number of people that are overweight and obese. You will also see problems such as poor teeth and acne, dry, brittle skin, dry hair and other problems. You will find many people on medications for headache, stomach problems, acid reflux, constipation, heart disease, high blood pressure and more. What may be more alarming than the high amount of medications is the fact that most people receive very little information about what is actually causing their disease or condition. Instead, they get a pill.

What many people never know is that what they are eating (or not eating) can be causing these health problems. You also need to understand that you will have to make changes and adjustments to your intake over the years and stages of your life. Just like toddlers need a different diet from teenagers, you also need to alter your diet as you continue through all of life's stages. Understanding what is best for you through each stage of your life is the best way to remain in optimal health.

Micro and Macronutrients
Many people hear that they need proper nutrition but just what does that mean exactly? What nutrients do you need to be healthy? Optimal nutrition will include a variety of different micronutrients and macronutrients. Micronutrients include certain vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Macronutrients include carbohydrates, proteins and fats that make up the foods you eat.

There is too often a lot of myth surrounding the nutrients, our bodies and how we use these nutrients. This is why it is very important that you get all the facts when planning to change your lifestyle and diet. Many people are suffering from malnutrition and may not even know it. Many overweight individuals may be suffering from malnutrition. Just because you are eating does not mean you are eating the right things.

Micronutrients are the vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that your body needs to be healthy. The specific ones and amounts of each will depend on your body, sex, age and other factors. Every person is different so there is not one set plan that works for everyone. You need to learn what works for you. As you change, grow older, etc. this will change again and you will continue to have to adjust this.

Macronutrients are the carbs, proteins and fats that you get from foods. The amounts of these that you need will vary as well. This is where many myths come in about what you should or should not eat. The facts are that too much of anyone can be bad and not enough can be bad. It's all about finding a balance. This means those "All-Carb" or "No Carb" diets that are so popular on the market are really not the best thing for you.

What you choose to ingest in your body has a big impact on your overall health and your general well-being. People now eat more fast foods and frozen dinners and other quick meals that are not very nutritious at all. Some of these foods even have additives in them that can make them addictive so that you want more and more. People typically eat out of hunger and many of these foods do not work to satisfy your hunger leaving you wanting more or something else. Yet, they still have many calories and fat and other things that your body does not need.

Make the Committment
If you are serious in obtaining optimal health to the best of your ability, then take a look at your lifestyle in general. Are you eating the right foods? Are you exercising? Are you getting plenty of fresh air on a daily basis? Do you have positive relationships? If you find yourself answering "no" to these questions, then make the commitment to change. Talk with your family, friends, or a nutritionist. Check to see if there are support groups in your area related to health and lifestyle changes. Look into joining your local gym. Do your research and then purchase the right nutritional supplements that will help you achieve your goals.

If you at least try to make a change in one area, more are sure to follow! You are now on your way to optimal health.

Dealing With Parental Stress

One of the biggest problems with having children is the remarkable fact that they tend to be the source of parental stress. This is, obviously, the unique stress that comes from being a parent and having to worry about the fact that your kids are growing up, learning new things, living their lives their own way, and -- all too often -- figuring out things the hard way. In addition, you have to worry about your kids making the right decisions, staying out of trouble, and just generally turning into human beings just like you. Needless to say, this tends to create a lot of parental stress.

Being a parent isn't easy. After all, you are responsible for raising, instructing, and helping children as they work their way from an infant into adulthood. And even when they go off on their own, you still worry about them as they make their way through the world. Despite the fact that they move on into adulthood, you never stop being a parent and you want to make sure that they are doing okay. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done and it is not easy to let them go. Thus, you find yourself both trying to give them freedom and trying to hang on to them as they go out into the world.

The problem becomes one of both trying to keep a hold of your children and trying to let them be their own people. Thus, in order to allow you children to move on, you need to learn to let them go. That's right, in order to ease parental stress, you need to learn how to be less of a parent. In fact, you need to learn how to let them make their own mistakes. This is very difficult, since you will have to watch them as they go through the process of growing up, largely without your help. This can be very difficult, since you will want to protect them from the world. But the world will show up sometime and you will need to let them learn to deal with it. Needless to say, this will only make parental stress worse for a while, since you will be essentially standing on the sidelines as they make errors that you could have warned them against. Just remember that it will do them good in the long run and they will be better for it.

However, this does not mean that you shouldn't keep an eye on your children. Let's face it, you are still a parent and you need to watch over your children. Trying to cope with parental stress will not be improved by being completely ignorant of your children. Instead, let them be themselves as you try to keep an eye on them. They will find their own way, even if you do not always enjoy the path that they have to go down to get there. Just allow them to be imperfect and they will learn what they need to know in the process.

But when the stress of child-raising gets to be too much, don't be afraid to get help. There are plenty of support groups, books, and websites out there that want to help you through your parental stress. Don't be afraid to give them a try, if for no other reason than to stay informed. Nobody said it was going to be easy, so try to keep your stress under control. Then, by keeping it under control, you can survive a lot of difficult situations and a lot of difficult years and prevent yourself from going crazy with worry.

Just remember that your children will, eventually, become rebellious and they will probably try to act in a way that may shock you. It is well-known that parental stress can be fairly severe during the teenage years, since teenagers are always eager to go their own way. And if that doesn't increase parental stress, nothing will. You will often find yourself on the sideline, trying to figure out what is going on in their heads, but try to remember that you were their age once. Teenagers aren't perfect. Neither are adults. Keep both of those items in mind and you may be able to keep your parental stress to a minimum.

No, parental stress is not easy. No, it is not simple to solve. No, there is no point where you can just let your children go completely. However, by managing your own parental stress, allowing your children to grow up, and understanding that your children need to make their own mistakes sometimes, you can keep your emotions under control and allow your children to be themselves. So, rather than allowing parental stress to take over your life, let parental stress take a backseat to keeping an eye on your children, making sure that they are doing fine, and enjoying the years when they are growing from youth to adulthood and beyond.

The Main Cause of Insomnia?

Well in my opinion the main thing that keeps us tossing and turning at night is worrying about not going to sleep.

Sure there might be other reasons for sleeplessness; chronic pain, restless legs syndrome, partner disturbance, too much coffee...

But at the end of the day you're lying there worrying about how you're going to get through the next day if you don't get to sleep *right now!*

Worry and the stress it causes, are by far the main causes of sleeplessness, and the sad part is, the more we worry, the more wide awake we feel. But what can we do about it?

We have to empty our conscious minds of worrying and stressful thoughts (yeah right! Easier said than done!)

Stress and worry can affect your sleep quite dramatically. It can be an isolated stressful incident which keeps you awake for a few nights, or the stress and worry may be chronic. Once they becomes a habit, certain situations will then always cause you to become stressed.

Worry in particular can become a habit and like any habit, is very difficult to break (just ask us smokers, um... ex smokers out there!) But it can be done. You have to train your mind to either let go of a thought, or replace one thought with another.

If you suffer from insomnia, whether you're having trouble going to sleep or staying asleep, stress could be the cause. Your sleeping problems can then cause more stress which in turn makes it even harder to sleep. How can you stop worrying and stop this vicious cycle?

The most important thing is to try and work out what you are telling yourself when you are worrying about something. We talk to ourselves all the time whether we are aware of it or not. What thoughts are going through your mind that are causing your bad feelin! gs?

For example, you may be sitting in a traffic jam thinking, "I'm going to be late for work if this stupid traffic doesn't start moving soon. Then I'll be rushing around all day trying to get everything done! Which means I probably won't have time to buy a proper lunch and I'll have to grab something quick and greasy! Well there goes the diet ..."

Enough! Why torture yourself with this rubbish? Make it a habit to stop these thoughts as soon as they start. How? Just substitute them with better thoughts! Have a list of thoughts that make you feel good and think about them instead! This will reduce stress significantly and with practice, it will get easier and easier.

If you're having trouble doing this, try doing in in two steps. When you catch yourself worrying, say "STOP!" Picture a big red stop sign right in front of you. Concentrate on this until it breaks you train of worrying thoughts.

Then you can start thinking your pleasant thoughts, a movie you enjoyed, a present from your children, whatever makes you happy!

Your mind is extremely powerful - put it to work for you and not against you!

Top 5 ways to stay calm and reduce stress

Top 5 ways to stay calm and reduce stress

Are you looking for more calm satisfying experience with you daily life?

Do you get frustrated with yourself at the end of the day because you've gotten stressed, unfocused or agitated?

Are you tired of getting over emotional and worn out.

Whether you are experiencing one or all of these feelings here are my 5 best tips on reducing the unwanted feelings so that you will feel calm and satisfied with yourself each day.

1. Catch yourself when you exhibit a feeling of behavior that you don't like and change it.
At first you may not notice the feeling until after you have gone through it, that's fine.

Think about how you would rather have felt.

Think about how you would rather have handled yourself. Decide how you want to do it next time.

As you continue with this process each day you will find that you will notice more easily what you are doing throughout the day.

You will begin to catch yourself earlier and earlier as you do this.

Eventually, you will be seeing yourself while you are doing it, then stop yourself.

At some point you will be able to notice before you even begin to feel and react in the undesirable way.

Here is where you will actually begin to change the way you react to the situations in your life and change your behavior.

2. Stay centered all day by refocusing throughout the day.
Develop the habit of paying attention to your mindset as the day goes on.

Several times a day, step away from what you are doing to get re-centered.

Sit down close your eyes and take several long slow deep breaths while imagining the tension washing slowly out of your body.

Notice your breathing getting slower and calmer.

Just think about your breath.

Try to keep from thinking about anything in particular.

It's ok to not be actively thinking for a while!

3. Watch out for your expectations.
You are setting yourself up for failure, upset and frustration when you set too many standards as to how you think things should be.

Think about what leads you to getting upset?

Why does it upset you?

Notice that you decide how many things should be, based on your own outlook and desire.

The things others do that are not to your liking, even the things you do that don't match your expectations.

Ask yourself, really how important is it that they be exactly that way

Ask, who am I to insist that they are that way?

Does it matter that much?

Is it worth getting myself worked up about?

Choose which expectations are really important for you to hold on to and which ones are not.

Holding on to many expectations just complicates your life, with constant judgment.

Simplify your life and reduce the stress!

4. Delegate.
This applies to your personal life as well as at work.

Most of us think of delegating as a workplace skill, but it can apply personally as well.

We are all very busy these days with our activities and duties.

Trying to fit it all in and get it all accomplished can lead to tension.

For various reasons, many of us have developed the habit of thinking we must do it all ourselves.

Take a look at your situation.

Think about it, really, how important is it that everything must be done perfectly to your standards?

Are you sure there are not other people who can assist you. Are the other people in your life pulling their weight?

Many times we get into habitual ruts that don't need to be as they are.

Look at what has been, with the eye of reducing the pressure on yourself.

5. Accept other people as one.
As you think of yourself as different and separate from the rest of mankind, you unknowingly create thinking and behavior that separates you from others.

This kind of separate thinking leads us to think we are superior to others which leads to judgment then selfish thinking and behavior.

We are then having an internal battle with others, which brings on fear, competition and comparison, ending in frustration and anxiety.

Look to discovering how to see yourself as one with all of mankind, not as separate.

Focus on what we have in common rather that the relatively small uniqueness.