Have you ever wondered how celebrities and stars manage to maintain flawless skin for those countless close-ups, despite their hectic schedule? Worse still, they often spend their days in heavy make-up. Some days, I feel as though I’ve spent a lifetime seeking the answer to this riddle.
Continue reading "Actress Kerry Washington Reveals Her Beauty Secrets" »
Living in the heat of a southern California summer while trying to maintain a fresh face of make-up can be quite difficult. Personally, unless I am indoors with air conditioning, I can feel my skin becoming slick and my powder foundation begins to look muddy. Luckily, there are some easy to follow tips that can help with these issues without having to stop all of the outdoor summer fun.
Continue reading "Prevent Melting Make-Up in the Summer Heat" »
In this day and age, we commonly purchase almost everything online. I, for one, adore online shopping! It’s so convenient, and things can get shipped right away. However, when something appears too good to be true, it probably is. These days, fraud is everywhere online. So while clothes, electronics, and pet toys, to name a few, are great when purchased online, more important and/or expensive items should only be bought from reputable and known websites. When it comes to skin care, makeup, or beauty products, I become even more wary, because there might be health risks involved. Unless it is from the original manufacturer’s website (Skinmedica.com, iSClinical.com), I would not purchase any skincare or beauty products online.
Recently Yahoo! Shine caught up with Lucy Hale – she is one
of the stars of ABC Family’s hit show, Pretty Little Liars - to get her tips on
how to look awake even when you aren’t feeling so energetic. Living in Los Angeles,
we all have fast paced full schedules which usually does not give us much time
to rest. I found her tips to be pretty
helpful, and decided to share some tips of my own for looking less tired!
Cover up dark circles. Being tired causes your skin to react in ways that it normally doesn’t. For example, the delicate area under your eyes can get drier than normal, causing you to look even more tired. This is because the skin thins as it become more dry, and the dark, purplish muscle underneath shows through. Make sure you moisturize the area before you apply your concealer to get more even coverage. Also, you will have more wrinkles in that area when you are tired, so apply a primer so that your makeup will stay put longer and not cake into the wrinkles.
Put away the tweezers. Thicker brows are in! Not only are fuller brows now the trend, but if you have thicker, softly arched brows, it can make your eyelids look higher so that you seem more alert. Stronger eyebrows also can draw attention away from your tired eyes. Did too much tweezing in your younger years? My trick is to not only just use Latisse for my lashes, but after applying some to my lashes, I use a little to touch up my brows as well! (Latisse is a prescription product; contact your facial plastic surgeon for more details.)
Add some color to your lips! When you are tired, your eyes are usually the most obvious indicator. You want to add a bold color to your lips so that it distracts from your eyes and also wakes up your entire face! Need a little help in the lip department for fuller lips? A commonly used lip filler is Juvederm, and in the hands of a board certified facial plastic surgeon, you will have natural looking fuller lips in less than an hour!
What tips and tricks do you find helpful for looking awake? Share your comments below!
The other day, a cashier asked my age as I was purchasing NyQuil
(who knew you had to be over 21 to buy NyQuil?). My mind went blank and I
stuttered for a few moments as I stumbled towards an answer. This led to the
thought that it would be nice if you could be the age you felt inside. You want
to look your best at your age, and to do that, you have to take care of
yourself first. With that in mind, try these tips to pamper yourself and start
looking younger!
Manage your time and stress level. Make sure you are getting plenty of sleep every night and drinking plenty of water. When I look haggard, I usually haven’t gotten a good night’s sleep or am extremely stressed...or both! Stress truly does make you look (and feel) older! Manage your stress levels with exercise, meditation, reading, or any hobby you find enjoyable and diverting. Adequate sleep is also a big factor, so set a bedtime and keep it - you will be more productive if you are well rested.
Enhance what you have. Looking the best that you can does not mean trying to look like someone else. You truly want to augment and highlight the features you already have. Make your lashes stand out with Latisse, brighten up your skin with Lytera, revitalize your lips and regain that plump pout again with fillers such as Juvederm and Belotero. There are so many fast, easy options available to smooth fine lines, reduce wrinkles, and even out your skin tone. Make sure you look your best!
Finally, prevent additional aging. Wear sunscreen daily, as it can reduce as much as 25% of skin aging. Using Botox before brow lines or crow’s feet become too prominent or, worse still, permanent can help delay the tell-tale signs of aging.
Let’s all get “carded” when we stock up on NyQuil. Look like you feel, and feel great!
One of the key factors for youth and beauty is glowing, even
toned-skin. Therefore, as you get older,
you must become more vigilant in applying sunscreen. Ultra-violet (UV) radiation from the sun is
the most common cause for uneven skin tone (or hyperpigmentation). Also, skin cell turnover slows down as you
age, and that can also cause your once radiant skin to appear dull. With the right products and proper care, you
can turn back the signs on the clock.
Just look at the picture that Jennifer Aniston (44 years old) just
posted without makeup! At the Chow
Center for Facial Plastic Surgery, we recommend that you follow these steps to
be on your way to brighter skin.
As you may already know, the Chow
Center for Facial Plastic Surgery has recently added a clinical esthetician to
our staff. Naturally, I immediately took advantage of this opportunity! I
sought her out because of a large pimple I had the other day, which I wanted
(needed!) to be gone by the weekend. She knows a tremendous amount about
cosmetic skin care (she’s been in the field or training since the age of 12),
and she gave me some great advice about just what I’ve been doing wrong all
these years. I learned some great tips, and I wanted to share some of them with
you.
To help you sort out what you need for your skin type, here are some recommendations from Dr. Chow and our clinical esthetician, Anita:
BB creams (beauty or blemish creams) which were very popular in Asia have now officially began to catch on in the US. BB creams are basically over the counter multi-tasking tinted moisturizers that help hydrate and even out your skin tone while providing your skin with some common antioxidants. They even treat pimples and blemishes to a degree. But now, the beauty industry is introducing what it hopes will be yet another craze: CC creams!
CC creams are color or complexion correcting creams. While not as effective as medical grade skin care, they are similar to BB creams but offer more pigment, a more matte finish, and are not as sheer as BB creams. What do you think? Will you be giving CC creams a try?
In a recent blog entry, we noted that one of the key factors
to looking great is good skin and provided tips on how to keep your skin healthy. If you missed that article, you can read it
here. Have you been following these tips and still find yourself with skin
woes? Maybe you didn’t know about some
of these surprising things that can ruin your skin!
Caffeine. Are you a caffeine addict like me? I must have my coffee every morning in order to get through the day. However, caffeine is a mild diuretic, which means that it causes you to get rid of the water in your body. This, in turn, leads to dry skin. So if you drink a lot of coffee daily, remember to also drink lots of water in order to keep your skin hydrated. Drinking at least 8 cups of water a day will keep the wrinkles away and fight off aging!
Wash off your makeup. Going to sleep and leaving your makeup on overnight can lead to clogged pores (causing acne), and not to mention leaves makeup residue all over your pillow case. Dirty pillow cases also can contain bacteria and other stuff that can cause you to break out, so make sure you wash your pillow cases and don’t go to sleep without washing your face. A great thing to have handy are makeup remover wipes, so even if you are too tired to wash your face, just keep these by your bed so you can just wipe your face before going to sleep!
Sugar. Fight that sweet tooth! We all know that too much candy and sugar is bad for your teeth (and weight), but it’s also surprisingly bad for your skin. When you eat more sugar than your body needs, it can make your skin dull and wrinkled because it harms the collagen in your skin. So rather than reaching for sweets, eat fruit instead. Your body and skin (and teeth!) will thank you down the line.
Eating healthy and exercising will also help keep your body and skin in tip top shape. With the right diet, skin care regime, and exercise, you will be well on your way to looking great for your age. What other surprising things have you found that can ruin your skin? Share your tips and comments below!
As most facial plastic surgeons have been telling their patients for many years, excessive sun exposure not only increases the risk of skin cancer, but also causes many of the signs of aging we see. At the Chow Center for Facial Plastic Surgery, I have regularly recommended that my patients apply sunscreen on a daily basis, if not even more frequently, when out enjoying the Southern California sun. Now, a new study in the Annals of Internal Medicine (paid subscription required) brings scientific support for the use of daily sunscreen. In mostly middle-aged individuals with fair skin, use of daily sunscreen meant no detectable skin aging after 4.5 years.
Wearing sunscreen on a daily basis not only decreases the risk of skin cancer, but can keep you looking young!
One of the key factors to looking great is good skin. As the largest organ in the body, it’s one of
the first things that others notice when they look at you! Now that the rising temperatures and melting
makeup of summer is right around the corner, you want to have great skin so
that you can lookyour best for the season. Unfortunately, most of us are cursed
with less than perfect skin. Don’t be
discouraged, though--everyoneneeds a little help in the skin department sooner
or later. Here are some great tips for keeping your skin clear!
Mother’s Day is right around the corner, and we all can’t
help but think of our mothers as the holiday approaches. When I was younger, my mom always used to
give me advice, but (of course!) I never listened.
Now that I am older, I have realized that many of the things she told me were true! So in the spirit of Mother’s Day, here is some beauty advice from my dear mother that I have found to be the most useful.
What is your normal makeup routine? I don’t usually put much on, since I don’t like the feeling of a lot of product on my face. For my birthday recently, one of my girlfriends gave me a gorgeous highlighter blush. Given my dislike of too much makeup, I hadn’t really used one before. Still, I had to use this gift! I ended up loving it so much that it has become an important part of my daily routine!
Highlighting is important because it can accentuate your best features and also hide imperfections. A little goes a long way! Since I have a highlighter/blush combo (bobbiebrown.com), I just brush a bit on top of my cheekbones (over my bronzer). It definitely helps to define my cheeks, making them stand out far more than before. Not only that, but highlighting your cheekbones can also help draw attention away from any bags beneath your eyes! It can brighten your facial appearance, making you look healthier and happier.
Another great makeup trick is to highlight the top of the bridge of your nose. This will not only make your face appear more oval and longer, but it can also give you the appearance of a taller, straighter nose (which many Asians desire).
Do you incorporate highlighting or contouring into your beauty routine? Share your tips and tricks below!
Taking the time to take care of your skin will really pay
off as your get older. Great skin
equates to youthfulness and beauty. As
with many things, it is always best to prevent a problem before you have to fix
it. For example, it is much easier to try
to prevent dark spots on your skin than it is to try to get rid of the ones
that you already have. So if you are
taking the time to take care of your skin, you will find yourself with at least
a handful of skin care products. A
question that I frequently get from patients is how and when should they apply
their skin care products?
