Make Me Beautiful

Almost anyone can have beautiful skin that they can be proud of if you are prepared to apply this essential anti aging skin care regime regularly, you will see improvement. It is possible to have beautiful skin at any age. While plastic surgery and other invasive techniques have been incredibly popular in the past, mainly because they provide near instant results, that is no longer the case with modern skin care. The financial benefit of skin care products over conventional cosmetic surgery is huge but there are also health benefits which cosmetic enhancement procedure cannot match.

When we think of skin care products for mature skin, we typically are referring to cold cream and anti-aging formulas. There are countless items that promote healthy, youthful skin and these may be some of the most important skin care products on the market. With all the hard work our skin has to put up with, the least we can do is look after it.

The first and most important step in any anti aging skin care regimen is to cleanse your face to remove any makeup, dust and bacteria that it has encountered throughout the day. This part must be carried out with a quality face cleanser placed on a cotton pad moved in a circular pattern then washed with clean warm water, drying with a soft towel but take care not to rub the skin when you do this.

Applying toner rids your skin of any excess cleanser and restores your skins natural PH balance. Make sure that you take time to add a little lotion and massage to your routine as moisturizers make your skin look and feel soft and supple and can minimize the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. By using this skin care product it will help lock in the moisture which helps to maintain the skins elasticity and condition.

Every week, at least once or twice a week, as part of your anti aging skin care regime you should exfoliate the skin to remove dead cells which will help provide a deeper cleanse. Be sure your exfoliation product is gentle on the skin. Hard abrasive products could damage your skin and cause small scars on the surface. Don’t forget to make sure that you finish off with toner and moisturizer afterwards.

The most delicate skin on the face is underneath the eyes. Eye creams are used to help maintain this area of the face and they are specially formulated skin care products that reduce the appearance of puffiness, dark circles, fine lines and wrinkles and to help improve elasticity and firmness. These anti aging eye cream products are usually formulated with a very light oil base to moisturize this extremely delicate area of the face. Always apply your eye cream with the pinky finger to make sure you don’t pull and tug at this area causing premature lines to form.

Ensure you drink plenty of water, exercise regularly and eat a nutrient rich diet to help keep your skin looking youthful, radiant and beautiful. A healthy lifestyle is the foundation to vibrant, young looking skin.

Find out how you can save hundreds of dollars per year, by making your own high end anti aging skin care products.

By Danielle Sims

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After a long long autumn/winter season, we have come to the new season of fashion - Spring and Summer 2008. Spring is the start of year and season of new hope. Fashion designers has brought along the new life of spring and fill up their designs with vivid colors and freshness. Below are some of the major trends of fashion this year :

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I love book shopping. Strolling leisurely along the aisles with rows and rows of books, you never know what treasures you might come across. Some of my best discoveries have been books that had randomly caught my eye. I like to think its fate. This is probably why I love book shopping. But anyway, my latest treasure has been, “The Cult of the Luxury Brand,” by Radha Chadha and Paul Husband. I’m sure you can imagine why it might have caught my attention…. This book focuses on the cult of the luxury brand in Asia, which takes up 37% of the $80bn USD global luxury brand market, while Europe and US only take up 35% and 24% respectively. I think in this case, “cult” is definitely the right word. Living in one of the centers of this phenomenon, and admittedly to most degrees being part of it, I’ve always wonder why we behave the way we do. And as much as I wince at being labeled as part of the luxury glutton society, I must say, Chadha and Husband comes up with some intriguingly insightful points.

Their main thesis is that “luxury brands are a modern set of symbols that Asians are wearing to redefine their identity and social position,” which I guess for the most part is true, but that is kind of obvious. Here are a few other points which I thought were interesting:

• The Spread of Luxury model, where they split the luxury evolution in Asia to 5 stages: Subjugation, Start of Money, Show Off, Fit In and Way of life. I think they are all pretty self explanatory and pretty accurate
• The single parasites is the group of young women aged 20-35 in Asia who are still living at home with their parents. Since they do not have to pay for rent etc, they have a larger disposable income to spend on luxury goods- which they do in hoards!
• One of the reasons that luxury consumption is so big in Japan is because while the Western culture celebrates individuality, the Japanese culture (and indeed most Asian cultures ) places great emphasis on conformity and fitting in. So when the majority of people wear luxury brands, the rest of the people need to wear it too. That is probably why 94% of Japanese woman in their 20s own a Louis Vuitton
  
• In Tokyo (and other small cities I suppose), because the apartments are so small and expensive, it is difficult to show off wealth and success. And so people have turned to luxury brands as the best way to display their success- by literally wearing it!
  
• For the Chinese, their love for brands stems from their Confucius roots, which places a lot of importance on “family face.” And so, today Chinese see luxury brands as a way to show “face” and signify their success
  
• In Hong Kong, luxe consumption has been adopted as the central ideology. Making money and blowing it on the luxuries of life is the one thing that the people are clear about, while on everything else, from politics, culture to patriotism, ambiguity reigns. Coming from Hong Kong, I must say, I totally agree
• In Korea, there is a clash between their love for luxe (Burberry is apparently the Korean word for trench coat!) and their culture. Luxe consumption is seen as “sinful” since frugality and moderation is very big in their culture. Additionally, nationalism is also very big and so wearing imported goods is also frowned upon. No wonder Koreans typically dress in more subtle designer brands (those I know anyway)!
  

These are just some of the more interesting points that I remember off hand. At this point, I’d usually expend on how awesome this book is and how much I love it. But I find that this time, I cannot quite do that because I am still unsure about my feelings towards this book. On one hand, I thought it made some very clever, valid and insightful points about this phenomena. But on the other, I felt that it made the consumers caught in the heat of this phenomena sound like a bunch of fools continuously chasing after greater materialism trying to fit in and outdo each other at the same time. Maybe they were just writing it as it is and I just took it too personally because I admit that despite being fully aware of this materialistic path I am taking, I am still part of this phenomenon. Maybe the truth is just hard for me to accept, when put down so matter-of-factly. But I still cannot help but feel defensive. Now you can see why I feel so unsure about this book.

Image Source: Cult of the Luxury Brand

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Andrea writes about Plus Size Clothing . Visit us for plus size deals on a Plus Size Dress at http://plus-size.discountsonline.com

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Fresh from a spa week at Hermes in Beverly Hills, is this fantastic 40 cm Fjord Black Leather Birkin from 2000 with GOLD hardware. Why the spa? Well, the bag needed a little re-conditioning, and the spa was just want the doctor ordered. The bag has come back looking wonderful, as if it were never used. We all know that 40 cm Birkins are tough to find and gold hardware is so desirable, so satiate yourself with finally owning a bag that we call “required” at Decades. Naturally, we also think 25, 30, and 35 cm Birkins are required, too. As are 28, 32, and 35 Kellys. A few Constance bags…a Trim….a 404….well we could go on and on!

Note: This bag is NOT priced at UNDER Hermes current retail price. Rather, it is priced at a premium OVER retail, so please consider this when making your inquiry.

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