BEAUTY OP-ED | An Ode to the Bath

IS THERE anything more relaxing than slipping below the still surface of a hot bath on a winter day… when clouds — too lazy to even shift in the sky — hang low and gray, bringing on night before your day seems to even begin? Coming in from your evening commute, you peel off your outer layers like a woolly onion, your cheeks, cold and firm, feel ruddy with the sudden warmth of the indoors. You’re barely through the door before walking to the bathroom, flicking on the lights and turning the metal knobs of the bath and stopping the drain. Somehow you’re schedule is wide open tonight — no drinks, no dinners, no work and nothing on the tellie.

The water drums against the tub floor as you puncture the steady stream with up-turned fingers to test the temperature. It’s a few degrees too hot. It’s perfect. When you step in, big toe first, steam curling up from the surface, sweat droplets form instantly on your upper lip. Incrementally you lower in, supported by your hands grasping the lip of the tub. First the feet. Take them out and re-submerge them. Then the calves and the backs of your legs as you gently sit down. The water envelopes your body right up to your belly button and you sit back letting it swallow you whole.

Salts added under the running tap massage your muscles into submission. The fragrant slick of oil on the surface eases your mind with each inhale....

Read the rest at Looking Good No Matter What.

HOW TO | Keep your skin in top form this winter

WITH EACH winter I plunge into a grumpy, hopeless state over what happens to my grown-up complexion, thus gifting me with my own special version of Seasonal Affective Disorder. I’m affected by the seasons, alright, but it’s because of my seasonal skin problems not the lack of sunlight. Winter plunges me into despair with rosacea in full ruddy bloom, spots that never heal, skin that’s dull and papery. Creams seem to be futile weapons against the onslaught of bone-dry air in my flat. I slather on a thick, butter-like layer before falling asleep and inevitably wake up to find that not only has my skin (and, yes, maybe my pillow case) drunk the entire lot, but it’s still the same dry mess it was the night before.

Over the years, I’ve been honing my artillery of skincare weapons and this winter I’m ready to go to war with the weather to save my skin. Here are the best tips I’ve gleaned from the experts and my own trial-and-error experience over recent rosacea-afflicted years.

1. Vitamin C

A notoriously useful brightener and anti-oxidant, Vitamin C can take your skin from dull to radiant in seconds. The trick is actually finding Vitamin C that’s in its active form – no easy feat (read more about that here). Most of the products touting Vitamin C have so little in such a degraded state that they’re just paying this wonder-vitamin lip service and not providing you with a useful amount in any sort of useful form. Vitamin C should be stored in powder form (or another un-activated form) until used (to contain its potency or it degrades with speed).

2. Exfoliate

Do this a few times a week to rid skin of dead skin and debris build-up. A scrub is fine, so is a gentle peel, mask or liquid exfoliator with gentle acids or Vitamin A derivatives. They’ll help keep your skin looking fresh even before you put on your skincare or makeup, which is the best sort of canvas to start with during any season. Plus – added bonus – Vitamin A creams and peels will help diminish fine lines.

3. Massage

While you’re applying your creams, serums or oils, really massage them into your skin. It’s a great way to get the blood to the surface of your complexion to create a healthy glow. And it feels good, relieves tension and means your really working in those products.

4. Highlighter

Many foundations and lotions now come filled with light-reflecting and brightening particles. Use these on well-moisturised skin instead of a tinted moisturiser or matte foundation. To make your own, add one part highlighting cream to two parts foundation (a non-drying formula), mix it in your palm and then apply it, starting at the center of your face and fanning outwards.

Product suggestion: La Prarie White Caviar Illuminating Cream

FIND OUT the other 5 winter skincare tips in my column at Looking Good No Matter What. Do you have any suggestions for keeping your skin in good form during winter months? Share them here!

HOW TO | Stick to an exercise program

AH, NOTHING like a swim… and a bike… and a run at the crack of dawn on a still Saturday morning, is there? No, there is not. Having completed my first triathlon last weekend — okay, fine it was a SUPERSPRINT (375m swim, 10k bike, 3k run) race, not long distance — I can say with conviction that there is nothing like it (except maybe a longer one). I snorted nose-fuls of water, felt my thighs cramp, my lungs burn. Despite all that, crossing that finish line (and not dead last. Top 10%, thank you very much) gave me a sense of accomplishment that no killer treadmill session nor Bosu cardio class ever could.

Why? Because it was all done with purpose. Which is — I’ll just give you the secret to sticking to any exercise program straight away — PARAMOUNT. There’s no denying that exercise however you can get it is beneficial. It alleviates depression, builds denser bones, curbs obesity, quells anger, combats chronic diseases, boosts energy and immunity and all sorts of other wonderous things.

However, I have been converted to the camp that believes exercising for the sake of exercising is about as productive for your mental and physical health as moving rocks from point A to point B and back again in a Russian prison. And I admit to having once been a strict believer in going to the gym simply to check it off my list, to say I had done it (as so many people do). Sadly, you might actually get better muscle definition with those Russian rocks than at level 2 on the Elliptical, if my experience says anything. My arms were never so ripped as they were after 7 days of climbing Kilimanjaro with walking sticks. Pointless gym exercise? 0. Moving with a purpose? 1.

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