January is coming to a close, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t continue making goals for yourself for the year. You’ve probably already made some resolutions for 2016 that you may or may not be keeping up with. It’s not too late, however, to make your beauty routine a part of your resolutions for the year. There are always changes that can be made to help you look and feel healthier, and improve your confidence.

Revamp your beauty routine this year. (Photo: cvseventh,com)

Hair

Make an effort to start taking better care of your hair this year. This could be the year to leave you blow-dryer behind. Maybe not for good, of course, but reducing your use of blow-dryers and other heat styling products can save your hair from a lot of damage. Natural texture is in this year anyway, so why not lay off the heat a little? To make this even easier, stop washing your hair every day – stick to two or three times a week. Use dry shampoo to absorb grease while still leaving your hair with the natural oils that washing it strips away. Use a hair mask once a week to repair and nourish your hair.

Try Moroccanoil Restorative Hair Mask to repair damaged hair. (Photo: Feelunique.com)

Finally, get a trim regularly. You may be hesitant to trim often if you’re trying to grow out your hair, or maybe you just forget to schedule regular appointments. Either way, try to change your tune this year. Trimming helps get rid of split ends and keeps your hair healthy. If you’re forgetful like me, ask your hairstylist next time you go in when you should come back, and try to schedule an appointment right then and there.

Face and skin

Resolve to give your face and skin some extra love this year as well. The most important step you can take keep your skin healthy and looking good is to wear sunscreen every day. You may put sunscreen on hold in the winter months, or maybe you only break it out on the hottest days of the summer. This is a big mistake – the sun can damage your skin no matter how warm or cold it feels outside. At the very least, this sun damage can lead to lines and wrinkles. At the worst, it can cause much more serious issues like skin cancer. Avoid any of these unwanted effects by just throwing on some sunscreen under your makeup every day. To easier implement this in to your routine, try a foundation with SPF.

Mac Studio Fix Fluid Foundation provides protection from the sun and a great full coverage foundation for your makeup. (Photo: MAC)

Another positive step you could take this year is to make sure you wash your face every night. Leaving makeup on overnight can cause your skin to become irritated and break out. Use a cleansing wash before bed and have some makeup wipes on hand for nights when you’re feeling particularly lazy or tired and are tempted to skip washing. Making this a habit will significantly improve your skin.

Use Neutrogena Deep Clean Oil-Free Makeup Remover Cleansing Wipes to take off your makeup at the end of the day. (Photo: Soap.com)

In addition, if you use makeup brushes, make sure you are washing them as well. You can wash your face all you want, but if your brushes aren’t clean, your face won’t be either. Unwashed brushes can build up bacteria and can be another source of break outs. This can be done weekly, rather than every night.

Your final and most important beauty resolution should be to generally take better care of yourself. Get more sleep – shoot for at least seven hours a night. Drink more water – eight glasses a day if you can swing it. These changes may seem small but they can make a huge difference in your appearance and overall health. You’ll look more awake and have clearer skin.

You have the whole year ahead of you to make positive changes. Try new products, make healthy choices and look forward to a better you!

Whether you want more volume, less grease or just healthier hair in general, dry shampoo has got you covered. This fairly new product should be a part of every one’s hair routine.

Dry shampoo removes sebum, but doesn’t strip natural oils that your hair needs. (Photo: Wayofliving.com)

Dry shampoo is simply shampoo in powder form and usually comes as a spray. It absorbs sebum, which is responsible for making your hair greasy, and leaves your hair feeling cleaner – much like your regular shampoo. But dry shampoo allows you to skip washing your hair every day without grease buildup.

Generally, if you are washing your hair once a day, you shouldn’t be. It is a good idea, even necessary for healthy hair, to wash with shampoo and conditioner occasionally. Washing too often, however, can strip your hair of the natural oils it needs to stay healthy and can leave your hair feeling dry and course. Most hairstylists recommend washing your hair once or twice a week at the most.

If your hair is naturally really greasy like mine, the idea of not washing your hair for more than a day may seem out of the question. There really are benefits to kicking that habit though. When you stop washing your hair every day it feels healthier. It also reduces damage from blow-drying or using other heat products after you wash. If you dye your hair, washing it every day will make the color fade very quickly. If you switch to once a week, your color will last much longer. This is where dry shampoo comes in as an alternative. Finally, let’s face it, sometimes busy professionals just don’t have time to wash their hair every single day. Throw in some dry shampoo and you’ll be looking fresh and polished for that early morning meeting or after work get-together.

So how does it work? Probably easier than any other hair product you own. The first step of course is choosing the right dry shampoo. Some are formulated specifically for greasy hair while others are made to give you extra volume. You may have to experiment with different brands to find one that suits your hair. Some lower quality brands can actually leave residue in your hair and not do a very good job at oil absorption. There are plenty of great products on the market to try however.

Dove Refresh+Care Invigorating Dry Shampoo is cheap, lightweight and great at oil absorption. (Photo: Glambition)

Dove Refresh+Care Invigorating Dry Shampoo is cheap, lightweight and great at oil absorption. It has all the bases covered and costs less than $5 at most drugstores.

Batiste Dry Shampoo is great for those with dark hair, since it doesn’t leave any white residue and is very easy to brush through. It also comes in different scents to leave your hair smelling fresh.

Batiste Dry Shampoo is good for people with dark hair. (Phoro: Makeupalley)

To apply, brush out your hair to get rid of any tangles first. Then spray onto sections from about 10 inches away. It may look white and powdery at first, but don’t brush it all away the second you spray it in. It needs time to absorb the oil and set in. Wait about five minutes and then thoroughly brush through. After that, style as usual and you’re ready to go! No matter what type of hair you have – thin or thick, dry or greasy – dry shampoo is definitely an essential product for your hair routine.

What is considered beautiful by society’s standards has changed quite a bit throughout the course of history. These changes are due to many different factors that have played a role in what is ultimately deemed beautiful, as illustrated by the following infographic. This include things like fashion trends and popular culture, which can redefine a previous generation’s idea of beauty drastically to meet the expectations of those on the cutting edge.

While a svelte figure is largely preferred these days according to popular culture, this wasn’t always the case. Consider the Italian Renaissance; during this era a woman’s ideal figure included ample hips and bust, which only served to accentuate the hedonism of the time period. Conversely, the 1960s body archetype for women is perfectly illustrated by the ultra-slender model Twiggy, who heralded a shift towards a thinner and more androgynous look. As time progresses, body types are sure to change yet again, possibly veering back to the ample figures of days past.

As collective perception changes, so does the shared concept of beauty. In many cases, prevailing beauty standards may be out of reach for many women, which can lead to diminished self-confidence. It’s important that all women should feel beautiful in their own skin, especially when outside the norm of the mainstream. After all, in another place and time these women may have been upheld as shining beacons of extraordinary beauty.

One of the great beauties of her time, the notorious Comtesse du Barry led a scandalous life that culminated with her becoming maîtresse-en-titre to the aging Louis IV in the French court. Born on the wrong side of the blanket to a seamstress and a friar, the young Jeanne Bécu fell into the life of a courtesan until she caught the king’s roving eye.

Comtesse du Barry (Portrait: Oil on canvan by Jean-Baptiste Greuze [1771?])

Blessed with lustrous blonde locks, gorgeous violet eyes and a porcelain complexion, du Barry used her looks to her advantage and managed to maintain her beauty until her tragic end on the guillotine. Although her dubious lifestyle and relatively early death at age 50 may make her appear to be not the best anti-aging candidate worthy of emulation, we should remember that it was the 18th century.

Then, I read some more about Mme. du Barry in Joan Haslip’s biography and realized a few things. First, her sordid career choice, if you can call it that, wasn’t exactly her choice. Her family forced her into it. Second, she didn’t really have too many options at that time since careers for women pretty much didn’t exist. If your own family wasn’t helping you get married, you weren’t going to be a respectable missus.

Mme. de Maintenon was a prime example of a respectable missus.

Even becoming a nun required a dowry. Third, getting the maîtresse-en-titre position got du Barry out of the whole courtesan circle. So, I feel it’s best to just accept she was pushed down a certain sad road, but that she did get some relief from it for a while in a sort of common-law marriage.

Plus, du Barry was a kind person who:

1. Pleaded with the king for the lives of the condemned and elderly Comte and Comtesse de Lousene;
2. Intervened for a woman accused of infanticide when she’d borne a stillborn child;
3. Forgave and assisted the same aristocracy who had snubbed her as lowborn when they became refugees during the French Revolution.

 
Considering her rather sordid lifestyle, quite miraculously, she stayed pretty and fresh and with her own hair color right up to her gruesome guillotine death at age 50.  Living as she did in the 18th century, a time known for terrible hygiene and horrible skin diseases. What were this fabulous beauty’s anti-aging secrets?  They were, as follows:

1. Cold baths. Every morning. This probably also helped her stay healthy and certainly would have stimulated collagen production, blood circulation (which helps with keeping your hair its own color!) and toned muscles.


Honey masks are anti-bacterial and moisturizing.

2. Honey masks. A honey pack on your face is anti-bacterial and moisturizing. It would help keep infections and acne away, while minimizing wrinkles.
3. A rather fabulous-sounding hair wash to help her hair stay a lovely blonde, specifically, a blend of saffron, turmeric, polypodium fern roots, St. John’s Wort, Gentian, citrin-colored sandalwood and rhubarb. It must have smelled and tasted delicious!

 
Try any or all of these, and stay fresh and healthy and pretty like Mme. du Barry!

Mme. du Barry (Portrait: Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun/Wikipedia)

Usual disclaimer: As always, if you want to try any of these anti-aging treatments, check with your doctor and test for allergies. And if you’re a sensitive soul prone to nightmares or insomnia, don’t read about guillotines.

Article by Amina Mirza, a native Washingtonian interested in history, literature and natural beauty treatments.

Maintaining a beauty regime may be difficult. One may have many commitments or may be busy most of the time. Complexion, however, says a lot about an individual. Even with a busy schedule and many commitments, your face should be taken care of and its beauty maintained.

You must take care of your face to maintain its beauty. (Photo: Shutterstock)

1. Cleanse, tone and moisturize

Within weeks of moisturizing,toning and cleansing your face, results are visible. The three steps can take less than 10 minutes. You do not necessarily need to wash your face if your time is limited. The three should give you the look that you desire. The important thing to keep in mind is that it is always good to remove makeup before going to bed. It is advisable to cleanse, tone and moisturize the face daily. You can do it twice a day to look better and elegant. Go for those products that suit the type of skin you have. The products do not need to expensive. Moisturizers for skin that are oily are also available.

2. Exfoliate

The dead skin on the faces reduces the good looks and the freshness of the skin. Dark spots on the face can also be visible when an individual uses makeup. They make a face look uneven and sometimes unattractive. It is important to interchange a cleanser with face scrubs for better results. The switch should be done every three or four days, and it is essential to reduce a scary face. Overdoing exfoliation is bad and should be avoided. Excess exfoliation has been known to cause serious harm to the skin and face. Choose products whose efficacy is known. They may be expensive, but will not harm the face or skin. Remember to use products that match your skin type.

3. Use a mask

You may think that you don’t have much time to use a face mask. However, they take only 5 or 10 minutes. They can be used when you watch TV or prepare dinner. If you are busy and feel that it will take too long, go for the formed masks. Some need to be stuck on. Others just need to be applied. The results are better if you use them more often. Using a formed mask takes less than a minute. It is not difficult or hard. You should use a mask once a week. They are effective in face cleansing and cleanse the face deeply.

4. Hydrate

It is good to drink lots of water. Hydrating prevents skin dryness and consequently face dryness. It helps the face remain fresh as it moisturizes the underlying skin. Drinking enough water is also essential as it ensures that the skin remains hydrated. The face looks better if it is not dry. You should avoid sugary and fizzy drinks. They do not help keep the body hydrated and have other health disadvantages.

5. Shape your brows

Shaping your eyebrows aids in lifting your face. You look younger when you properly shape your blows. The practice gives the face a fresher look. Having a professional shape your eyebrows is a good idea as they will help you identify the shaping style that suits the shape of your face. Maintaining this is important, and they can teach you how to do it. Proper shaping of the eyebrows helps feel feel good, sexy and well groomed.

Complexion is vital to how people view or think about us. Be sure thus to use the tips to care for the face. A fresh face that is always clean and attractive improves looks and beauty.

Article by Adonia Dennis (@adoniadennis), a health, beauty and skincare adviser. She provides solutions related to beauty and skin care problems such as skin hyperpigmentation, eye skin aging, sensitive skin, etc. She is an independent researcher who researches all type of skin related problems. She is a passionate blogger who loves to write and share her views on health, fitness and diet. To know more about Dennis, follow her on Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest.