Beauty and Personal Grooming

Jamal Hammadi's  tips for healthy, shiny and black hair have worked wonders for my hair. I had always used amla for my hair but avocado oil was something  new to me. After going through his tips, I did get a small bottle and used it for a month or so and my hair with a normal to dry texture became amazingly soft, shiny and frizz-free. It's indeed a very good oil for overnight scalp massage. My mane which was used to the goodness of either coconut oil , olive oil or sesame oil easily took to avocado oil. Overall, I found his tips quite useful though I'm yet to try a shea butter moisturizer for my hair .

Not very long ago, I had mentioned that I was down with cold and flu and I'd even written a post on how lemon grass tea helped me to soothe the symptoms. Apparently at that point of time, I had bad breath too. To be honest, I never had a chance of knowing about it until one of the neighbouring kids told me. Now  kids generally are known to be very forthright and blatant in telling you the hard facts on your face, be it a straggling hair peeking out of your nose , a stray hair on your chin or how awful you look in your new dress . Adults, on the other hand will go out of their way to conceal all sorts of things from you, all the while sneering at you or poking fun behind your back. In a way, it's good - knowing the truth I mean ... the kid's honesty actually let me know about my problem and I could do something about it.

Oily skin definitely presents problems when it comes to makeup, since the overproduction of sebum from your pores can leave you looking shiny by lunch if you don’t continually blot and reapply powder.  And combination skin makes it extremely hard to choose a singular type of makeup because of the dual nature of skin that is equal parts oily and dry.  So the majority of women would probably love to go for dry skin if given a choice.  But alas, the grass is always greener…you know.  For those of us that deal with dry skin on a daily basis, the alternative seems more appealing.  And yet, there are many ways to prepare for the application of makeup as well as choose cosmetic formulas that will work with your skin to leave your face looking dewy, fresh, and not at all dry.  Here are a few tips for the ladies who want a flawless finish despite their battle with dryness.

Split ends , frizz, and dull , drab, lifeless locks: all are hallmarks of hair that has been overstressed by heat and chemical treatments.  And if you don’t know what’s in the products you’re using, you could be making the situation worse!  But if you want to beautify one of your best features, you’re going to need to take a long, hard look at the damage you’re doing through the products and processes you undergo.  Luckily, there are plenty of ways to repair your hair.  You just need to start by pinpointing problem products and tossing them in the trash.  Here are a few that should be kicked to the curb as soon as possible!

Under-eye circles are a woman’s worst enemy when it comes to makeup issues.  If you leave them alone, they’ll make you look tired (even when you’re not).  You can spend hundreds of dollars on creams and treatments that are supposed to rid you of this plague, but many of them are woefully ineffective.  And often, when you try to conceal these eyesores (pardon the pun) you end up with a cakey mess that only emphasizes fine lines in the delicate skin around your eyes, or worse, the reverse raccoon (equally creepy white circles around your eyes instead of the dark ones).  What’s a girl to do when there seems to be no simple solution?  Well, you simply have to try harder.  To that end, there actually is a combination of makeup products that will give you the beautiful, natural, fresh and rested look you crave.

For sure, you have heard of these tips umpteen times before but then how many of you actually cared to follow them?  Yet when gorgeous Mane Stylist Coleen Khan Affonso recommends them, you simply can't afford to ignore her advice.

Have you looked in the mirror lately and noticed that your teeth are not as white as they once were?  In fact, they may look positively dingy.  But if you go to your dentist, you’ll discover that professional teeth whitening will cost you a pretty penny.  You’ll be on the hook for hundreds of dollars for bleaching trays and over a thousand for quick and easy laser whitening.  Since most insurance doesn’t cover this elective cosmetic procedure, you’re probably going to pay full price; and the cost could hurt you more than the tooth sensitivity these treatments are known to cause.  Of course, you could also try OTC treatments like chemical rinses, gels, or white strips from the pharmacy (which could run you around $30-40 and provide up to five shades of whitening).  But most of these rely on a low percentage of bleach, which you may not be too keen to put in your mouth.  However, there is one last option that is extremely low cost and far less invasive:...