How Do You Get Beautiful Skin?

There is a lot of cover-up, application of filters, and photo shopping of skin these days, so you hardly need to have beautiful skin naturally.

But, if you want lovely, smooth, hydrated skin, there are a few things I can recommend. 

In the health world, there is a lot of talk about getting “real” Vitamin D from the sun. In order to do that you must be at the middle latitudes, and expose your naked body to the sun’s rays between 10-2. The sun must also be at the correct angle to reach our bodies to stimulate Vitamin D. There are a number of problems with this advice. Many of us don’t live in the correct geographical locations. Many people work, and cannot sunbathe in the middle of the day, naked or not. And people with pale, Northern European skin, will burn quickly, which creates the potential for skin cancer.

Our early ancestors may have gotten all the Vitamin D they needed from the sun, at least in the warmer months. But our modern lifestyles make it difficult to do many of the things that would be ideal for our health.

Fortunately, there are natural and synthetic sources of Vitamin D. Cod Liver and other Fish oils are good natural sources. 

The little-known secret to get the full benefit of D is that healthy fats (called Vitamin F) must be consumed, also. So, having plenty of fats from organic butter, virgin olive oil, raw coconut oil, and avocado really helps the entire body, including brain and skin. Notice that people in the middle latitudes, Islanders and Mediterranean people, eat diets rich in natural oils. 

When I had a practice in the high dessert of Sun Valley, Idaho, I could barely keep Fish Oil on the shelf. Many of the women loved the outdoors life, and their skin reflected it in dryness, wrinkles, and early aging. Once they started taking fish oil, they were delighted with the improvement, and often bought bottles of Cod Liver Oil to share with friends and family. Cod Liver Oil has the advantage of containing both Vitamin D and the balancing Omega 3 oils-a perfect package for beautiful skin.

I live in a cold, dry winter climate now. And I do take Cod Liver Oil. But I also discovered an inexpensive line of natural skin care that is my new favorite. I am very fussy about what I put on my skin. I want pure ingredients. Skin is a two-way street. It excretes sweat and toxins, and it absorbs anything it contacts. This new line of skin care is from Australia, where some of the finest natural products are produced. The facial masque I love right now is called Sukin Rich Moisture Facial Masque. It has pomegranate and Quandong (fruit from a sub-tropical tree), jojoba, alow vera, Vitamin E, and shea butter. It has not sulfates or synthetic fragrance, but a lovely light scent that doesn’t linger. (Real scents dissipate quickly.)

I love natural products that really work. When I recommend products people always want a link so here you go. (full disclosure-this is an affiliate link)

The big cosmetic companies charge a fortune for products that promise a lot, and plenty of money is spent on marketing them. I don’t like them, nor the heavy perfume they usually have. So, I look for smaller companies that make skincare gems from ingredients that come from Nature. I first bought a Sukin moisturizer at a salon on a cruise ship. I was thrilled that I could purchase it online when I returned home. 

Skin needs care inside, and outside. Be sure to look in the mirror with a loving eye, not a critical one. Even if your skin isn’t perfect, by some standard you have set, your face is your calling card to the world, and deserves your love and admiration. 

Facing Up to Aging

To put it simply, aging is a process of cell deterioration. That process can begin at almost any age, but the internal signs are not so obvious unless you can measure health. Of course, we look at the face as the most obvious marker for the passage of time. Hence, the existence of a billion-dollar beauty industry.

The face reflects the internal health of the body, so all the cosmetic procedures in the world cannot change that. Only diet and lifestyle will keep the youthful shape of the face. I recently ran into a friend I have known for thirty years. When she walked in the room I did not recognize her until I heard her voice and her inimitable laugh. She was always chubby, but the extra fifty pounds she was carrying had caused her face to balloon so that her chin hit her chest. Not only has it ruined her looks, I know that her heart and organs are struggling, and her life-expectancy is much shorter as a result.

Losing large amounts of weight past forty or fifty is great for health and longevity, but often results in hanging skin around the neck. Slow weight loss helps. Balanced hormones are vital. A friend of mine, Dr. Nathan Newman in Beverly Hills, prescribes HCG to help the body avoid loose skin during the weight loss process. He has also perfected a Stem Cell face lift, using your own fat, instead of invasive surgery. And he uses other non-surgical methods to help with the neck.

People often ask me what I do for my skin, and my reply is “everything, darling!” I have never had a surgical face-lift, and have not really needed one. My weight has not fluctuated much, except during pregnancies. When I worked at a Dermatology practice I did have some laser treatments that made a big difference. I do some microdermabrasion with a home unit. I love using a jade roller on my face in the morning, which is kind of like ironing your face! I sometimes micro-needle, which can resurface your skin very well, but I get lazy about it.

The skin cells have hormone receptors, so after menopause or andropause (male hormonal change) there is a dramatic shift. Using herbal remedies, or bio-identical hormone replacement can help with that transition, and keep the body younger in general.

Microcirculation is vital for all cell health. Using the Avacen microcirculation device has helped the skin on my legs dramatically. I had spider veins that made my legs look like a roadmap. They are 80% gone after using the Avacen for three months. All cells need capillaries to bring oxygen and nutrients to them in order to survive. That is why smoking is so damaging to the skin. Keeping the body free of toxins and the blood flowing freely to the cells is the name of the anti-aging game. http://www.annedunev.com/natural-health-and-nutrition-blog/2018/4/13/are-you-suffering-from-inflammation

My skin improved over-all years ago when I added more good fat to my diet, such as butter, olive oil, Cod Liver Oil, and coconut oil. Topically I try to use non-chemical creams and moisturizers as much as possible. My current favorites include serums mixed with Frankincense Essential Oil, which is very healing. I use mineral sunscreen religiously. My favorite is Coola, available on Amazon. It acts as a primer for make-up, too.

Very soon I plan to make some videos on skincare and make-up. So, stay tuned for those.

Feeling good and looking good are all possible at any age. It just takes more effort as the body gets older! I am on this, so I will pass on any tips I can.

My last bit of advice is to think “good” also. Our faces reflect our inner thoughts. Avoid the network news, which is designed to raise your blood pressure, and cause you to worry. Laugh lines are more attractive than frown lines. Be kind and generous. Nurture your spiritual side because none of us is taking the body with us, no matter how young or old it looks!

Save Our Eyelashes!

Do you notice that your eyelashes are thinner, or brittle and seem to fall out too easily?

As a long-time make up user it seemed to me that my eyelashes were getting brittle and I suspected it came from using mascara.  When I discovered eyelash primer it really helped. My eyelashes didn’t all out nearly as often.

Eyelash primer is usually a white creamy substance that goes on like mascara. It acts to thicken and condition your lashes. And, until recently, it also made your lashes white so that you had to really work the mascara to avoid leaving white patches on your lashes.

Finally one company figured out that white may not be the best color under black mascara.  The newest primer, from Estee Lauder, is black. And the brush is curved, so that it actually curls your eyelashes. The goopy white primers are heavy, and have a tendency to weigh down your lashes. The new black primer is sleek and smooth and weightless. Eyelash curlers can cause your lashes to fall out. The good news is that  "Little Black Primer" may work just as well. 

In a competitive market, with hundreds of cosmetic companies, it is not often you see a great new product.

Of course, you can pay for Latisse, the pharmaceutical approach to eyelash lengthening. The cost is around $120. A less expensive choice is SmartLash available from Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/SmartLash-Eyelash-Enhancer-0-16-oz/dp/B003H897AQ

There are a few home remedies you can try, such as castor oil and aloe vera applied to lashes at night. http://www.beautyandtips.com/beauty-2/11-tips-and-home-remedies-on-how-to-make-your-eyelashes-grow-longer-and-thicker/

All hair is made from protein, so your lashes may reflect your eating habits, too. Low thyroid can also cause eyelashes to thin.

Hope these tips help you to have long sweeping lashes to enhance your lovely eyes.

Share my new beauty blog!

Welcome to my new beauty blog! Everyone who knows me knows that my passion is health. But another passion of mine is the art and fun of beauty. As one of my friends once remarked about herself, “I was born wearing lipstick.”

As a very girly girl who wanted to write novels between modeling jobs, it was a shock to find myself fascinated by biological science and human physiology at college age. This was the seventies, when women were asserting their rights and feminism was a new major called “Women’s Studies.” Our world has never been the same since, and I think we are still sorting out how gender does or does not define us.

“ Beauty is not just about the lines on the face. A strong and healthy body, engaged and curious mind, and a spirit that reaches out to others, despite our own worries or concerns, breed beauty of the kind that lasts. And the right shade of lipstick can just be icing on the cake.”

Through those years I discreetly applied mascara to my blonde lashes and restricted my lipstick to a natural pink gloss. But I never lost my love for rouge and eyeliner. It was a relief to welcome the eighties and female power dressing. Broad shoulder pads needed to be balanced by strong lipstick and big hair! I always had the big hair, and I was a very part-time hair and lifestyle model for a few years.

I loved the excuse for piles of make-up and studied the craft of careful and exaggerated application whenever a make-up artist worked on my face. I envied my brunette friends who did not look like lash-less rabbits without eyeliner and brow pencil. My ex-husband nicknamed me Casper for my translucent skin that wouldn’t ever tan beyond a milky beige no matter how many hours I sunbathed. And even a half hour in the sun with sunscreen gave me a smattering of freckles across my nose.

Around this time I worked at the office of a renowned plastic surgeon in New York City. And what I learned there changed forever the way I regarded and treated my skin.

One day a lady came into the office to accompany a friend to her appointment. As staff we were all accustomed to evaluating the faces of visitors with a knowing eye to see what kind of cosmetic work had been performed. When we saw this stranger’s face, we were all struck by the glow and lack of wrinkles, despite the fact she was no longer young. Honestly, I had seen baby’s bottoms that were not as smooth as her face. Boldly we asked her who she had seen and what she had done to achieve her lovely skin. In the lilting accent of the Isle of Skye, the lady laughed and replied, “Oh, you New Yorkers. Everyone asks me the same question. I’ve done nothing to my face. We only see the sun about once a year and every ladies’ face looks like mine.”

That was an epiphany for me.  I had lovely skin, but was in my early twenties, so it was little wonder. But I decided then and there to keep my face out of the sun. From that day forward I wore sunscreen religiously, regardless of the days planned activities. That was before we worried about Vitamin D, and I will write more on that later. And whenever my husband called me Caspar, I just smiled, knowing that I would never again have to sweat in the sun, trying to force a tan from skin that God and my Irish ancestors obviously never intended to be anything but white. And I had a beauty secret that I could implement for only the cost of sunscreen, because even then I wanted to age well, instead of looking well aged. I recall that one of my school friends had a mother who spent most of her summer days sitting by their backyard pool. The mother’s face was both deeply tanned and deeply wrinkled and, although she was slim enough to sport a bikini, her arms and legs were brown and sinewy, like all moisture had been sucked out.  Nice enough as moms of friends’ went, we all found her rather scary looking because none of the other mothers looked like that.  Our friend assured us that all that was wrong with her mother’s skin was too much sun, and she shook her head at her mom’s obsession with maintaining her suntan.

Since my skin has been one of my best assets, I have done much to nourish and maintain it since then. I am asked often how I have lovely skin, and that is partly the reason for starting this blog. I am also asked often about my make-up, and how others can achieve a similar look.

My intention is to share my beauty secrets. Of course, eating well is a big part of it, but it is not all I do. One of my long-term goals has been to age gracefully. Intelligence, humor, family, purpose, and deep spiritual awareness all play important roles. It is no fun to see gravity takes its toll and watch the bloom fade. What can one expect from the ageing process and how much can one fight back, is another question I am often asked.

I will share with you what I know, as I am embarked on the process. And I plan to invite others with skills to share to blog and share their successes and products with you. We have all seen the excesses from too much surgery, or over-used dermal fillers, and make-up that becomes a mask rather than an enhancement.

When I was introduced to the lady who arranged the flowers for my wedding, I recognized her immediately. She had been a famous model, featured in all the fashion magazines, right before the term “super-model” was coined. But now, 20 years later, I could hardly bare to look at her face. Her skin looked as if she had been a sea captain, rather than a Westchester, NY floral designer. She chain-smoked during our appointment, and I recognized the signs of alcohol abuse. Her looks were ruined, and it was heart breaking to see how her life difficulties and choices showed in her face.

Years later I spent Augusts in Sardinia, where yachts lined the harbor on the Esmeralda coast. One of the favorite social events was a concert held at one of the top hotels, featuring entertainers like Barry White. The guests, a mix of Europeans and Arabs, arrived in style, men in white summer suits or blazers and the ladies in flowing dresses. The Italian “ladies of a certain age” were the most chic to me. They were curvy and voluptuous, but never fat. The skin glowed, make-up was artfully applied and hair was curled and colored. Old enough to be grandmothers, these ladies were still feminine and sensual, projecting confidence that said their age did not define them. I don’t recall that any one of them was a great beauty, yet I have never forgotten how womanly they seemed. Then in my early 30’s, I hoped that I would be able to age as gracefully.

And now the time has come for me to follow that inspiration. This blog is for women who want to be attractive, vital and energetic, no matter their age. As time passes, hopefully we have seen and learned what escaped our youthful selves. Wisdom and experience have been gained; just as hormones wane and our bodies dance to a slower rhythm.

What we see in the mirror shapes our ideas about ourselves. We live in America, where youth has been cherished. But, just as we baby boomers defined the 60’s, we continue to define our times. Our parents might have been old at sixty, but we don’t have to be. Biology tells us humans should be living to be 120-130. Those added years could bring many interesting challenges, physical, mental and economic.

So, let’s explore how to keep the game fresh and keep our passions alive. I will never be a voluptuous Italian, but being feminine and vital is within my grasp. Beauty is not just about the lines on the face. A strong and healthy body, engaged and curious mind, and a spirit that reaches out to others, despite our own worries or concerns, breed beauty of the kind that lasts. And the right shade of lipstick can just be icing on the cake.

I hope to bring you beauty tips and products from different beauty pros, and a sense of fun about outward beauty reflecting the inner you. Let me know what questions you need answered and any suggestions you have.