alpha hydroxy acids

Cosmetics that contain alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs) are widely used with the belief that they correct the effects of aging by regenerating the top layer of skin.

A study sponsored by the cosmetics industry indicates that these products may make users more sensitive to sunlight and especially to the ultraviolet (UV) radiation component of sunlight. UV exposure can damage the skin and at high doses, especially over a long period, can cause skin cancer.

It is important to use sun protection, including a sun screen, if you use an AHA product, even if you haven't used the product that day. If the AHA that you're using contains a sunscreen, it is suggested that applying an additional sunscreen (SPF 15) product before going into the sun will be beneficial. Even though your AHA product may contain sunscreen, it is primarily a skin treatment product--not a means of sun protection. If you use the AHA at bedtime, be sure to apply an additional sunscreen product in the morning before going into the sun.

Products with AHAs are marketed for a variety of purposes: to smooth fine lines and surface wrinkles, to improve skin texture and tone, to unblock and cleanse pores, to improve oily skin or acne, and to improve skin condition in general. It is important to follow the use instructions on the label. Do not exceed the recommended applications. It is not recommended that AHA-containing products be used on infants and children.

To find out if a cosmetic contains an AHA, look on the list of ingredients all cosmetics must, by law, have on their outer packaging. AHA ingredients may be listed as:

* glycolic acid

* lactic acid

* malic acid

* citric acid

* glycolic acid + ammonium glycolate

* alpha-hydroxyethanoic acid + ammonium alpha-hydroxyethanoate

* alpha-hydroxyoctanoic acid

* alpha-hydroxycaprylic acid

* hydroxycaprylic acid

* mixed fruit acid

* tri-alpha hydroxy fruit acids

* triple fruit acid

* sugar cane extract

* alpha hydroxy and botanical complex

* L-alpha hydroxy acid

* glycomer in crosslinked fatty acids alpha nutrium (three AHAs).

Of these, the most frequently used in cosmetics are glycolic acid and lactic acid.

AHA products cause exfoliation, or shedding of the surface skin. The extent of exfoliation depends on the type and concentration of the AHA, its pH (acidity), and other ingredients in the product. Most cosmetics sold to consumers contain AHAs at levels up to 10 percent. It is FDA's understanding that products with AHA concentrations of 20 percent or higher are used by trained cosmetologists for salon "mini-peels."

In studies conducted by FDA on the absorption of AHAs through the skin, the AHAs tested were readily absorbed into the skin at varying rates. The most rapid absorption occurred with AHAs having lower pHs (higher acidity).

fda

Cellulite

Almost all females will get it.
Cellulite looks like visible dimples and is the lumpy substance resembling cottage cheese that is commonly found on the thighs, stomach, and butt . It is caused by fat is stored in honeycomb-like sacks. When these sacks expand, they push up into the dermis, compressing connective tissue . You can't cure it, according to experts but, you can attempt to fight it.



Several factors influence whether a person has cellulite and how much they have. Your genes, your gender, the amount of fat on your body, your age, and the thickness of your skin.

You can temporarily smooth lumps by stimulating blood flow to help eliminate fluids and by strengthening the walls of the "honeycomb" compartments. However, there aren't any miracle products, treatments, or medicines that can make it go away.

Treatments like liposuction and mesotherapy are either expensive or may produce only temporary improvement. Many doctors even warn that liposuction is not an effective treatment for cellulite because liposuction is designed to remove deep fat instead of cellulite, which is close to the skin.

Smoking, lack of exercise, fatty/starchy foods, and sitting or standing in a single position for long periods have all been correlated with an increase in cellulite.

The most beneficial therapy is to control lifestyle factors. Controlling stress and anxiety are considerably beneficial.

How to Enhance Your Beauty and Looks

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Ever wanted to become more natural and see how beautiful you really are? Here's how to enhance your natural beauty. All these will lead to a healthy mind, and therefore a healthy and beautiful body/face.

Steps

1. Visualize. You need to visualize the specific changes if you truly want to change your look. What will any improvements you make look like? Healthier hair? Streamlined body? Clearer skin? These changes are realistic and attainable. Stay away from goals you'll never reach.
   
2. Mirrors Boost Attitude! Look in the mirror and, ignoring your flaws, state different things that are gorgeous and unique about you; the colour of your eyes, your nose.
   
3. Do everything better. The way you use your beauty products will make all the difference in results.For instance, try to duplicate what you see and feel when your hair is shampooed at a salon. The product is always handled, never poured directly on hair.Add a massage to your scalp when washing. While rinsing, lift your hair away from your scalp for about two minutes until it squeaks.
   
4. Compliment yourself with make-up. Find your favorite facial feature and capitalize it. If your teeth aren't as white as they could be, don't wear bright lipstick. This will draw attention to the contrast. Instead, for example, wear a dark mascara. This will bring out the intensity/ beauty of your eyes.
   
5. Discover The Virtues of Vanity. Confident women enjoy experimenting as a way of relieving stress and boost morale. Women who care about how they look are fascinating to watch, and teach us about taste and glamour. Vanity is a positive virtue, allowing us to fix our heads as well as our looks. So get experimenting!
   
6. Look amazing. Rather than running around looking for beauty in pricey external products, discover within yourself. Make the most of what you have. You'll learn to like yourself and that will spark a light within.
   
7. Do One Thing For Yourself Everyday!Make yourself do it. It's the ultimate act of self-respect. Soak in the bubble bath or read an inspiring book. These little pleasures allow you to feel special. You can fake it if you, until you actually feel deserving of it. Whatever you choose, follow the action by writing down what you did and how it made you feel. Make it your own "attitude file". Include stories, quotes from friends and photographs that have made you feel good about yourself.
   
8. Project your beauty. Feel good, feel pretty and that's just what the world will see. If you feel ugly, that's what the people will see. Try to look as good as you can. There are ways to live in beauty without being obsessive about it.
   
9. Find Supportive Friends.What people say, whether intentional or not, make us feel good or bad about ourselves. Look for people who make you feel good when you're down. This person will give you compliment. If you've done something different or if you're wearing something new, they will notice it. Keep this compliments and they will build your self esteem.
   
10. Listen To Your Inner Voice. Each of us has a voice inside our head that will give us advice. This is like a therapist. It will guide us in the right direction. It will calm us down, cheer us up and even help us figure out why we're overeating or not bothering to iron our clothes. The problem is that we often don't take time we need to hear this important information. Schedule some quiet time in a leisurely bath or walk, or even while putting on your makeup. Treat this intuition as an inner cheering section.
    
11. Take A Break! Relax. At least twice a day, set aside five minutes to recheck your make-up, hair, posture and clothing. No matter how impeccably you started out your day, a touch is both necessary and warranted. Take some deep breaths to renew and restore your appearance.
    

Warnings

• Don't compare yourself with someone you've seen on the TV or movie screen or on the cover of a magazine. Accept your uniqueness and capitalize on it. Remember, most of what you see is stage makeup, no one has completely flawless skin!
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Enhance Your Life
  
• How to Embrace Your Natural Beauty
  
• How to Enjoy Life
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Enhance Your Beauty and Looks. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

How to Go from Introvert to Extrovert

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

If you're an introvert, how do you balance the introvert and extrovert parts of yourself, such that you enjoy both types of activities equally, rather than looking forward to one and dreading the other? If you’re very introverted, you may undervalue the positive role people can play in your life.
It is very important to note that introversion is not a pathology to be fixed, but a natural and healthy personality trait. That said, it sometimes can be convenient for the introvert to foster the ability to emulate extroversion. This article seeks to help an interested introverted reader become capable of acting as an ambivert, or someone who enjoys social interaction and solitude equally.

Steps

1. Stop undervaluing extroversion. Spending time alone and with people may be equally important. You don’t have to give up the introvert activities you enjoy. In fact, when you balance them with more social activities, you may find them even more satisfying. After several nights of being around people, you might really look forward to a night by yourself to read, meditate, write, etc.
   
   • Enhance your career - By networking, you have more job opportunities available to you, and you're more likely to get a position that gives you the experience and/or package you prefer. Whether we like it or not, there's some truth to the phrase "It's not what you know, it's who you know".
     
   • Find your soulmate - If you have had trouble meeting someone who's compatible with you, then expanding your circle of friends is one way to increase the probability of meeting that special someone.
     
   
   
2. Envision the type of extrovert you’d like to emulate. If you find the extroverted people around you shallow and perhaps even annoying, why would you want to be more like them? You wouldn’t. Maybe your vision of an extrovert is an in-your-face salesperson who only wants to build a shallow relationship with you so they could sell you something. But you needn’t choose such a limited vision for yourself — you’re free to form your own vision of a positive way to be more extroverted.
   
3. Find the right social group for you. Why would you want to spend more time with people you don’t like? If acting more extroverted means spending more time with people you’d rather avoid, you’ll have no motivation to do it. Again, you’re free to form a social group that you’d love to be a part of. Consciously consider the types of people you’d want to have as friends. There’s no rule that says this has to be your peers or co-workers. Don’t be afraid to stretch beyond the most obvious peer group and hang out with people from different ages, neighborhoods, cultures, countries, etc. You might find the variety to be a lot of fun.
   
4. Develop your social skills. One reason many people shy away from social activities is that they don’t feel comfortable because they don’t know what to do, especially if the unexpected were to occur. Being able to start up a conversation with a stranger AND feel completely comfortable doing it is a learnable skill. The more you do it, the better you get at it. Embrace the fact that you’re out of your element, and don’t compare yourself to others. One approach you might find extremely effective is to ask the other person how s/he got started in his/her current line of work. 80-90% of the time the person will say something like, “Well, that’s an interesting story….” And you might genuinely like hearing these stories. A small amount of practice can go a long way to making the next time you meet someone a bit easier. Approach your social abilities the way a student would approach a class, or an athlete would approach a sport. Do your homework, give yourself assignments, and test yourself until you get it right:
   
   • Look approachable
     
   • Introduce yourself
     
   • Have a great conversation
     
   • Flirt
     
   • Ask someone out on a date
     
   
   
5. Take your social life offline. Online socializing has its place in your life, but it can be a pale shadow compared to face-to-face communication. Voice and body language can communicate a lot more than text, and emotional bonds can be easier and faster to establish in person. You don’t have to do away with online socializing, but neither must you allow it to crowd out meeting people locally. Instead, see if you can use the Internet as a starting point for real life friendships. Many introverts have no trouble socializing online; in that environment they’re able to play from their strengths. But you can also use your strengths consciously as leverage to branch out into more face-to-face socializing. If you use forums, for example, you could focus on local ones and search for opportunities to meet up offline.
   
6. Join a club. It’s old advice, but it still works. The advantage is that you’ll find people who share similar interests, which makes it easier to build new relationships. One good club can fill your social calendar. If you join a club and find that it’s not right for you, quit and join something else. You may go through a number of local social groups that just don't resonate with you (too boring, too slow, too disorganized, too many alcoholics). But one good group is all you need.
   
   • Join or start a book club. This is a great way to turn a solitary activity into a social one.
     
   • Join a band. If you play an instrument or sing, find a group you can harmonize with. Not only will you meet them, but if your band gets really good, people will introduce themselves to you.
     
   • Join Mensa. Having trouble finding people who can hold a conversation with you? This might be your ticket to friendship.
     
   
   
7. Think of relationships in terms of what you can give, not in terms of what you can get. If you seek to build new relationships based on mutual giving and receiving, you’ll have no shortage of friends. Identify people with whom you’d like to build a relationship, and start by giving. For instance, geeky knowledge is actually a tremendous strength when it comes to socializing because there are an awful lot of non-geeks who’d like to understand geeky stuff better, and you can explain it to them in ways they’ll understand. Think about it: What can you bring to a relationship that will be of benefit to someone else? When you figure out what that is (and it’s probably many different things), you’ll have an easier time attracting new friends into your life.
   

Tips

• Being introverted is not the same as being shy. An introvert genuinely enjoys solitary activities more than social ones, whereas someone who's shy stays away from social situations because of fear and anxiety. If you're someone who wants to talk to people and socialize but feel paralyzed, or if you don't feel self-confident, you're probably grappling with shyness. Take a look at How to Overcome Shyness.
  

Warnings

• While shyness and social anxiety are afflictions which can be addressed and overcome, introversion is a fundamental personality trait that is generally stable over your lifetime. You are unlikely to truly become an extrovert even with work.
  
• Your desire to help people can kick start your social life, but don't let it define you; strive for mutually beneficial relationships, where both parties give and take, rather than one person doing all the giving. If you're the kind of person who has trouble saying no, you might want to read:
  
  • How to Stop Being a People Pleaser
    
  • How to Break the "Nice Guy" Stereotype
    
  
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Make Friends
  
• How to Network
  
• How to Have a Great Conversation
  
• How to Start a Conversation With Someone on the Train, Bus or Subway
  

Sources and Citations

• StevePavlina.com - Original source, shared with permission.
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Go from Introvert to Extrovert. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.