5 DIY Facial Masks Good Enough to Eat

Just because you're on a budget doesn’t mean you can't treat yourself to spa-status facials. Veg out by yourself or invite the girls over, and mix up these masks from ingredients you already have on hand!

For smaller pores and tighter skin: What better way to get rid of that leftover holiday eggnog than to pamper yourself with it?! Teen Vogue featured this eggnog-based facial mask as an effortless skin-saving treatment. It tightens, hydrates, cleanses and removes dead skin in just 10 minutes. Simply mix the ingredients together, apply, let sit for alloted time and rinse!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 packet of oatmeal
• 3/4 cup of Egg Nog
• 1/2 tsp of Flax Seed Oil
• A couple of dashes of clove powder

Get Beautiful Glowing Skin

Ever noticed how whatever is going on in our life seems to show on our face? If we're stressed, we can expect acne and dark circles under our eyes. If we're dehydrated, our skin looks dry and flaky. If we're sick, our face appears pale. Eat or drink too much and we wake up with puffy skin. But get a stretch of feeling great, exercising, eating right, and we positively glow with health.

Well, there's a reason for that. Our skin is our body's largest organ-an average of 21 square feet, to be exact. Whatever goes on in the inside shows up on the outside.

Take smoking, for instance. Studies find that smoking prematurely ages skin by disrupting your body's natural process of breaking down old skin and replacing it with fresh skin. Smoking also triples your risk of squamous cell skin cancer (not to mention numerous other cancers).

Foods Rich in Antioxidants for Healthy Aging

Although magazine covers and "miracle" cosmetics packages all proclaim the anti-aging secrets they contain, as long as we wake up each morning, getting older is an unstoppable fact.

Perhaps a better and more attainable goal than "anti-aging" is "healthy aging"—giving our bodies and spirits what they need to reduce the risks of physical or mental decline as our 30s become our 40s, then into our 50s, 60s, and so on.

Instead of dreaming about turning back the clock, you can help keep your body strong by equipping it with the biological equivalent of fresh batteries. "Why do you have to fight against aging if you have healthy aging?" asks Barbara Shukitt-Hale, PhD, a research psychologist and behavioral neuroscientist at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston. That's not just a theoretical question, no matter what your current age.

8 Ways to Treat Your Feet Right

They're the workhorses of our bodies, but we give them so little respect.

It's easy to take our feet for granted. They're just there, putting up with a host of challenges, from being jammed into high heels and elevated to unnatural heights to smothering inside sweaty socks or tight nylon pantyhose.

While suffering those indignities, our feet take hundreds of tons of force impact just during an average day of walking. That pounding explains why feet are the body part most likely to get injured.

You don't need an expensive spa treatment to take care of your feet. Spending just a few minutes a day on foot care and choosing the right shoes can keep you free of problems that may lead to pain and even disability. These ideas can help your feet feel great:

Healthy Skin Dos and Don'ts

The key to healthy skin lies beyond which soap you use. It depends on what you eat, whether you exercise, how much stress you're under and even the kind of environment in which you live and work.

All of these things affect how fast your skin ages, and thus how it will look, by influencing certain processes that lead to oxidation and inflammation. Sounds complicated, but it really is not.

Basically, complex chemical processes in your body produce unstable molecules called free radicals. Think of them as Skin Enemy No. 1. Left to their own devices, they go on to damage otherwise healthy cells in a process called oxidation. This is the same process that turns an apple brown or changes a copper roof from reddish gold to blue-green, so you can just imagine the way it can affect your skin. Sun, smoking, air pollution and poor diet all speed production of these free radicals.

Luckily, your body also produces antioxidants, molecules whose job it is to sweep up those free radicals before they can do any serious harm. How you take care of yourself—including what you eat—can increase production of these valuable molecules, literally saving your skin.

7 Foods for Healthy Hair

You are what you eat, the old saying goes. Whether or not you think that pertains to the brain, nails, skin or hair, I suspect that what we put in our bodies affects all of these things. Simply put, food supplies your body with important nutrients to keep it running at its best. 

For example, a few foods that have been shown to be beneficial to the brain are walnuts, omega-3 fats, blueberries, turmeric, barley and quinoa, according to the Cleveland Clinic. A low-carb Mediterranean diet, which includes fruit, vegetables, legumes, "good" fats and fish are thought to help protect against Alzheimer's disease. 

And what about your hair? While there are many products on the market that can temporarily boost the look of your tresses, why not put some healthy ingredients into your body to go to work for—and protect— those 100,000 hairs on your head? 

9 Sunscreen Booby Traps to Avoid

Think you know how to protect yourself and your family from the sun's damaging rays? Think again. Skin cancer (read more about skin cancer) is the most common type of cancer, probably making up more than half of all diagnosed cases of cancer, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS). The good news is that about 90 percent of all skin cancers could be prevented by properly protecting yourself. Get your facts straight so you—and your family—can safely enjoy the great outdoors all year long.

4 big mistakes with big consequences:

Relying on sunscreen (or sunblock, or suntan lotion) for protection: Too many people think that using sunscreen will allow them to remain in the sun all day without burning. Experts agree: Using sunscreen isn't enough. In addition to using the right sunscreen properly, shade yourself with a beach umbrella and wear closely woven brimmed hats and clothing (preferably made from fabric treated for UV protection). Don't forget your eyes! Wearing wrap-around sunglasses with UV-screening lenses will help protect your precious peepers.

Heart-Healthy Benefits of Exercise

Your Body Benefits from Your Hard Work

"Exercise improves your health." You hear it all the time, but what does that really mean? How much of a difference can exercise make in your life, and how much do you really need to do? You’ll be happy to know that you don’t need to spend countless hours in the gym to achieve the heart-health benefits of getting active. 

Lower Blood Pressure

A study by the National Institutes of Health showed that regular exercise (30+ minutes of moderate activity, 5+ days a week) reduced blood pressure in 75% of subjects who had high blood pressure. The reductions were approximately 10 mmHg for both systolic and diastolic blood pressures.

According to the American College of Sports Medicine, the blood pressure lowering effects of exercise can be observed as soon as one to three hours after a single 30- 45 minute workout! This response can linger for up to nine hours post-exercise. Permanent blood pressure changes can be seen as early as three weeks to three months after beginning an exercise program.

How to Eat 5 Fruits & Veggies Each Day

Tricks for Healthy Treats

"Eat your fruits and vegetables." We've heard it all of our lives. If only it were so simple.

Our bodies crave fruits and vegetables more than just about any other food because we tend to get far fewer of them than we need. We often think we'd survive just fine on 2-3 servings a day – or less. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the USDA both recommend at least 5 servings per day! What you’re missing could be the difference between just surviving and all out thriving.

With just a little thought and a tiny bit of effort in snack preparation, you can make these nutritious foods more convenient and accessible.

5 Ways to Love Your Body

Let Cupid Take Aim at You

While many of us have an easy time showering other people with love, we find that Cupid has yet to hit us with the "body love" arrow. Don’t wait for Cupid! Begin today to start appreciating, accepting and yes, even loving your body.

Stop picking yourself apart

Let’s face it: No matter how close-to-perfection body you have (and just what is the perfect body anyway?), chances are, there is something you would change about it if you could. Even celebrities and models who have been stamped with the media’s "perfect body" rating have parts they dislike – their feet, their hands, their ears – and they don’t necessarily have high self-esteem either! Rather than pick your body apart, look at your body as a whole (and read the next point…)

Look Great at Any Weight

Forget the Skinny Jeans

My closet used to be divided into three sections: clothes that fit when I was 20 pounds heavier; clothes that fit when I was  thin but miserable (from my “never-eat-anything-fun” phase); and clothes I could wear at that moment.

Unfortunately, the clothes that actually fit me were the fewest in number. I was tired of either squeezing into clothes that were too small (and feeling like a stuffed sausage) or swimming in big, unflattering clothes. I needed a wardrobe overhaul—I needed to look good right now.

Sound familiar? I bet it does. What women hasn't held on to her "skinny jeans," dreaming of the day she'd wear them again, only to realize that 10 years had passed and they were now hopelessly out of style. Even worse is the woman who holds on to her "fat clothes" because she doesn’t really believe that she will be able to maintain the weight loss she has worked so hard to attain. And so our closets are jammed with clothes that just don’t fit.

Homemade Beauty Recipes for Hair

Natural Treatments for Healthy Hair

Many of the same wholesome foods that you eat to help you glow from the inside-out can also be used externally, as shampoos, conditioners and hair masks. These vitamins, minerals, and oils that nourish your body also nourish your hair. Below you’ll find recipes for a variety of haircare products that you can make at home with a few simple ingredients. Make them for yourself or even give them as gifts by reusing pretty class jars or bottles. Your friends and relatives will love the personal touch, and you’ll be recycling and saving money too! Here are some recipes to get you started.

Note: If you have sensitive skin, do a patch test before using any of these products. Apply a few drops to the inside of your wrist, and wait 12 hours to see if any irritation develops.

Hidden Health Issues That Affect Your Skin and Hair

What Your Skin and Hair Can Tell You about Your Health

When you think about your skin and hair, you likely think about what products to use in order to keep them looking healthy, or what type of haircut you’ll get the next time you head to the salon. But the fact of the matter is that our skin and hair are both windows that are trying to tell us what’s going on inside our bodies, too. And, at times, serious medical conditions can be spotted just by knowing what to look for when skin and hair changes begin to occur. 

This guide will offer you warning signs you should be on the lookout for when examining your skin and hair, and will also tell you what these symptoms can mean about the state of your health.

Symptom: Your hair is dry, limp and feels thinner than usual. 

What it could mean: Though a lot of factors will lead to dry hair (think chemical processes, heat styling and chlorine from swimming pools), an underactive thyroid can also be to blame. If your hair is feeling finer than usual in addition to becoming dry, you experience fatigue, feel cold most of the day, gain weight and notice a slower heart rate you could have hypothyroidism. If you suspect that you have an underactive thyroid, report your concerns to your doctor right away. 

5 Reasons to Get Rid of Your Skinny Jeans

Your Old Clothes Could Prevent You from Losing Weight

Peek into a woman's closet, and tucked amid all the clothes is something that almost every woman keeps. She strives to wear it again someday, no matter how unrealistic or out of style it may be. What is it? Her "skinny" jeans. Whether yours take the form of pants, swimwear or even an old suit or dress, women and men alike keep these too-small clothes for years. Some are even brand new, tags attached, bought as inspiration to lose weight so that garment would fit.

Recently, I started to wonder: Is it detrimental to hold on to your skinny jeans? I must confess that up until three years ago, I, too, had my own little cache of one-day-I-will-fit-into-these-again outfits. As with many trends in fashion, if you hang on to something long enough, it will eventually come back in style. I am not sure whether fashion itself or the desire to be a smaller size again was my motive. Not only did I still own the little black sundress I wore the night my husband and I met 27 years ago, but I also had my very first pair of Levi's 501 button-fly jeans tucked away in a drawer. But I’m not alone.

10 Mini-Makeovers That Make a Big Impact

These days, it’s tough for many of us to find the cash and time to go all out on a makeover. But even during the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, we should all take time out for ourselves--and some beauty pampering. Whether you want to perk up your complexion, change your hairstyle or give your entire look a little more glamour, you don’t need to spend hours in the salon or spa. Just one or two tiny tweaks can give your look the big, beauty boost it needs. Try these 10 simple makeovers to spruce up your look in just minutes! 

Frame Your Face

Want to add a haute look to your hairstyle? Try cutting some fringy or blunt bangs that hit right at your brows. Styles like this that frame the face can really make your best features stand out; whether you have high cheekbones, big eyes or full, pouty lips. Ready to grow out your bangs? Simply sweep them to the side with a decorative hair clip for a whole new look in a jiffy.

Tips for a Brighter, Whiter Smile

Preventing Stains & Whitening Teeth

Tea, red wine, and blueberries may be chock full of antioxidants, but these health boosters may also be standing in the way of your pearly white smile.

Yellow, dingy teeth are a common complaint. The brightness of your smile is somewhat dependent on factors like your age and diet. As you get older, the outer part of your teeth wears thin, allowing the yellowish dentin to show through. And the things you eat and drink, like coffee, tea, cola, wine and berries, may also discolor your teeth. Luckily, with the variety of tooth-whitening products on the market today, removing dental stains doesn’t have to be expensive or cumbersome.

More Than 100 Superfoods for a Super You

Include These Foods for Maximum Body Benefits

Faster than a speeding bullet…

More powerful than a locomotive…

Nutrient-packed with health enhancing properties…

Here come the SUPERFOODS!

These foods benefit your body in so many ways. They power your brain, and correctly and efficiently fuel your body. Superfoods fight infection, enhance your immune system, and protect against diseases such as osteoporosis, heart disease, certain cancers, diabetes, and respiratory infections.

While this list of superfoods may be longer than most, it shows that great things do come in small packages. These foods are not only healthy, but they're also affordable, familiar, and readily available at regular grocery stores and farmers markets. With so many choices, you'll discover just how easy it is to eat super healthy every day…even when on a tight budget.

Loving Your Heart

An Innovative Apporach to Valentine's Day

Evidence suggests that on February 14, 269 A.D., Valentine was martyred for secretly marrying countless couples and bringing together true love. Legend has it that the emperor of the time, Claudius II, believed that marriage weakened his army and therefore banned the practice. However, Valentine defied the emperor, was caught, condemned and beaten to death.

Over 225 years later, Pope Gelasius set aside February 14th to honor St. Valentine, who became the patron saint of lovers. Gradually, the 14th of February became a day for exchanging love messages and simple gifts. This Valentine’s Day, why not give your heart a simple gift? The gift of health.

Start with these five heart-smart Valentines.

Homemade Beauty Recipes for Skin

Natural Treatments for Face & Body

 Many of the same wholesome foods that you eat to help your skin glow from the inside-out can also be used externally, as cleansers, moisturizers, and skin masks. These vitamins, minerals, and oils that nourish your body also nourish your skin. Below you’ll find recipes for a variety of skincare products that you can make at home with a few simple ingredients. Make them for yourself or even give them as gifts by reusing pretty class jars or bottles. Your friends and relatives will love the personal touch, and you’ll be recycling and saving money too! Here are some recipes to get you started.

Note: If you have sensitive skin, do a patch test before using any of these products. Apply a few drops to the inside of your wrist, and wait 12 hours to see if any irritation develops.

*For more information about uncommon ingredients, see bottom of article.

Body Beautiful From the Inside-Out

Make a Healthy Diet Your Beauty Secret

Make a promise to your skin today to keep it nourished and rejuvenated from the inside out! Having healthy skin year-round begins with the foods you eat and drink. To get skin that you will be confident to show off every season of the year, devote some time each day to getting the necessary nutrients to stay hydrated and fight the signs of aging.

• Drink plenty of water. While the exact amount you should drink each day varies, no one can dispute the role of good hydration in keeping your skin looking healthy, young, and radiant. Experts agree that when the hydration comes from pure, clean water—NOT soda and fruit drinks—the skin cells rejoice! Aim for six to eight glasses every day.

8 Best Foods for Gorgeous Skin

Nutritionist Dana James shared her favorite things to eat for a flawless complexion

Give your topical creams some backup, and care for your face naturally, as well. Nutritionist Dana James shared the good things to eat for a flawless complexion.

PAPAYA

You've probably used papaya in a facial scrub, but are you eating it, too? The fruit is a vitamin C serum and exfoliant all-in-one. It contains two days' worth of vitamin C, which helps to brighten and tighten skin. It's packed with vitamin A compounds, which regulate cell turnover in much the same way that a topical retinol-A does, albeit gentler. Papaya also contains the digestive enzyme, papain, which helps decrease redness in the skin by combating inflammation.

The Easy Recipes: A golden smoothie made with papaya, almond milk, and raw honey is a skin elixir. Or try fish topped with a papaya, carrot, and cilantro salsa.

THE PERFECT SKIN DIET

Eat your way to a better complexion with these 10 skin superfoods

Almonds: Hey, guess what? Almonds are seeds, not nuts, and they're stuffed with vitamin E, a potent sun blocker. Volunteers who consumed 14 milligrams of the vitamin per day (about 20 almonds) and then were exposed to UV light sunburned less than those who took none. "Vitamin E acts as an antioxidant that helps to protect skin cells from UV light and other environmental factors that generate cell-damaging free radicals," explains Jeffrey Dover, M.D., associate clinical professor of dermatology at Yale University.

Suitable switch: 2 Tbsp peanut butter; 1/2 cup broccoli.

Carrots: Think of them as orange wonder wands—good for eyeballs, good for clearing up breakouts. Credit vitamin A. "It helps prevent the overproduction of cells in the skin's outer layer," says Howard Murad, M.D., associate clinical professor of dermatology at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine. That's where dead cells and sebum combine and clog pores. Another reason to snack on carrots: Vitamin A also reduces the development of skin-cancer cells. Nibble on a half-cup of baby carrots (that's about 16) per day.

10 Everyday Superfoods

Easy-to-eat, easy-to-find, everyday “super” foods to keep eating healthy simple.

We love that “superfoods” are multi-taskers—foods brimming with various disease-fighting nutrients, usually without providing too many calories, and delivered in a delicious form (think: blueberries).

What we dislike about some foods deemed “super” is that they are exotic (ahem, the goji berry?!) or something—like, say, sardines—that you’d only have once in a while. Healthy? Yes. Would you eat them every day? Probably not.

With all the other healthy-eating recommendations we need to remember (eat fish twice a week; replace half your grains with whole grains), it's impossible to have to remember a list of eat-this-once-a-week or once-a-month foods.

Foods That Keep You Healthy from Head to Toe

You Are What You Eat, So Eat Right

There are many motivations for sticking with a healthy diet. Eating more of the good stuff (and less of the junky stuff) can help you prevent cancer, extend your lifespan, protect your heart and manage your weight. But one thing we don't always remember is that your diet affects not just your weight, but your body from the top down, the inside to the outside. Your body transforms the foods you eat into the cells that make up your hair, nails, skin and bones, along with your brain, heart, blood and joints. You literally are what you eat.

Here are some of the key nutrients that keep your body in tiptop shape from head to toe.

4 Reasons healthy food tastes better than comfort food

Why healthy foods are actually yummier than junk food

Usually, delicious food is associated with comfort foods such as pies, desserts, gravy-based and creamy dishes. There is no denying that eating cookies brings a smile even to the saddest souls. I stop myself from dancing after eating a delicious, chocolatey homemade brownie. In comparison, healthy food gets the reputation of bland, boring and lacking flavor. I want to give you four reasons why healthy foods can taste better than unhealthy food.

1. Healthy food is more colorful.

To enjoy food, it has to first look good. One of the cornerstones of a healthy diet is that it needs to be rich in colorful vegetables that provide a mix of vitamins and minerals. The mix of vegetables brings great color to a dish, making it look even more appetizing than a burger with fries.

Foods that fight water retention and combat the dreaded belly bloat

The 6 best anti-bloating foods to eat before your period 

There’s a long list of reasons it’s wonderful to be a woman, but even we have to admit there are a few drawbacks. One of the most annoying parts of womanhood just might be the monthly hormonal fluctuations that can lead to a bloated belly and puffy hands and fingers, especially in the week leading up to your period. Fortunately the water retention that is weighing you down may have a simple solution — with several delicious remedies found right on your plate.

You can beat the monthly bloat by making a few strategic changes to your eating habits.

Vitamins that boost natural beauty

As it turns out, we really are what we eat. Diet has profound effects on appearance and not just at the waistline. The glowing skin and healthy hair we covet depend on what we put into our bodies. We turned to the experts for some diet tips on how to eat for healthy skin and hair.

Inner health, outer glow

"Your skin is an outer reflection of your inner health," says Elizabeth Somer, M.A., R.D., and author of Eat Your Way to Happiness. As a registered dietician, she suggests peeking into other people's grocery carts as you shop. "We look just like the food we buy. Carts filled with white bread, doughnuts, soft drinks and potato chips are most likely pushed by people with pasty completions and lifeless hair," she says.

Eat Your Way To A Natural Tan With These Foods (Yes, Really!)

This isn’t rocket science. What you put into your body is just as important as what you put on your body (if not more so). When you eat foods that are rich in vitamins and minerals, this leads to healthier and stronger hair, nails and skin. And according to Dr. Susan Stuart, a board-certified dermatologist in San Diego, eating lots of fruits and vegetables that are yellow or orange in color can give you a natural tan.

“Skin superfoods“ such as carrots, tomatoes, sweet potatoes and cantaloupe have a very potent antioxidant called carotene. When you eat multiple servings of these fresh produce, it warms up your natural skin tone. “Dark, leafy greens like spinach and kale also contain large quantities of beta-carotene and are also responsible for affecting one’s skin pigmentation,” said Dr. Stuart. “Therefore, consuming regular quantities of these vegetables will also create a natural tan.”

The Six Super Foods Every Woman Needs

The foods you really need to stay you healthy and strong

From USDA guidelines to the Internet to your local bookstore, there is certainly no shortage of advice on nutrition and healthy eating. But with all the media hype surrounding many “health foods,” it can be hard for a woman to tell the nutrients from advertising ploys.

“We are sometimes led to believe that a specific food is healthier than it really is,” says nutritionist Elizabeth Somer, MS, RD, author of Age-proof Your Body. “Or that you need some exotic or expensive form of certain nutrients to gain benefits -- and most of the time that’s not true.”

Moreover -- as happened in the '90s when low fat cookies made everyone temporarily forget about calories -- Somer says some of today’s advertising sways us toward one healthy aspect of a food to keep us from noticing other, less healthy attributes. “A product may advertise itself as ‘no cholesterol’" she says, “but it still can be loaded with bad fats or tons of calories. You have to look at the total food to know for sure.”

WANT TO KNOW HOW TO MAINTAIN HEALTHY BEAUTIFUL EYES?

As time passes and although you are still young, when you look in the mirror and see puffiness in your eyes, the presence of dark circles and fine lines around them, these signs on your face will start you worry you.

Is it possible to keep the glow in our eyes and make them look healthier through healthy nutrition and lifestyle tips?

Nutrition plays a role in your eye health. Four special nutrients; Vitamin C, E, A and Zinc can help reduce your risk of a common eye problem prevalence by up to 35%. So make sure you get the right amount of antioxidants through a healthy balanced and varied diet. 

Foods that have great impact on your eye health and beauty include:

1. Fruits (especially those rich in vitamin C): Fill up on oranges, mangoes and strawberries

2. Vegetable sources of vitamin A: Eat more carrots, peaches, papaya, spinach and mangoes

Eat your way to fabulous skin

If you want radiant skin, the old adage 'you are what you eat' has never been more true. Our nutritionist tips will help you nourish your skin from the inside out.

Everyone has a favourite face cream or treatment, but beautiful skin starts with nourishment from within. Older cells are constantly shed and replaced by younger ones and a steady supply of micronutrients is essential to support this rapid growth. Eat the correct balance of foods and you'll feed your skin the vital nutrients it needs to help it stay soft, supple and blemish-free.

Eat your five-a-dayPapaya

Fruit and vegetables contain powerful antioxidants that help to protect skin from the cellular damage caused by free radicals. Free radicals are caused by smoking, pollution and sunlight and can cause wrinkling and age spots. Eat a rainbow of colourful fruit and vegetables and aim for at least five portions a day. Betacarotene, found in pumpkin, carrots and sweet potatoes, and lutein, found in kale, papaya and spinach are potent antioxidants, important for normal skin cell development and healthy skin tone.

23 Ways To Eat Clean

Replace processed, fake foods with these healthier clean eating foods

Cleaner, healthier eating

Healthy eating isn't always easy, especially with junk foods tempting you at the grocery store, corner deli, and even the office kitchen. Though clean eating at every meal isn't always realistic, you can take steps to limit processed food.

Here, we show how common foods morph from real (i.e. apples) to highly processed (apple toaster pastries). 

Your goal: Choose from natural foods as often as possible, go with foods that are somewhat processed in a pinch, and limit your intake of highly processed items. 

8 Essential Foods for Beautiful Skin

Avocados are not just for eating! A good source of biotin, avocados help to prevent dry skin and brittle hair and nails. When applied topically, they can hydrate parched skin.

A tip from 1,801 Home Remedies:

Create a moisturizing mask. Pit the fruit, puree the pulp, and pat it on your face. The oil acts as an emollient. It also contains beneficial vitamin E.

Sip your way to healthy skin. Green tea's high on the list of skin-friendly beverages thanks to its impressive storehouse of polyphenols. Aim for four cups throughout your day.

Reach for tomatoes. A German study found that lycopene-rich tomato paste helped participants prevent sunburn when they combined it with olive oil, daily for ten weeks. Besides being a great source of the antioxidant lycopene, tomatoes are considered a high-carotenoid fruit. These nutrients may help slow down cellular damage from free radicals.

10 simple tips to enhance your natural beauty

How to boost your beauty in ten simple steps: from getting down and dirty in the bedroom to grooming your eyebrows, being more beautiful is easy when you make a few small changes to your routine. Here are our top 10 ways to make you look and feel irresistible.

Beauty tip 1: Exfoliate

It’s often hard to keep up with our skin. One minute we’re smothering it in moisturiser, the next it’s back to being dull and flakey. To compliment your moisturiser and ensure that your skin stays lovelier for longer, make sure you leave extra time to exfoliate daily. Skin continually produces new cells and, as the new cells appear, the dead ones tend to sit on top of the skin making it appear dry and dull. When this happens, there’s not much point in moisturising. Why waste your expensive body butter on dead skin cells? Try buttering up after you’ve buffed the old cells off, and you’ll notice a drastic change.

Beauty tip 2: Have sex

Getting down and dirty is the ultimate beauty booster. Just 15 minutes a day spent doing the deed leaves your cheeks flushed; your lips lusciously red; and your skin glowing and beautiful. Studies have shown that regular romps increase blood flow and bring essential nutrients and oxygen to the skin, which flush out harmful toxins and make us appear younger. Plus, having someone run their fingers through your tresses can give it that gorgeous mussed-up bed head look, and we all like a bit of va-va-voom from time to time.

The Pretty Skin Diet

11 foods that give you great skin and boost your health

Eat your way to younger-looking skin

The foods in your kitchen are just as important for keeping skin soft, smooth, and glowing as the creams in your bathroom.

"Good nutrition is a fundamental building block of healthy skin," says Leslie Baumann, MD, a Miami Beach dermatologist. The natural ingredients in food help do everything from speed the pace of exfoliation to protect skin from the UV damage that causes brown spots and wrinkles. The recipe for complexion perfection starts with a well-rounded diet of healthy fats, sufficient protein, and lots of fruits and veggies. But it also includes a bevy of power foods that feed your skin in beautiful ways. As a bonus, these nutritional superstars also do wonders for the rest of your body—build brainpower, lower cholesterol, improve sleep, and more. Ready to take the inside-out approach to loving your skin for life?

10 HEALTHY FOODS TO EAT THAT GIVE YOU FLAWLESS SKIN

Have Beautiful Skin with Ten Great Food Choices

All women want to rock beautiful, healthy skin and body that will get men to look at them twice. The answer to that is a good lifestyle, consistent exercise and having healthy foods to eat.

10 Healthy Foods to Eat that Give You Flawless Skin:

1. Salmon 

Having beautiful skin doesn’t only require applying various lotions and creams, but you can also have flawless skin by feeding your body with healthy foods. One such food is the wild salmon that plays a vital role in keeping the skin smooth and soft, it also lowers the chances of the appearance of scaly skin and acne.

Foods for Beautiful Skin

Keep your skin looking younger—and lower your risk of skin cancer—with these foods.

Sunscreen helps to keep your skin healthy and beautiful, protecting it from the outside in—but certain foods can shield your skin from damage from the inside out. In fact, a study published in March 2010 in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology supports the idea that certain vitamins do help to protect our skin. Better yet, many of the same foods that can boost your defenses against skin cancer (the most common type of cancer) will also help keep your skin looking younger and smoother and ward off wrinkles.

STRAWBERRIES:

Eating more vitamin C-rich foods, such as strawberries, may help to ward off wrinkles and age-related dryness, suggests research from 2007 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Vitamin C’s skin-smoothing effects may be due to its ability to mop up free radicals produced from ultraviolet rays and also its role in collagen synthesis. Collagen is fibrous protein that keeps skin firm and vitamin C is essential for collagen production.

How to Choose Foods That Help Maintain Your Beauty

A great smile, radiant hair, skin, and nails, and a slim figure can give you a sense of confidence when going out. The beauty industry sells a wide range of products that promise eternal beauty, yet nothing makes you as beautiful on the outside as feeding your inside with a healthy diet. Choose wholesome, healthy foods to help beautify your outside and make you healthier overall.

Method 1 Creating a Beautiful Smile

1. Drink green tea. A study of Japanese men was done on the effect of green tea on gums. Drinking at least a cup of green tea once a day was shown to ward off gum disease. It's likely because green tea contains the antioxidant catechin, which can help reduce inflammation.

Fight Aging: 6 Secrets to Staying Young

Finding the Fountain of Youth

Scientists in search of the Fountain of Youth share their findings. You can try these tricks today.

"With aging, we've always studied things that decline," says Changiz Geula, PhD, research professor of neurology at the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine. But now she and other experts are looking instead to unlock the secrets of the "superaged," those lucky individuals who seem to stay vital well into their 80s and beyond. Here's some of their latest research, with advice on how you can add years to your life.

Stop eating so much

In Okinawa, Japan—home to some of the world's oldest people—centenarians stop eating when they're 80 percent full, says The Blue Zones author Dan Buettner, who studies longevity all over the planet.

33 Foods to Stay Young

Shop smarter and live (and look!) better.

Age may just be a number, but it's not one we like to give out willingly. Knock a few years off by tweaking your diet with these foods proven to be full of anti-aging properties. Plus, they'll help you reap the benefits of a smaller waist, too.

AVOCADOS

Age may just be a number, but it's not one we like to give out willingly. Knock a few years off by tweaking your diet with these foods proven to be full of anti-aging properties. Plus, they'll help you reap the benefits of a smaller waist, too.

Guacamole, anyone? According to Paula Simpson, BASc, RNCP, the oil found in avocados works to toughen your skin while also hydrating it. Another perk? "Avocados are full of monounsaturated fatty acids," says Robyn Flipse, MS, RD. "This is the healthiest type of fat for the cardiovascular system because it doesn't promote inflammation."