Posts

While this may seem like something you can do on occasion, that’s not exactly the case. We talked with professional makeup artist Jenny Patinkin and board-certified dermatologist Hadley King to get the inside scoop on how to clean your makeup brushes, what to use, and why it’s so important. Let’s get into it. Beyond the dangers to your skin, dirty brushes can prevent you from maximizing your makeup looks. “If too many oils and pigments build up on them, not only are they not going to give you a true color payoff, but they can also lose their flexibility, which means that they won’t move fluidly enough to smoothly and evenly blend your makeup,” Patinkin explained....

Forearm plank can be a part of yoga flows, bodyweight workouts, or even a stand-alone exercise whenever you want to get your heart pumping and core shaking. Learn how to do it—plus why it’s so beneficial—from certified yoga instructor and mbg staffer Amanda Quadrini. To work your legs a little extra, try squeezing a block between your thighs, to activate them. Remember to keep the hands and forearms actively pressing into the ground, core engaged, and heels back to keep everything in alignment....

Another point to consider when choosing a site is water access. “The ideal spot for your herb garden, beyond having enough sunlight, is someplace with a water source nearby so you won’t have to drag hoses or lug heavy watering cans around,” says Enfield. The best placement for your indoor herb garden will be, unsurprisingly, the part of your home that receives the most light. Ideally, it’s a bright windowsill that faces south....

Now, if you’re here, you’re likely wondering how to decide which part suits you best—while it is ultimately up to personal preference, a few factors can help you nail down the style. Namely, where your part naturally falls, how much volume you crave, and your face shape. Below, hairstylists weigh in on it all. If you notice that your hair doesn’t really grow in a certain direction, which is common with full-bodied, bouncy curls, you might not have a visible natural part....

So, what do you do when you truly want to apologize to someone you’ve hurt? We spoke with two relationship experts to help us find those answers and offer suggestions to navigate this sometimes difficult emotional terrain. If you’re unsure whether you’ve upset someone and need to apologize, there are both explicit and more subtle signs you can pick up on. Houyuan Luo, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and therapist, says that in some cases, “the person explicitly lets you know that you have done something wrong....

Conditioners certainly fall into this category. You may think the answer to “How to use conditioner” is fairly obvious (uh, don’t you just put it in after your shampoo? I can practically hear the eye roll!), but in practice, using this item comes with a lot of alternative practices. And it’s worth experimenting with new ways to use it to see what works best for your hair type. Think of it like washing your face: You need to top that fresh skin with a hydrator to keep water in the skin, as well as enhance skin barrier function....

Once I discovered these elements within my chart, I sought their spiritual meaning, realizing through astrology that there seem to be, indeed, clear periods when creative, poetic, and artistic energies are enhanced. I noticed a similar pattern for synchronicity and manifesting, too. My research helped me realize that manifesting seems to happen best when what we want is consistent with, or at least doesn’t detract from, what we are meant to do in our lives at that time....

And the first thing you should know is that the below are categories of ingredients: each specifying a different set of qualities, board-certified dermatologist Keira Barr, M.D. tells me (who also medically reviewed this article). This is why you don’t see a serum called a “Humectant Serum”; rather, it’ll be identified as the specific ingredient itself, like “Hyaluronic Acid Serum.” The other thing to note is these products are usually formulated with some combination of the three—unless you’re putting a raw ingredient on your skin....

I was 25 years old, my grandmother was dying, and my Adderall use was quickly becoming an addiction. I was in a world of debt, and losing friends fast. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, the man I loved started cheating on me and my relationship ended in violence. I would constantly attract men who did not appreciate my value because I did not appreciate my own self-worth at the time....

“Coconut sugar is a natural sugar made from coconut palm sap,” says dietitian-nutritionist Dana K. Monsees, M.S., CNS, LDN. “It’s also referred to as coconut palm sugar or coconut palm sap in liquid form.” Technically, it’s quite similar to white sugar. “Calorie for calorie and gram for gram, coconut sugar is equivalent to classic white table sugar (15 calories, 4 grams sugar per teaspoon),” says registered dietitian Danielle Fineberg, M....

According to ayurvedic philosophy, choices that you make regarding your daily routine either build up resistance to disease or tear it down. Ayurveda invites us to get a jump-start on the day by focusing on morning rituals that work to align the body with nature’s rhythms, balance the doshas, and foster self-esteem alongside self-discipline. But if you can make time for one ritual that may improve your health, consider a mug of warm water with the juice of half a lemon....

One chemical commonly used in sex toys is phthalates. Phthalates are chemicals that aid in binding things together and make plastic more flexible. Phthalates are usually found in the rubber of cheap sex toys. In the past two decades, phthalates have become the subject of a major public health concern. The exposure to phthalates has been linked to male fertility issues, obesity, type 2 diabetes, asthma, neurodevelopmental issues, and more....

So can protein powders mess with our hormones? Let’s break down how the different protein powders can directly affect your hormones:

You’ve probably read plenty of sex advice columns telling you what you need to do next: figure out a way to get the spark back, whether that means switching up your routine or going along with sex you don’t really want or otherwise finding a way to rekindle your sex life. It’s very common for sex in long-term relationships to go through different phases, including some in which one partner doesn’t want to be intimate or feels like they don’t like sex with their partner....

Screech! Quicksilver Mercury’s backspin started on December 29, right as the calendar was about to turn. Resolutions that felt certain before Mercury retrograde are better “saved to draft” for the moment. Hey, we’ve got a whole year ahead of us. Take a couple of weeks to toss a few ideas and scenarios around before you commit to a single direction. The first full moon of the year is always in either Cancer or Leo, and we think that can set the tone for the whole year ahead....

The lion and bear chronotypes of the world are your classic early risers, while the wolf and dolphin chronotypes tend toward waking later in the day. And when you know which of the four you are, you can suit your schedule and lifestyle to the needs of your type and, moreover, your circadian rhythm. Here’s a quick look at the four chronotypes: Lions tend to be leaders, or chief operating officer types, he notes, adding that they also like to make daily lists, going from step one, to two, to three, in order....

Now, some types of facials will really home in on the massage, focusing on specific meridians of the face to help drain excess fluid and encourage flow. Enter, lymphatic drainage facials: Ahead, find out how this treatment can benefit your skin, how it works, and what to know before booking a session. “For the skin, conditions like puffiness, acne, dryness, dullness, and even skin sensitivity can be improved and even resolved by simple lymphatic stimulation because it helps the body do what it’s meant to do: heal,” Rouleau adds....

The recipe that follows yields just under 2 ounces of mascara.

Maslow originally presented the hierarchy of needs broken down into five categories, based on what he believed to be most to least pressing. Later his theory became popularly depicted in a pyramid format. These are categories, organized from the “lowest tier” of needs to the “highest.” In Maslow’s books Motivation and Personality and Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences, he expanded on the tiers of human needs. He first introduced the ideas of cognitive needs and aesthetic needs as essential to the hierarchy of needs, and then finally he brought the concept of transcendence needs into the picture....

As we take on 2021, mbg is all about adding more joy into daily life—including your fitness routine. That’s exactly why I created this quick and efficient three-move glutes workout for the mbg moves series. As for the routine itself, it goes “around the world”—meaning we hit the gluteus maximus (the largest muscle in your butt), the gluteus medius (center and side seat), and then round it all out by igniting the inner thighs....