Girl-Woman-Beauty-Brains-Blog

Put your feet up and relax as you take the Total Beauty Web Tour. This week's beauty bloggers have more giveaways, beauty tips, makeup for the holidays, holiday gift guides, and the best of beauty guides.

Grab yourself a cup of joe, put your feet up, and enjoy.

Jamie has discovered a beauty product she won't leave home without: Anastasia's New Mini Brow Kit for women on the go!

Read full review.

Boots No 7 Mini Compact Gift is the perfect mini deal of the day, whether it's for you or stuffing a stocking this holiday.

$9.99 at Target

We are fans of budget-friendly Boots No 7, so if you haven't given Boots a try yet, this is a good way to test-drive the line.

Cosmetic Gift Set from Boots

Ideal for All Skin Types

6-pc. Set Includes 3 Lip Glosses, 2 Professional-Quality Applicators, 3 Eye Shadows

 

 

In an attempt to stress less, especially during the holidays, we have put 31 stress-reduction tips to the test. For the next 31 days, we will offer a new tip each day. Too much cortisol, the stress hormone, can put you at risk for high blood pressure, heart disease, impaired mental performance, and even ab fat. So please join us and learn to stress less!

Stress Reduction Tip No. 4: Breathe

Breathe Deeply.   Under stress, you're apt take quick, shallow breaths, which increases heart rate and sweating and raises your stress levels even more. "Get control of your breathing, and the spiraling effects of stress will automatically become less intense," says Brent Bauer, M.D., director of the Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program at the Mayo Clinic, and medical editor of the Mayo Clinic Book of Alternative Medicine. Try this breathing technique when you're stressed out or anytime you want to feel more relaxed: * With your mouth closed and shoulders relaxed, inhale as slowly and deeply as you can to the count of 6. Push your stomach out as you breathe in. * Hold and slowly count to 4. * Exhale through your mouth as you slowly count to 6. * Repeat 3–5 times.

Can Mother Blogger and The Working Girl  learn to breathe?

In an attempt to stress less, especially during the holidays, we have put 31 stress-reduction tips to the test. For the next 31 days, we will offer a new tip each day. Too much cortisol, the stress hormone, can put you at risk for high blood pressure, heart disease, impaired mental performance, and even ab fat. So please join us and learn to stress less!

Tip No. 3:  Spending time with girlfriends

Girls’ night out isn’t just fun—it produces a real stress-reducing response. “Hanging out with women friends increases prolactin levels,” says Christiane Northrup, M.D., author of Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom (Bantam Books, 1998). “Prolactin is a bonding hormone that also decreases stress. With your friends, you can savor the chance to talk, laugh, and temporarily escape from your worries. Making time for friends doesn’t have to be difficult, and the variety of ways to spend time with friends is endless. Keep it simple with a movie night, a long hike, or a potluck meal. Round up friends for an evening of stargazing and s’mores in your backyard. Host a wine-tasting party at your house.

Brainer or no-brainer for Jamie?

In an attempt to stress less, especially during the holidays, we have put 31 stress-reduction tips to the test.  For the next 31 days, we will offer a new tip each day.  Too much cortisol, the stress hormone, can put you at risk for high blood pressure, heart disease, impaired mental performance, and even ab fat, so join us and learn to stress less!

Tip No. 1: Embrace Silence

Spend time without your cell phone, computer, and other high-tech gear that’s become embedded into daily life.

Drive with the car radio off.

Do household chores without the TV or iPod for background noise.

Give this a test-drive in the morning when the level of cortisol, the stress hormone, is at its highest.

Discover whether Jamie was successful with embracing silence.

If you're among 65 percent of the American population, you won't forget Fido during the holidays.  For the haute poochinista on your holiday list, wrap Fido in this preppy silky-smooth dog scarf. ($16). Made to go with scarf lead and collar.

Do you buy a gift for your pet during the holidays?

 

 

Holiday Survival Guide:  Managing Stress

I am a recovering holiday stress addict.  I loved the surge of adrenaline energy as I rushed from one holiday activity to another.  Multitasking like a junkie on speed, I could hang the antique crystal angel ornament on the tree, wrap a holiday book to have on hand in case friends showed up with a gift, and whip the mashed potatoes, all without taking a breath.

During my highs, my brain was receiving pleasure signals.

During my highs, powerful hormones were being released throughout my body, elevating blood pressure, inflaming organs, metabolic processes, emotions and leaving my nerves raw.

During my highs, glucose was being driven up to my brain and into my muscles.

I loved being "crazy busy."

One of my biggest all-time meltdowns was during the Thanksgiving holiday (Click for YouTube comic relief).

Arriving home after the Turkey Trot, an annual race where fools like me decide to compete or amusingly run with other fools in conditions more frigid than the North Pole, I collapsed on the kitchen floor in a warm pool of tears.

Exhausted from the race, exhausted from entertaining out of town guests, and exhausted from dealing with bickering adult children -- Is that an oxymoron? -- I succumbed to stress in a way that was very uncharacteristic for me and frightening to my family and friends -- emotionally breaking down on the floor of my kitchen.

We all laugh about it now -- "Remember that Thanksgiving when Mom threw a hissy fit and blamed it on the turkey causing salmonella poisoning? Ha ha ha!" -- but I learned a lot from that hissy fit.

Here are 3 ways I learned to manage stress during the holidays.

h, the memories of trips taken on college spring breaks, trips to Cancun, trips to Florida, but there’s one little trip that I always dreaded making: The trip to buy a bathing suit. Bathing suit shopping is notoriously excrutiating. Your body is winter white, the options are overwhelming, and a good quality bathing suit can cost you an arm and a leg. But don’t cry in your beer just yet. There are flattering and trendy styles for every body type.

If you have a long body, choose atankini or one-piece with horizontal stripes. It helps to shorten a long body.

Also for a pear shape figure, a dark color is very slimming.

• If you have a large bust, fit is the important factor. Shop for underwiring, full cups, and wider straps for extra support. Halter neck styles are good, too.
• 
  
• If you have a small bust, padding, and underwiring will give your twins a boost. Bandeau-style swimsuits will emphasize what's not there. Tie-leg bikinis and high-cut bottoms will also focus on your trunk and legs instead of what's not there.
• 
  
• If you are pear-shaped, there are many brands that offer mix-and-match tops and bottoms. A bikini top with a bold print will draw your attention upwards, away from your lower half.

 

 

• My pick for the seasons is La Blanca by Rod Beattie. The polka dot waistband tops the zebra-print bikini bottoms in a hipster cut. According to Coutorture, and Pink Rock Candy, animal prints are still big for this summer.

 

Most importantly, whatever bathing suit you choose, body surf, play volleyball on the beach, bond with your friends instead of worrying about how you look. Nothing attracts friends more than a fun outlook on life.

 

Bon Voyage,

Jamie

"Want to really play Santa? Send cards to servicemen and women through Operation Healing Angel. The program, which is run by Homefront Hugs, sends well wishes to wounded soldiers and the nurses and physicians who care for them.

Write a letter filled with stories from home: the latest gossip (Jamie Lynn is preggers!), your company’s cray-cray Christmas party, your hilariously bad date (sweat dripped from his nose onto sushi — true story).

Have kids? Make it a family project, complete with homemade cards and photos. Mail it to Homefront Hugs, and they’ll get it in the hands of the wounded and their caretakers. "

It’s our duty to let the brave soldiers know that we’re thinking about them,
since, sadly, they won’t be home for the holidays. God bless our servicemen and women.

Peace on earth...

Source:  Daily Candy