People like to point out the fact that it’s bad to go to sleep without removing your makeup. We don’t want to be just another judgy voice in the chorus, so we’re going to go the extra mile and tell you exactly what’s so bad about sleeping all dolled up.
When you go out for an amazing night on the town and stay up until you basically fall asleep on your feet, you probably aren’t going to feel like spending a few minutes at the bathroom sink repeatedly splashing your face with water.
We all slip up occasionally, but here’s the horrifying truth about what can happen when you regularly forget to remove your makeup before bed. Together, these insights create a pretty compelling argument in favor of cleaning your face at night.
1. You could stretch out your pores.
Makeup has a tendency to work its way deeper and deeper into pores as you sleep. Not only can old makeup clog pores, sparking a field of blackheads and zits, but it can also fill and actually push your pores further open. At that point, kiss those dreams of invisible pores goodbye.
“Makeup can actually stretch the pore and make it look bigger,” David Orentreich, a dermatologist with Clinique, told Cosmopolitan magazine. We feel like we’re in a constant battle with pore-size as it is. There’s no reason to help out the enemy.
2. Your complexion could take a hit.
Sleeping in makeup is as bad as they say. The proof? It can cause zits, sure, but it can also develop age lines in your face.
“Sleeping in your makeup can result in unnecessary exposure to the free radicals in the environment, which the makeup holds on to,” Eric Schweiger, a dermatologist with the Clear Clinic, told the Huffington Post. “Free radicals cause the breakdown of healthy collagen, which results in fine lines on the skin. Additionally, makeup can clog the pores while you sleep, resulting in the development of acne.”
3. Your skin could look dull and lifeless.
We all strive for bright, radiant skin. When you sleep in makeup, you spoil your chances of attaining this look. While you sleep, all the gross stuff in your pores, like old oils and dead skin cells, push to the outer layers and give your face a dull finish.
“Oils and dead skin cells on the outermost layers of the skin are matted up against the pillow all night, and natural turnover of this dull epidermal layer is diminished,” celebrity dermatologist Annie Chiu told Good Housekeeping. “Regular cleansing and exfoliation are integral to revealing healthy new skin cells and allowing the natural repair processes of the skin to occur.”
4. You can even get itchy, irritated skin on your face.
Even if you’re not allergic to the specific makeup you wear, the chemicals in these products might start to irritate your skin over time. Like, say, the six hours you’re asleep at night.
“The skin is good at tolerating a lot of things, but it can become reactive,” Orentreich said. “You don’t want to leave things on longer than you have to.”
So next time you’re tempted to collapse into bed with a fully made-up face, force yourself into the bathroom (or at the very least use a makeup remover towelette). Your skin will thank you!
If you’re like most moms, you’d prefer to make your own baby food, but you’re worried that you won’t have the time. We totally get it! Taking care of a baby is already a full-time endeavor, and sometimes picking up a store-bought pouch of puree in between folding laundry and cleaning the nursery is all you can manage.
However, there’s a simple way to make as much baby food as you want in a single setting, then save it single-serving increments so you can feed your bundle of joy healthy, fresh, homemade food without spending a fortune.
There are only two steps:
1. Puree baby-friendly fruits, vegetables, or a combination of the two food categories.
Favorites include strawberries, blueberries, carrots, peaches, and bananas. If the puree looks a bit too thick for your baby, just add apple juice (remember to be mindful of the amount of sugar the juice contains) and continue blending until you achieve the consistency your kid loves.
Fresh purees are ready for your baby to eat immediately, but by no means are we suggesting you should get out the blender every time your infant is hungry. That’s far too labor intensive. Instead, we suggest that the next time you find 10 spare minutes (not easy, we know), dash to the kitchen, puree a bunch of fruits and vegetables, and preserve them. As for how that’s done, let’s move on to Step 2.
2. Freeze any unused leftovers in an ice cube tray.
Freezing preserves the nutrients and general goodness of a freshly pureed fruit. Even better, puree cubes allow you to serve a perfect portion every time. Hungry babies might want two or three cubes, while a little one who just wants a light snack might get by with a single serving.
You can defrost the pureed cubes really quickly in the microwave, or you can serve them frozen. This frozen option might be the ideal treat for a teething baby or a toddler who really enjoys popsicles. If you don’t want to use an ice cube tray, there are BPA-free molds available on Amazon that are a great fit for tiny hands.
Amazon
Every mom develops her own favorite recipes. This isn’t baking, so you can’t really go wrong. Just throw some fruit into the blender and see how your child likes it. Here are a few ideas, courtesy of Parents magazine, to get you started:
1. Blueberry Applesauce Puree
Blend a handful of blueberries with a sweet, peeled apple. Golden Delicious and Gala apples are fine, but you can also spice things up with a sweet Honeycrisps.
2. Banana Yogurt Puree
You don’t even need a blender for this one! Just smush super-ripe banana fruit in with unsweetened yogurt and watch your baby grin.
3. Pear Raspberry Puree
First off, this recipe is only for babies who are 8 months or older, so if your kiddo is even younger, save this one for later. (It also requires a little extra work.)
Once you blend the raspberries and peeled pear chunks together into a fine puree, you’ll want to squeeze the mixture through a tightly wound sieve. Otherwise, your kid could choke on the raspberry seeds. Let’s be honest: Who wants to deal with raspberry seeds, anyway?
Patty Jenkins, director of Wonder Woman, has smashed through another glass ceiling with the help of an Amazon warrior with a magic lasso. Within just a few weeks of opening, the 2017 superhero hit grossed $635 million in global ticket sales.
@PattyJenks/Twitter
The previous record for a live-action film directed by a woman, incidentally, was $609.8 million for Phyllida Lloyd’s Mamma Mia!, back in 2008. Wonder Woman is a record breaker.
This victory won’t surprise the legions of fans who swarmed to theaters on opening weekend or the tearful moms who can finally bring their daughters to a superhero film starring a woman or the DC comics scholars who have been waiting for this moment since they were 10 years old.
It might, however, silence the online legions of men who complained bitterly about a women-only screening at the legendary Texas theater, the Alamo Drafthouse.
This was the same crowd that went into hysterics about women leading the Ghostbusters reboot. The summer before that, they were all up in arms about Charlize Theron’s character Imperator Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road because she wasn’t subservient enough to the titular Max.
The trollosphere even slithered into the conversation surrounding the production of Wonder Woman, with a comment promising that, “People inside are already confirming it’s another mess.”
That line came from an open letter to Warner Bros CEO Kevin Tsujihara, complaining about layoffs and the general state of the studio’s output over the past few years. The letter was signed “Gracie Law,” who claims to be an ex-employee.
Jenkins responded directly, via Twitter of course.
“Whoah, just saw some press about WW having problems,” the director wrote. “Are they serious? This is some made up bs right here. Made up! Produce a source, anyone.”
When no one responded with a source, Jenkins doubled down on her argument.
“You can’t because it’s entirely false,” she tweeted. “Don’t believe the hype people. Someone’s trying to spread some serious misinfo.”
The tweets go on and on, but Jenkins’ point is that there was no behind-the-scenes trouble on the set of Wonder Woman. We weren’t there, so we can’t claim to know how the entire production went, but one thing is for sure: the film itself is not a “mess.” Anything but, actually.
And the fans agree. Although Frozen remains the highest-earning film directed (co-directed, in this case) by a woman, Wonder Woman is now tops in the non-animated category. Besides, Wonder Woman is still in theaters. It could conceivably soar past the $1 billion record set by Frozen.
Either way, people are lining up to congratulate Jenkins on her success.
Actor Connie Nielsen, who played Wonder Woman’s mother, Queen Hippolyta, tweeted a nice message.
“@PattyJenks Am so unbelievably proud of you,” she wrote.
“Thank you my dear friend and incredible queen,” Jenkins responded. “Couldn’t have done it without you. Without all of you. Honored to be a part of it.”
Co-writer Geoff Johns toldVariety that he and Jenkins are currently
working on the story for the next installment in what promises to be a legendary franchise. “The goal is to make another great Wonder Woman film,” he said.
She’s a trained lawyer. She’s an Australian senator representing Queensland. She’s a card-carrying member of the Australian Greens party. And just as important, she’s a mom.
Waters gave birth to her second daughter, Alia Joy, in 2017. Fortunately, the Australian parliament allows moms to bring their infants to work, so Waters was able to return to her parliamentary duties with 10-week-old Alia in tow.
Larissa Waters
In fact, in 2016 the Senate decided to legally allow women to breastfeed in Parliament. But it didn’t happen until this year, when Waters became the first woman ever to breastfeed her baby in the Senate chamber.
That was noteworthy enough. But Waters further normalized this thoroughly natural process in June 2017. She had a motion to move. And her baby was hungry.
That’s all it took for Waters to become the first woman to breastfeed her baby while giving a speech in the Australian Parliament.
Waters wasn’t trying to make any statement. She didn’t mean to take on the role of an activist, at least not in this case. She told Buzzfeed News that she chose to give the speech while breastfeeding because “black lung disease is back among coal miners in Queensland and Alia was hungry.”
ABC
Waters made a brief speech calling for action on the subject of black lung disease, an illness caused by long-term exposure to coal dust. Black lung was virtually eradicated from Australia in the 1960s, but a boom in coal mining in that nation has brought it back. Waters felt that her speech in favor of addressing the re-emergence of black lung was deeply important.
Of course, so is feeding a hungry baby.
Waters’ feeding of her baby was received in the chamber with smiles and nods of approval.
That’s a good sign for a legislative body that in 2015 ordered Liberal MP Kelly O’Dwyer to “express more milk to ensure she did not miss votes in Parliament,”
Even further back, in 2009, Parliament leaders ordered Sarah Hanson-Young of the Greens to send her 2-year-old daughter out of the chamber. Hanson-Young complied, but the entire Parliament then had to listen as the panicking toddler wailed just outside the door.
These events came to a head in 2016, when Parliament agreed to change their rules and procedures.
“No member, male or female, will ever be prevented from participating fully in the operation of the Parliament by reason of having the care of a baby,” Leader of the House Christopher Pyne said, according toHello Magazine
the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Independent
Of course, there’s a big difference between making the rules and enforcing them. Just by being a mom, Waters is testing Parliament’s resolve to make the chamber more family friendly. So far, it seems to be working.
So just how long do we have to wait for common-sense family rules in other democracies? Waters may be more than a senator and a mom.
Huffington Post
She might be the tip of the spear, signaling a change to a more family-friendly approach to governing all over the world. Here’s hoping.
1. There’s always a risk of a fungal infection (ugh!).
We’re sure the manicurists at your local nail salon are consummate professionals, and that they thoroughly disinfect tools between clients. But fungi are tenacious.
They might hide out on your technician’s hands, inside polish brushes, or even on stations themselves. Besides, there’s sort of disinfecting your tools, and then there’s really disinfecting your tools (more on that later). Shutterstock
Robert Spalding, a Tennessee Podiatrist who wrote a book called Death by Pedicure, told US News and World Report that up to 75 percent of the nail salons in the United States fail to follow state protocols on disinfection. If that’s accurate, it’s pretty sobering.
2. Overzealous technicians can permanently damage your nail beds.
The worst part of a (mostly) relaxing manicure is when your tech trims your cuticles without your permission. If they go too far, they can damage living skin, causing a wavy, uneven nail bed. The process should be gentle, if you’re okay with it being done at all. Getty Images
Ideally, your nail tech should just gently push your cuticles back with a cuticle stick.
3. Gel manicures may raise your risk of skin cancer and even cause premature aging.
There are lots of advantages to gel manicures. Of course they look great. They also last longer, they’re tougher, and they dry quickly beneath the salon’s UV lamps. But those UV rays may also be doing invisible damage on a cellular level. Alex Zivatar
Dermatologist Chris Adigun said in an American Academy of Dermatology press release that “the UV dose that you receive during a gel manicure is brief, but it’s intense. …Over time, this intense exposure can add up to cause skin damage.”
4. Filing is an art, and not every manicurist has it mastered.
Manicurists are trained to work fast. But if they file your nails quickly, with a rough, sawing motion, they might damage your tips. That could cause splitting, cracks, or peeling further down the line. Alex Zivatar
Make sure your tech files in a single direction, and that they use a clean file with a fine grain.
5. Regular manicures can weaken your nails.
Those UV lamps aren’t the only downside to a sleek gel manicure. The only way to strip your last layer of gel polish is with a caustic acetone remover. Shutterstock
Over time, this can weaken nails. Acetone dries out keratin, the rigid protein your nails are made of. Dry keratin tends to peel, become brittle, and ultimately break. Yikes.
6. If your manicurist skips the base coat, you could end up with permanent stains.
Base coats do more than make your colors pop. They also protect your nails and the skin surrounding them from the more powerful dyes in brightly colored polish. Alex Zivatar
If you still decide to go to the salon after all this, it might be worth it to ask for a double base coat. And if your tech tries to skip this first step, it might be time to find a new nail salon.
7. Nail polish remover can make your nails rough and gritty.
We’ve already established that acetone and keratin don’t get along. With repeated exposure, nail polish remover can start to break down the top layer of your fingernails. Tiny Plastic Fingernails
Eventually, this leads to a rough surface. You won’t notice it after a fresh manicure, but try to go natural, and you’ll feel the difference. Only time—and a moratorium on nail polish remover—will get your nails back to normal.
All that’ being said, there’s still a place for nail polish remover, maybe just not where you expected it.
Be choosy about using it on your nails, but being creative (and careful) with remover elsewhere may save you some headaches.
8. It actually takes a lot to properly sanitize manicure tools.
Your tech might pull tools from a fancy UV sanitizing machine, but that may not be enough to actually blast away all the germs. Alex Zivatar
Terri Silacci, nail expert at Sephora, toldToday about the risks.
“These lights are effective [only] when coupled with proper cleaning of dirt and debris, as well as an approved disinfectant,” Silacci said.
9. You may uncover an allergy you never knew you had.
It’s rare to discover an allergic reaction at the nail salon, but it can happen. After all, manicurists rely on lots of strange chemicals. You might not be exposed to acrylics, nail adhesive, or acetone before taking a trip to the salon. Shutterstock
If you’re allergic to any of these substances, you’ll find out the hard way. The fanciest nails in the world aren’t worth all that.
10. Manicures can cost a pretty penny.
A standard manicure tends to run around $20 or $25. But if you really want to go all out and rock your nails like a superstar, start saving today. KISS Nails
Gigi Hadid, for instance, once spent $2,000 on a single manicure in eye-catching chrome. Meanwhile, her boyfriend Zayn Malik was wearing a full sleeve of chrome plate mail armor, so her fancy nails got totally upstaged, anyway.
Point being: You can save a little—or a lot—if you learn to do your own nails.
11. You shouldn’t get one gel manicure after another, so pick your timing carefully.
Dermatologist Adigun also gave some sage advice to the readers of Teen Vogue: “I always tell my patients to go on a gel honeymoon,” she said. “This break will allow their nails to rehydrate and repair.” Getty Images Entertainment / Anna Webber
If you follow the good doctor’s advice, then, that means you should plan your gel manicures carefully. If you’re going to a wedding next month, now might not be the best time for a trip to the nail salon.
12. Some nail polish is notorious for containing a “toxic trio” of chemicals.
Ask your manicurist if any products involved in their procedure contain DBP, toluene, or formaldehyde. Or, just ask about the “toxic trio.” That term has been around for a while, and most beauty professionals will be familiar with it. Alex Zivatar
Together, these chemicals have been linked to asthma, birth defects, and even cancer, so it’s better not to mess with them. You have more control when you buy your own products or skip the nail polish entirely.
13. Simpler looks are coming back in vogue.
The past few years have been huge for elaborate manicures. The pendulum of fashion is beginning to swing, though. Most of the looks picked by Glamour magazine’s “Best Nail Polish Colors and Trends for Spring 2017” list were monochromatic, for example. Jonathan Pozniak
That means that cutting-edge nail fashion is easier than ever to pull off at home. We can all breathe a sigh of relief, and get out those cotton balls.
14. Healthy nails are the new French manicure.
You know what looks really nice on fingernails? Fingernails. Lots of women are opting for the natural look these days, with well-sculpted, neat cuts and a shiny, healthy finish. Getty Images Entertainment / Anna Webber
Instead of heading to the nail salon, why not pick up a tube of nourishing cuticle oil? These products contain blends of hydrating natural oils that keep your nails and cuticles bright and beautiful. Plus, there’s less upkeep this way.
15. A bold shade of nail polish might hide a nasty infection.
The problem with picking up a fungal infection from a nail salon is that the very manicure that infected you might also cover up the growing infestation. Pexels
Discoloration begins beneath the nail, and you might not see it until it’s time to strip your nails for a new look. The gross thing about fungal infections is that they tend to grow. Treating them early is way, way easier, but you can only do that if you know they’re there.
16. The best reason to stop getting your nails done professionally is that it’s way more fun to do them yourself!
Even better, have a girlfriend do them. Hero
If you’re worried about painting outside the lines, just slather a little petroleum oil on the skin around your nails. Any excess polish will stick to the gunk. When the polish dries, just wipe your fingertips with tissues.
Voila! Perfect nails!
