You can tell when an industry or company has its back to the wall because it starts spinning the bad news so fast that Ginger Rogers would get dizzy. Late in July the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) announced in the new issue of the Lancet Oncology that the evidence was unequivocal: tanning bed use increases the odds of developing melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. In fact, the organization, which until now has avoided stating flatly that tanning beds and sun lamps cause cancer, moved tanning beds to its highest cancer risk category: “carcinogenic to humans,” a designation shared by such substances as tobacco and mustard gas. It reported that an analysis of clinical research shows that teens and young adults under age 30 who regularly use tanning beds increase their melanoma risk by a staggering 75 percent.
News doesn’t get more damning than that, and it only reinforces the point we have made so often in our book, on this blog and in our other writings: avoiding excessive sun exposure is one of the most important steps you can take to improve not only the health of your skin but your overall health. The trouble is, the tanning salon industry isn’t, as you would expect, turning cartwheels over this news. For years, the industry has caught a great deal of flack for opening up new salons directly across from high schools in an obvious attempt to woo young girls looking to get bronzed before prom. So it’s not surprising that the official response of the industry was this, from an MSNBC story:
“The fact that the IARC has put tanning bed use in the same category as sunlight is hardly newsworthy,” said Dan Humiston, president of the Indoor Tanning Association (ITA). “The UV light from a tanning bed is equivalent to UV light from the sun, which has had a group 1 classification since 1992. Some other items in this category are red wine, beer and salted fish. The ITA has always emphasized the importance of moderation when it comes to UV light from either the sun or a tanning bed.”
That is more than a little disingenuous. The IARC Group 1 classification includes ethanol as a carcinogen, a type of alcohol that is indeed found in alcoholic beverages like red wine and beer. But drinking a glass of red wine is hardly the same as drinking pure ethanol, and it’s probably safe to say that the proven health benefits of red wine also counterbalance the cancer risks. This comes across as desperate spin from an industry that’s heard its death knell…maybe.
That brings up the real point: will this announcement change behavior. There are some positive signs already: MSNBC also reports that tanning salons around the country have seen a spike in cancellations after this cancer information was made public. But how long will that last? If history is any indication, teens who believe they are immortal will revert back to old habits unless this new information is followed with continuing education. So if you’re the parent of a young woman (or man, since guys tan, too), take it upon yourself to learn more about this announcement, the dangers of tanning beds, and melanoma in general, and talk to your kids. You can learn more here:
We’re entering the summer travel season, and that means a lot more time in airports, packing luggage while trying to figure out what you can leave behind (answer: always more than you’d like to), and attempting to eat and drink healthy while you’re going 100 miles an hour with your hair on fire. Even with the recession, you’re probably planning on taking at least a scaled-back vacation, probably someplace sunny and warm. And even though there may be relaxation awaiting you, let’s face it: getting to and from your destination can tax even someone with near-perfect, serene Inner Beauty. So, from us to you as we think about our own escapes to some paradise where mobile phones don’t work, some travel tips for keeping staying beautiful everywhere from the rental car desk to a white sand beach:
Take just the essentials. You’re not going to be able to take your entire medicine cabinet, so just choose the skin care products you must have: sunscreen, moisturizer (moisturizer with sunscreen is even better, as long as it’s broad spectrum), cleanser, and some basic makeup like foundation, lip liner, and so on. You’ll have less to carry and spend a lot less time of your valuable vacation in front of the mirror. Plus, fewer items means fewer chances of getting stuck at airport security.
Protect yourself from the sun. We won’t even go into the risks of melanoma; you’ve heard those before, and there’s no more important reason to minimize your sun exposure. But beyond that, there’s the simple fact that if you’re lying on the beach for a week with unprotected skin, you’re doing damage. In the short term, you’re going to burn and peel, and along with being miserably painful that is never attractive. In the long term, you’re damaging collagen and dehydrating your skin so that you’re more likely to develop crepey, leathery skin on your face and chest as you age. Be smart: wear a sunscreen with at least 30 spf, reapply it every 2 hours, wear a sun hat and when you’re on the beach, sit under an umbrella.
Hydrate. The air in an aircraft is less humid than outside air, so it’s a perfect place to start drinking extra water and to keep hydrating throughout your trip. Hydration keeps your digestion consistent, plumps your skin, cools your body when you’re in the sun, and curbs your appetite so you can resist going crazy on your cruise ship’s 24-hour all you can eat seafood and dessert bar.
Bring healthy snacks. My oh my, the things we eat when we’re on the run. We grab a soda at the airport store, a soggy wrap on the plane for $8, a bag of nuts in the destination airport, then a late sandwich or pizza at the hotel, because the restaurant is closed when we arrive. At all adds up to more sodium, fat, and calories than we need, which can mean extra pounds at the end of a vacation, and that’s not good for anyone’s inner or outer beauty. So pack healthy snacks from the start: fruit, nuts, nutrition bars, whole juice (not apple or grape juice, which are packed with sugar), even healthy sandwiches on whole grain bread. You’ll eat better, save money, feel better and look slimmer when you head back home.
Take it all in stride. Inner Beauty may suffer most during travel. Nothing ever goes perfectly: there are delays, baggage problems, botched orders, more delays, and so on. If you go into your trip assuming you’re entitled to have every stage of your journey go perfectly, you’re going to be miserable and make everyone around you miserable. Instead, remember to be Zen about your travels. Accept that some things will go wrong, but keep in mind that they are small bumps on your way to a wonderful respite from daily life. A little perspective will reduce your stress level and help you feel more beautiful when you arrive.
Be kind. We once heard an airline pilot share the key to getting great service at the airport: be kind to the airline staff. When there’s a flight delay or some other problem, passengers inevitably treat airport staff like dirt, call them stupid, shake their fists and so on. What the pilot meant was that being kind—and we mean over-the-top, “Can I get you a drink, you look like you’re having a rough time” kind—to airline gate agents and other people can really help you get where you’re going. But more important than that, it makes you feel better. Why stand around with your teeth clenched getting angry when you can be nice to someone else and make yourself feel wonderful as well?
Unplug. You’re on vacation. The office will function and the world will turn even if you leave your mobile phone, Blackberry and laptop at home. We all work hard 50 weeks a year; for two weeks, we need to focus only on ourselves, on the present moment. Disconnect from the grid and practice mindfulness. Savor the moments of your trip. You might not get another one for a while.
We’ve said all along that aging wasn’t strictly a biological issue. Now there’s some proof that we’re right. A new study (read the story about it here) by Dr. Bahman Guyuron, chairman of the department of plastic surgery at the University Hospitals of Cleveland and Case Western Reserve University, has revealed that identical twins, who are genetically programmed to age in the same way, can actually show different facial signs of aging depending on their lifestyles and life experiences. We find this especially interesting because it suggests that your choices on how to view the world and your relationships with others can have a tangible effect on your Outer Beauty, and indeed can affect the entire Beauty-Brain Loop.
The researchers recruited nearly 200 sets of identical female twins who were attending an annual twin festival in the aptly-named Twinsburg, Ohio. They collected photos of each set of twins and asked an independent panel to review each pair and assess whether one twin looked older than another.
They found several factors influenced facial aging, including sun exposure and smoking. Based on the assessment, 10 years of smoking added about 2.5 additional years of aging to a twin’s face, compared to a twin who didn’t smoke. Sun exposure, particularly among those who spent a lot of time outside playing golf or tennis, also increased the appearance of aging.
Stress also appeared to be a factor in aging. Divorced twins appeared, on average, at least two years older than a twin who was married or widowed.
The study also found that users of antidepressants such as Prozac also appeared older, raising speculation that perhaps the chemical components of the drugs affected facial muscles or tissues in some way. Interestingly, weight loss was both white and black hat in terms of aging. Women who lost weight before age 40 looked younger, but women who were heavier after 40 actually appeared more youthful than their slimmer siblings, suggesting that fat loss may somehow affect collagen and the skin’s natural moisture content.
What’s really interesting about this is that it puts responsibility for how your face looks as you age squarely on the shoulders of nurture, not nature. Sure, genetics play a role in everything from your odds of developing skin cancer to your propensity for developing bags under your eyes. But overall, the choices you make for your diet, your recreation, your relationships and your attitude toward living are what really determine how well you age and how your face shows the years.
It makes sense that stress is a major factor: the release of powerful stress hormones like cortisol can cause the body to release oils, provoke breakouts and damage skin in the long-term. And there’s nothing worse than smoking, which produces an oxidative reaction that damages the skin and collagen at the cellular level. What’s positive about this news is that it means you can control, to a remarkable extent, how your face ages with the choices you make. It means that your Inner Beauty—your self-esteem, love and ability to see beauty in others—directly impacts your exterior.
So to give yourself the best odds of aging gracefully, stick to the basics first. Eat well. Exercise. Protect yourself from the sun. Don’t smoke. Breathe. Live with joy and find healthy ways to manage stress. Find a doctor you trust and maintain your overall health. Anything else you do on top of those choices, from spending on cosmetics and skin care products to choosing dermatological procedures, is only going to be effective if you’ve given yourself a great foundation for lifelong beauty.
Remember when the words “organic” and “natural” used to mean something when you saw them on a product label? We used to assume that when we saw those terms, what we were putting on or in our bodies was as pure and unaltered by chemicals as possible. Now, that’s not always the case. For one thing, the Food & Drug Administration has become very lax in the rules about what is allowed to be called “natural” in packaged foods. Now an ingredient that was derived from a natural source but has been processed to a fare-thee-well can be called “natural flavoring.” As for organic, it’s become such big business that huge corporate agriculture can gotten into the game. So-called “Big Organic” is competing with the mom-and-pop farms, driving down prices, and lobbying for weaker organic certification standards—all to get a piece of the booming $30 billion pie.
What does this have to do with beauty? Plenty, because there’s concern these days about the profusion of dangerous chemicals in cosmetics and skin care products, from parabens to phthalates. Certainly, we’re all looking for the products that will protect our skin and keep it healthy and attractive, but at the same time, we don’t want to slather ourselves in chemicals that can cause allergic reactions, immune system problems, hormone disruption or worse. But with the words “natural” and “organic” compromised and turned into marketing slogans, what can women trust to ensure that they’re getting the chemical-free products they seek?
There is a certification standard that can be relied on, called ECOCERT®. ECOCERT® is an internationally recognized organic certification managed by a French company. Its use guarantees that products bearing it have been formulated and manufactured with ecological responsibility, and that 100% of the ingredients are of a natural origin. Companies can only gain ECOCERT® certification if:
No pre-treatment is used in any of the raw materials found in organic products.
All suppliers pass an extensive quality and purity review before their raw materials are approved.
Manufacturing and packaging facilities pass a rigorous inspection.
All packaging is recyclable.
One of the best things about seeing the ECOCERT® certification is that it has nothing to do with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which certifies food products but has no jurisdiction over color cosmetics. Many women assume that the government oversees the content of such products, but that’s not the case. That’s why ECOCERT® provides such peace of mind: you know that a responsible testing body has determined that the contents of what you’re putting on your skin is completely natural. And if one of your New Year’s resolutions was to live greener this year, this is a great way to know that you’re spending your money on products that are gentle on natural resources, reduce pollution and help support small farmers and companies. That’s beautiful in many ways.
Stay beautiful (and look for our reports from the Obama Inauguration),
Unless you’ve been living in seclusion on a deserted tropical island for the last year (lucky you), you’re quite aware of the Big R: Recession. We’re in one, it’s ugly and it looks like it might get a lot uglier. People are cutting back on everything from travel to buying new appliances, rediscovering frugal activities like gardening and do-it-yourself repairs, and clipping every coupon in sight to try and save money. You may already be doing some or all of those things yourself in an effort to survive the tough times. So what are we to make of this news?
According to a survey of more than 11,500 people in more than a dozen countries including Brazil, Greece, Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia, Turkey, Britain and the United States, people are still spending the same amount on cosmetics and other beauty products as they did before the economic collapse. The data show that 41% of the people surveyed planned to maintain their spending levels on beauty products such as cosmetics, skin care products and hair care products, while 55% of respondents said they would spend more on healthcare products and only 17% would spend less.
What does this say about us? Does it makes sense that we’re cancelling vacations, not buying cars and washing machines and counting pennies at the supermarket, but still shelling out for Garnier and Neutrogena? We think that it does. Everyone needs to feel they have a sanctuary, especially when times are hard or frightening, as they are now. For women, that sanctuary often becomes the knowledge that no matter what else happens, we are taking care of our appearance and our health. It’s an aspect of control; we cannot control the Dow Jones average, the housing market or whether we’ll be laid off next month, but we can control how we care for our skin, watch our diet, style our hair and so on. Paying attention to and money for self-care products gives us a psychological safe harbor for our Inner Beauty, a little bit of armor for the world that lets us say, “At least I look and feel good,” no matter what else happens.
So shop smart and save where you can, but if you feel the drive to care for your looks and your health while you’re cutting back everywhere else, don’t feel guilty. Allow yourself a little indulgence. Keep taking your vitamins and omega-3s, keep using moisturizer and sunscreen, and treat yourself to some time getting your hair or nails done once in a while. It doesn’t make you wasteful. It makes you wise. Spending a few dollars on beauty is a small price to pay to keep your spirits up and help you feel like you can take on an increasingly harsh world.
A few weeks back, we blogged about a new reality show, “True Beauty,” premiering this year on ABC. Supposedly, the show would feature the usual collection of contestants who, while they thought they were being judged on their external good looks, were actually being judged on their “inner beauty.” Well, we’ve seen the premiere episode and it wasn’t exactly what we were hoping for. We applaud the producers, including Tyra Banks, for bringing the issue of inner beauty to the fore, but we had something different in mind. And since we try to be positive on this blog, we’re going to offer our constructive criticisms on how “True Beauty” could become a truer test of bona fide Inner Beauty.
Make the setting more natural. Right now, the show’s setup is pretty typical: take a bunch of people, stick them in a house, and let personal conflict erupt. Instead, we’d love to see the show be more natural and unforced. Follow the contestants around in their personal lives with hidden cameras and audio to see how they interact with others. Inner beauty is about self-esteem and seeing the beauty in other people and the world around you. Do the contestants treat themselves well or engage in damaging self-talk? Do they treat others with compassion and respect? Do they maintain a positive frame of mind? Those are questions you can’t answer in an artificial setting.
Expand the palette of people. This might not be able to happen until next season, but we’d love to see people who aren’t all great looking be on the show. The contestants right now are all varying degrees of gorgeous, and that doesn’t reflect reality. It sends the message that inner beauty only matters if you also have outer beauty, and that’s not a healthy message to send. Add a plus-sized woman, a geekier guy and maybe even a disabled man or woman to the cast next year and we think viewers will relate much better.
Take more time. The first contestant was expelled from the program after one week and after one not-so-beautiful act (failing to hold a door for someone). Even though it follows the the “Survivor” format of “knock ‘em down one at a time,” that doesn’t seem fair. Inner beauty is a matter of thoughts, attitudes and actions over a long period, not one isolated incident. Heck, even the most inwardly gorgeous of us is inconsiderate or mean-spirited from time to time. Again, we know this violates the “who’s going to be booted next” ethos of reality TV, but it would give each person a fairer shake.
We’re not TV producers, and we haven’t thought these ideas through completely, but we think that in general the result would be a “True Beauty” that was more true to its name: a test of the genuine inner beauty of a group of people. It would also send a more positive message to the audience: that real inner beauty is its own reward, even if you don’t win a spot on People’s Most Beautiful list.
It’s been obvious for many years that the U.S. has become a deeply diverse nation. The election of Barack Obama was, to us, final proof of the fact that we’re getting to the point where we can see a non-white face not only as beautiful but trustworthy, intelligent and wise. That’s a huge step, and here’s another: a company called Thevi Cosmetics is debuting lines of beauty products designed specifically for women from different ethnic groups. Companies have been marketing specialty lines of foundation, eye shadow, lipstick and other prodcuts to African-American women for years, but now this company is targeting the estimated 44 million women in the U.S. of Latino, Asian, South Asian, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern descent.
This is a fantastic development. As we talk about in The Beauty Prescription and this blog, not all colors are for every woman. Color palettes are based on skin tone, eye color and hair color, and women from different ethnic backgrounds have exotic combinations of these elements that demand attention. Well, they’re getting it. Thevi and other companies are using color science to develop new palettes based on undertones like red-brown, red-gold, olive and golden. The reason this is so important goes far beyond giving women from Pakistan, Greece, Syria, Sri Lanka or Brazil the ability to accent their most beautiful features. That’s important, of course, but the real benefit goes deeper.
Essentially, by opening our eyes to wider world of cosmetics, companies like these are saying to women of different non-Caucasian ethnicities, “Yes, you are beautiful, too!” By acknowledging these women, they are contributing to the inner beauty of all ethnic women. Part of inner beauty is seeing beauty in others and knowing that others see beauty in you. In this context, ethnocentric beauty products become tools of recognition and empowerment. That may seem like quite a burden to place on lip liner, but hey, it’s not easy changing the world.
