Laughter, the best age-defying tonic

You don’t need that $2,100/jar face cream to look youthful. All you need to do is have a hearty laugh! A good laugh is not only enjoyable, it also promotes better health. Laughter is like a revitalizing serum that heightens and brightens mood, gently relieving tensions and social constraints. Furthermore, laughing is found to help make you look youthful. And the best thing about it is it costs nothing!

Having a good laugh is an excellent exercise for your facial muscles. It helps improve facial expressions by toning up the muscles of the face. Laughing also increases the blood supply which nourishes the facial skin making it glow. People who laugh more, just like my jolly friend Shawn Umsted, look more cheerful and attractive. By squeezing the tear glands through laughter, it moistens the eyes adding a little sparkle to them. Laughter exercises the abdominal muscles and helps improve the muscle tone of those with pot-bellies.

So why spend a fortune for those age-defying face creams and cosmetic surgeries when you can just laugh and look youthful for free?

Pinoys and Skin Whitening (Rewritten for PinoyChronicle)

While Hollywood celebrities Charlize Theron and Paris Hilton bask in the sun in a secluded Acapulco beach or pay big bucks in a posh Beverly Hills tanning salon just to get that “gorgeous tanned look,” we Filipinos shun the sun every way we can. And if we really have to go out during the day, we wear long-sleeved shirts, use an umbrella and slather layers of sunblock cream onto our skin to keep the darkening effects of sunlight at bay.

The sheer number of whitening products displayed on supermarket shelves is a clear indication of our obsession for whiter skin. Facial cleansers, soaps, face creams, lotions, astringents, even deodorants with skin lightening properties sell more than the ordinary variants. Manufacturers capitalize on the bleaching effects of papaya, kalamansi and guava extracts and produced organic bath products that promise healthy and lighter complexion sans harmful chemicals. And who wouldn’t notice the barrage of billboards, print ads and TV commercials promoting these products, endorsed of course by fair skinned models and celebrities.

We are known to be the race with beautiful brown skin. So why the penchant for lighter complexion? Some say it’s just another case of colonial mentality. The traditional concept of beauty during the Spanish regime was exemplified by fair-skinned mestiza, and this notion continues up to this day. However, Thailand also subscribes to the “skin whitening practice” but it was never colonized by any European country. Others argue that this craze is just a massive marketing ploy by the media and multinational manufacturing companies to drive people to think that the color of their skin will somehow make their life better, and at the same time give these companies huge profits.

Maybe, colonial history and marketing strategies have nothing to do with it. Maybe it’s just simply wanting what we don't have: fair skin. Just like the obsession of Japanese for big round eyes (look at mangas and anime). Or Charlize and Paris’ desire to be tanned, no matter how expensive. Skin color, after all, is just superficial. What’s more important is that we’re proud to be Filipinos!

Milk On Your Skin

Milk is more than just a healthy drink that is good for the bones. The legendary wonders of milk when applied to the skin has been discovered 2,000 years ago. Cleopatra, the Queen of the Nile, bathed in milk everyday to maintain her lily-white skin soft and supple.

Milk has hydrating properties that prevents dryness. It helps reduce darkening brought about by the wear and tear of aging. It has essential proteins and amino acids, and vitamin A that nourish skin. It is also rich in beta-hydroxyl acids that act as natural skin conditioner that exfoliate, soothe and soften old skin, and give that healthy glow. Another important nutrient in milk is lactic acid, which helps to gently clean and soften skin down to its deepest layer.

There are a lot of commercially available milk soaps and bath products. Use them as you would any regular soaps or bath products. But don’t leave them on your skin for too long: 5 to 10 minutes should be enough, and make sure that you properly rinse the milk off after you have soaked in it.

Natural Beauty

Tired of expensive and chemically laden beauty products? Go the natural way and use items readily available in your kitchen!

Aside from being a protective antioxidant, honey is a natural moisturizer. It has been used for centuries in Europe as a soothing balm for dry skin. Furthermore, honey helps to protect the skin from the damage of the sun's rays and rejuvenate depleted skin.

Yogurt is more than just as a low-calorie snack that's packed with calcium, vitamin D and live bacteria cultures that can help calm a troubled tummy. It also has the power to sooth irritated skin. Choose full-fat over low-fat (it will offer more moisturizing power) and smooth onto bare skin. Leave on for 15 minutes then rinse with warm water.

The ultimate comfort food, chocolate, is also a naturally antioxidant-rich treat that is beneficial to the skin. In fact, it has become a popular spa treatment which you can replicate in your own home by sprinkling cocoa powder into your bubble bath.

What is Real Beauty?

What is real beauty? Is it the face we see when we look at the mirror first thing in the morning? The disheveled look, without any makeup? Can I still be called beautiful even if I’m 50 lbs overweight? Is beauty truly in the hands of the beholder as Al Bernstein contends? I’d like to think so, but…

The media paints an almost unattainable standard of beauty: young, tall, slim, models with ample breasts and shapely legs as seen on the pages of fashion magazines, on television and movie screens. And these images pressure some women to risk their lives for beauty. A growing number of girls, some as young as nine, are taking diet pills or are already afflicted with eating disorders in their efforts to look like the models or stars they idolize. It seems that the billion dollar beauty industry survives by inflicting physical and psychological abuse upon millions of women. They are the only ones benefiting from this stupid obsession.

The female body is beautiful as it is, whether she’s plump or skinny, tall or short. The body is not an object to be perfected or needs adjustment. True beauty can be found in a person’s smile, ideas, charm, thoughts, humor, laughter, generosity, compassion, intellect, integrity and unselfishness, not by her looks.

Remember girls, we are all beautiful in our own right! Just think positive and always smile. There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness.