Stand up straight, girl, you slump too much

oldergirlbeauty — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 10:37:49 -0500

I'm a slumper. Bad. I blame it on my "girls" (*which, if you've met me, it makes for a grand excuse), but it's there. I do it. And I don't realize how it makes me *look*, it's just a lazy way of walking. Even tho I KNOW better. Mom always said, "Stand up straight. It'll make you look slimmer." Yeah, of course, she was right.

Charla Krupp knows it, too. In fact, she wrote a book about how to look slimmer, "How to Never Look Fat Again: Over 1,000 Ways to Dress Thinner--Without Dieting!", which has mulitiple sections adressing specific areas of the body, in additon to bullet-point lists and even a "High-Fat/No-Fat" way of dressing to your strong points, and I was lucky enough to get to interview her this week.

Let me tell you right off the bat, just like Charla does in her introduction, if you are more than 100lbs overweight you will NOT get the full benefit of all of the advice in this book. But, that doesn't mean that you can not get a ton of helpful advice from it - you can. Here are a few things I picked up:

Wide Feet & Ankles: I should never wear shoe with an ankle strap; it looks better to wear a shoe with a bit of a heel & that a d'Orsay pump is actually the best style, because of it's open sides. (*hell, i didn't even know the NAME of those kind of shoes, let alone that they would be the best style for me to wear.)
Heavy Calves: It is okay to wear a skirt, I just need to make sure it hits the "sweet spot" - which is at the back of the knee where the thigh connects with the calf and curves inward.
Big Bust: While I know it is nescessary to get a properly fitted bra, you actually need a variety of these, as you will fluctuate. And by properly fitted, I mean, no bulges over and around & lifting your bust off of your ribcage & being positioned equally between your shoulder and your elbow. That's the "sweet spot" for your boobs.

A couple of other things that we discussed that help you look slimmer is when your skin is soft & moisturized and using some self-tanner or bronzer. The need to moisturize should be easy to figure out, soft skin feels good and helps your body, but did you realize that it can also change the perception of how old you look? According to a survey (*sponsored by P&G Beauty), one of the things they found was that "When judged independently from the face, body skin, if maintained, is perceived up to 10 years younger and adds to the overall perception of youthfulness." These findings led to a conclusion of:

“The study indicates that body skin around the neck and chest, arms, and hands are important areas for women in terms of age perception,” said Dr. Bernhard Fink, Senior Scientist, Institute for Zoology and Anthropology at the University of Göettingen. “Keeping your skin moisturized is one of the most basic things you can do to prevent visible signs of aging on the skin. Using products that go beyond basic moisturization to provide additional anti-aging benefits can be a further help.”

As for the self-tanner/bronzer, it has the ability to hide veins and bruises. Now, I'm not a whiz at self-tanning, I am such a fair-skinned girl, I'd rather laze in the nice air conditioning, but I DO know that to get a good application, you need to have smooth skin. I'm not even going to try to think that there are some of you out there trying to put it on over some stubbley legs.

Well, Charla has a coupla ideas to help with both of these things and they are both drugstore buys, which you know I love. First, she says to use the new Olay Total Effects 7-in-1 Advanced Anti-Aging Body Wash, with its ability to fight "the 7 signs of body skin aging for radiant, younger looking skin. So, not only are you clean, you are also helping to improve your skins elasticity and improve how it looks - (*sugg. price $5.99 or $7.99, depending on size). And for smooth legs, she suggests the first disposable razor with 5 blades, the Venus Embrace Disposables. It gives you the same close shave as with the other razors, just without the need to change blades. (*3 to a pack. sugg. price $9.99 to $13.99).

Let me know if you pick up this book and if you take any of the tips to heart. I know we are all different and have diff things we try to adjust for, so, I may have skipped one that you found super helpful. I'd like to know about it.

(*Big thanks to Charla for her time and the teams that made it happen. I really appreciate it.)

I don't do soap-on-a-rope

oldergirlbeauty — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:06:03 -0500

I'm not a bar soap gal. I would always set it on the side, it would keep getting wet in the shower, get all mushy, can't hold on to it and then there is the whole "rub it on the washcloth or rub it on the skin debate"? What? You hadn't heard of that one? I do that one in my head every time I have to pick up a bar of soap in the shower. Anyway, I am a bath gel/lotion/body wash girl.

So, when I had a chance to try the Caress Evenly Gorgeous Exfoliating Body Wash I was interested. A rich body wash with brown sugar and karite (shea) butter that exfoliates, too? Count me in.

I expected it to smell good. I didn't expect it to be overwhelming. Seriously, this stuff smells yummy, but it is so strong I could not use it the same days I was washing my hair. That was just too much scent going on in there. Plus, it's a heavier scent - not what I associate with summertime.

As for the "exfoliating" - yeah, I didn't see much of that. Here, let me show you:. This dollop is about quarter sized and I count 9 beads in there. *9*. The BPD (beads per drop) ratio sucks in this body wash. There was no exfoliating action going on in there that I could feel(or see). Maybe I am just spoiled by denser face exfoliators or body sugar/salt scrubs, but I didn't get any polishing affect.

That's not to say this is a bad wash, just don't take it for what it says it will do, in my opinion. It does smell good, is rich and cleans off well. I just think that this is more suited for fall/winter months when you like a heavier scent, is rich on your dry skin and can get picked up at any drugstore/Walmart/Target for less than $5. (*There is also a bar soap available, too, that you might like, but I think you already know how I feel about bar soaps.)

Older Girl Beauty Blog

Stand up straight, girl, you slump too much

I don't do soap-on-a-rope