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Weight-Loss Solutions for the New Year

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10 Reasons Your Belly Fat Isn't Going Away

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The 4 Moves You Need in Order to Own the Weight Room in 2016

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John Krasinski Talks About Having New Muscles in Private Places

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32 Ways to Reverse Holiday Weight Gain in 1 Week

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7 Reasons You Have Adult Acne, and 7 Ways To Get Rid Of It

There’s nothing more disappointing than waiting until your 20s to finally have clear skin, and then learning the hard way that bad breakouts don’t necessarily end when your teenage years do. Coming to terms with adult acne is difficult—best rest assured, you’re not the only grown woman dealing with zits.

“Put it this way: it is so common that pimples are meeting wrinkles,” dermatologist Neal Schultz, M.D., creator of Beauty Rx Skincare, tells SELF. “For the last 10-20 years, adult acne has been increasing. It can even go into your 50s, right to menopause.” If you had acne as a teen, chances are you’ve got oily skin that’s prone to breakouts. But even if you didn’t, it’s still possible you’ll end up with adult acne.

Even though the outlook seems dreary (acne and wrinkles sounds like some sort of sick joke, right?), knowing what’s causing your complexion woes can help you clear up your skin and keep breakouts at bay. 

The Causes:

1. Your hormones may be to blame.

“Fluctuation in hormones, such as before one’s menstrual cycle, is the main cause,” explains dermatologist Julia Tzu, M.D., of Wall Street Dermatology. Specifically, androgens (male hormones) like testosterone. This usually rears its ugly head in the form of deep (painful) cystic acne around the chin, neck, and back, says dermatologist Rebecca Kazin, M.D., F.A.A.D., of the Washington Institute of Dermatologic Laser Surgery and the Johns Hopkins Department of Dermatology.

2. Stress can be an extra (and very influential) driving force.

Another source of hormonal changes: stress. Whether you work full-time, are a full-time mom, or juggle both, chances are your stress levels are high. “When you’re stressed, you have an organ called the adrenal gland that makes the stress hormone cortisol, and puts it out into the body to help the body deal with stress,” Dr. Schultz explains. Unfortunately, a tiny bit of testosterone leaks out with it. For a woman, this male hormone can drive the oil glands to produce more oil—the root cause of breakouts. (Thanks a lot hormones!)

3. Pollution isn’t helping your case either.

“Air pollution just puts this layer of crap on your face,” Schultz says. Especially if you live in a city. Go walk around outside for a half hour, he suggests. When you come home, wipe your face with a toner pad or face wipe, and see what color it is. Warning: You’re not going to like what you see.

4. You may be using the wrong products.

If you have oily or combination skin and are prone to breakouts, you should be using skincare products labeled “oil-free,” “non-comedogenic,” or “water-based,” Schultz says. Just one of these will ensure that the lotion you’re slathering on isn’t going to clog your pores and make matters worse. Try a gel-based moisturizer like Belif The True Cream Aqua Bomb; for an SPF option, we like PCA Skin Weightless Protection Broad Spectrum SPF.

5. You’re cleansing too frequently and intensely.

“Over-washing your face can make acne worse,” Kazin explains. Cleansing more than twice a day is too much, and can just dry out skin, “which can cause [it] to produce more oil to overcompensate.” Your Clarisonic addiction may not be helping either. “It helps remove all makeup and helps your cleanser work better, but I worry about the coarse ones. It’s almost like giving yourself microdermabrasion twice a day, which can cause a breakout,” says Kazin. Schultz seconds that: “Anything that rubs skin will, to a small extent, promote acne.” That includes a grainy or gritty cleanser, too. Try these two gentle face washes instead: Phace Bioactive Detoxifying Gel Cleanser or Frank Body Creamy Face Cleanser.

6. Specific foods may or may not have an effect—the evidence is all super fuzzy.

We’ve all heard the foods that allegedly cause acne—chocolate, fried foods, pizza, caffeine, nuts. But Schultz reminds us that in large statistically significant studies, these have not been proven to cause zits, but there are always exceptions. “If you break out when you eat chocolate, don’t eat chocolate.” Same with dairy, which again, has been shown in some cases to have an effect but no concrete cause-and-effect relationship exists.

The one food Schultz does recommend to avoid is iodine. “Iodine causes acne in everyone if you eat enough,” he says. You can find it in shellfish, like lobster, shrimp, crab, and some greens like kelp and spinach. The different between iodine and those other “acne-causing foods” is that iodine builds up over weeks and months before it starts to affect skin.

7. Your sweet tooth is causing a skin problem. 

Another potential skin saboteur is sugar because it raises your insulin level. More and more evidence shows that insulin may boost those oil-triggering male hormones, Schultz explains. Stick to low-glycemic foods—ones that have complex carbs like whole grains, which break down slower in the body and cause less of an insulin spike. Your health will be better for it, too.

The post 7 Reasons You Have Adult Acne, and 7 Ways To Get Rid Of It appeared first on SELF.

Hometown Holdouts: Nueske's, The Wisconsin Bacon On Everybody's Lips

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6 Signs He’s Way More into You Than You're into Him

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8 Famous Women (Other Than Teresa Giudice) Who've Been to Jail

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30 Easy Tips to Get Slimmer in 30 Days

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Are You Wearing the Wrong Moisturizer for Your Skin Type?

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Cassey Ho’s 7-Move Total Body Workout

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5 Ab Exercises That Blast Belly Fat

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5 Booty-Burning Moves for a Better Butt

Your glutes are some of the strongest muscles in your body, so you need to make sure your butt stays in shape. Watch this video for 5 awesome butt workouts from Cassey Ho of Blogilates.

5 Exercises for Tighter, Leaner Thighs

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5 Moves for Stronger Arms

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Cardio-Day Tips from Cassey Ho

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This Is the Day of the Week Most People Hit Up a Workout Class

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Take the 30-Day Total Body Challenge

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How the Girl Who Hated Gym Class Learned to Love Fitness and Lost 11 Percent Body Fat

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Rising Sea Level Will Slow Earth's Rotation - Harvard Study Shows

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What 10 Celebrities Have Said About Their Struggles with Acne

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The Three Environments That Create Every Employee Experience

I define "employee experience" as an organization creating a place where people want to show up instead of assuming that people need to show up. This shift from "need" to "want" is the fundamental change that organizations around the world are starting to experience. This is why we see so much investment in new offices spaces, health and well-being programs, maternity and paternity leave, healthy foods, workplace flexibility, and so much more. There are a lot of things that can go into creating an employee experience but the good news is that every single company regardless of their industry, geography, or size, only need to focus on three things. Every employee experience is comprised of three environments: the physical environment, the cultural environment, and the technological environment as seen below.

Here’s Why Your Acne Is Even Worse in the Winter

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8 Makeup Tips For When Your Skin Is Super Dry

Now that the sun goes down before 5 p.m., it’s a sign of the terror that’s around the corner. Winter is coming, and that means gusts of wind nearly knocking you over and drying your skin out to the max. 

No matter how much you bundle up in fluffy scarves and puffy jackets, it’s hard to protect your face from the harsh winter conditions, making the task of covering up dry, rough skin and Rudolph-colored noses even tougher. 

But don’t worry — it is possible to do your makeup when your skin is super dry, and we have eight tips from makeup artist Suzy Gerstein and our own personal winter-ready arsenal to make it easy. 

1. Prep your skin at night

Starting with moisturized skin is like keeping your car oiled — it’ll be easier to run foundation over it when you get ready. Powerful masks like GlamGlow’s ThirstyMud or celeb fave Wilma Schumann Hydra-Gel Red Wine Treatment Masques provide deep, intense hydration with nourishing ingredients. Use them once a week and see how much your face needs it.

2. Wash your face with gentle ingredients

Another skin care prep comes from washing your face every day. Go for something gentle, likeLa Roche-Posay Micellar Solution — which removes makeup, tones, and cleanses without rinsing or letting water dry out your skin — or First Aid Beauty’s Milk Oil Conditioning Cleanser, which removes makeup and dirt while smoothing skin with avocado and coconut oil.

3. Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize

The last step before grabbing your makeup is obviously using a great moisturizer. Makeup artist Suzy Gerstein suggests looking for “products with moisturizing and anti-inflammatory ingredients to combat the flakiness and irritation that characterize winter skin.” If you have oily skin, try a gel product, like First Aid Beauty’s Skin Rescue Mattifying Gel that absorbs immediately and minimizes pores. If you have combination or super-dry skin, try Skyn Iceland’s Arctic Hydrating Balm that uses cryogenic technology from the Arctic to repair and moisturize skin. No matter what you use, just make sure it’s absorbed before you start putting makeup on.

4. It’s prime time

You don’t need a primer if you’ve followed all of the above steps, but it doesn’t hurt. You can combine lotion and primer with Lush’s Magical Moringa lotion that has argan and rose hip oils, or go for the glow with the whipped, pearl-filled lightweight Becca Backlight Priming Filter. The point is to get an even canvas for your makeup, something you can also achieve by adding drops of Cover FX’s Custom Cover Drops to your favorite moisturizer. Two birds, one stone.

The post 8 Makeup Tips For When Your Skin Is Super Dry appeared first on SELF.

7 Gross Things That Can Happen to Your Body at the Gym

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What Exactly Is Gestational Diabetes? 7 Things to Know

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8 Easy Ways To Guarantee Your Skin Looks Glowy All Winter

1. Choose a cleanser that leaves skin clean, not stripped. 

“If you want radiant skin, the very first thing you need to do is take care of your moisture barrier with a mild cleanser,” says Jeannette Graf, an assistant clinical professor of dermatology at Mount Sinai Medical Center. When your protective barrier gets stripped, skin gets dry, irritated, and dull—and plain tap water is one of the biggest culprits. Graf recommends using wipe-off cleansers to eliminate the need for rinsing altogether or micellar water, which removes grime while protecting delicate skin. 

Try: Avene Antirougeurs Redness-Relief Dermo-Cleansing Milk, Boots No. 7 Beautiful Skin Cleansing Balm or Simple Cleansing Micellar Water

2. Exfoliate nightly with a mild chemical peel to reveal a healthy glow.

“Regular exfoliation is pivotal to vibrant skin,” says Neal Schultz, a clinical professor of dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital, who champions glycolic acid for its power to dissolve the glue binding together old, drab skin cells, ushering in a smoother, brighter complexion. Alpha hydroxy acids, like glycolic and lactic, also boost cell turnover and collagen production—both of which contribute to a supple, light-reflective surface. Since exfoliation leaves skin vulnerable to UV rays, be extra good about sun protection in the morning.

 Try: Beauty Rx The Progressive Peel or Bliss That’s Incredi-Peel Glycolic Resurfacing Pads

3. Use antioxidants and SPF to shield skin from radiance-robbing rays and pollution.

The sun and environmental pollutants (like smog and ozone) breed free radicals and bad-news enzymes called MMPs, which basically deplete all good things in the skin—lipids, antioxidants, structural proteins like collagen and elastin—and screw with cellular functioning and DNA (hello, skin cancer). According to Dendy Engelman, director of dermatologic surgery at New York Medical College, “the air in highly polluted cities can have the exact same effect on skin as smoking, decreasing its oxygen supply by some 30 percent.” And nothing robs skin’s brilliance quite like asphyxiation. What’s more, she adds, “studies have shown that pollution particles are 20 to 40 times smaller than your pore size, so they’re very easily deposited into the skin.” The best defense: A potent antioxidant serum topped with a broad-spectrum SPF 30+. Makeup primers (and sunscreen-primer hybrids) can also help by physically sealing the skin, walling it off from invisible contaminants.

Try: SkinCeuticals CE Ferulic, Eve Lom Primer Flawless Radiance SPF 30 or Lune+Aster RealGlow Primer

4. Apply two masks in tandem for a fresh-from-the-facialist glow.

Top aestheticians swear by this back-to-back masking trick (done before bed, once a week): First smear on a purifying clay- or mud-based formula. As it dries and tightens, it literally squeezes gunk out of pores, and absorbs it, explains cosmetics chemist Ni’Kita Wilson. After rinsing and patting skin dry, lay a sheet mask over your face for fifteen minutes to rehydrate. Ones made of cellulose or hydrogel stick best for maximum penetration. Remove the mask, and massage in any excess goo in lieu of a night cream. These sheets come supersaturated with humectants, vitamins, and plant oils—so spread the love to your neck, hands, and arms.

Try: GlamGlow PowerMud, Karuna Luxe Skin Regenerating Face Mask, or Dr. Jart Brightening Infusion Hydrogel Mask 

5. Trade highlighter for an illuminating facial oil.

By virtue of their name alone, highlighters seem like an obvious glow go-to, but they leave a lot of room for error—the garish shimmer flecks, the piggy-pink tint. For a truly supernatural sheen, swap an oil into your radiance-boosting routine. After applying an SPF-infused moisturizer, rub a few drops of oil into your fingertips, and press it along your cheekbones, over temples, around your eyes, and atop any dry patches.

Try: Juara Radiance Vitality Oil or Drunk Elephant Virgin Marula Luxury Facial Oil

6. Don’t fall for the beauty-enhancing claims made by juice fasts and detox fads.

There’s a cleanse for every Kardashian it seems (tea-tox, anyone?), but think twice before boarding this bandwagon. “The notion that a juice cleanse will make your skin glow is simply not true,” says Patricia Farris, a dermatologist in New Orleans and co-author of The Sugar Detox. “Fruit juices lack fiber and are full of skin-sabotaging sugar,” which has been linked to acne, wrinkles, and a sallow, lackluster tone. (Whole fruits and fresh vegetables, on the other hand, pack skin-friendly antioxidants, plus fiber to minimize sugar absorption.) As for the hot-now tea trend, many of those herbal infusions are laced with natural diuretics and laxatives, which if overused, can actually dehydrate the skin, stealing its glow.

7. Drink plenty of water to keep skin hydrated and luminous.

The source of life and gleaming skin, H2O plumps up skin cells from within while flushing complexion-dulling impurities from your system. “Have a gallon of water in front of you during the day, and do your best with it,” advises Graf. If you have a lemon handy, squeeze some in to alkalize the water and raise your body’s internal pH to beget clearer, brighter skin (and better health, overall).

8. Shoot for eight hours of sleep every night.

As you sleep, cortisol (evil stress hormone) levels drop, glow-inducing oxygen floods your cells, and the body’s detoxification and repair mechanisms kick into overdrive, says Jeffrey Morrison, MD, an integrative health expert and founder of the Morrison Center in New York City. Translation: A solid night’s rest is absolutely crucial to good skin. If you tend to have trouble dozing off, try powering down your devices—iPhone, too—at least one hour before bedtime. Harvard researchers found that the blue light emitted by screens suppresses melatonin—a sleep-inducing hormone–and messes with circadian rhythms, keeping you awake. For those who continue to wrestle with sleeplessness, Morrison recommends taking 1500 to 3000 milligrams of glycine before bed. The natural sleep aid “helps the body make GABA, a calming neurotransmitter,” he says. Always talk to your doctor before taking anything new.

The post 8 Easy Ways To Guarantee Your Skin Looks Glowy All Winter appeared first on SELF.

10 Superfoods for Weight Loss

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10 Simple Tricks to Lose Weight Fast

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6 No-Effort Ways to Shed Pounds

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Get Amazing Abs With These 24 Easy Exercises

Sick of crunches? You've got options—24 to be exact. Check out this video with fitness expert Kristin McGee. From planks to Pilates to yoga poses, all of these moves will get you the stronger, tighter, sleeker abs you crave, with a few bonuses along the way (such as a better back, butt, legs, and more).