After six years of drinking coffee every single day, I noticed that my teeth were starting to look stained. It’s definitely not cute. Despite investing in a hardcore electric toothbrush, the stains were stubbornly staying put, so I decided to try teeth whitening at home.

Stained teeth can be frustrating, especially in the age of Instagram where everyone has brilliantly white teeth. I mean, how do those influencers still have enamel on their teeth? I’d love to know.

I didn’t want to throw down a ton of cash on an expensive treatment at the dentist. Luckily, DIY teeth whitening kits are having a moment. Now that everyone is basically at home 24/7, there’s more time to do a 30-minute LED whitening kit while watching TV. Or, if you’re a little lazy like me, you can do some quick swipes with a whitening pen before bed and let the gel work its magic while you sleep. Plus, many of the teeth whitening kits are under $50.

In the quest for whiter teeth, I did some research and rounded up the best at-home teeth whitening kits, including whitening strips, LED whitening systems, whitening gels and whitening pens. Some are intense and time-consuming—they’ll remind you of a trip to the dentist. Then, there are other treatments that are super gentle on your teeth and perfect for on-the-go touch-ups. There’s something for everyone—even us lazy folks.

I’m getting my teeth whitening routine down now because I don’t want to bring my coffee-stained teeth into post-quarantine life. If your plan is the same as mine, browse these 10 kits below.

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Courtesy of Crest.

Crest Whitestrips

These low-maintenance strips from Crest are super popular for a reason. You just place the strips over your teeth, sit and let them work their magic for 30 minutes. You can talk and drink water while lounging with these, and they won’t slip.

Buy: Crest 3D White Professional Effects Whitestrips $47.59

Courtesy of AuraGlow.

AuraGlow Whitening System

You’ll feel like your own dentist after using this comprehensive kit. You use the whitening gel in the tray, pop it in your mouth, turn on the LED light and wait for 30 minutes. The LED light speeds up the whitening process. Just make sure you don’t eat or drink an hour after using. AuraGlow claims that you’ll see some results after one use.

Buy: AuraGlow Teeth Whitening Kit $48.95

Courtesy of Colgate.

Colgate Whitening Pen

This overnight whitening pen is super easy to use. After brushing your teeth, you press the button on the bottom to activate the serum and then gentle brush it over each tooth with the pen. When you wake up in the morning, you brush the serum off your teeth. It boasts results in one week. You can pop this pen in your purse or carry-on for travel without a second thought.

Buy: Colgate Optic White Overnight Teeth Whitening Pen $29.99

Courtesy of Crest.

Crest Whitening Emulsions

This kit is great for people with sensitive teeth. You just squeeze the whitening emulsions onto the wand and apply. It’s that easy. Plus, this formula contains hydrogen peroxide droplets, which are hydrating. If you want some extra power, you can opt for a set that comes with an LED light.

Buy: Crest Whitening Emulsions Leave-on Teeth Whitening Kit $49.97

Courtesy of GLO.

GLO Teeth Whitening Kit

If you’re a little impatient when it comes to results, you should try this kit. After applying the whitening gel to your teeth, you use the GLO heated mouthpiece to supercharge your whitening experience. It’ll turn off automatically after eight minutes and then you’ll repeat the process three more times. Some reviewers saw a difference in just five days.

Buy: GLO Brilliant Deluxe Teeth Whitening Device Kit $199.99

Courtesy of Moon.

Jenner-Approved Whitening Pen

If you’ve wanted pearly whites like Kendall Jenner, check out this whitening pen. Where most whitening pens smell like a dentist’s office, this one contains lavender oil, strawberry fruit extract and honeysuckle flower extract. It’ll certainly be more pleasant to apply.

Courtesy of iSmile.

iSmile Whitening Pack

If you aren’t thrilled at the prospect of using one of the LED-lit mouth trays for 30 mins, iSmile’s version is much quicker. You only need to use this whitening kit for 10 minutes a day to remove unwanted stains. iSmile boasts that your teeth will be eight shades whiter after a week’s use.

Buy: iSmile Teeth Whitening Kit $48

Courtesy of Tarte.

Tarte Vegan Pen

You just apply the whitening brush to each tooth and let it do the hard work. The whitening gel won’t harm your enamel, and it works instantly. This pen is perfect for on-to-go. You can touch up your teeth before happy hour. Plus, it’s vegan.

Courtesy of GO Smile.

GO Smile Whitening Gel

This highly-rated whitening gel can make a noticeable difference in just two days, according to GO Smile. Unlike other whitening gels, you brush this gel directly onto your teeth like you would toothpaste. If you’ve got stubborn stains along your gum lines, you’ll want to try this one.

Courtesy of zimba.

Flavored Teeth Whitening Strips

Like fun flavored toothpaste, you won’t mind wearing Zimba’s whitening strips for 30 minutes. These enamel-safe whitening strips come in a variety of fun flavors, like classic mint, peach, cinnamon and more. The strips will remove stains without causing discomfort.

Buy: Zimba Teeth Whitening Strips $24.99

Melissa Gorga’s Tie Pajama Dye Set in Lake George

Real Housewives of New Jersey Season 11 Episode 3 Fashion

If you haven’t ended up with a tie dye pajama set in your wardrobe over the past year I have to question whether you’ve really lived through this pandemic. I’ve ended up with only two three, and that has taken some definite restraint as I’ve always been a tie dye person who has patiently waited for it to come back in style.

But whether you have bought any or you haven’t now is your chance, thanks to some inspiration from Melissa Gorga’s tie dye pajama set in Lake George. As if she didn’t make cooking eggs look good enough, this set even made serving some sunny-side-ups stylish.

The Realest Housewife,

Big Blonde Hair

Click Here to Shop her Tie Dye Pajama Set

Also Available in Size Small at Vici

Originally posted at: Melissa Gorga’s Tie Dye Pajama Set

It is a common practice to see the world in a binary fashion. For instance, no matter the factor of division, there usually seem to be two types of people. Extroverts and introverts. Meat eaters and vegetarians. In England, Marmite lovers and haters.

My distinction for today is between those who love to laze around and do nothing and those who are happiest when they are doing something useful.

Popular culture would have us believe that the former is the norm, that we are all waiting for the summer holidays so that we can lie on a beach. Anything connected to ‘work’ is to be avoided as much as possible.

I am not so sure. I know a lot of the latter type of people. And I am certainly one of them.

Being Useful

I have always been driven by the desire to be doing something – and, preferably, something of value to someone.

Doing nothing can certainly be pleasurable for a while. But its main use is to ensure that your brain or body is well rested, so that you will be firing on all cylinders when you return to purposeful activity. It is not an end in itself.

There are, of course, a myriad of ways to be ‘useful’. You may be a carer (caretaker) for someone and need to engage in a whole range of activities to meet their needs. You may like building things from scratch or taking them apart in order to understand them.

You may simply want to get things done around the house – clean out that cupboard or make those new curtains.

Alternatively, like me, you may like to engage in creative activity, whether writing books or painting pictures or inventing new recipes in the kitchen.

And much, much more.

You may or may not do these things well. You may or may not be satisfied with the result. But the key point is that the activity is important to you and helps you to feel that your time was well spent. You would rather do them than laze around.

Nature or Nurture

What makes us so clearly one way or the other? I was brought up by a mother with a ferocious work ethic. She was in any case unusual in having worked in a professional job while bringing up three children in the 1940s and ‘50s (no surprise now, but then it was distinctly unusual).

She was not keen on ‘relaxation’, although she would read at times and, in the summer, liked to weed her garden for this purpose. Perhaps I get it from her.

If we are in any way moulded by our schooling, then that, too, pushed in the same direction. I went to a very academic girls’ private school in New York City, whose motto was ‘in truth and toil’ and whose mascot was a beaver. Do you detect a strong work ethic here? Perhaps hard work was imprinted onto my brain by a daily dose of ‘toil’.

But I do wonder. If I had been born with a penchant for taking it easy, I might have rebelled heavily against such influences. As I watched my two very different children grow into adults, I increasingly questioned the impact of nurture in comparison to nature.

I think we come out of the womb with a lot of characteristics that we spend a lifetime discovering. But they were there, just as much as the tilt of our nose or the colour of our hair.

Getting Tired

But returning to the matter at hand, one sad discovery about growing older is that we tend to get tired more easily. We lose the resilience we had when younger and our batteries run down faster and faster.

This starts at different ages for different people but seems to creep up on us when we are not looking. As far as I can see, it increases slowly each year and greatly diminishes our energy for getting things done.

For those of us with an eagerness to be engaged in positive activity, this lack of energy is incredibly annoying. It means we cannot work for long periods without becoming tired. And the definition of that ‘long period’ slowly shortens from a day to half a day to even an hour.

Your body becomes a battleground – your head wants to get something done, but your body rebels. That old saying, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak,” comes into play.

At the end of a day, you find yourself disappointed with the paltry amount accomplished. You had such great plans, but you got little or nothing done.

It is not so different from the lockdowns we have suffered in the UK and others have done elsewhere. They are a kind of imprisonment where we cannot do what we want, what one grandson called ‘a kind of house arrest’.

A lack of energy is exactly the same.

Do you like to relax of are you driven to accomplish something? What do you want to do with your time? Do you lack energy these days? Do you feel it is getting worse?

When you’ve had a mentally stressful day, a warm bath is a fabulous way to unwind. Some days you may have pushed your body a bit too much overdoing it in the yard, trying to keep up with the dog (or grandkids) at the park, or engaging in a new activity your muscles weren’t used to.

All of these can result in sore muscles and achy joints. A soak in the tub can help relax your body, quiet your mind, and calm your soul.

Get Clean in the Shower, Relax in the Bathtub

If your primary objective is cleansing your body, you’ll likely jump into the shower so all that dirt and grime goes right down the drain. For radiant skin and additional detoxification, try dry skin brushing before showering.

The bathtub isn’t typically where we go to wash up. Most of us think of a warm bath as something designed to create a different experience altogether. Therefore, I want to make certain your bath isn’t doing more harm than good.

Here’s what this article will cover:

1. What are chlorine and chloramines?
2. Why are these chemicals detrimental to your health and skin?
3. How to dechlorinate your water to protect healthy bacteria, and minimize skin aging.

Chlorine and Chloramines: Two Dangerous Toxins in Water Supply

Chlorinated tap water is the norm around the world, but there are several European and Asian countries that do not add this chemical to the water supply. It is added to all water in the United States.

Chlorine is used for the purpose of removing microbes, including bacteria. Chloramines, formed by adding ammonia to chlorine, are also used to treat drinking water.

Not only will these chemicals disinfect the water, they have the potential to do the same to YOU. There is evidence that chlorine and chloramines can kill the friendly bacteria (which are crucial for optimal health) that reside on your skin and in your gut.

If You Wouldn’t Drink It, You Shouldn’t Bathe in It

You’ve probably been drinking purified water for a while now. Removing toxins and impurities from the water you drink is important, but have you considered the water you shower and bathe in?

Your skin is your body’s largest organ, so absorbing toxins by daily bathing in unfiltered water has the potential to create more toxic exposure than drinking unpurified water.

Before you even stick your big toe into the bathtub to test the water temperature, do make sure your water is as pure as possible. As you soak in your luxurious bath – if you haven’t taken steps to dechlorinate the water – you will absorb chlorine through your skin. Hot or warm water will cause your pores to open up, increasing the likelihood of absorbing even more toxins.

First, let’s see why these chemicals are so harmful. Then I’ll reveal a simple, low-cost method of dechlorinating your water.

Two Ways Chlorine Harms Your Skin

One: Chlorine kills off beneficial bacteria

Millions of microbes reside on the surface (and in the deeper layers) of your skin. To be optimally healthy, you need beneficial bacteria populating your gut, so you should be taking a good quality probiotic every day. Do you know, however, that your skin (again, your largest organ), needs to have a colony of friendly bacteria as well?

Two: Chlorine can cause premature aging of the skin

As a young girl, I spent most summers swimming in my best friend’s pool. Not only did my naturally blond hair develop a greenish tint, but my skin would become dry and flaky as well.

Today, in my late 50s, if I spent a few hours a day in a swimming pool, my skin would likely become dry AND wrinkled. Whether you swim in a chlorinated pool or not, to keep your skin radiant and healthy looking, you must remove chlorine from your bath and shower water.

If you are like the women I work with, you spend time taking care of your health. You know that reducing stress, healthy eating, exercise, and getting plenty of rest will result in healthier, more radiant looking skin.

However, one activity that you probably consider an important beauty regimen – cleansing your skin – could actually be damaging it. If your tap water has been chlorinated, you’ll need to purify it before using it to bathe. Fortunately, there is a simple way to remove these toxins!

How to Neutralize Chlorine and Chloramine

Dechlorination can be done by using Vitamin C.

Option 1: Purchase Effervescent Vitamin C Tablets

Every Christmas, I bought my maternal grandmother Cecelia (“Grandma Cecil”) a large container of bath gelee from her favorite company, Vitabath.

When I got to visit her, I would take a luxurious bath with her wonderfully fragrant bath gelee. These days, if Grandma Cecil were here, I’d have her use Vitabath’s effervescent vitamin C tablets to dechlorinate her water before adding her gelee. You can purchase these tablets on Amazon.

Option 2: Add 1 teaspoon of powdered Vitamin C

Buy powdered vitamin C in the form of ascorbic acid. This is all you need to get the job done.

You could also recreate the Vitabath formula, if you prefer. Once you have obtained your chosen form of Vitamin C for dechlorination:

1. Fill your tub with very hot water.
2. Add 1 teaspoon of vitamin C powder.
3. Wait 5 minutes.
4. By now the temperature should be right; add more hot or cold water if necessary.

Discover the Top 7 Best-Kept Secret Strategies for Aging with Passion, Vitality, & Purpose with Dr. Kathleen’s newest resource for Women.

Do you prefer taking a bath or a shower? Were you aware of the effect chlorine might have on your body? How do you purify your water – drinking and otherwise? Please join the discussion below.

Margaret Josephs’ Leopard Pants and Elton John Tee in Lake George

Real Housewives of New Jersey Season 11 Episode 3 Fashion

Margaret Josephs’ leopard (technically ocelot, btw) pants and Elton John tee had a Jersey-girl rocker vibe going on which is very her! And just like her confessional side comments will always keep us laughing, her bold outfits will always keep us shopping.

The Realest Housewife,

Big Blonde Hair

Click Here to See her Pam + Gela Pants

Click Here to Shop them on eBay

Click Here to See her Daydreamer Tee

Originally posted at: Margaret Josephs’ Leopard Pants and Elton John Tee