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Sulfate-Free Conditioners to Keep Your Color Vibrant in Between Salon Appointments

If you’ve already made the switch to sulfate-free shampoos, now is the time to upgrade your current haircare lineup with a sulfate-free conditioner to match. Sulfates, including Sodium Laureth or Lauryl Sulfate, are the two main toxic chemicals used in shampoos, soaps, and conditioners that allow the product to foam and lather. Sure, I love a good lather, but the downsides are more of a turn off than you may think. The nice foamy texture may be satisfying, but it’s actually doing more harm than good to your hair—especially if you have chemically relaxed, highlighted or color-treated hair.

Sulfate-infused hair products severely dry out the hair follicle, causing damage and worsening existing split ends and breakage. These chemicals are also the culprit of causing premature fading to hair color and turning blonde highlights brassy. Like sulfate-free shampoos, sulfate-free conditioners are far less damaging to your hair and scalp, which means your hair stays healthier and your color stays more vibrant in between hair salon appointments. Check out below to see some of our favorite sulfate-free hair conditioners to keep your hair hydrated and healthy without all of the toxins.

Our mission at STYLECASTER is to bring style to the people, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

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14 Exfoliating Toners for Giving Your Skin a Fresh Start

It seems the debate surrounding facial toner is never-ending. There are some experts who claim it’s optional and others who say it’s the smartest way to put moisture back into your skin post-cleansing, thus leading to fewer breakouts and other skin setbacks. As someone who has tried both methods for extensive periods of time, I’m more inclined to believe the latter. Furthermore, I find the best exfoliating toner to be a worthwhile pick-me-up when my complexion can’t seem to break free of dullness, dryness or pimples.

Solutions meant to slough away dead skin cells, target dark spots and brighten the overall face are typically formulated with one or various types of acids: alpha-hydroxy acids, beta-hydroxy acids or the gentler poly-hydroxy acids. There are also exfoliating toners that may utilize fruit enzymes—the most popular being pineapple—for even gentler exfoliation. The ones I’ve had the most success with combine these powerhouse ingredients with counteractive ones that soothe and hydrate the skin as it’s being transformed. Think aloe, ginseng, and botanical oils.

Knowing how often to use an exfoliating toner depends on your individual skin concerns; whereas someone with resilient or excessively oily skin may get away with daily application, a sensitive skin type may have to try once-a-week use. Either way, below are some of the best exfoliating toner options you can add to your routine right now.

No B.S. Purifying Facial Toner

No B.S.

No B.S. Purifying Facial Toner

No parabens, sulfates, artificial fragrance, gluten or petrochemicals to be found in this oil-balancing solution.

Buy: No BS Purifying Facial Toner $30

 

Georgette Klinger Phytic Exfoliating Toner

Georgette Klinger.

Georgette Klinger Phytic Exfoliating Toner

A daily toner for oily and combination skin types made with rice-derived phytic acid, a gentle botanical exfoliant.

Buy: Georgette Klinger Phytic Exfoliating Toner $24

Mario Badescu Witch Hazel Rosewater Toner

Mario Badescu.

Mario Badescu Witch Hazel & Rosewater Toner

Though witch hazel makes for a powerful astringent, it can also be irritating, making the counterbalance of soothing rosewater particularly effective.

Buy: Mario Badescu Witch Hazel & Rosewater Toner $14

Yes To Daily Exfoliating Tonic

Yes To.

Yes To Glow-Boosting Daily Exfoliating Tonic

Ten percent of this drugstore exfoliant is antioxidant-rich pineapple enzyme and alpha-hydroxy-acids for retexturizing the skin.

Buy: Yes To Glow-Boosting Daily Exfoliating Tonic $14.99

 

 

Benton Aloe BHA Skin Toner

Benton.

Benton Aloe BHA Skin Toner

This gentle beta-hydroxy-acid-infused daily toner is a super mild solution for oily skin.

Buy: Benton Aloe BHA Skin Toner $14.98

Glytone Enhance Cleansing Toner

Glytone.

Glytone Enhance Cleansing Toner

Oil-free and non-comedogenic, this refreshing toner is gentle enough for daily use on most skin types.

Buy: Glytone Enhance Cleansing Toner $32

Skinceuticals Conditioning Toner

Skinceuticals.

Skinceuticals Conditioning Toner

A synthetic fragrance-free clarifying toner alpha and beta hydroxy acids for exfoliation and eucalyptus oil for calming moisture.

Buy: Skinceuticals Conditioning Toner $58.88

Versed Weekend Glow Daily Brightening Solution

Versed.

Versed Weekend Glow Daily Brightening Solution

Four different acids can be found in this potent (vegan) toning solution for correcting uneven skin tone and targeting acne scars.

Then I Met You Birch Milk Refining Toner

Then I Met You.

Then I Met You Birch Milk Refining Toner

Just 1% of this birch juice solution is a concentration of powerful alpha-hydroxy acids and gentler poly-hydroxyacids.

Pixi Glow Tonic

Pixi by Petra.

Pixi Glow Tonic

A cult favorite formulated with five percent glycolic acid, as well as aloe vera, ginseng and botanicals to nourish and brighten the skin.

 

Paulas Choice BHA Liquid Exfoliant

Paula’s Choice.

Paula’s Choice Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant

Paula’s Choice’s top-selling product is a gentle salicylic acid solution that sheds dead skin cells and minimizes the appearance of large pores.

OleHenriksen Dark Spot Toner

OleHenriksen.

OleHenriksen Glow2OH Dark Spot Toner

This nighttime toner is a potent blend of glycolic acid, lactic acid and witch hazel water for reducing the appearance of dark spots in as little as one week.

The Ordinary Glycolic Acid Toning Solution

The Ordinary.

The Ordinary Glycolic Acid 7% Toning Solution

Though this formula is 7% glycolic acid, the addition of aloe and Tasmanian Pepperberry also eases the redness and irritation typically associated with acids.

Glossier Solution

Glossier.

Glossier Solution

Glossier’s derm-tested, vegan and hypoallergenic skin exfoliant is 10 percent AHAs, BHAs, and PHAs to “unglue” dead skin and visibly brighten your complexion in a few short weeks.

Our mission at STYLECASTER is to bring style to the people, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

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Gentle Yoga for Seniors: Relax Your Neck and Shoulders (Part 2/8): FREE 46-Min Practice!

Gentle-Yoga-for-Seniors-Relax-Your-Neck-and-Shoulders-Free-Practice

As a woman over
60, are you alarmed at the slump in your shoulders? Have the upper shelves at
the grocery store become a stretch too far? Does a painfully stiff neck account
for your straight-ahead view of the world?

If you’ve answered yes to any of those questions, we have some great news! In the second of Sixty and Me’s Gentle Yoga for Seniors videos, yoga trainer and teacher Cat Kabira focuses on restoring flexibility to your aging shoulders, neck and jaw.

Even
better, she does it without a single one of those impossibly intimidating
poses. If this sounds like the kind of yoga for seniors you could love, read
on!

Achieve healthy aging and even add years to your life! Get moving again with our gentle yoga video series.

Have You Been Carrying the World
on Your Shoulders?

As women in our 60s and beyond, we’ve seen more than our share of challenges. Nurturing families, choosing to stay single in couple-centric world or managing successful careers and then starting all over in retirement all take a physical and emotional toll.

If
you add the time we spend hunched over our computers or smart phones to years
of storing stress in our necks and shoulders? It’s only natural that so many of
us have trouble turning our heads or lifting our arms.

 And that’s where Cat’s low-stress,
limit-respecting approach to yoga can help.

Yoga After 60: “Staying Within Your Limits Is the Best Thing”

 When it comes to yoga for older adults, Cat is the voice of experience. She’s studied under teachers in their 70s and 80s. And in her 14 years as an instructor, she’s understands how yoga can overcome the effects of aging on our joints.

 As she puts it, “From stress, through habit
over time, we have our shoulders lifted up towards our ears. So a really great
habit is to start to learn how to train our muscles and slide the shoulders
down away from the ears.”

Has disease or injury has hampered
your flexibility? Cat has them covered! Early in her career, one student
approached her complaining that a rare illness prevented her from twisting,
bending or raising her arms above her shoulders.

After running out of other answers,
her doctor had recommended painkillers. Cat’s advice? “It’s okay. Show up, do
what you can, breathe. If you focus on your breath with your body and you don’t
push yourself, if you really just stay within what feels right, that’s the best
thing.”

About a month later (and without any
special coaching), the student was raising her arms and twisting. As she told
Cat, “I just did what you said! I just breathed, did what I could and suddenly
I stated to get all this other movement!”

And four more months later, she
managed a headstand!

If You Need Props, Use Them!

Right now, doing a headstand may be the last thing on your mind. But that’s the point! In this video, you’ll hear again and again how important it is to stay within your body’s limits. If you need a strap (or belt, scarf or sarong) to link your hands behind your back, use it!

Cat’s suggested variations on the
movements accommodate varying degrees of flexibility. As you learn to breathe properly,
your core and ribcage muscles will start “shouldering” their fair share of the
load.

You’ll train your shoulders to relax
downwards as your shoulder blades fold back into their natural alignment. You’ll
start feeling taller and lighter.

And eventually, your straight-ahead
view of the world will simply mean you’re staring down your next adventure!

How do your shoulders and neck exhibit age-related stress? What have you been doing to counteract the problems they cause? Please share your thoughts about letting your limits dictate your yoga practice in our conversation!

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These Probiotic Supplements Support Gut and Vaginal Health

In recent years, research underscoring the integral relationship between our gut microbiota and our overall health has increased profoundly. If you’ve ever been prescribed oral antibiotics by your doctor, you’ve probably been told at some point to make sure to either consume plenty of yogurt and fermented foods or to take a probiotic supplement in order to avoid developing a yeast infection during the course of the treatment. The reason antibiotics are often the culprit of yeast infections is that rather than targeting the specific strain of bacteria (say, e-coli) that’s responsible for causing your infection, they wipe out all of our bacteria (both bad and good). An unbalanced gut ecosystem devoid of the “good bacteria” can actually lead to a slew of different ailments including leaky gut syndrome, IBS, unexplained weight gain, acne, hormonal imbalances, and fatigue. Poor gut health, (gut dysbiosis) can even interfere with the production and secretion of certain neurotransmitters in the brain, which can affect mood and energy levels.

Investing a daily probiotic supplement can really benefit anyone, but they’re especially valuable for women.  A healthy gut offers a laundry list of different health benefits, including promoting regularity (and helping to reduce occasional bouts of constipation), alleviating frequent bloating and indigestion, strengthening our immune systems, and keeping yeast and bacteria levels in the vaginal flora balanced. When the pH and bacteria balance in the vagina is compromised, this leads to an increased risk for developing yeast infections, bacterial vaginosis (BV), and trichomoniasis.

There are a number of different probiotic-based supplements on the market, but unlike looking for a multivitamin or even decent adaptogenic supplements, shopping for a solid probiotic can be especially confusing. I mean, what the heck is a CFU and what do all of these alleged different strains of impossible-to-pronounce configurations of words and hyphens even mean? Without delving too deep into the clinical research landscape, we’ve highlighted a few cheat-sheet-style tenets to look for.

It’s generally recommended for women to look for a supplement that contains at least 20-50 billion CFUs (colony forming units). The strain is also an important consideration, as certain forms have been shown to benefit different concerns. Generally speaking, for women looking to maintain balanced vaginal flora, lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1, lactobacillus reuteri RC-14 are the most well-researched for their association with offering defense against vaginal infections. For digestive concerns including constipation and bloating, L. acidophilus, L. reuteri, L. plantarum, L. rhamnosus and B. animalis have all been shown to improve these GI issues.

And, as if these basic considerations weren’t confusing enough, there’s also a wide array of women-specific formulations that contain additional ingredients to further promote overall feminine health. Some of these supplements contain clinically backed ingredients linked with offering defense against painful UTI’s and bladder infections like D-manose and cranberry extracts, while other forms contain prebiotics, a type of fiber that feeds nutrients to the good gut bacteria in our colon and digestive tract to keep our systems functioning at their best. Here are some of the best shelf-stable and advanced probiotic supplements for women.

Our mission at STYLECASTER is to bring style to the people, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

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Teddi Mellencamp’s Purple Sequin Dress

Teddi Mellencamp’s Purple Sequin Dress on Instagram

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills 2020 Instagram Fashion

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season 10 Fashion

We don’t always know what to expect from Teddi Mellencamp, but one thing we can almost always guarantee is that her style will be on point. Her purple sequin dress on this throwback Instagram post from her hair stylist Laura Rugetti —in which she looks to be filming some sort of green screen shot for #RHOBH—was so cute, complete with a little bump to match.

I loved seeing Teddi’s lewks while she was prego because she still kept it top notch and up until the end we could all pretty much wear what she did even if we weren’t pregnant. I always thought that when I get preggo  it will be the perfect excuse to wear sweats almost exclusively. But Teddi has shown me that you can still rock a sequin mini dress and HEELS. So while during Season 10 we will see Teddi getting ready to deliver her special package, I’ll be getting ready for the mail carrier to deliver mine because I’m totally expecting…this dress.

 

Sincerely Stylish,

Jess

Teddi Mellencamp's Purple Sequin Dress

Click Here To Shop Her IORANE Purple Sequin Dress

Click Here to Shop her Saint Laurent Sandals

Photo Credit: @laurarugetti

Originally posted at: Teddi Mellencamp’s Purple Sequin Dress

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