beauty

Are you using expired cosmetics?

17.12.16

For some women, makeup is a kind of happiness. They love to color their lips and draw their eyebrows, cover up the wrinkles and acne with liquid foundation.

Makeup is a way for women to express themselves, to look prettier and more confident. Several offices in Jakarta even require their employees to wear makeup at work. Lipstick, eyeliner, mascara, foundation are items that are always in their makeup bag.

Not all makeup products have an expiry date label. You need to pay extra attention to decide when it is time to toss out and replace old makeup products. Bear in mind that your makeup is a potential bacteria-breeding ground. Write down the purchase date on your makeup products when you have a hard time keeping track of the usage period.




Mascara (3-4 months)

Overall, mascara is the most vulnerable product in which bacteria can easily grow once it is opened and you put the wand back into the tube.

Throw away your mascara after four months of use or when it has distinct gasoline-like smell, and replace it with a new one.  In some cases, if the mascara dries up before 90 days, do not add water because it increases the bacteria that cause irritation such as redness, itchiness, or pinkeye and sties. Better to throw out all eye makeups and its applicators before the bacteria spreads out and gets worst.




Eyeliner (3 months)

Simple makeup can easily be achieved by applying some eyeliner, either liquid or pencil. Many women found themselves guilty when a survey showed that eyeliner should be replaced every three months, an exception is pencil eyeliner. Nevertheless, for the sake of your eyes, keeping it longer can spread more bacteria and can cause you to experience some irritation near such a sensitive area.

In extreme cases, conjunctivitis, itchiness and redness can occur, which absolutely will disturb your vision and disrupt some of your activities. To prevent from such side effects, sharpen your pencil eyeliner before application.




Liquid foundation (6 months – 1 year)

Bacteria love water-based products. Once the seal of the foundation is opened, it can last for a year.

Do not dip your fingers into the bottle of liquid foundation; keep it away from heat and moist environments. Heat can speed up the growth of bugs and change the smell or color that could cause irritation.





Concealer (2 years)

It functions to cover blemishes. Toss out your concealer once the color changes. Stick and powder concealer can last for two years.





Face powder (2 years)

If the powder contains botanical extracts such as green tea extract, aloe vera or chamomile, it may be prone to bacteria growth if you leave it open in moist areas such as the bathroom. Be on notice if the color changes and has a funny smell.



Lipsticks (1 year )

This makeup product is a favorite among girls and women. The variation of colors let you fit any occasion. The average women owns about three to six lipsticks, which can be kept for no more than a year.

The majority of lipsticks do not contain water. However, the risk of bacteria infestation comes from the repeated expose to the mouth area. It’s time to ditch your lipstick if there is a change in the texture and if you cannot spread the pigment on the lips. Expired lip-gloss will feel streaky when you try to apply it. Replace your lipstick and glosses once a year.

Avoid sharing lipstick, especially when you are sick, because the bacteria can spread and harm your immune system.



Tips to prevent bacteria from infecting your makeup

- Remember that makeups that contain water are high risk to promoting bacterial growth.

- Do not leave your liquid makeup open in the bathroom or moist environments.

- Avoid storing makeup near heat, where a cool place is ideal.

- If the makeup smells bad or changes color, throw it out.

- If there is no expiry date label, put a label on yourself with the date of purchase before the first application.

- Buy cosmetics as your need. There is no use in hoarding makeup if you will end up throwing away most of it anyway.

- Have your own makeup. Shared makeup increases the speed of bacteria spreading like staphylococcus aureus and staphylococcus epidermis.

book

Book review: Advice for younger souls venturing into future

4.12.16


When Lean In, penned by Facebook chief operations officer Sheryl Sandberg, was published in 2013, the book quickly shot up bestseller lists.

While discussions surrounding women in the workplace had long preceded both Lean In and Sandberg, the book helped to highlight some of the key issues, and no doubt turned up the volume on such discussions.

At that same time, another book came onto the scene: one that was similar in its focus and subject matter, but quite different in its approach. I’m talking about Sophia Amoruso’s #GIRLBOSS — which doesn’t set out to challenge the points made in Lean In but tackles them from a very different perspective.

While Sandberg counts Harvard as her alma mater, Amoruso spent most of her young adult years living on the edge: dumpster diving, hitchhiking and stealing. While some may find it difficult to relate to Sandberg’s corporate affiliations, Amoruso makes her personal brand of rock 'n' roll business infinitely more approachable and grounded, with what most of us consider “real life”.

Amoruso, now the CEO of popular fashion retailer Nasty Gal (which she founded), recounts everything from her rebellious younger years to the pivotal moments that changed her life, combined with honest advice on entrepreneurship. She makes it clear from the beginning that she has no interest in being labeled a role model and that writing #GIRLBOSS was simply a way of sharing what she knew.

Throughout the book, Amoruso takes an authoritative tone as she talks about how terrible jobs and shoplifting saved her life, along with her problem with the concept of “luck” and her insights into being fired and firing people. There is also practical advice for those about to enter the workforce, such as how to write good job applications, ace job interviews, and draw the line with people at work (“your boss is not your friend”).

Yes, some of the advice may come off as being a bit clichéd, but for younger souls looking for something to grasp onto as they venture into the uncertainty of the future, Amoruso’s narrative could come at just the right time.

Just as reading Starting an Ebay Business for Dummies was an important moment in Amoruso’s life, #GIRLBOSS might be that pivotal book for someone drowning in self-doubt.

Thoughts

Why you should consider revitalizing your dining table

16.11.16


What do children want for their birthday nowadays? From the latest tablet, to a PlayStation, or a brand new bicycle, parents should realize which gifts could potentially cause their children to become psychologically and emotionally detached from them. Even before going through such a situation, I would rather suggest to you prevent this from happening by having a dining table in your house. 

What if you’ve already have a dining table? Then you must revitalize your dining table to be the center of your family’s daily activities.

At the dining table, parents will always have a chance to know their children’s activities during the day and vice versa because each family member has an opportunity to share stories and experiences in a relaxing atmosphere. Without distractions from the TV or other electronic devices, family interaction and communication processes can be more intimate during these times—the essence to maintaining family cohesion, emotionally and psychologically.


Family is the first social system one recognizes in life (Lewis and Feiring, 1982). The primary elements of this social system consist of parents and siblings. Extended elements of the social system could be grandparents, parents’ friends and siblings’ friends. The interaction within this social system is the greatest contributor to a child’s mental development. Two experts observed that the dining table activity within American families—especially during dinner—supported their argument; meals together serve the important function of maintaining the family system through the exchange of information between its members.

Children and all family members are guaranteed to get their chance of discussing something, sharing their stories and experiences, argue on some other topic, etc. The feeling of being heard is one of the most important elements to keeping emotionally and psychologically healthy in the long run. The dining table provides can create the necessary environment for this.  

The concept of utilizing the dining table to maintain the family system is rooted back in the early history of human civilization, of when humans entered the phase of food producer. Dining tables became the center of family activity where all family members could spend time together to cook and eat on a regular basis. As well as, at the community level, when humans started to live in communes, eating activities have always been considered a collective activity between one another in the family and community. 

The “dining table” should not be narrowly perceived as a “table” in its physical sense, but as the important activity attached to it. Every culture has their own name or their own form of the so-called activity surrounding the dining table. The French call it repas gastronomique, the Sundanese call it ngabotram, Padang people call it bajamba, and so forth. 

All the phrases that describe dining table activities involve similar values; togetherness, communication, interaction and emotional connection between one another. Here in Indonesia, we might have heard the Javanese proverb; mangan ora mangan, ngumpul means eating or not, the most important thing is gathering.   


In a modern industrialized society, dining table rituals could be a big challenge. Families are hardly finding time to be together to enjoy cooking and meals at the dining table as a routine activity. The father or mother must go to work from early in the morning to avoid traffic, children must go to school, and the young sibling might be the only one left in the house with the maid. Cooking activities and eating together as a daily routine has become rare due to the business of family members today. 

In an urban society, the tradition of dining together in a restaurant is an option. Thousands of families go out on the weekend and flock to restaurants to enjoy their meals together. I would not say this is not effective compared to being at the dining table in your own house on a regular basis. But is it as effective when the interaction and communication with your children is taking place in a crowded atmosphere that we usually get in a restaurant? 

Back to the birthday gift for your children, make sure you have one well-functioning dining table in your house before you give your children presents. The psychological and emotional state of your children are in your hands, at your dining table. A child could become very busy with school, cycling on his/her new bike as their birthday gift or playing online games on their tablet or gaming console, but interaction and communication among family members is the most important activity to maintain. 

health

How you can reduce your salt intake

5.11.16


Some foods contain higher amounts of salt than you may expect. The biggest culprits are processed foods.

When it comes to dietary sodium, less is certainly best. Diets high in sodium increase blood pressure. High blood pressure damages the kidneys over time and is a leading cause of kidney failure.

Health risks and disease

Sodium (salt) has various effects on heart health. High salt intake increases blood pressure, which can lead to heart disease, while high potassium intake can help relax blood vessels, excrete the sodium and decrease blood pressure.

In most people, the kidneys have trouble keeping up with excess sodium in the bloodstream. As sodium accumulates, the body holds onto water to dilute the sodium. This increases both the amount of fluid surrounding cells and the volume of blood in the bloodstream. Increased blood volume means more work for the heart and more pressure on blood vessels.

Over time, the extra work and pressure can stiffen the blood vessels, leading to high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke. It can also lead to heart failure. There is also some evidence that too much salt can damage the heart, aorta and kidneys without increasing blood pressure, and that it may be bad for bones too.

In the study, people with the highest sodium intakes had a 20 percent higher risk of death from any cause than people with the lowest sodium intakes. People with the highest potassium intakes had a 20 percent lower risk of dying than people with the lowest intakes.

But what may be even more important for health is the relationship of sodium to potassium in the diet: people with the highest ratio of sodium to potassium in their diets had double the risk of dying from a heart attack than people with the lowest ratio, and they had a 50 percent higher risk of death from any cause.


Reducing salt intake

To help you reduce your salt intake to the ideal one teaspoon per day, here are some tips for cutting down on salt in your diet.

- Read food labels when shopping. Salt content in the same type of product can vary considerably between brands.

- Buy reduced-salt bread and breakfast cereals. The regular varieties of these common staples are loaded with added salt.

- Avoid highly processed products. Examples of convenience foods best avoided include flavored instant pasta, instant noodles, canned soups and dehydrated soup mixes.

- Make your own sauces. Popular processed sauces that contain lots of salt include soy sauce, tomato sauce, mayonnaise and salad dressings.

- Limit your consumption of salty snacks. Potato chips, salted nuts, pickles and most cheeses should be occasional treats, not a regular part of your daily diet.

- Cut back on processed meats. Varieties that are high in salt include salami, ham, corned beef, bacon, smoked salmon, sausages, frankfurters and chicken loaf.

- Cook with fresh or frozen vegetables. Canned vegetables tend to have added salt.

- Don’t add salt to food when cooking. Instead, add herbs or a splash of olive oil or lemon juice to enhance flavors.

- Put away the salt shaker. Try to break the habit of automatically salting your meals at the table.

- Eat takeaway foods only occasionally. When possible, choose low-salt takeaway options such as a salad.

- Use fresh, rather than packaged, meats. Fresh cuts of beef, chicken or pork contain natural sodium, but the content is still much less than the hidden extra sodium added during processing in products like bacon or ham. If a food item keeps well in the fridge for days or weeks, that’s a tip off that the sodium content is too high.

- Choose fresh fruits and vegetables as they are very low in sodium. Canned and frozen fruits are also low in sodium.

- When buying frozen vegetables, choose those that are labeled “fresh frozen” and do not contain added seasoning or sauces.

- Sometimes the high sugar content in a product like apple pie can mask the high sodium content so it’s important to check every label for sodium content.

- Select spices or seasonings that do not list sodium on their labels, i.e. choose garlic powder over garlic salt.

- Before dining out, do your research. Visit a restaurant’s website, which may list the sodium content of various dishes served there. Alternatively, when you’re at the restaurant and ready to order, request that the dish be served without salt.

- Beware of products that don’t taste especially salty but still have high sodium content, such as cottage cheese.

- If you have elevated blood pressure, dietary sodium restriction can not only lower your blood pressure, but can also enhance your response to blood pressure medications.

A preference for salt is an acquired taste that can be unlearned. It takes six to eight weeks to get used to eating food with much lower quantities of salt, but once it’s done, it actually becomes difficult to eat foods like potato chips because they taste way too salty.

health

Why a gluten-free diet is not for everybody

23.10.16


A gluten-free diet is a diet where gluten is not included in daily meals.

Gluten itself is a type of protein found in seeds, primarily wheat, rye and barley. In processed products, gluten can help the rising process of bread and give it a chewy texture. Recently, the gluten-free diet has become a trend due to claims about its health benefits. However, is such a diet good for everybody?

Gluten-free diet for celiac disease sufferers

The gluten-free diet is primarily intended for those who suffer from celiac disease, which is a condition where the body cannot digest gluten contained in food. Due to its indigestible manner, the body interprets gluten as a threat and then produces an antibody that backfires to the small intestinal lining, resulting in swelling and damage in the small intestinal lining tissues. The damage of these linings causes a decrease of the intestine’s ability to absorb iron going into the body. This is dangerous for our health because iron absorption takes place mostly in the small intestine. Celiac disease sufferers usually also experience diarrhea, anemia, pain in the bones and even patches on the skin. Celiac disease attacks people of various ages and usually happens without special symptoms.

There is not yet medication to fully cure celiac disease. Treatment that can decrease the symptoms of celiac disease is the one and only gluten free diet. Celiac disease sufferers must avoid gluten containing foods. The amount of gluten contained does not matter because a small amount of gluten can trigger the immune system to attack the intestinal lining.

Gluten-free diet for autism sufferers

Aside for celiac disease sufferers, gluten-free diet can also be addressed to those with autism spectrum disorder sufferers or autism. Autism sufferers usually adopt a Gluten Free Casein Free (GFCF) diet, which eliminates all gluten and casein contained in their daily meals. For autism sufferers, gluten and casein that goes into the body cannot be digested thoroughly, which will then be interpreted as a hostile component by the brain. This causes autism sufferers to go through behavioral changes. By eliminating gluten and casein, we can expect some cognitive enhancement in autism sufferers.

Gluten-free diet for non-celiac gluten sensitivity sufferers

There are some people who are sensitive to gluten contained in foods. Further examination is required to determine whether a person suffers from celiac disease, sensitive to gluten, or just allergic to wheat. Even though the symptoms are more or less the same (diarhea, stomachache, and other symptoms appearing around a few hours to a few days post gluten consumption), the impact inflicted is not as bad as celiac disease.


Can one adopt a gluten-free diet if one doesn’t have none of the above conditions?

What if you don't suffer from any of the above condition yet still want to do a gluten-free diet? The following are a few things that can help you consider whether this diet can suit your lifestyle. 

Your choices of food will be significantly limited

When you decide to do a gluten-free diet, you’ll have to say goodbye to the foods you often consume on daily basis. Bread, biscuits, oats, pasta, various pastries, all processed wheat products are a no-no. Although the food market is now flooded with gluten-free labeled foods, they can be priced twice as much compared to regular ones. Aside from that, these alternative foods can have higher calories and saturated fats too.

Gluten-free foods often have incomplete nutrients

Those who are obligated to do gluten-free diet due to certain condition is recommended to consult with doctors and also a nutritionist because most gluten containing foods are staple foods that are often consumed on daily basis. By eliminating those kinds of foods, food choices for them become limited. Without consultation, people who undergo gluten free diet have a risk of deficiency of vitamins, mineral and fiber.

You may need food supplement

Gluten-free products sold at the market generally contains lack of vitamins and minerals such as vitamin B, calcium, iron, magnesium and fiber. Celiac disease sufferers are recommended to take extra vitamins to prevent the mentioned vitamin and mineral deficiency.

Gluten is difficult to digest


Gluten has been claimed to trigger health problems. As reported by the Washington Post, Alessio Fasano, founder and director of Center for Celiac Research & Treatment in Massachusetts General Hospital, says that it is true that there are no enzyme found in the body to properly digest the complex protein contained in gluten. When the immune system detects the existence of gluten, it will try to fight and eliminates gluten from the body. But for some people, our immune system is somehow able to cope with gluten.

Thoughts

here's how to deal with tantrums in public

2.10.16

We’d like to think that tantrums and high tempers are signs that a child cannot be tamed. As a matter of fact, no matter how bad your child's tantrum is, it is part of his or her growth. 

During the growth period, children will push themselves to the limit. They gain autonomy, touch everything, experience bursts of energy and sometimes become very stubborn. Tantrums generally happen because a child lacks knowledge and does not have the ability to handle a burst of emotion. Child and adult minds work in different ways, even compared to slightly older children. They don't have good self- and emotional control yet. Thus when adults think that raging in a public place for no reason is considered inappropriate, children will not understand. They will keep doing it, because a tantrum is a biological thing. 

When your children launch into tantrums at home, they are easy to cope with. You can place them in their rooms, keep your distance, or get assistance from people around the house to calm them down. But what happens when the tantrum happens in public, at the mall for instance, when you are doing your shopping and they’re whimpering for you to buy their favorite snack? It's a bad enough situation without the judging faces of people around you making the tantrum more difficult to handle.

Just ignore it

Getting angry at your child will only worsen their emotion -- even more so if you punish them for the tantrum. The children will store their anger and frustration within themselves. This is not very healthy. 

During a tantrum a child cannot think clearly. Children will be fully controlled by their emotions. These overflowing emotions ‘invade’ the brain’s frontal cortex, the judging and decision making area. So yeah, reasoning persuasion would not bring any results, even less if forced or scolded. This is because the parts of the brain that can do those things are taking time off.

There is nothing you can do to make a child end his or her tantrum. Remember that children actually have the right to engage in a tantrum, but you also have the choice not to get involved in it. So yeah, ignoring your baby is actually an option. The goal of a tantrum is to seek attention from you. When you entice or force your child to stop whining, this means that you actually encourage them to have another tantrum in the future because they get what they want: your attention, either good or bad.


When you are at a shop and your child suddenly goes into a tantrum, do not show any response, not even staring them in the face. If the whining worsens, immediately leave the shop and go somewhere for solitude for the child to release his or her anger until he or she feels satisfied. In the meantime, you can check your phone, read a book, take a break -- anything really. When they’re worn out and recover from the tantrum, you may talk to them and continue your shopping. Ignoring your child while in a tantrum does not mean you are a bad parent.

Crying and whining while in a tantrum actually helps children to release their emotions in a harmless way. They can extract their dissappointment and frustration, heal themselves and regain self-control, all by their own effort without involving a loud argument.

Give some hugs

When you see your child in a rage, hugs may be the last thing you think of. A child's tantrum may have the tendency to make adults become emotional. However, as a parent, staying calm is the best thing you can do. Hugs can make a child feel safe and let them know you caree, although you disagree with their actions. Do note that this is not just any hug. Embrace them tightly and firmly, not the kind of hugs for bedtime stories, and don’t say anything while embracing your little one. Tantrums can be a big problem when parents gave up too soon or too often, teaching the child that a tantrum is the best solution to get what they want. 

Be prepared

Keep in mind that children and toddlers may have the tendency to display their emotions when tired or feeling hungry. Thus, if you are to do your monthly shopping for instance, make sure your little ones are well fed and well rested before leaving the house. During shopping, it's good to fill your bag with necessary ‘equipment’ to keep your child busy or you can use it to distract them when they show signs of a tantrum. Bring along candies, biscuits, or a favorite toy. This stuff may seem petty, but it can be a big help. Other than that, setting some ground rules when going out to the store can also reduce the risk of a tantrum. Before arriving at the destination, you can clarify to your little one that the goal of going to the mall is only for grocery shopping, not for ice cream or a new toy. 

Frustration can also be the cause of a tantrum. If you know the mall you’re visiting has your child’s favorite toy store, be sure to spare some time visiting the place, or you should reconsider visiting that mall. Thinking of your child's reactions, the consequences and every possible alternative does not mean you’re giving up; this means you are being a wise parent.