Lauren Hutton has a free shipping offer good til July 29, 2010.

Summer is at the heat and sun height.   Special deals on age defying make-up from one of the best couldn’t come at a better time.

Free shipping offers are also good times to think about stocking up for the coming autumn-early winter season.

If we don’t have gardens of our own, the local Farmers’ Markets have lots of fine fresh cucumbers spilling off of their counters.

This formula only uses part of one, leaving plenty for your salad.  I know I don’t like to give up my crunchy, crisp cukes in the salad when they are in season.  Pickles meet the nutrition needs, but there are some things like pasta salad that just HAVE to have that soft scent of cucumber to be right!

Cool As A Cucumber Yogurt Facial (For Normal/Oily Skin)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cucumber
• 1 Tbsp plain yogurt

Puree cucumber in blender. Mix in yogurt, apply to face. Leave on for 30 minutes. Rinse well.

Enjoy your summer!

Conventional wisdom says you should exercise more to get rid of the fat. The best exercise, they say is the Push Away From the Table workout.

I’m not criticizing conventional wisdom. These recommendations are totally valid. But, I’ve read more than one study in the past few months that indicate there are some simple things you can do to assist the conventional tactics to weight control.

SLEEP properly for your benefit. One article I read told about a woman whose weight hit a plateau. Her coaches went through her lifestyle and found that a small dog slept with her. The little guy got restless in the night and moved to more comfortable spots. He took up space in the bed. When she made arrangements for the dog to sleep in a different room so she had more uninterrupted sleep her weight loss efforts became effective again. This wasn’t the little dog’s fault. He probably got better rest when he wasn’t being tossed about by feet at the foot of the bed.

Numerous studies that are available online repeat the advice of getting uninterrupted sleep. I try to make the cats go outside because they are the disturbers at my house and they have shelter spots out of doors fortunately. Nowadays, I’m really a whiner when the dog gets sick, a cat knocks things over, another cat jumps on the bed and someone in another state butt-dials my cell phone in the night to disrupt my sleep. I ‘m sure all of this is keeping my weight from being what I think it should. I need some sleep!

Lauren Hutton has a great sale going on for the Aqua Elements.  This line of make-up looks beautiful.  My granddaughter was the first person who endorsed ‘mineral makeup’. I try to have sales resistance to most advertising, but had seen advertisements on TV and online.  Then, I tried some mineral makeup for myself and regardless of the brand you select, I think it has real merit for baby boomer skin.  It has been years since I had something that covered lightly but thoroughly.

As I’ve noted before, I like Lauren Hutton for lots of reasons; most of all because of her leadership as an older woman who stays active and interesting.  The link is an affiliate link; if you buy, Lauren Hutton Cosmetics will pay me part of the purchase.  You don’t pay me, they do, but I wanted you to know.

Have you been sittin’ in the AC or in front of a fan. Lookin for a bit of shade and not wanting to haul yourself out to check your flowers, your garden or your mail?

How did things get to this point where you don’t have energy or interest? Well, that may be the question you ask yourself. We really don’t have to worry about how it happened. That’s in the past. The only value to knowing how it happened is to learn how to stop or keep the ‘dumdums’ from happening again.

Some could be a little too much weight — or a lot too much weight. That’s the physical part. Even if you aren’t too heavy, you may not be in any kind of condition that helps you want to be interested in life around you. Lack of strength messes with a person’s balance…walks around the block become NO FUN and worse.

Sure thing..as soon as you start moving and building some balance and body condition, then the old appetite pops up! Looks like a vicious circle for a minute.

Not for you, a beautiful baby boomer..you’re going to be smart and plan for that appetite spike with some low calorie, low salt satisfaction.

Check on the internet for some low impact strength training exercises. Getting a Good Workout with Low Impact Strength Training is one place to start. Jillian may make for noisy reality TV, but that stuff she shows would soon discourage me! Lose it with Common Sense; for the sake of those you pay attention to, pay attention to your health.

Cut back on portions, find something non-food to keep in your mouth on stress days (even chewing gum would be better than lots of chocolate). And get moving while the weather is not freezin and you don’t have to navigate snow and ice.

You go for it, BEAUTY.

Summer heat and outdoor living can lead to some leftover ‘gunk’ on our skin from the sunscreens, moisturizers, make-up and more.  A cooling mask might be a real low cal treat for your face.  Wear it — don’t eat it.

Frozen Egg & Honey Facial Mask (Smoothes and Moisturizes)

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1 tbs. honey

Beat the egg in a small bowl. Add the coconut oil and honey slowly, beating until it’s the consistency of mayonnaise. Spoon mixture into a cardboard toilet paper roll, sitting upright in a small bowl. Set in the freezer overnight. To use, peel away the top of the cardboard roll and smooth the frozen stick over your face. Leave it on for 5 to 10 minutes, then wash off with warm water. Keep the stick covered with plastic wrap and freeze between uses.

Winter toes (and the rest of the foot) are plagued by dry indoor atmospheres, plus we wear SOCKS to keep warm. The socks draw moisture from our skin year round, but when the humidity is lower because of furnaces and fireplaces, our feet don’t have that moisture to spare.

Additionally, we shower in seconds and dry in the same time measurement so we can get warm clothes on. We have trouble finding a few seconds to exfoliate and apply lotion to our feet. Our heels especially suffer from dry skin build-up. I’m not a doctor or scientist to understand why this dry skin build-up is ‘driven’ to dry even more, become crusty and then SPLIT down to the layers that have feeling and blood! PAIN and sores and potential infection follow us around all day until we do something.

Cleansing Foot Polisher with Olive Oil

• 1 cup fine sea salt
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup melted Melt & Pour Craft Soap from Wal-Mart or local craft supply.
• Makes  a thick paste (when it sest up) that can be put in a wide mouth jar to dip out with your fingers.

The salt will have a healing effect on your feet, battling microbes and bacteria. It may sting in deep cracks if you’ve already gotten that far. Using this mix without water will help avoid that sting.

If they were MY feet and cracked, I would substitute Epsom salt for the sea salt. I’ve found that Epsom salt doesn’t have as much stinging bite on tender skin. The olive oil will smooth and begin drawing moisture to the surface of your skin right away. The melt and pour soap is a carrier for the oil and salt, making the creamy paste formulation that helps exfoliate and carry away the dry skin cells that have built up.

The no-brainer way: The most SIMPLE thing to do for foot comfort is use a foot file after the bath or shower to get rid of excess dry skin cells around your heels, SLATHER lotion on your feet and quickly cover them with clean, cotton socks. I love my ‘woolies’, but they seem to be real offenders for drying out feet.

If you are addicted to morning speed showers with no time or intention to play tootsie, find a shallow pan (like a plastic dishwashing tub from the local store) and use it to treat yourself to a warm foot bath.

You can put some spices from your kitchen: rosemary or basil work well, into a teaball and put that in the bath. After a wonderful little soak, use your foot file or pumice stone. Then, do the heavy lotion application and the socks. Wear them at least till bedtime.

These tips are great to sooth painful winter feet, but they can also be useful when maintaining pretty sandal feet in the summer.

MORE than FEET: I found a ‘whipped’ petroleum jelly product which made a cream that looks like it would be just great to smooth on feet or all over. I also really like the gel baby lotion for smoothing over dry skin (this works great for EVERY WHERE). In winter, that gel baby lotion is so nice when you just turn the shower water off. A couple drops can go a long way toward smoothing all over your skin before you reach for the towel Let the towel spread it further and yet absorb the extra.

After giving your hair the final rinse which removes excess conditioner and shampoo product, give your tender tresses a treat.  Simply dribble a small dot of conditioner onto the palm of one hand, rub your hands together, then smooth the small amount of conditioner to your wet hair.  When you leave the shower, treat yourself to a separate towel for your hair.  Wrap it around your wet hair, wearing your ‘turban’ while you are finishing your towel drying right down to your toes.  The warmth of the towel will help your hair, especially the ends, to absorb the minuscule portion of conditioner needed to stay soft.   I first saw this done at a beauty shop.  The stylist would give my hair a quick shampoo, then leave some conditioner in my hair to help the cutting action.  I went home with a soft hair style that I really appreciated.

Another option is to keep a spray bottle handy with a professional ‘leave-on’ product.  Spritz your hair just before wrapping with the towel as mentioned above.  The towel will remove any excess product.

There are some super conditioning products available that you can enjoy using according to the directions during the drying season.

Privacy and Affiliation Policies is a new page at Beauty Matters discussing what my readers can expect.   First item discussed is your privacy which is my priority.  I do not share your email or any other information that you give me with ANYONE, period.

I really desire your comments and the form asks for your email address and website in an effort to make sure you are really a person, not a spam machine.  Your email is not revealed.  Your comment is not automatically posted; I have to approve it.  If you want to communicate with me and retain your privacy, you can say so in the comment post and I will abide by your wishes.  You are welcome to email me separately as well and know that your privacy and confidence will be respected.

Now, when you see a product discussed and there is a live link, you can be pretty sure that I’m tell you about this for your benefit and for my benefit.

You benefit through getting information that you might have missed. You also benefit by getting an opinion about the information or product from my experience.

I benefit in various ways:

• I benefit from the good karma of sharing information about acquaintances and friends who have products that I would like to see successful for them.  I don’t get any more from that but a ‘warm, fuzzy feeling’ and perhaps a return link.
• I have some affiliate agreements with suppliers where I am paid a small portion of the purchase price in return for my efforts at marketing for them.
  • Your purchase amount isn’t affected by the small portion I am paid; this is paid from the receipts of the supplier.

Bathtub Cookies would make a great project for Baby Boomer grandma’s to enjoy with their grandchildren during the holiday break.

Fun for the kids to be able to enjoy their own craft and make extras for gifts from their precious little hearts.

Bathtub Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 cups finely ground sea salt,
  
• 1/2 cup baking soda,
  
• 1/2 cup cornstarch,
  
• 2 tablespoons light oil,
  
• 1 teaspoon vitamin E oil,
  
• 2 eggs,
  
• 5-6 drops essential oil,

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, Mix all the ingredients together. Take a teaspoon of the dough and roll it gently into a ball about 1 inch in diameter. Continue doing this with all the dough and put the balls on a ungreased cookie sheet. (You can decorate the cookies with clove buds, anise seeds, dried citrus peel if you wish) Bake the cookies for 10 minutes until they are lightly browned. Do no overbake. Allow the cookies to cool completely. To use, drop 1 or 2 cookies into a warm bath and allow to dissolve. DO NOT EAT. Yield: 24 cookies, enough for 12+ baths.

A gentle essential like geranium, lavender, rose, or jasmine sounds so good to me.

This formula is part of Salt for Your Soul, a collection of Bath options. You can download an excerpt of Salt for Your Soul and all of the other books in the Bubbles ‘n’ Crème collection FREE.