Flaunt Your Beautiful Face!!

In my last post, I discussed how Kim Kardashian is a fantastic ambassador for Aphrodite Attitude because:

1. She KNOWS that she is a beautiful woman and

2. She ALWAYS accentuates her her incredibly beautiful face.

However, if you think about Kim’s rise to fame, you’d see how the mainstream media wants us to feel about ourselves. When Kim first came onto the scene, as Paris Hilton’s friend, everyone buzzed about the curvy girl with a beautiful face and scrambled to find out who she was. They fawned incessantly over her striking, exotic facial features, as if she had won some genetic lottery.

I’ll let you in on a little secret. The mainstream media WANTS us to perpetuate their myth that woman has to win some sort of genetic lottery to be touted as one of the most beautiful women in the world. Think about the last time you saw a countdown for Maxim’s annual “Hot 100” list – as you get closer to the top of the list, the commentary becomes increasingly hyperbolic.

Need proof of this? Look at these two photos and tell me what you see.

Can you see what the common denominator is? If you nearly identical bone structures, you’re very smart and intuitive, which is a great quality to have if you want to embrace, develop and maintain your new Aphrodite Attitude.

The truth is that Mother Nature, however, determined that ALL WOMEN are equally beautiful; as evidenced by the women in the above photos. And since Mother Nature blessed us with intrinsic beauty, we should do everything we can to preserve it and the best way to do that is with makeup.

One of the biggest “burdens” most women complain about is the pressure to wear makeup because we have to look good for men (I believed this wholeheartedly!); however, contrary to popular belief, that is NOT the primary reason we should wear it.

One day I was watching QVC and Leslie Blodgett, the founder and CEO of Bare Escentuals explained that makeup, be it liquid, pressed powder, but especially mineral, serves as a shield from all of the nasty things in our environment. Every day when we walk outside the house, we expose ourselves to the sun, pollen, car exhaust, smog, etc. and when we wear makeup, we can walk around with confidence knowing that, not only are we accentuating our natural beauty, but that when we return home at night we will wash all of those awful irritants off of our faces and preserve our natural beauty.

I’ve been a huge fan of bareMinerals foundation for almost 10 years. Bare Escentuals is very different than the majority of cosmetics companies on the market; all of the products her company offers is all natural, from foundation to blushes to shadows, is made from all natural materials.

What I really love about Bare Escentuals, besides their dedication to bringing us high-quality mineral makeup, is their willingness to take as much time as is necessary to develop a breadth and depth of formulations. Here, I’ll give you a few videos about the foundations that they have made available to us.

This video sums up the key pieces of their breakthrough foundation:

In this video, you’re introduced to their READY Foundation. This is the pressed version of their incredible mineral powder formulation. I adore that they didn’t cave in to mounting pressure to just turn out a mediocre pressed powder — not only did they come up with the pressed form, they designed a unique brush to make applying it as easy and flawless as possible.

Earlier this month on QVC, bareMinerals finally revealed a liquid version of the mineral foundation. I’ve seen so many snarky comments about how it apparently so easy to make a high-quality liquid version of their foundation. I believe they will have the last laugh because they found a way to combine a moisturizing skin serum with the minerals to give the women who have wanted to switch a reason to finally try the bareMinerals difference. One last point is that Leslie and her team have made the point that they are not trying to get their existing customers to switch from their favorite formula. If they love the loose minerals or the pressed powder, they’re ENCOURAGED to stick with it.

This final video walks you through two things: 1. their revolutionary new brush that will give you the coverage you want with minimal product (sticking with their philosophy that makeup shouldn’t feel or be cakey and that less is more!), and 2. how to  properly prepare, dispense and apply this new formulation.

I’d love to know what y’all think about Bare Escentuals/bareMinerals!! Are you interested in trying it? Are you a long-time fan, like me? Do you have any special tips and tricks you’d like to share?

In my next post, I want to give you another glimpse into my favorite makeup brand, Bare Escentuals with their absolutely fabulous Lash Domination mascara. I’ll also introduce you to Adonia Organics and their incredible lash and brow regrowth serums that are formulated to help us frame our best feature (our eyes!!) with beautifully full eyebrows and eyelashes.

Act Like You BELONG on the Cover of Vogue

In my last post, I highlighted why I love Jessica Simpson. She embodies a fully developed Aphrodite Attitude because she is secure in her beauty and isn’t willing to hear anyone tear her down for trivial things – particularly a 10-pound weight gain (like at the beginning of a pregnancy)!

Believe it or not, I think Kim Kardashian is an even better ambassador to the Aphrodite Attitude concept!!

This is how we first met Kim. She is an undeniably beautiful woman, she KNOWS it and she ALWAYS ACCENTUATES her assets.

I’m sure you’ve heard about the scuttlebutt surrounding the most recent cover of Vogue featuring Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. Frankly, I’m a tad bewildered at why the issue is causing as much controversy as it is; I completely understand that people are on Kardashian overload because of all their past hijinks and histrionics, but we’re missing the point. Anna Wintour would NEVER even consider placing someone on the cover of Vogue if they weren’t able to sell magazines. Unfortunately, her standards are somewhat unrealistic because of Vogue’s intrinsic relationship with the fashion industry.

 

Media overload or great Aphrodite Attitude??

However, you have to admit that despite all of the kerfuffle that the Kardashians create, Kim is INSANELY GORGEOUS and could have had a career riving Gisele or Heidi or Tyra or Naomi (if the industry’s standards were more realistic)! And that is the lesson we need to keep in the front of our minds.

Kim is another celebrity who fully embraces her Aphrodite Attitude — she knows what her assets are and she has absolutely no qualms about being able to flaunt them. Look at these pictures of her throughout the years.

Kim had an incredibly beautiful body from the moment she first came on the scene.

Kim is even more gorgeous with the glow of impending motherhood!

 

Shortly after giving birth to North, she exudes that sexy confidence she’s always had.

Kim started a firestorm when she posted this on Instagram — but why shouldn’t she flaunt having a body like that after having a baby??

Here’s some amazing (and fully clothed!!) shots of Kim after North

Taking a cue from Kim, in the next few posts I want to delve into how we can accentuate our best features, mainly our gorgeous faces and breathtaking eyes (I don’t know a single woman who doesn’t have beautiful eyes!).

Jessica Simpson’s Aphrodite Attitude

Jessica’s confidence and beauty shines through regardless of what the scale says, and THAT is an Aphrodite Attitude!

I remember back in 2004, I saw Maxim’s countdown of the “Maxim Hot 100” on VH1 and I loved that Jessica Simpson took the number one spot. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is that makes me so drawn to her. Scratch that… I know EXACTLY why I love her so much, but I’ll let you see why:

She epitomizes the Essence of an Aphrodite Attitude, not because she’s blonde bombshell, but because she UNABASHEDLY LOVES who she is NOW!! She admits that’s she’s not always following her “diet” perfectly because she’s only human and she wants to enjoy her life.

An Aphrodite Attitude can and will have many faces; Jessica’s just so happens to be more focused on healthy eating habits and being happy and in love with herself, despite what a scale might say.

I want every woman to have the same confidence that Jessica has.

Russell Simmons Eptiomizes Meditation’s Benefits

“Yoga has really helped me feel more comfortable with the idea of being present, the simplest idea of spirituality, the power of now.” -Russell Simmons

In my last post, I explained that hypnotherapy, is one form of meditation, and when practiced regularly, it will markedly improve the amount of success you achieve in your personal and professional lives; Russell Simmons epitomizes this concept. I believe it was last Tuesday when I saw Larry King interview Russell on his show Larry King Now.

Larry and Russell were discussing Russell’s new book, Success Through Stillness: Meditation Made Simple, and Russell explained how his discovery of meditation (specifically yoga) changed his life. I’m sure you’ve heard of Russell’s prepaid debit card called the Rush card – ironically, that card bears part of his nickname before he discovered meditation, Uncle Rush! In this clip, Russell tells Larry the story of how exactly he became addicted to the powerful peace of mind meditation gives him and how it’s impacted his career (watch from the beginning until about 7m30s):

Russell Simmons on Yoga and Meditation

What struck me the most is Russell’s cogent explanation of meditation being a practice; it may take a few minutes for our impatient minds to calm down, but once they do, stressful problems are easily solved. We must remember two key points:

1. The adage that “Rome was not built in a day,” and

2. the fable of the tortoise and the hare

Faster results and instant gratification is not always best.

Russell Simmons reaped such astounding benefits from the simple practice of meditation, and you can too!!

Now that you know that simple changes in your lifestyle can make a huge difference, I want to share with you the many ways we can transform our own lives by “exploiting” the expectations society places on us. We all have to eat, so why not use the  foods we have (ideally, organic) to continue to build and reinforce our Aphrodite Attitudes? The same idea can be applied for makeup, skin care products and fashion.

Let’s Build a HEALTHY Aphrodite Attitude

As I’m sure you all know, I’ve loved Greek mythology for as long as I can remember, especially Aphrodite because of her unshakable confidence in her beauty and sex appeal. After I wrote my last post, I thought of another goddess I admired, Psyche; I loved her because of her steadfast determination to fight for what she wants. When she lost her love, Eros, she happily completed the labors Aphrodite assigned to her, regardless of how demeaning and in the end, she married Eros in a great celebration blessed by all of the other gods and goddesses.

In today’s society, Merriam-Webster gives two distinct definitions of the word “psyche.” The first relates to the English translation of the Greek word, psychē, which refers to a person’s soul, personality and mind. Definition #2 refers the way everyone (especially clinical psychologists) have a proclivity to “anticipate correctly the intentions or actions of [someone.]” On the surface, these definitions seem to be polar opposites, but in truth they are interconnected.

A well-respected journal of psychology, “Psychology Today” does an excellent job of melding the two definitions. In my last post, I detailed the three critical aspects of a HEALTHY Aphrodite Attitude, the most important being an understanding that we are inherently flawed, but our flaws are NOT fatal. In fact, they are just as, if not more important, to defining who we are as our strengths. When properly understood and harnessed, your flaws can and will become strengths.

Many women have a broken psyche as a result of the many pressures we face from society. Think about some of the boxes we’re bombarded with from infancy:

1. You have to be a certain dress size or you’re fat and ugly,
2. If you don’t get married and have a family by this age, you’ll be relegated to the life of an unwanted spinster,
3. Follow this career path and keep your opinions to yourself or you’ll be known as a bitch, and so forth.

Whenever I start to feel defeated by the pressures of society, I visualize two trees, one broken and a grand old oak tree. Every once in a while branches break off in a big storm, but that DOES NOT stop the tree from growing. Rather, the tree takes the time to get to know its wound and heals it the best way it knows how. When it is given enough time, the tree will replace that broken branch with two stronger, more beautiful branches. This is a tree after a massive storm:

Dove recently released a sad statistic: only 4% of women in the world consider themselves beautiful

If you’re willing to go on this journey with me and rebuild your Aphrodite Attitude, I want to make your psyche look like this:

An ancient oak studies its injuries and takes all the time it needs to grow stronger, more beautiful branches.

Our goal is simply this: do as an oak tree and absorb whatever criticisms are directed at us and use them to our advantage. It NEVER frets over a broken branch… it studies it’s faults and then takes the time to not only heal itself but grow two bigger and stronger branches in its place. And just like an ancient oak, this will not happen overnight; it will take dedication, but EVERY step you take is important.

Aphrodite Attitude Redefined

Embracing your inner goddess means honestly contemplating whether all three parts of you (mind, body and spirit) are truly in harmony on a regular basis.

A few days ago I had a webinar from one of my business mentors playing while I was cooking my lunch and at the time I didn’t fully understand why. Then, just as I was starting to tune the audio out, she mentioned how she almost lost the rights to use one of her tag lines in a legal proceeding. The slogan she referred to reads as follows: “Remove your blocks so your business rocks!”

Unbeknownst to me, playing that webinar was the best thing I could have done for myself and for y’all. I’ve been pondering why the tag line resonated with me as much as it did, and I realized why: I’m ignoring a major block of my own!

While I absolutely LOVE helping y’all learn about the amazing healing properties of food, I understand now that that is not my only mission. To serve y’all to the best of my ability, I know that I have to stay true to myself and embrace EVERY aspect of a complete Aphrodite Attitude, especially the mental component! I could give you advice on infinite external tools you can use to improve your self-esteem, but if I continue to be negligent in acknowledging that we need to discuss the mental component as well, I am not fully honoring my mission.

From this point forward, I want to use this blog to help you embrace, develop and maintain your Aphrodite Attitude. In order to do that, you have to want to examine the following:

1. Your willingness to acknowledge that a HEALTHY state of mind allows you to admit you’re flawed (and that your flaws are just as beautiful as your strengths, just like Aphrodite),
2. Examples of strong, confident women who have the the courage to break down and eradicate the societal compulsion to force every aspect of your life into a perfect box, and
3. External tools that will reinforce our stronger senses of self-worth, including (but not limited to) balancing your psyche, proper nutrition (weight loss/gain is a bonus!!) & skin care/makeup.

Brow Revive SAVED My Eyebrows!

A miracle in a tube!

Back in January, I wrote a post about a FANTASTIC eyebrow regrowth serum called Brow Revive. This serum is incredible because it undid my faux-pas of waxing your eyebrows way too often and way too thin.

To get a full understanding of how awesome this serum is, you need to see what my eyebrows used to look like:

This IS reversible!!

This is what they looked like as of January 22, 2014:

This incredible regrowth took about 10 months of solid use of Adonia’s Brow Revive Serum.

And here are what my eyebrows look like after I got them waxed at my favorite spa (these are completely bare — I didn’t use a pencil or powder to fill them in AT ALL 🙂 ):

I never thought they’d look this amazing again!

My results are better than I could have ever hoped for, but I do have to warn you that your eyebrows respond as well to the serum as mine did; since they are 100% ORGANIC, I highly recommend that you give them a try!!

Let me know what you think about my results and fill me in on what kind of results you get when you start using Brow Revive.

Food Can Bring Out Your Natural Beauty!

The yummy foods you eat also enhance your beauty!

Last Friday I tuned into Bethenny to see what she would discuss in terms of her “Diet Debate” segment, but what interested me more was her segment where she tested our beauty knowledge. Like me, Bethenny is a firm believer in using what you’ve got to improve your life, and it turns out that several common kitchen items can bring out your natural beauty and/or heal a specific health concern.

These three remedies impressed me the most:

1. Turmeric is traditionally used in Indian food, but it works wonders on acne. One of turmeric’s main ingredients is called curcumin and it works so well because of its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. You can either mix some turmeric in a glass of water or make a paste and let it sit on your skin for 10-15 minutes.
2. Strawberries make delicious preserves and jam, but did you know that they are also an effective sunburn treatment? The anthocyanins, the compound that gives the strawberries their gorgeous red color, have awesome anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. To get the most of this treatment, mash some fresh strawberries and spread it on your sunburn like a salve. Let it sit for 15-20 minutes.
3. Mint has been shown to be an excellent way to reduce the puffiness under our eyes. The flavonoids help increase the production of antioxidants in the skin under our eyes. Those antioxidants, in turn, help fight the free radicals that give us the dark circles and puffiness we hate. To use mint, crush some fresh mint leaves and make a paste and leave it under your eyes for 15-20 minutes.

I’d love to hear about how well these remedies have worked for you!

The Natural Cure for Diabetes

Y’all know I love to give you the scoop on the incredible foods nature has to offer us, and I’ll continue to do so, but I think I’ll start finding other sources of evidence besides articles on the web.

Over the weekend, I went to a screening of a documentary called “Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days,” and to say was good is the understatement of the millennium! For the film, they found 5 subjects with Type 2 diabetes and 1 subject with Type 1.

All of the subjects met with a Dr. Cousens who introduced them to the raw food lifestyle and had them eat only raw for 30 days. As I’m sure you know, it wasn’t an easy thing to do because of all the sugar we Americans have in our diets: the average American consumes approximately 150 pounds of sugar per year!

One man’s story really made me want to break down in tears. Kirt was a 26-year-old African American man from Baltimore, Maryland. He shared a story about how one time he went to the emergency room and the doctors told him his blood sugar level was at 1200; the normal range for blood sugar is between 80-100!!

Kirt impressed me further when he adhered the most to the diet – he gave those 30 days 110% because he knew that that was what was required if he truly wanted to cure his diabetes.

On day one of the program, his blood sugar was about 346 and he was taking 4 to 6 insulin shots a day. By day 30, not only was he able to STOP his insulin, his blood sugar was down to 73! At the end of the movie, Kirt went to his doctor to get the results of some blood work and he was surprised to find that his doctor had reread his file and was going to rediagnose him as a type 1 diabetic and had plans to give him an insulin pump! I’m sure you all know that people with type 1 diabetes produce very little or no insulin – but after a strict 30-day diet of raw foods, his body was totally healed and started making its own insulin!

My moral of the story is, although many doctors mean well, they are definitely undereducated about the power of the food we have available to us. Granted, they take the Hippocratic Oath upon graduating from medical school, but the better musing from Hippocrates is “Let food be thy medicine and medicine thy food.”

Awesome Oatmeal

From time to time I get into a food rut. Basically, this is when I’ve found healthy food options that I enjoy (and I’m pretty picky because I have a little bit of a sweet tooth) and I buy them on autopilot, I guess.

Lately, I’ve been having just French toast, pancakes and egg whites for breakfast. Then one day I remembered how my mom would make old-fashioned oatmeal (I thought instant oatmeal was all that and a bag of chips!). So I went to the grocery store and bought a big container of store-brand whole oats.

It could be the middle of the summer and my mom would still make oatmeal for breakfast. After doing a little research I completely understand why. According to Mother Earth Living, oatmeal can do incredible things such as lower cholesterol, stabilize blood sugar and lower the risk of you developing diabetes. These three attributes alone are worth all the diamonds in the world to me because both heart disease and diabetes run in my family.

It’s surprisingly easy to make, but what astonishes me even more is how I can add the most seemingly random ingredients and it always tastes incredible. At first, I only added spices like ginger and cinnamon; then I’d add honey. I can’t wait to go to the grocery store and get a bunch of raspberries, blueberries, cashews, pecan and almonds and see how they can make the oatmeal even better than it always is!

Good thing I listened to my gut and gave the old-fashioned oats a try 🙂