This beautiful spring weather is nearly intoxicating after a winter spent dashing from car doors to buildings to avoid rapid onset frostbite. But with the carefree feeling of higher temps, come the tee shirts and shorts which cruelly expose our lapse of a rigid fitness regime for a few of the colder months. Likewise, our dry wintry skin may have us looking like we did a whole lotta living for a mere year.
Thus, some tips for cellulite and aging alike might just be found in retinol, wine grapes, and cheap do-it-yourself routines.
While diet and exercise are both crucial for looking and feeling our best, Dr. Oz explains that we all can suffer cellulite affliction – no matter what mass we occupy.
How Cellulite Works
Under your skin, a network of fibrous tissue holds the fat in place. Depending on the condition of that net, your skin can seem either goddess sleek or more like cottage cheese. What causes that latter condition isn’t just enlarged fat cells – but also a combination of hormonal changes and genetic tendencies that accompany aging. The netting starts to get weak, it breaks, and voila! All hell (and the fat cells) break loose enough to protrude against skin from the underside. What we suddenly witness is the rippling of our thighs. And what we do is question every cheat day we’ve ever enjoyed.
But we mustn’t – because there’s more than meets the diet here.
Regarding cellulite, Dr. Oz explained, “Those little lumps and bumps will remain unless you strengthen those fibers.”
Tips For Rippling
1. Hydrating Noms
Eat strawberries, watermelon, cantaloupe, and cucumbers for smoother skin, suggests Dr. Oz. The wet foods harbor nutrition and the water your body needs to level out those lumps. “All of these have the water you need for the collagen and they have the nutrients you need to rebuild that area to flatten it out,” says Dr. Oz.
2. Retinol and Caffeine Combos
Of most skin products, Dr. Oz says, “I believe that many of these products don’t work because they don’t have the two ingredients that we know scientifically can make a difference.” He went on to suggest that the two major players to seek on the ingredient list when cream hunting are both caffeine and retinol.
As far as specifics go, Dr. Oz suggests a .4% retinol cream, applied 3 times daily to see results in just 10 days.
3. Inexpensive Exfoliation
While your favorite Super-Skinny Me documentaries might star a host who can afford to try out those “suck my fat with a vacuum” sessions, I know I sure can’t. If you’re looking for something a little more wallet friendly (and conceivably gentler), don’t punish your body. Go for a $20 dry brush, says Dr. Oz. The tip given is to start at the lower leg and thigh, working the brush in a superior direction.
Where the pricey method stimulates collagen lymphatic drainage, the dry brush does the same – while also exfoliating dead skin cells (not to mention the added privacy benefit).
Anti-Aging
And likewise, pricey methods may not be necessary for all those smile or frown lines you earned yourself this past year (depending on just how long your relatives stayed past Christmas).
New Beauty magazine conveyed how retinol’s vitamin A can stand for “anti-aging” as well as “acne”. Los Angeles, CA dermatologist Howard Murad, MD detailed how retinol works to fight wrinkles in an interview with the magazine:
“As an anti-aging regimen, it normalizes the top layer of your skin – the stratum corneum – and it seems to have a wonderful effect even deeper – lower in the skin. And the results can be spectacular.”
However, we all know skin care isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution.
For those irritated by contact with retinol, there are workarounds, as Dr. Murad explains in the video.
Wine About It
Or, you could seek out the creative vino approach some companies manufacture via resveratrol skin products. Mathilde and Bertrand Thomas helped launch this grape-skin skin care movement with their family-owned vineyard located in Bordeaux. The two started Caudalie in 1995. The line did well enough for them to launch Caudalie Vino¬thérapie Spas four years later. Numerous other brands have followed suit with everything from face masks to lip balms.
In their own quest to iron out lines with wine, Madonna, Jessica Alba, and Kate Hudson all supported Susie Wang’s brand 100% Pure – whose claim is that it’s percentages are higher and thus most effective.
Or you could lift your skin and your spirits simultaneously – the old fashioned way:
(Not too much, though, loves. Otherwise you’ll reverse any resveratrol benefits)
At the day’s end, as you’re sipping your wine and rubbing on globs of goo, just remember that you’re perfect – and that you can love your body while you work on it. That said, we’d love to hear your experience!
From quelling cellulite to exiling eye lines, what’s worked best for you?
Image via Youtube
