Benzoyl Peroxide vs. Salicylic Acid for Acne

Published by Grace | Filed under Arbonne

As someone who has dealt with acne practically her whole life, this comparison was super important to me. When I was younger, I tried everything to help clear my skin, and there was really nothing out there to help control my acne. I tried every over-the-counter solution and even tried several different products from my dermatologist, and no bueno. I’ve decided now that I’ve found something that works for me, it’s time to do some research and provide some information that everyone could use, because it would be incredibly selfish of me to not share answers that my friends and family need.

I came upon this article when researching Arbonne’s Clear Advantage line (it uses Salicylic Acid) which talks about the differences between 2 popular acne-fighting ingredients, Benzoyl Peroxide and Salicylic Acid. Let’s take a closer look, shall we?

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Replace that Potato with a Sweet Potato

Published by Grace | Filed under Healthy Living

Although we really only enjoy these during the holidays, sweet potatoes are actually great to eat year round (not candied, of course). This root veggie is packed with vitamins A, C, and B6 as well as other healing anti-oxidants that help eliminate free radicals. It also has anti-inflammatory properties, which is great for those that suffer from asthma, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

The sweet potato is a better alternative to the regular potato, and offers a bit of sweetness. It’s a starch, but quite a healthy one. It’s a great complex carbohydrate that helps to rebuild those muscles after intense workouts. As with anything, consume these in moderation. They are filling and do have a substantial amount of calories compared to leafy green veggies.

For more information on the sweet potato and preparation tips, check out this article. I usually do a baked sweet potato, and have it as an afternoon snack, or on the side of a light lunch to help keep me satisfied. You can also make sweet potato fries instead of regular fries as another healthier alternative. Happy eating!

August Newsletter

Published by Grace | Filed under Arbonne, Healthy Living

Here’s this month’s newsletter! In this month’s edition, I talk about the pH level of our skin and nutrients that we can eat to help give our skin a healthy boost. There are also some great hostess rewards, like $50 of products, and awesome savings for current retail and Preferred clients. Have a great August!

This Week’s Fave: RE9 Intensive Renewal Serum

Published by Grace | Filed under Arbonne

OMG I love this! I have to admit that when I used the NutriminC Serum, my skin did break out, so I stopped using it. Then one day, after noticing how much some of my acne scars had really bothered me, I started to use the new RE9 Advanced Intensive Renewal Serum. I had much better results this time. I used just the smallest amount on my chin where some of my stubborn acne had left a few scars. I was shocked at how smooth that part of my face felt, and how the little acne scar bumps started to minimize. So then I started to use small amounts on the rest of my face, and now I’m noticing smaller pores and more even skin texture.

Because it is exactly what it’s named, intense, I switched from morning/night use to just every other night use, and sparingly at that. The renewal serum is eager to dig into your skin and drudge up anything that doesn’t belong there, so if you have oily skin, DO NOT use twice a day. Just use a little bit every other night (or even just a couple times a week) where you feel you need some tightening and lightening, and then work your way up to every night and go from there. This is actually great for acne because of the Salicylic Acid in it, but like any other product for acne prone skin, you have to build up your skin’s tolerance to its intensity. Its initial reaction will be to make your skin oilier, and we don’t want that.

The only thing is that the dark spots left behind from acne are taking a while to go away, so I just started using the Revelage Age Spot Minimizer to treat that. The serum has done great things, it’s just the scars that leave me looking like I still have lots of acne when I’m not wearing makeup. I’ve got high hopes that the Age Spot Minimizer will be my next fave

iPhone, YouTube, and swfobject

Published by Grace | Filed under Flash

I was working on troubleshooting a problem with YouTube videos not displaying on a page earlier this week and found out something interesting. Swfobject has pretty much become the industry standard for embedding Flash objects within web pages. For those that aren’t in the know, swfobject is a JavaScript plugin that detects whether a variety of conditions are met so that the user can view the Flash object properly, otherwise the user is served alternate content or asked to upgrade Flash or enable JavaScript. Nowadays, with the iPhone being such a popular platform for internet browsing, Flash objects have become somewhat of a hassle to deal with. Even as a Flash programmer, I have to say that if I can build similar functionality with jQuery and some AJAX, then I probably won’t go down the Flash route just because of the maintenance issues the UI presents down the road. That being said, it’s been quite a few months since I’ve embedded a Flash object or even looked at a Flash project because I can accomplish what I need in jQuery, thus my rediculous lack of intuition coming up here.

Ok, so let’s circle back. Because it’s swfobject’s job to present us with something else if there is no Flash player, iPhone’s Safari browser never actually is presented with the embed tag. For iPhones, if Safari recognizes that the embedded Flash is actually a YouTube video, it replaces the embedded content with a clickable image to the video that will play in iPhone’s YouTube application. So, if the YouTube video on the page was loaded using swfobject, the iPhone browser never gets a chance to scan the embed tag and replace it appropriately.

After a couple of hours Googling the wrong terms, this article finally came up, and I had successfully squashed swfobject’s automated process by doing a little browser sniffing up front. Results end up looking something like this, but take a look at the article for some details on how to check iPhone browsers:

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if (is_iPhone) {
    document.getElementById("flashcontent").innerHTML = '<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/' + vid + '&;hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&showinfo=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="350"></embed>';
} else {
    swfobject.embedSWF("http://www.youtube.com/v/" + vid + "&rel=0", "flashcontent", "425", "350", "7.0.0", "\global\scripts\client\expressinstall.swf");
}

Definitely take a moment to check it out and revisit your sites to see if there is anything you might want to do to accommodate iPhone & non-flash smartphone users

Don’t Forget Breakfast

Published by Grace | Filed under Stuff

Lately, I’ve been making a point to eat more in the morning to help prevent unnecessary snacking. Eating a good breakfast is not only key to preventing snacking, but helps kick start your metabolism after having slept for so many hours, hence the “break” of “fast”ing in “breakfast”. My favorite breakfast is almond butter on a whole grain english muffin, topped with some fruit (strawberries, raspberries, bananas), or on its own. Yum! Something I picked up from the recommendations sent over to me by the personal training guys over at Strive Fitness. In addition to eating breakfast, a quick 20 minutes of exercise in the morning before eating can really get that metabolism in gear, whether it’s lunges, squats, or cardio. I like to do 30 lunges on each leg, 30 squats, and some upper body work like bicep curls, reverse flys, or dips.

Almond butter is a healthier alternative to peanut butter, and also has more protein. And although an english muffin is a carb, you still need some complex carbohydrates to keep your hunger satisfied. I like Orowheat’s Double Fiber english muffins. The extra fiber also helps to keep you satisfied, and aids in digestion.

Although I’m not diabetic, I found this article on breakfast foods for diabetics helpful in just figuring out what we should be looking for in breakfast foods. Low-fat and low-cholesterol foods are best for diabetics, but that also means they’re even better for everyone else!

What are your favorite healthy breakfast foods?

This Week’s Fave: Purifying Sea Soak

Published by Grace | Filed under Arbonne, Healthy Living, Spa

Ok, I’m typically not the type of person who has time for baths, what with 3 different jobs, my exercise addiction, and the rest of life, but I had to blog about this. On Saturday, I had an intense hour-long workout with the guys over at Strive Fitness in Miramar. We seriously hit the ground running on Saturday, with lots of athletic drills up and down the astro turf as a warm up, followed by 10 minutes at legs, cardio, and abs stations. We stretched of course, but even with good n’ proper stretching, you overdo it, you’re gonna be hurtin’ the next day. With my competitive nature, it doesn’t help that it’s in a group setting, and I tried to make it through each drill. That didn’t work out so well for me the following day. Sunday, I awoke to horrible pain in my quads. I’m sure there was pain elsewhere, but my brain could only think of how unbearably sore my thighs were. I mean, GREAT! I’m going to have fantastic legs this Summer! But, NOT so great, because I can barely walk! I felt like I had knives stabbing them at every step I took from then until Wednesday. Surprisingly, the most painful thing was walking down stairs, not so much up them. It was crazy to discover how many simple things we need these quadriceps for, everything from stepping on a gas pedal, to sitting down in a chair.

So, Wednesday night is TKB (Turbo Kick Box), which I couldn’t miss because I had already missed Monday night and hadn’t worked out since Saturday. I figured, “well, I need to get some kind of activity going to release all that fluid in my muscles”. Wrong. I could barely make it half way through the class I left already feeling that familiar wobbly leg syndrome from Saturday, so after posting my complaints on Facebook, a fellow consultant, Terri Enck, recommended that I soak in Arbonne’s Purifying Sea Soak. I was like, “Terri’s crazy if she thinks this is going to make the pain go away!”, but at that point, I was willing to try anything. After a soak in that and massaging some of the herbal muscle massage gel into my poor little legs, I woke up Thursday elated, and with brand new legs! It was like magic!

How To Use: Run a hot bath and pour contents of sea soak as water runs. Soak in the bath for 20-30 minutes. When done, towel off or let minerals dry onto skin so that they can be absorbed. Can follow with a cold or hot shower. Follow with remineralizing lotion, if desired.

It does have a very strong mineral scent, so after your hot bath, you may want to rinse the tub with something if it’s not to your liking. My favorite is the Rescue Wash in that line because it leaves a really nice crisp, clean scent.

I just had to post this story because my results were truly amazing. Even as a consultant, I still find myself to be pretty skeptical. Terri was definitely my savior this week!

Last Week’s Fave: Perfecting Liquid Foundation with SPF 15

Published by Grace | Filed under Arbonne, Makeup Tools

I have to play a little bit of catch up here since I haven’t posted a fave in a few weeks. I’m posting the Perfecting Liquid Foundation with SPF 15 as last week’s fave. As a consultant, I have a few full-size foundation bottles, and the rest I can grab from sample cards. But I’m telling you, I can’t believe how great the coverage is with this liquid, and how light it feels. You’re more than welcome to apply some concealer, but you’ll have a hard time finding where to put it. You do have to be careful, though. The consistency of the liquid is pretty thin compared to other liquid foundations I’ve tried, but that’s actually a good thing. That means that you’ve got more coverage for much less on your skin, and your skin can breathe!

How To Use: Using fingertips, a sponge, or a brush, take 1/2 to a full pump of the liquid foundation and blend evenly throughout face. If needed, apply concealer where more coverage is desired. Now, lightly dust setting powder (or the FC5 Mattifying Powder for oily skin) over face to set foundation. For longer-lasting makeup, apply makeup primer before. View this video for more tips on applying foundation.

The great thing about their makeup is that they all have anti-aging benefits. The SPF in it is a for sure anti-aging ingredient, as well as ingredients to help lift and firm the skin. The makeup primer is also a thing of beauty. It’s loaded with vitamins and anti-oxidants to help “feed your face”, while also smoothing out your skin to create the perfect canvas for makeup application. The makeup primer will get it’s own blog post soon enough. Stay tuned for this week’s fave!

This Week’s Fave: Figure 8 Fizzing Beverage Tablets

Published by Grace | Filed under Arbonne, Healthy Living

With Summer practically here, it’s time to watch those snacks and get that rear end in shape. Arbonne’s Figure 8 NRGGO3 Fizzing Beverage Tablets have been super helpful in squashing my afternoon snack attack. Bye bye, munchies! It’s perfect for keeping your energy up during workouts, and curbing your appetite so you don’t feel hunger pains in the middle of your cardio.

How To Use: drop one tab in 8 oz. of water. Wait for tablet to completely dissolve before drinking. Enjoy!

I usually drop a tab in my water bottle and drink before heading to the gym. It’s a little more diluted, but the taste is pretty strong when only using 8 oz. of water as directed. Be sure to drink plenty of water when using with 8 oz., and get ready for that boost of energy! I highly recommend only using in the morning the first time, and if you’re using in the afternoon, probably no later than 3pm to make sure you’re not up all night. My favorite is the Citrus Surge one, but they also come in Pomegranate.

Before & After

Published by Grace | Filed under Arbonne

I thought this would be fun to share on a Friday. We usually have these in a little booklet and pass around at parties, but it’s just as fun to look at online Click on images to enlarge. My favorite is the body wash/firming cream one, quite dramatic! The woman who took the before/after photos for that one actually tried the sample we received at the annual training conference when they launched the new RE9 products, so for real, she only had the product for 4 days.

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