Despite being one of the most common complaints doctors deal with, one that affects quite a few people, no cure for acne has been found so far.

 

However, there is still hope for those suffering from the skin condition according to a recent study published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. It reports that a new vaccine is being developed. It has shown promise to change the way we view skin care.

 

The one-of-a-kind vaccine is designed to reduce the body’s response to the toxins bacteria release, thereby minimizing inflammation. So far it’s only been tested in mice and samples of human tissue, not actual human beings, but researchers are optimistic about the outcomes.

 

A lead researcher working on the vaccine has commented that the potential impact of study findings would be huge for the hundreds of millions of individuals who have this skin condition.

 

Would It Really Work? What Experts Are Saying

The expert jury – dermatologists – is still out when it comes to the vaccine. According to them, the causes of acne go way beyond bacteria.

 

Genes, hormones, and some products can exacerbate the skin condition. Growth of bacteria like P.Acnes is what causes acne, and targeting these bacteria with a vaccine could be considered a less damaging and more precise approach than chemical therapies.

 

On the other hand, not all P.Acne bacteria are bad. Different strains comprise them, and not all cause acne. A treatment targeting the wrong strains could exacerbate the skin condition.  

 

Best gifts for your Fashionable Friends:

 

Buying gifts for your friends is not always easy. It’s hard to know what they want or what they would like, especially if you don’t have the same taste or wear the same kinds of things. If you have very fashion forward an girly friends with birthdays or bachelorette parties coming up, these recommendations are perfect for you because they are super easy to find and general enough that everyone loves them. They are all decently priced and incredibly cute and trendy. Most of them will never go out of style and are super in right now. You’ll want to get these gifts for yourself too because they are so great and useful. Who doesn’t love presents?!

 

An amazing gift for close friends are customized makeup bags or small pouches. Not only can these small bags be used for cosmetics, they also can be worn as clutches for night time or used to hold a phone at the beach. Websites like Stony Clover have tons of options of sizes and colors for these kinds of small bags. You can write your friends name or initials on the bag and add small patches that represent your friends personality. How cute?! These bags come in the mail super quickly and look so cute so you can order them as last minute gifts if you forgot to get something ahead of time and it will look like you put a ton of effort into her gift. Keep in mind that the more patches you add to the bag, the more expensive it becomes so don’t go crazy when adding patches, as cute and fun as they can be.

Another amazing gift following the trend of customization are jean jackets! You can add super cute patches onto simple jackets to make them more personal and fun for your girlfriends. You either can buy a jean jacket and iron patches that you can find at most craft stores or you can find websites online that make the jackets for you. Either way, this gift is super fun and girly and we are sure that your girlfriends will love to wear them around town. Jean jackets can be worn with almost every outfit so she definitely will make good use out of this. Once she has the jacket with a few patches on it, she can buy her own patches and add more as she pleases. This is an ongoing project! As time goes on, you can give her patches to put on as small presents. Everyone loves this gift because it literally lasts forever and it’s fun and easy to keep adding patches.

 

 

Another great personalized gift for fashionable friends is a customized phone case. Your friend will always have her phone with her, which means she will always have a piece of you with her. These phone cases can be so cute and it is a gift she will for sure use every single day. You can add pictures of the two of you together, make a collage of her favorite people or do something as simple as just writing her initials or name. A classic design is a monogram pattern with a cute background as seen in the photo below. These cases are super fun and cheap and make a great gift that will go to very good use. You can make these in some phone shops or find websites that do it for you online. Your friends will love these cases!

 

Cute jewelry is always a safe bet when shopping for gifts for your most fashionable girlfriends. Fun designers like Roxanne Assoulin have young and colorful jewelry that all of your friends will want. Once they get one from you, they will want more and more. These bracelets are super cute to stack on your wrist and can be worn in the day time and at night. You can also get matching ones because they are quite affordable and make great friendship bracelets. Lots of celebrities wear these bracelets so she will feel super cool in them too. You can also buy tickets to go to one of the Make Your Own Bracelet events and customize her bracelets with the colors and beads you think she would like. While this is more expensive than just buying from the website, it is fun to go to events like these and to make sure you get exactly what you want.

 

 

If your friend is a fashion diva, she probably likes to sleep in style just as much as she likes to strut the streets in style. Silk pajamas with her initials monogrammed in the corner is such a cute and nice gift for one of your girlfriends. You can either buy the pajamas and bring them to a tailor to have them monogrammed or find a company online that does it. This is another gift that is timeless and that she can use for a long time. You will love these pajamas so much you will want to get a pair for yourself too! This is a very cute gift and it can be for someone you aren’t as close to because it is a standard gift.

 

Did you know that the skincare market is bigger than ever? The global skincare industry topped $120 billion this year.

 

On the bright side, millennials are becoming more and more aware of the importance of skincare. Here are five things you should start doing for your skin to prevent damage – don’t wait!

 

1. Maintain a moderate routine

Never go overboard with your skincare routine because there can be too much of a good thing. According to experts, steam facials and over-exfoliation are really unhealthy for the skin.

 

Albeit well-meant, these treatments can cause capillaries to bust and skin to become overly sensitive. Over-exfoliating strips the skin of indispensable oils.

 

2. Don’t Spend Too Much Time In The Sun

This seems pretty obvious, but it isn’t to many people. Any form of prolonged UV exposure is harmful.

 

Celebrity facialists say tanning can be just as harmful as smoking.

 

Overexposure to UV rays can make skin wrinkle and age faster (and cause skin cancer). If you have no choice, make sure you wear LOTS of sunscreen.

 

3. Take Short, Cool Showers

Long, hot showers are terrible for the skin. They’re one of the best things in winter, but the hot water washes off the skin’s natural oils, making it dry and flaky.

 

Extreme temperatures can destroy the delicate balance in your skin, stressing it out and making it sensitive. This means broken capillaries, cellular damage, and irritated skin.

 

Excess heat strips away the outer layer of skin tissue, causing itchiness and inflammation. Cool showers are always better.

 

4. Take Your Makeup Off Before Bed 

Forgetting to take your makeup off before you go to bed is very bad for the skin according to experts. It causes both premature aging and pore clogging.

 

Makeup is nothing but a skin mask, so if you neglect to take it off, you’re preventing the skin from breathing and recovering from the huge volumes of debris you are literally faced with on a daily basis, like bacteria, pollution, and ordinary dirt that makes its way onto your face.

 

Take your makeup off, cleanse and moisturize the skin before hitting the sack.

 

5. Ignore Pimples

Your grandma always told you not to touch your zits. And she was right.

 

Picking pimples causes hefty scars that could have been avoided. Experts say people should start to think of pimples and zits as big, ugly sacks of dirt, oil, and bacteria – exactly what they are.

 

This way they’ll come to realize that by popping them, they run the risk of that dirt and oil spurting out and causing ten more pimples to form nearby.

 

6. Remember – Skin Is Not Just Dealing With The Outside

Don’t forget clear skin is as much within as it is without. Take care of your nutrition – eat a lot of fruit and veggies, drink a lot of water, and go for lean meat like chicken and turkey instead of beef and pork.

 

Fish is a great source of vitamins that go directly to the skin.

 

• Harvard University followed 800 people around for their whole lives in order to better understand what makes people happier, healthier and therefore extend their life expectancy.
• The first sample of 268 Harvard graduates who were born around 1920 is considered the longest study of physical and mental health that has ever been conducted.
• The second sample is considered as the longest study of “blue collar” adult development in history.
• The third sample is considered the longest study on how women develop in history.
• There were, overall, six factors in play when considering the impact on happiness and longevity – those six include relationships, education and even generosity.

There are many articles and even books out there where you are taught how to be happier, more productive or even have better relationships. However, each of these has to be taken with a grain of salt. A complete guide on how to live your life perfectly, even though unpredictable events, just does not exist.

There is only one method that we can truly count on, and that is to simply follow people around for their whole life and see what truly impacts their lives. Thankfully, researchers did just that.

A study was released, titled The Study of Adult Development that managed to combine three, ages long studies. In other words, the study includes research projects that were made from people’s youth and up to their old age.  

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“The Study of Adult Development is a rarity in medicine, since it set out to study the lives of the well, not the sick. In so doing it has integrated three cohorts of elderly men and women — all of whom have been studied continuously for six to eight decades. First, there is a sample of 268 socially advantaged Harvard graduates born around 1920 — the longest prospective study of physical and mental health in the world. Second, there is a sample of 456 socially disadvantaged Inner City men born around 1930 — the longest prospective study of “blue collar” adult development in the world. Third, there is a sample of 90 middle-class, intellectually gifted women born around 1910 — the longest prospective study of women’s development in the world … Like the proverbial half loaf of bread, these studies are not perfect; but for the present, they are, arguably, the best lifelong studies of adult development in the world.”

The study that expanded for over 30 years was lead by George Vaillant, who is a professor at Harvard Medical School. He released a book titled Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development.

The study has gathered data from nearly 1000 people for almost a whole century, so there are plenty of advice and insights that we can draw out. We decided to cover the top six that may help you on your path to a greater life.

We apologize for starting with the most obvious advice, but the impact on your life can not be ignored.

Drinking Alcohol and Smoking Is a No-Go 

According to the data from the college men that were studied, heavy smoking was ten times more frequent in the “prematurely dead” group than in the “happy-well” group. 

This is a no-brainer, and we really need to stress this one, even though it sounds like a cliche. Smoking is bad for you.

As you could imagine it was also considered the number one predictive factor of health, according to the study.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“In both male cohorts not being a heavy smoker before the age of 50 was the most important single predictive factor of healthy physical aging. Among the College men, heavy smoking (more than a pack a day for thirty years) was ten times more frequent among the Prematurely Dead than among the Happy-Well. Yet if a man had stopped smoking by age 45, the effects of smoking (as much as one pack a day for twenty years) could at 70 or 80 no longer be discerned.”

On the other hand, drinking not only causes irreparable damage to your health, but it also makes you unhappier and can destroy relationships if you drink for long periods of time.

One could argue that more than a handful people drink because they have problems in their lives and alcohol is a way to hide those problems. However, the study found out that alcohol itself is not always the result of problems, but an independent cause of problems, as well.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“… a prospective study reveals that alcohol abuse is a cause rather than a result of increased life stress, of depression, and of downward social mobility … Alcohol abuse — unrelated to unhappy childhood — consistently predicted unsuccessful aging, in part because alcoholism damaged future social supports.”

Doing regular exercise along with a healthy weight not only increased the lifespan of the subjects but also boosted their happiness. To put it all into simple terms, if you do what is healthy for you, it will pay off.

While this point was fairly obvious, the next one might not be. To keep yourself healthy you need to keep your brain healthy. Just not how you think. 

Education Is Good for You

According to the study, if you are constantly educating yourself, you develop better habits and live a healthier life.

It is therefore not surprising that the subjects who studied at Harvard were much healthier at the age of 70 than their counterparts who did not have the privilege of a longer education. However, there is a twist.

There is no difference once you compare subjects from groups that did in-fact attend college.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“… the physical health of the 70-year old Inner City men was as poor as that of the Harvard men at 80. But remarkably, the health of the college-educated Inner City men at 70 was as good as that of the Harvard men at 70. This was in spite of the fact that their childhood social class, their tested IQ, their income, and the prestige of their colleges and jobs were markedly inferior to those of the Harvard men. Parity of education alone was enough to produce parity in physical health.”

In short, family income or IQ had nothing to do with this. Subjects who pursued more and better education simply developed better habits and lived healthier lives.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“The components of education that appeared to correlate with physical health in old age were self-care and perseverance — not IQ and parental income. The more education that the Inner City men obtained, the more likely they were to stop smoking, eat sensibly, and use alcohol in moderation.”

The next key point might be a bit sad because we can not change our past. Or maybe we can?

A Happy Child

According to the study “what goes right in childhood predicts the future far better than what goes wrong.” 

The social class to which a child was born into had a lower impact on the child’s adult income than if the child was raised in an environment that was filled with love and encouragement.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“… for both the Inner City men and the Harvard men the best predictor of a high income was not their parents’ social class but whether their mother made them feel loved.”

There is a difference in how people handle stressful situations. It is therefore not surprising that some people claim that stressful situations is what builds character and defines you as a person. According to the Study of Adult Development, those subject who aged well were also the people who strolled through a, for some, the most traumatic experience of their lives, called adolescence.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“Again, as I have followed the lives of the Inner City men, one of the best indicators of successful aging was how well they adapted in junior high school. Of the 150 Inner City men with the best scores for coping in junior high school, 56 were among the Happy-Well and only 13 were among the Sad-Sick. Of the 19 Inner City men with the lowest scores for adolescent adaptation, only a single man was among the Happy-Well, and 11 men, three-fifths, were among the Sad-Sick or Prematurely Dead. Successful adolescence predicted successful old age.”

We are all well aware that this is not helpful at all for some people, because nobody chose their parents at birth, but not all hope is lost. Even though you may have been raised in a bad, toxic environment, or your adolescence was a living nightmare that doesn’t in any way mean that you are in a worse life position than anyone else.

According to research, the things that matter in the end and define you are the things that went right in the childhood, not those that went wrong.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“A warm childhood, like a rich father, tended to inoculate the men against future pain, but a bleak childhood — such as with a poverty-stricken father — did not condemn either the Harvard or the Inner City men to misery … Perhaps the best summary statement is, What goes right in childhood predicts the future far better than what goes wrong.”

Now here is an even better fact that might even brighten the flame of the candle we just lit. Even if you are given love and support later in your life it can be strong enough to heal all the old wounds.

For example, the research showed that when people finally found a spouse who truly loved them or managed to get a friend whom they could trust, all the damage that was sustained in their troubled childhood was fixed.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“It is not the bad things that happen to us that doom us; it is the good people who happen to us at any age that facilitate enjoyable old age … For women, as well as for men, spouses could sometimes heal dysfunctional childhoods … A good marriage at age 50 predicted positive aging at age 80 … After following disadvantaged Hawaiian youth for almost half a century, Emmy Werner explained that “the most salient turning points … for most of these troubled individuals, however, were meeting a caring friend and marrying an accepting spouse. “”

Love is something that we as human beings need and it should surround us every day, regardless of our age. Even though a great childhood in a loving environment is truly a great thing, it can all be narrowed down to “better late than never.”

The next point correlates to this one, and both of these are the ones you should remember forever.

There Is No Life Without Relationships

According to the study, those who give and those who receive with gratitude live longer than those who don’t.

The majority of subjects, men and women, who were smart and were born into a wealthy family, did not cope well. Those who did not have such advantages coped with life just fine. In the end, what made the difference was the ability with how people managed to interact and deal with other people.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“The lives of all three cohorts repeatedly demonstrated that it was social aptitude — sometimes called emotional intelligence — not intellectual brilliance or parental social class that leads to a well-adapted old age. …. successful aging means giving to others joyously whenever one is able, receiving from others gratefully whenever one needs it, and being greedy enough to develop one’s own self in between.”

So, you might ask yourself, based on scientific research, what are the biggest mistakes that people make when it comes to relationships? There are a few, but the biggest one is definitely not pursuing new relationships when the old ones crumble. Relationships should be replaced in order to fill the void.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“Successful aging requires continuing to learn new things and continuing to take people in … a widening social radius at age 50 was just as important to successful psychosocial aging as emotional maturity.”

When Vaillant was asked to summarize what The Grant Study was all about, he replied, “Happiness is love. Full stop.”

All in all, what was the major point that separated success and failure between the observed subjects? It is considered one of the biggest predictive factors, and we will cover it in our next point.

Cope or Fail

This one is a no-brainer. If you have bad coping mechanisms, such as pouting, blaming others or prolonging having to deal with your problems in order to have short-term happiness, then you won’t truly be happy.

It all depends on how you are using your “mature defenses” to respond to various events in your life. Especially when those events are painful.

When we are teenagers, pouting and spreading the blame on others is a natural response, and a phase we all go through. When we reach adulthood, we start to think rationally and see that the environment is not usually the only problem, but we might be the cause of our own problems too. However, some people do not achieve that mental state and continue to carry their teenage phase into their adulthood, blaming everyone but themselves and pouting when things do not go their way.

As you can imagine, this is not a great way to deal with problems in your life. Reactions like this will cause more problems that will have consequences even when you are much older.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“… In both samples, mature defenses were common among the Happy-Well and virtually absent among the Sad-Sick.”

According to the study, when subjects were living in denial and blaming people around them for their own mistakes, their life had a poor outcome. These people were happy in the short-term because they managed to vent off their negative feelings on to others, but in the long-term, their interaction with the environment destroyed their relationships and only led to poor life decisions.

Those subject who did in-fact succeed in life choose a much more mature approach to their life. For example, altruism, sublimation, suppression, and humor all played a massive role in their life.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“These four mature coping strategies are not only associated with maturity, but they can be reframed as virtues. Such virtues can include doing as one would be done by (altruism); artistic creation to resolve conflict and spinning straw into gold (sublimation); a stiff upper lip, patience, seeing the bright side (suppression); and the ability not to take oneself too seriously (humor). These latter behaviors are the very stuff of which Victorian morality plays are made and they provide antidotes to narcissism.”

While adolescence ends as a phase of human life, adolescent behavior can carry on long into adulthood. Sometimes even into old age.

Therefore, if you have mastered the mature way of coping with your problems, and do not act like a little brat, you are already one step ahead of those who do. However, you might want to take your coping skills to the next level.

Be Generous

There is no better way to improve your life than to help those around you.

If we were to underline the whole research, it would always come to generativity. It will always give back to you.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“Generativity means community building. Depending on the opportunities that the society makes available, Generativity can mean serving as a consultant, guide, mentor, or coach to young adults in the larger society. Research reveals that between age 30 and 45 our need for achievement declines and our need for community and affiliation increases.”

There is a time in our life, especially when we are still very young, that we are selfish. That is a normal thing, because we are still trying to figure out how the world works, and we are not truly aware of how to deal with giving stuff away.

However, when we do figure everything out, we understand that being selfish will lead nowhere and that we truly need to help those in need.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“Among all three samples, generative men and women at 50 were three to six times as likely to be among the Happy-Well in old age as among the Sad-Sick … In all three Study cohorts mastery of Generativity tripled the chances that the decade of the 70s would be for these men and women a time of joy and not of despair.”

The best plan is to build on yourself for the first few decades, so you live a good and secure life, and spend the remaining time helping others and giving away. We are not talking only about materialistic things. Give away what you have learned through life. Knowledge can and will help those who seek it.

We have covered the main six points. Here is a short summary.

Summary

If you want to make your life happy and successful:

• Avoid or quit smoking and drinking alcohol.

• Educate yourself for as long as possible. Good habits and being surrounded by smart people makes all the difference.

• A happy and loving childhood is a huge thing. However, do not forget to find love later in your life as well.

• Work on your relationships. “Happiness is love. Full stop.”

•You need to cope maturely. When a thing is tough, use mature coping skills, and do not act like a child.

• Be generous. If you have a good life, learn to give back.

George Vaillant managed to ruin his life with this research as well. He was spending so much time interviewing people who were living off of Social Security checks that he ended up in their place by the time the study was finished.

George did not look up to his father, who was an archeologist, because that life did not interest him. However, after seeing stacks of reports on his father’s desk, he knew that he would one day like to pursue a career where his desk would be filled with reports of people’s lives as well.

His study, which he released in his book, contains information and insights into how to live a good life. While we only covered the top six, if you were to tell George your score in each of these categories, he would be able to predict your happiness and overall health for the next thirty years.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“The protective factors a stable marriage, the ability to make lemonade from lemons, avoiding cigarettes, modest use of alcohol, regular exercise, high education, and maintaining a normal weight — allow us to predict health thirty years in the future.”

Not a single insight orders you to be born into a wealthy family, or to be a talented individual. It is the thing that we all can do that really shape us and lead us to success. Do not be afraid to form new relationships or to take some night classes if you have to.

As long as you put effort into it, you too can live a good, happy life. It is all in your hands, it always will be. As George himself said,

“Whether we live to a vigorous old age lies not so much in our stars or our genes as in ourselves.”

Even people who own serums can have a hard time answering the question of what serum is. It helps moisturize skin, but it doesn’t replace moisturizer. It can be greasy, but it doesn’t have to be face oil. So…

Skin care is not something to stress someone out, especially considering that stress is one of the main causes of skin damage. So, what is serum? Serum is to be applied to the skin after cleansing, but before moisturizing so that its powerful ingredients go directly into the skin. It is very suitable for this task due to the fact that it is made up of smaller molecules that can penetrate the skin easily and deliver a massive concentration of active ingredients.

The frequency of use depends on the product. Most serums should be applied once a day.

Serum is, and isn’t, a moisturizer

Some serums contain moisturizing ingredients such as ceramides to help the skin retain its natural moisture, but they’re not moisturizers in the traditional sense.

Creams and face lotions are richer and form a barrier on top of the skin to protect it.

You Get What You Pay For

Serums tend to be expensive compared to many other skin care products, but there’s a good reason for this. They are very concentrated and beneficial.

Keeping Them Fresh

If your serum expired really fast, you probably didn’t store it properly. Certain potent ingredients often found in serum, such as vitamin C, can become unstable as soon as they come into contact with air.

Always store the serum in a cool, dry place and use it up in maximum one year.

What’s Inside?

Traditional serums are water-based. Sometimes oils are advertised as ‘serums’ – so what’s the difference?

Oil-based serums are applied on top of the moisturizer because their molecules are bigger. They keep the cream and other substances underneath moist throughout the day. Water-based serums nourish the inner layer of the skin because their small molecules penetrate easily.

Essence is very similar to serum – both come after cleansing and before moisturizing and practically serve the same purpose. The only difference is the texture. Essences have a more fluid texture, while serums are more concentrated.

How To Know If Serum Is Right For Your Skin

It depends on the ingredients. If your skin is dry, you should look for a serum that contains niacinamide (improves skin elasticity, increases ceramide levels in skin), vitamin E (an antioxidant that protects cells from oxidative damage), hyaluronic acid (retains moisture), and glycolic acid (gently exfoliates and lightens discoloration).

If you’re suffering from frequent acne outbreaks, look for a serum that contains retinol (an antioxidant, reduces inflammation), vitamin C (increases collagen production, enhances skin’s repair process, and reduces inflammation), salicylic acid (unclogs pores), and zinc (soothes irritation, regulates oil production).

If your skin is dull and lifeless, look for products that contain antioxidants like green tea extract, ferulic acid (protects from free radicals, increases effectiveness of sunscreen), and resveratrol.

Keep in mind that in this case, less is more. Serums are super potent and you shouldn’t go overboard. Powerful ingredients can damage sensitive skin.

Cardi B recently posted a picture on her Instagram page indicating that her songs “Girls Like You” and “I like It” made the top 2 songs on Canadian Hot 100. These songs have been huge hits since they were released, so we are not surprised by this amazing news.

She captioned her picture “I wanna go to Canada and get crazy like I use too. The first time I ever been to Canada I went to a strip club booking and now here we are here !!!!! My name number on #1 & #2 on the Canadian Hot 100 billboards !!!THANK YOU you guys been rocking with me since the beginning !”

In this post, Cardi B is incredibly grateful for all her fans and listeners. We love how she reflects on her past as she continues to strive and move forward in her life. For those who do not know, Cardi B was a stripper before she became the famous rapper she is today. She said that she started stripping so that she could make money and escape an abusive relationship at home and to live a life free of poverty and violence.

Cardi B has come a long way in just a few years, inspiring a generation of girls and women just like her. Her music is fun and empowering, just like she is. We at Lux and Lush LOVE Cardi B and are so excited for this huge accomplishment of hers. We are looking forward to seeing what she does next.

She’s only three years old, but Princess Charlotte is already more influential than her big brother, Prince George. She has her sense of fashion (and mother and stylist) to thank for this phenomenal accomplishment.

According to strategy consultancy firm Brand Finance Group the young royals are a great asset to the British economy. The company claims that the young princess is worth an estimated $4.3 billion, which is $1.1 billion more than her older sibling George, who rakes in an estimated amount of $3.2 billion. Even the newest addition to the royal family , one month-old Prince Louis, is already expected to contribute about $67 million before he turns one year old.

“These numbers are projections of what the royal children could bring the UK economy in their lifetimes, assuming they will continue to have the same positive effect,”  Sehr Sarwar (Brand Finance’s communications manager) said during an interview.

The young princess has often appeared  in the media ever since she was born, wearing fabulous ensembles by some of the most sought-after names in the fashion industry. When she was only 10 hours old, Charlotte has her picture taken while she was wrapped in a beautiful scarf by G.H. Hurt & Sons,  who saw their website get over 100,000 visits on that day. And the outfit she was wearing during her uncle Harry’s wedding is already one that lots of mothers are searching for online.

“The royal children have a positive impact on the sales of particular clothes and toys brands they wear or play with. In this sense, they have a very similar effect on brands as their mother, the Duchess of Cambridge, who has a real Midas touch – everything she touches turns into gold,” Brand Finance’s CEO, David Haigh, explained.

There is a very logical reason why Charlotte is worth more than her brother. According to Haigh it’s because Charlotte’s endorsements are received by a much larger group of people.

“This is actually as simple as the relative size of the men’s and women’s fashion markets, by which I mean that Charlotte’s endorsement effect will likely be felt across a much broader range of products and brands or types of clothing than will George’s, allowing a greater scope for the monetization of her ‘brand’ and hence a higher value,” Haigh said during an interview Marie Claire UK.

But the royal siblings aren’t just responsible for huge peaks in sales, they are also driving more tourists to the U.K. every year.

“Many visitors who come to London for pomp and circumstance hope to see George and Charlotte on the Buckingham Palace balcony with their parents. Similarly, when they join their royal parents on a visit abroad, like visits to Poland and Germany for example, they generate incredible interest among the media and the general public,” Haigh said.

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Just a few days ago, Zayn Malik was seen in New York City wearing a pair of black sunglasses from Gigi Hadid’s capsule for Vogue Eyewear. While we know that it is not the first time someone close to her has proudly worn a pair of these sunglasses (her sister Bella posted an Instagram wearing a similar pair about a week ago), we think that the fact her ex (?!) wearing something of hers is noteworthy. Did he go out of his way to buy a pair of these sunglasses, or did she give them to him? We have so many questions. All in all, we do think that it is a big sign that he was wearing something that must remind him of Gigi.

We also have another piece of information that might convince you even further that there is still something going on between these two iconic celebrities. We have a feeling that they are still spending a lot of time together because Zayn was seen wearing a shirt that actually belongs to Gigi. She was seen wearing the same shirt in June and even posted a photo on Instagram wearing it. While they obviously rocked the same piece in very different ways, it is apparent that it is the same shirt. Are you convinced that there love has been rekindled yet? Either way, it is super cute that they have shared this shirt. However, we want to know more as to if this couple is back and better, or if the t-shirt information is inaccurate.

Just a few days ago, Demi Lovato released a song entitled “Sober”, where she opened up about her experiences with sobriety and opens up about how hard this experience has been for her. Through the lyrics of the song, she apologizes to her parents, friends, and fans who have supported her along this bumpy road of 6 years. “Momma, I’m so sorry, I’m not sober anymore / And daddy, please forgive me for the drinks spilled on the floor / To the ones who never left me / We’ve been down this road before / I’m so sorry, I’m not sober anymore.”

She then apologizes to fans she has lost because of this, and explains that she is only human and that humans make mistakes – “And I’m sorry for the fans I lost / Who watched me fall again / I wanna be a role model / But I’m only human.”

Through this song, we see how important Demi’s fans truly are to her – so much that she mentions the guilt she has about no longer being sober and feeling that she let them down. Demi cares about her fans and about the millions of little girls around the world looking up to her, and she wants to be the best role model for them that she possibly can be.

Sober was released less than a year after Simply Complicated, Demi’s documentary about her road to recovery was made. Her fans were very quick to respond to the release of this song, immediately supporting her by sending her loving messages and Tweeting about how amazing she is, even as she faces this hard time.

Despite being one of the most common complaints doctors deal with, one that affects quite a few people, no cure for acne has been found so far.

 

However, there is still hope for those suffering from the skin condition according to a recent study published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. It reports that a new vaccine is being developed. It has shown promise to change the way we view skin care.

 

The one-of-a-kind vaccine is designed to reduce the body’s response to the toxins bacteria release, thereby minimizing inflammation. So far it’s only been tested in mice and samples of human tissue, not actual human beings, but researchers are optimistic about the outcomes.

 

A lead researcher working on the vaccine has commented that the potential impact of study findings would be huge for the hundreds of millions of individuals who have this skin condition.

 

Would It Really Work? What Experts Are Saying

The expert jury – dermatologists – is still out when it comes to the vaccine. According to them, the causes of acne go way beyond bacteria.

 

Genes, hormones, and some products can exacerbate the skin condition. Growth of bacteria like P.Acnes is what causes acne, and targeting these bacteria with a vaccine could be considered a less damaging and more precise approach than chemical therapies.

 

On the other hand, not all P.Acne bacteria are bad. Different strains comprise them, and not all cause acne. A treatment targeting the wrong strains could exacerbate the skin condition.  

 

Best gifts for your Fashionable Friends:

 

Buying gifts for your friends is not always easy. It’s hard to know what they want or what they would like, especially if you don’t have the same taste or wear the same kinds of things. If you have very fashion forward an girly friends with birthdays or bachelorette parties coming up, these recommendations are perfect for you because they are super easy to find and general enough that everyone loves them. They are all decently priced and incredibly cute and trendy. Most of them will never go out of style and are super in right now. You’ll want to get these gifts for yourself too because they are so great and useful. Who doesn’t love presents?!

 

An amazing gift for close friends are customized makeup bags or small pouches. Not only can these small bags be used for cosmetics, they also can be worn as clutches for night time or used to hold a phone at the beach. Websites like Stony Clover have tons of options of sizes and colors for these kinds of small bags. You can write your friends name or initials on the bag and add small patches that represent your friends personality. How cute?! These bags come in the mail super quickly and look so cute so you can order them as last minute gifts if you forgot to get something ahead of time and it will look like you put a ton of effort into her gift. Keep in mind that the more patches you add to the bag, the more expensive it becomes so don’t go crazy when adding patches, as cute and fun as they can be.

Another amazing gift following the trend of customization are jean jackets! You can add super cute patches onto simple jackets to make them more personal and fun for your girlfriends. You either can buy a jean jacket and iron patches that you can find at most craft stores or you can find websites online that make the jackets for you. Either way, this gift is super fun and girly and we are sure that your girlfriends will love to wear them around town. Jean jackets can be worn with almost every outfit so she definitely will make good use out of this. Once she has the jacket with a few patches on it, she can buy her own patches and add more as she pleases. This is an ongoing project! As time goes on, you can give her patches to put on as small presents. Everyone loves this gift because it literally lasts forever and it’s fun and easy to keep adding patches.

 

 

Another great personalized gift for fashionable friends is a customized phone case. Your friend will always have her phone with her, which means she will always have a piece of you with her. These phone cases can be so cute and it is a gift she will for sure use every single day. You can add pictures of the two of you together, make a collage of her favorite people or do something as simple as just writing her initials or name. A classic design is a monogram pattern with a cute background as seen in the photo below. These cases are super fun and cheap and make a great gift that will go to very good use. You can make these in some phone shops or find websites that do it for you online. Your friends will love these cases!

 

Cute jewelry is always a safe bet when shopping for gifts for your most fashionable girlfriends. Fun designers like Roxanne Assoulin have young and colorful jewelry that all of your friends will want. Once they get one from you, they will want more and more. These bracelets are super cute to stack on your wrist and can be worn in the day time and at night. You can also get matching ones because they are quite affordable and make great friendship bracelets. Lots of celebrities wear these bracelets so she will feel super cool in them too. You can also buy tickets to go to one of the Make Your Own Bracelet events and customize her bracelets with the colors and beads you think she would like. While this is more expensive than just buying from the website, it is fun to go to events like these and to make sure you get exactly what you want.

 

 

If your friend is a fashion diva, she probably likes to sleep in style just as much as she likes to strut the streets in style. Silk pajamas with her initials monogrammed in the corner is such a cute and nice gift for one of your girlfriends. You can either buy the pajamas and bring them to a tailor to have them monogrammed or find a company online that does it. This is another gift that is timeless and that she can use for a long time. You will love these pajamas so much you will want to get a pair for yourself too! This is a very cute gift and it can be for someone you aren’t as close to because it is a standard gift.

 

Did you know that the skincare market is bigger than ever? The global skincare industry topped $120 billion this year.

 

On the bright side, millennials are becoming more and more aware of the importance of skincare. Here are five things you should start doing for your skin to prevent damage – don’t wait!

 

1. Maintain a moderate routine

Never go overboard with your skincare routine because there can be too much of a good thing. According to experts, steam facials and over-exfoliation are really unhealthy for the skin.

 

Albeit well-meant, these treatments can cause capillaries to bust and skin to become overly sensitive. Over-exfoliating strips the skin of indispensable oils.

 

2. Don’t Spend Too Much Time In The Sun

This seems pretty obvious, but it isn’t to many people. Any form of prolonged UV exposure is harmful.

 

Celebrity facialists say tanning can be just as harmful as smoking.

 

Overexposure to UV rays can make skin wrinkle and age faster (and cause skin cancer). If you have no choice, make sure you wear LOTS of sunscreen.

 

3. Take Short, Cool Showers

Long, hot showers are terrible for the skin. They’re one of the best things in winter, but the hot water washes off the skin’s natural oils, making it dry and flaky.

 

Extreme temperatures can destroy the delicate balance in your skin, stressing it out and making it sensitive. This means broken capillaries, cellular damage, and irritated skin.

 

Excess heat strips away the outer layer of skin tissue, causing itchiness and inflammation. Cool showers are always better.

 

4. Take Your Makeup Off Before Bed 

Forgetting to take your makeup off before you go to bed is very bad for the skin according to experts. It causes both premature aging and pore clogging.

 

Makeup is nothing but a skin mask, so if you neglect to take it off, you’re preventing the skin from breathing and recovering from the huge volumes of debris you are literally faced with on a daily basis, like bacteria, pollution, and ordinary dirt that makes its way onto your face.

 

Take your makeup off, cleanse and moisturize the skin before hitting the sack.

 

5. Ignore Pimples

Your grandma always told you not to touch your zits. And she was right.

 

Picking pimples causes hefty scars that could have been avoided. Experts say people should start to think of pimples and zits as big, ugly sacks of dirt, oil, and bacteria – exactly what they are.

 

This way they’ll come to realize that by popping them, they run the risk of that dirt and oil spurting out and causing ten more pimples to form nearby.

 

6. Remember – Skin Is Not Just Dealing With The Outside

Don’t forget clear skin is as much within as it is without. Take care of your nutrition – eat a lot of fruit and veggies, drink a lot of water, and go for lean meat like chicken and turkey instead of beef and pork.

 

Fish is a great source of vitamins that go directly to the skin.

 

• Harvard University followed 800 people around for their whole lives in order to better understand what makes people happier, healthier and therefore extend their life expectancy.
• The first sample of 268 Harvard graduates who were born around 1920 is considered the longest study of physical and mental health that has ever been conducted.
• The second sample is considered as the longest study of “blue collar” adult development in history.
• The third sample is considered the longest study on how women develop in history.
• There were, overall, six factors in play when considering the impact on happiness and longevity – those six include relationships, education and even generosity.

There are many articles and even books out there where you are taught how to be happier, more productive or even have better relationships. However, each of these has to be taken with a grain of salt. A complete guide on how to live your life perfectly, even though unpredictable events, just does not exist.

There is only one method that we can truly count on, and that is to simply follow people around for their whole life and see what truly impacts their lives. Thankfully, researchers did just that.

A study was released, titled The Study of Adult Development that managed to combine three, ages long studies. In other words, the study includes research projects that were made from people’s youth and up to their old age.  

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“The Study of Adult Development is a rarity in medicine, since it set out to study the lives of the well, not the sick. In so doing it has integrated three cohorts of elderly men and women — all of whom have been studied continuously for six to eight decades. First, there is a sample of 268 socially advantaged Harvard graduates born around 1920 — the longest prospective study of physical and mental health in the world. Second, there is a sample of 456 socially disadvantaged Inner City men born around 1930 — the longest prospective study of “blue collar” adult development in the world. Third, there is a sample of 90 middle-class, intellectually gifted women born around 1910 — the longest prospective study of women’s development in the world … Like the proverbial half loaf of bread, these studies are not perfect; but for the present, they are, arguably, the best lifelong studies of adult development in the world.”

The study that expanded for over 30 years was lead by George Vaillant, who is a professor at Harvard Medical School. He released a book titled Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development.

The study has gathered data from nearly 1000 people for almost a whole century, so there are plenty of advice and insights that we can draw out. We decided to cover the top six that may help you on your path to a greater life.

We apologize for starting with the most obvious advice, but the impact on your life can not be ignored.

Drinking Alcohol and Smoking Is a No-Go 

According to the data from the college men that were studied, heavy smoking was ten times more frequent in the “prematurely dead” group than in the “happy-well” group. 

This is a no-brainer, and we really need to stress this one, even though it sounds like a cliche. Smoking is bad for you.

As you could imagine it was also considered the number one predictive factor of health, according to the study.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“In both male cohorts not being a heavy smoker before the age of 50 was the most important single predictive factor of healthy physical aging. Among the College men, heavy smoking (more than a pack a day for thirty years) was ten times more frequent among the Prematurely Dead than among the Happy-Well. Yet if a man had stopped smoking by age 45, the effects of smoking (as much as one pack a day for twenty years) could at 70 or 80 no longer be discerned.”

On the other hand, drinking not only causes irreparable damage to your health, but it also makes you unhappier and can destroy relationships if you drink for long periods of time.

One could argue that more than a handful people drink because they have problems in their lives and alcohol is a way to hide those problems. However, the study found out that alcohol itself is not always the result of problems, but an independent cause of problems, as well.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“… a prospective study reveals that alcohol abuse is a cause rather than a result of increased life stress, of depression, and of downward social mobility … Alcohol abuse — unrelated to unhappy childhood — consistently predicted unsuccessful aging, in part because alcoholism damaged future social supports.”

Doing regular exercise along with a healthy weight not only increased the lifespan of the subjects but also boosted their happiness. To put it all into simple terms, if you do what is healthy for you, it will pay off.

While this point was fairly obvious, the next one might not be. To keep yourself healthy you need to keep your brain healthy. Just not how you think. 

Education Is Good for You

According to the study, if you are constantly educating yourself, you develop better habits and live a healthier life.

It is therefore not surprising that the subjects who studied at Harvard were much healthier at the age of 70 than their counterparts who did not have the privilege of a longer education. However, there is a twist.

There is no difference once you compare subjects from groups that did in-fact attend college.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“… the physical health of the 70-year old Inner City men was as poor as that of the Harvard men at 80. But remarkably, the health of the college-educated Inner City men at 70 was as good as that of the Harvard men at 70. This was in spite of the fact that their childhood social class, their tested IQ, their income, and the prestige of their colleges and jobs were markedly inferior to those of the Harvard men. Parity of education alone was enough to produce parity in physical health.”

In short, family income or IQ had nothing to do with this. Subjects who pursued more and better education simply developed better habits and lived healthier lives.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“The components of education that appeared to correlate with physical health in old age were self-care and perseverance — not IQ and parental income. The more education that the Inner City men obtained, the more likely they were to stop smoking, eat sensibly, and use alcohol in moderation.”

The next key point might be a bit sad because we can not change our past. Or maybe we can?

A Happy Child

According to the study “what goes right in childhood predicts the future far better than what goes wrong.” 

The social class to which a child was born into had a lower impact on the child’s adult income than if the child was raised in an environment that was filled with love and encouragement.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“… for both the Inner City men and the Harvard men the best predictor of a high income was not their parents’ social class but whether their mother made them feel loved.”

There is a difference in how people handle stressful situations. It is therefore not surprising that some people claim that stressful situations is what builds character and defines you as a person. According to the Study of Adult Development, those subject who aged well were also the people who strolled through a, for some, the most traumatic experience of their lives, called adolescence.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“Again, as I have followed the lives of the Inner City men, one of the best indicators of successful aging was how well they adapted in junior high school. Of the 150 Inner City men with the best scores for coping in junior high school, 56 were among the Happy-Well and only 13 were among the Sad-Sick. Of the 19 Inner City men with the lowest scores for adolescent adaptation, only a single man was among the Happy-Well, and 11 men, three-fifths, were among the Sad-Sick or Prematurely Dead. Successful adolescence predicted successful old age.”

We are all well aware that this is not helpful at all for some people, because nobody chose their parents at birth, but not all hope is lost. Even though you may have been raised in a bad, toxic environment, or your adolescence was a living nightmare that doesn’t in any way mean that you are in a worse life position than anyone else.

According to research, the things that matter in the end and define you are the things that went right in the childhood, not those that went wrong.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“A warm childhood, like a rich father, tended to inoculate the men against future pain, but a bleak childhood — such as with a poverty-stricken father — did not condemn either the Harvard or the Inner City men to misery … Perhaps the best summary statement is, What goes right in childhood predicts the future far better than what goes wrong.”

Now here is an even better fact that might even brighten the flame of the candle we just lit. Even if you are given love and support later in your life it can be strong enough to heal all the old wounds.

For example, the research showed that when people finally found a spouse who truly loved them or managed to get a friend whom they could trust, all the damage that was sustained in their troubled childhood was fixed.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“It is not the bad things that happen to us that doom us; it is the good people who happen to us at any age that facilitate enjoyable old age … For women, as well as for men, spouses could sometimes heal dysfunctional childhoods … A good marriage at age 50 predicted positive aging at age 80 … After following disadvantaged Hawaiian youth for almost half a century, Emmy Werner explained that “the most salient turning points … for most of these troubled individuals, however, were meeting a caring friend and marrying an accepting spouse. “”

Love is something that we as human beings need and it should surround us every day, regardless of our age. Even though a great childhood in a loving environment is truly a great thing, it can all be narrowed down to “better late than never.”

The next point correlates to this one, and both of these are the ones you should remember forever.

There Is No Life Without Relationships

According to the study, those who give and those who receive with gratitude live longer than those who don’t.

The majority of subjects, men and women, who were smart and were born into a wealthy family, did not cope well. Those who did not have such advantages coped with life just fine. In the end, what made the difference was the ability with how people managed to interact and deal with other people.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“The lives of all three cohorts repeatedly demonstrated that it was social aptitude — sometimes called emotional intelligence — not intellectual brilliance or parental social class that leads to a well-adapted old age. …. successful aging means giving to others joyously whenever one is able, receiving from others gratefully whenever one needs it, and being greedy enough to develop one’s own self in between.”

So, you might ask yourself, based on scientific research, what are the biggest mistakes that people make when it comes to relationships? There are a few, but the biggest one is definitely not pursuing new relationships when the old ones crumble. Relationships should be replaced in order to fill the void.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“Successful aging requires continuing to learn new things and continuing to take people in … a widening social radius at age 50 was just as important to successful psychosocial aging as emotional maturity.”

When Vaillant was asked to summarize what The Grant Study was all about, he replied, “Happiness is love. Full stop.”

All in all, what was the major point that separated success and failure between the observed subjects? It is considered one of the biggest predictive factors, and we will cover it in our next point.

Cope or Fail

This one is a no-brainer. If you have bad coping mechanisms, such as pouting, blaming others or prolonging having to deal with your problems in order to have short-term happiness, then you won’t truly be happy.

It all depends on how you are using your “mature defenses” to respond to various events in your life. Especially when those events are painful.

When we are teenagers, pouting and spreading the blame on others is a natural response, and a phase we all go through. When we reach adulthood, we start to think rationally and see that the environment is not usually the only problem, but we might be the cause of our own problems too. However, some people do not achieve that mental state and continue to carry their teenage phase into their adulthood, blaming everyone but themselves and pouting when things do not go their way.

As you can imagine, this is not a great way to deal with problems in your life. Reactions like this will cause more problems that will have consequences even when you are much older.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“… In both samples, mature defenses were common among the Happy-Well and virtually absent among the Sad-Sick.”

According to the study, when subjects were living in denial and blaming people around them for their own mistakes, their life had a poor outcome. These people were happy in the short-term because they managed to vent off their negative feelings on to others, but in the long-term, their interaction with the environment destroyed their relationships and only led to poor life decisions.

Those subject who did in-fact succeed in life choose a much more mature approach to their life. For example, altruism, sublimation, suppression, and humor all played a massive role in their life.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“These four mature coping strategies are not only associated with maturity, but they can be reframed as virtues. Such virtues can include doing as one would be done by (altruism); artistic creation to resolve conflict and spinning straw into gold (sublimation); a stiff upper lip, patience, seeing the bright side (suppression); and the ability not to take oneself too seriously (humor). These latter behaviors are the very stuff of which Victorian morality plays are made and they provide antidotes to narcissism.”

While adolescence ends as a phase of human life, adolescent behavior can carry on long into adulthood. Sometimes even into old age.

Therefore, if you have mastered the mature way of coping with your problems, and do not act like a little brat, you are already one step ahead of those who do. However, you might want to take your coping skills to the next level.

Be Generous

There is no better way to improve your life than to help those around you.

If we were to underline the whole research, it would always come to generativity. It will always give back to you.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“Generativity means community building. Depending on the opportunities that the society makes available, Generativity can mean serving as a consultant, guide, mentor, or coach to young adults in the larger society. Research reveals that between age 30 and 45 our need for achievement declines and our need for community and affiliation increases.”

There is a time in our life, especially when we are still very young, that we are selfish. That is a normal thing, because we are still trying to figure out how the world works, and we are not truly aware of how to deal with giving stuff away.

However, when we do figure everything out, we understand that being selfish will lead nowhere and that we truly need to help those in need.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“Among all three samples, generative men and women at 50 were three to six times as likely to be among the Happy-Well in old age as among the Sad-Sick … In all three Study cohorts mastery of Generativity tripled the chances that the decade of the 70s would be for these men and women a time of joy and not of despair.”

The best plan is to build on yourself for the first few decades, so you live a good and secure life, and spend the remaining time helping others and giving away. We are not talking only about materialistic things. Give away what you have learned through life. Knowledge can and will help those who seek it.

We have covered the main six points. Here is a short summary.

Summary

If you want to make your life happy and successful:

• Avoid or quit smoking and drinking alcohol.

• Educate yourself for as long as possible. Good habits and being surrounded by smart people makes all the difference.

• A happy and loving childhood is a huge thing. However, do not forget to find love later in your life as well.

• Work on your relationships. “Happiness is love. Full stop.”

•You need to cope maturely. When a thing is tough, use mature coping skills, and do not act like a child.

• Be generous. If you have a good life, learn to give back.

George Vaillant managed to ruin his life with this research as well. He was spending so much time interviewing people who were living off of Social Security checks that he ended up in their place by the time the study was finished.

George did not look up to his father, who was an archeologist, because that life did not interest him. However, after seeing stacks of reports on his father’s desk, he knew that he would one day like to pursue a career where his desk would be filled with reports of people’s lives as well.

His study, which he released in his book, contains information and insights into how to live a good life. While we only covered the top six, if you were to tell George your score in each of these categories, he would be able to predict your happiness and overall health for the next thirty years.

According to Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development:

“The protective factors a stable marriage, the ability to make lemonade from lemons, avoiding cigarettes, modest use of alcohol, regular exercise, high education, and maintaining a normal weight — allow us to predict health thirty years in the future.”

Not a single insight orders you to be born into a wealthy family, or to be a talented individual. It is the thing that we all can do that really shape us and lead us to success. Do not be afraid to form new relationships or to take some night classes if you have to.

As long as you put effort into it, you too can live a good, happy life. It is all in your hands, it always will be. As George himself said,

“Whether we live to a vigorous old age lies not so much in our stars or our genes as in ourselves.”

Even people who own serums can have a hard time answering the question of what serum is. It helps moisturize skin, but it doesn’t replace moisturizer. It can be greasy, but it doesn’t have to be face oil. So…

Skin care is not something to stress someone out, especially considering that stress is one of the main causes of skin damage. So, what is serum? Serum is to be applied to the skin after cleansing, but before moisturizing so that its powerful ingredients go directly into the skin. It is very suitable for this task due to the fact that it is made up of smaller molecules that can penetrate the skin easily and deliver a massive concentration of active ingredients.

The frequency of use depends on the product. Most serums should be applied once a day.

Serum is, and isn’t, a moisturizer

Some serums contain moisturizing ingredients such as ceramides to help the skin retain its natural moisture, but they’re not moisturizers in the traditional sense.

Creams and face lotions are richer and form a barrier on top of the skin to protect it.

You Get What You Pay For

Serums tend to be expensive compared to many other skin care products, but there’s a good reason for this. They are very concentrated and beneficial.

Keeping Them Fresh

If your serum expired really fast, you probably didn’t store it properly. Certain potent ingredients often found in serum, such as vitamin C, can become unstable as soon as they come into contact with air.

Always store the serum in a cool, dry place and use it up in maximum one year.

What’s Inside?

Traditional serums are water-based. Sometimes oils are advertised as ‘serums’ – so what’s the difference?

Oil-based serums are applied on top of the moisturizer because their molecules are bigger. They keep the cream and other substances underneath moist throughout the day. Water-based serums nourish the inner layer of the skin because their small molecules penetrate easily.

Essence is very similar to serum – both come after cleansing and before moisturizing and practically serve the same purpose. The only difference is the texture. Essences have a more fluid texture, while serums are more concentrated.

How To Know If Serum Is Right For Your Skin

It depends on the ingredients. If your skin is dry, you should look for a serum that contains niacinamide (improves skin elasticity, increases ceramide levels in skin), vitamin E (an antioxidant that protects cells from oxidative damage), hyaluronic acid (retains moisture), and glycolic acid (gently exfoliates and lightens discoloration).

If you’re suffering from frequent acne outbreaks, look for a serum that contains retinol (an antioxidant, reduces inflammation), vitamin C (increases collagen production, enhances skin’s repair process, and reduces inflammation), salicylic acid (unclogs pores), and zinc (soothes irritation, regulates oil production).

If your skin is dull and lifeless, look for products that contain antioxidants like green tea extract, ferulic acid (protects from free radicals, increases effectiveness of sunscreen), and resveratrol.

Keep in mind that in this case, less is more. Serums are super potent and you shouldn’t go overboard. Powerful ingredients can damage sensitive skin.

Cardi B recently posted a picture on her Instagram page indicating that her songs “Girls Like You” and “I like It” made the top 2 songs on Canadian Hot 100. These songs have been huge hits since they were released, so we are not surprised by this amazing news.

She captioned her picture “I wanna go to Canada and get crazy like I use too. The first time I ever been to Canada I went to a strip club booking and now here we are here !!!!! My name number on #1 & #2 on the Canadian Hot 100 billboards !!!THANK YOU you guys been rocking with me since the beginning !”

In this post, Cardi B is incredibly grateful for all her fans and listeners. We love how she reflects on her past as she continues to strive and move forward in her life. For those who do not know, Cardi B was a stripper before she became the famous rapper she is today. She said that she started stripping so that she could make money and escape an abusive relationship at home and to live a life free of poverty and violence.

Cardi B has come a long way in just a few years, inspiring a generation of girls and women just like her. Her music is fun and empowering, just like she is. We at Lux and Lush LOVE Cardi B and are so excited for this huge accomplishment of hers. We are looking forward to seeing what she does next.

She’s only three years old, but Princess Charlotte is already more influential than her big brother, Prince George. She has her sense of fashion (and mother and stylist) to thank for this phenomenal accomplishment.

According to strategy consultancy firm Brand Finance Group the young royals are a great asset to the British economy. The company claims that the young princess is worth an estimated $4.3 billion, which is $1.1 billion more than her older sibling George, who rakes in an estimated amount of $3.2 billion. Even the newest addition to the royal family , one month-old Prince Louis, is already expected to contribute about $67 million before he turns one year old.

“These numbers are projections of what the royal children could bring the UK economy in their lifetimes, assuming they will continue to have the same positive effect,”  Sehr Sarwar (Brand Finance’s communications manager) said during an interview.

The young princess has often appeared  in the media ever since she was born, wearing fabulous ensembles by some of the most sought-after names in the fashion industry. When she was only 10 hours old, Charlotte has her picture taken while she was wrapped in a beautiful scarf by G.H. Hurt & Sons,  who saw their website get over 100,000 visits on that day. And the outfit she was wearing during her uncle Harry’s wedding is already one that lots of mothers are searching for online.

“The royal children have a positive impact on the sales of particular clothes and toys brands they wear or play with. In this sense, they have a very similar effect on brands as their mother, the Duchess of Cambridge, who has a real Midas touch – everything she touches turns into gold,” Brand Finance’s CEO, David Haigh, explained.

There is a very logical reason why Charlotte is worth more than her brother. According to Haigh it’s because Charlotte’s endorsements are received by a much larger group of people.

“This is actually as simple as the relative size of the men’s and women’s fashion markets, by which I mean that Charlotte’s endorsement effect will likely be felt across a much broader range of products and brands or types of clothing than will George’s, allowing a greater scope for the monetization of her ‘brand’ and hence a higher value,” Haigh said during an interview Marie Claire UK.

But the royal siblings aren’t just responsible for huge peaks in sales, they are also driving more tourists to the U.K. every year.

“Many visitors who come to London for pomp and circumstance hope to see George and Charlotte on the Buckingham Palace balcony with their parents. Similarly, when they join their royal parents on a visit abroad, like visits to Poland and Germany for example, they generate incredible interest among the media and the general public,” Haigh said.

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Just a few days ago, Zayn Malik was seen in New York City wearing a pair of black sunglasses from Gigi Hadid’s capsule for Vogue Eyewear. While we know that it is not the first time someone close to her has proudly worn a pair of these sunglasses (her sister Bella posted an Instagram wearing a similar pair about a week ago), we think that the fact her ex (?!) wearing something of hers is noteworthy. Did he go out of his way to buy a pair of these sunglasses, or did she give them to him? We have so many questions. All in all, we do think that it is a big sign that he was wearing something that must remind him of Gigi.

We also have another piece of information that might convince you even further that there is still something going on between these two iconic celebrities. We have a feeling that they are still spending a lot of time together because Zayn was seen wearing a shirt that actually belongs to Gigi. She was seen wearing the same shirt in June and even posted a photo on Instagram wearing it. While they obviously rocked the same piece in very different ways, it is apparent that it is the same shirt. Are you convinced that there love has been rekindled yet? Either way, it is super cute that they have shared this shirt. However, we want to know more as to if this couple is back and better, or if the t-shirt information is inaccurate.

Just a few days ago, Demi Lovato released a song entitled “Sober”, where she opened up about her experiences with sobriety and opens up about how hard this experience has been for her. Through the lyrics of the song, she apologizes to her parents, friends, and fans who have supported her along this bumpy road of 6 years. “Momma, I’m so sorry, I’m not sober anymore / And daddy, please forgive me for the drinks spilled on the floor / To the ones who never left me / We’ve been down this road before / I’m so sorry, I’m not sober anymore.”

She then apologizes to fans she has lost because of this, and explains that she is only human and that humans make mistakes – “And I’m sorry for the fans I lost / Who watched me fall again / I wanna be a role model / But I’m only human.”

Through this song, we see how important Demi’s fans truly are to her – so much that she mentions the guilt she has about no longer being sober and feeling that she let them down. Demi cares about her fans and about the millions of little girls around the world looking up to her, and she wants to be the best role model for them that she possibly can be.

Sober was released less than a year after Simply Complicated, Demi’s documentary about her road to recovery was made. Her fans were very quick to respond to the release of this song, immediately supporting her by sending her loving messages and Tweeting about how amazing she is, even as she faces this hard time.