The Pretty Price Check: Your Friday round-up of how much we paid for beauty this week.
- 32 percent of teenage girls have used a tanning bed in the past year, and 81 percent report tanning outside, despite hearing all the time that the sun will make you old and wrinkly before your time (and oh yeah, skin cancer). Hear that? It’s the sound of a thousand dermatologists banging their heads against a wall as they realize their existence is futile. (Via MedicineNet.)
- Nutritionist to the stars Natalia Rose eats around 1776 calories per day — all of them vegetables, according to this Marie Claire piece on what nutritionists eat. Maybe that doesn’t sound soo crazy, but oh yeah, she also doesn’t consume anything until after dark because: “I believe that we take our vitality predominantly from the air, sunlight, and clean water, so I don’t take anything but this ‘life force energy’ until the sun goes down.” Oy.
- Proctor & Gamble stands to reap a cool $7 billion if women fall for their new Have You Tried This? campaign, reports The Beheld. People, have I taught you nothing about upselling? A Fortune 500 company is not your best girlfriend showing off her new lip gloss.
- Siobhan came up with 10 awesome things to do with coconut oil over on No More Dirty Looks. Basically, you should slather it everywhere. Except maybe your face if you’re prone to breakouts.
- All of the fat that you get sucked out in liposuction will return within one year, says new research. But twist! It pops up in fun new places, like those Whack-A-Mole games at arcades. (Via the New York Times.)
[Photo: les trois shibuyettes by colodio]
As a teen I was pretty terrified of tanning because I didn’t want to grow up to look old and wrinkly, or have cancer. I also didn’t smoke because I didn’t want yellow teeth, or have cancer. I was probably an anomaly compared to my friend who loved the sun and tanning and would get a “base tan” before going on vacation (the benefits of which I always found to be questionable).
Teens don’t care about the future. I think they’re hardwired that way. If they did they would probably stow away a portion of their McWages for retirement instead of spending on clothes/music/food/bad dates/etc. Unfortunately tanning doesn’t have any immediate bad side effects. Teens get a nice glow and they get it now. They’ll worry about wrinkles in 20 years.
I realize that this goes without saying, but any nutritionist who believes we work via photosynthesis is not a nutritionist to follow. It pains me to read that Natalia Rose actually has a CN (certified nutritionist) from NYU but as a former nutrition major who could have obtained the same credentials as Ms. Rose, RD (registered dietician) programs are MUCH more stringent than CN ones. I took my fancy nutrition degree and became a pastry chef, and I can safely say that a life without butter is not a life I want to live.
Leslie — you sound like my kind of nutritionist! And great point about the difference between CN and RD programs. I’m pretty surprised that Marie Claire would run that story without doing their homework on people’s credentials. It’s billed as a service piece (meaning they expect readers to glean useful tips from what these “experts” eat every day) and is overflowing with bad advice. Amazing.
Thanks for the shoutout!
Interesting that her “life force energy” plan ends at sundown, when sister eats a whole box of macaroons. True, they’re special, rareified macaroons (“They are not a raw product, but they are lighter and a ‘quicker exit’ macaroon than any I have found in the raw marketplace.” Quicker exit? Ugh.) I don’t care if you’re bingeing on raw foods–and I speak as someone who has done this–you’re still bingeing, which is totally understandable because a day of cantaloupe and air makes you HUNGRY. Horrible, horrible, horrible. (I’m under the impression that by letting her speak for herself, Marie Claire was pointing out the cray-cray more than any commentary could.)
“It pops up in fun new places, like those Whack-A-Mole games at arcades.”
A perfect, if alarming metaphor.
I am going to add that isn’t want Ms. Rose doing considered bingeing (sp)? I know I don’t have any insight into her emotional state, but consuming 1700 calories in the short amount of awake time one has after the sun goes down sounds might binge like to me. No thank you. I’m really questioning how much Marie Claire cares about the health of its readers.