Six tips to keep your leather goods in good shape

A quality leather garment is an investment in your wardrobe. With proper care, your designer clothes will age gracefully and can last a lifetime. Vintage jackets have been known to stick around for 50 years!

1. Always hang leather garments on wide or padded hangers to maintain shape. Use shoetrees for footwear and stuff empty handbags with tissue to help retain shape.
2. Never store leather goods in plastic or other non-breathable covers. This will dry up the leather.
3. Avoid very humid and dry environments as well as direct sunlight. This will shorten the life expectancy of your leather.
4. Avoid spraying perfumes or hair sprays while wearing your garment and do not apply pins, adhesive badges or tape. Wearing a scarf at the neckline will keep hair and body oil away from the collar. (more…)

Want a digital camera that looks like a fab accessory as well? Sony Cyber-shot T5 is the latest digital still camera to combine stunning design with high-quality performance. While the girly Sony Cyber-shot T5 lets you shoot up to 240 shots (that’s stamina for you) and has 5.1 mega pixels resolution, so you can enjoy sharp images that you can enlarge up to A4 size without loss in picture quality. Capture your favorite band at a gig or your girlfriends while they’re on the dance floor with the Sony Cyber-shot T5′s enhanced Flash Distance and its powerful 3x Optical Zoom capabilities, letting you shoot more distant objects in the dark easier. Or, you can shoot them with high-quality VGA (640×480) video clips. Available in four stunning colors (take your pick from silver, black, red, and gold), the girly Sony Cyber-shot T5 is one accessory you’d love to carry everywhere.

Who says women aren’t tech-minded?

Via.

Excessive sun exposure is still the Number One cause of premature aging; but who can resist a sexy tan, right? Not to worry, here are some safe tanning tips and alternatives for you.

1. Use a generous application of sunscreen, and reapply every 40-80 minutes when outdoors. Get something with a high level of Sun Protection Factor (SPF). Don’t worry, because it protects you more against the harmful UV rays than spoils your fabulous tanning ritual. You may use tanning lotions on top of your sunscreen if you really insist on getting a tan.
2. If you’re thinking about soaking up in beer as substitute to tanning lotion… think twice. It does work, but beer is malt liquor. It does the same thing to your skin as alcohol, dry up your skin.
3. Pat yourself dry after a swim because the sun’s rays penetrate wet skin more than dry. (more…)

Breaking the Therapy

According to one doctor, sweat mixed with alum chloride, the active ingredient in most deodorants, can stain skin and your clothes. Using deodorants will prevent body odor all right, but the flipside is that it can also cause darkening of the skin.

Wondering which is a good antiperspirant ingredient? The newest ingredient, Aluminum Zirconium Tetrachlorohydrex Glycine, is better tolerated by the skin and is less likely to cause irritation or acne. Furthermore, applying these antiperspirants before bedtime reduces the risk of their mixing with sweat, and eventually lessens incidence of stains.

Hair Begone

Whether you’re shaving, waxing, using depilatory creams or getting laser treatment, all may cause inflammation that breeds chicken skin and dark underarms. Shaving means hair is not pulled out completely from the roots, so it is often visible especially if you’re light-skinned. This leaves a “shadow” on your armpits, making them appear dark. Waxing on the other hand removes hair from the roots, which eventually becomes less traumatic for armpits. Also, waxing exfoliates the skin, removing dead skin cells, which gives your armpit a spa-treatment feel. Most dermatologists recommend waxing for at-home hair removal.

Permanent hair removal or “lasering,” although a bit pricey, is the safest way to hair removal. It is done once a month (but you have to undergo five sessions). Another way to remove unwanted hair is by using depilatory creams or hair removal creams. The only downside to this is that creams often contain harsh chemicals that are strong enough to literally melt the hair away. The use of these creams is okay once in a while, but don’t make it a habit, as prolonged use can darken skin.

To help counteract irritation and trauma to the skin, some experts recommend rubbing an ice dub over the area to reduce redness, inflammation, discomfort and the flare-up of unwanted, unsightly hair bumps. You may also consider taking a Tylenol or Advil before you remove hair to reduce the amount of inflammation that may arise. (more…)