Blog Posts by Allure Daily Beauty Reporter

Renee Trilivas, Allure magazine

If you're anything like me, now that all that tasty leftover turkey, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie are gone, all you crave is a digestive reboot. Enter the juice cleanse. "Cleansing gives our bodies an opportunity to rest from overeating and digesting all the junk we've eaten," says Marcus Antebi, founder of Juice Press. Here's his advice for first-time cleansers.

Do a pre-cleanse. Spend at least one day eating fresh fruits, salads, nuts, and seeds, and eliminating all processed foods. Antebi says this is a great way to prepare your body for the cleanse.

See more: The 6 Most Flattering Haircuts for Round Faces

Start slow. Instead of diving into a 30-day juice cleanse (yes, there is such a thing), start off with a three-day cleanse that includes six to eight juices a day. That may not sound like very long, but you will feel challenged. "Your body will be going through a detox," says Antebi.

Drink water. Even though it's called a juice

Elizabeth Siegel, Allure magazine

You know that a sleek blowout makes your hair reflect light better. You may even own a really good shine spray. But chances are your hair never gets as amazingly, bafflingly shiny as, say, Lauren Conrad's. (And if it does, please don't brag about it.) You can bet she's not just misting on a shine spray and calling it a day. Quite the contrary: The top hairstylists behind each head of hair that you see on the red carpet or in a shampoo commercial have made a science out of creating youthful, natural-seeming, and oftentimes blinding shine. Here are a few of my favorite tricks top hairstylists really use that you can actually do at home.

See more: Top 21 Drugstore Beauty Bargains

Start building shine in the shower. Nope, that doesn't just mean using a shine-enhancing shampoo. Hairstylist Nathaniel Hawkins suggests rinsing apple cider vinegar through your hair at the very end of your shower. "It's acidic, so it seals the cuticle," he explains. Pour

Kate Sullivan, Allure magazine

Thanks to my time here at Allure, my shower looks like a clean version of a Hoarders house of horrors. It's jammed with products-especially facial exfoliators. I like nothing more than the feeling of complete clean that I get from Kate Somerville ExfoliKate Gentle Exfoliating Treatment, Bliss Pore Perfecting Facial Polish, Dermalogica Daily Microfoliant (this amazing powder that I swear will change your face in one use), and my Clarisonic Mia. But I can-and probably do-have too much of a good thing, says dermatologist Ranella Hirsch.

See more: Top 21 Drugstore Beauty Bargains

Convincing people that they're exfoliating too much "is one of my great challenges," laughs Hirsch, a clinical assistant professor of dermatology at Boston University School of Medicine. "Over-exfoliating is probably the single most significant cause of breakouts. For some reason, people think exfoliating means 'torture my skin like it has secret government information.'" In

Sophia Panych, Allure magazine

There are no flat screens for me on Black Friday. The only thing that's flat is my body-stretched horizontally across my couch, sleeping off the tryptophan and pie from the Thanksgiving feast the day before. That doesn't mean I won't be shopping though. Oh, no-I'll just be doing it from my living room, online, where many beauty companies are offering exclusive items and great sales on some of your favorite products. Here's a round-up of some of the goodies to look forward to this weekend.

See more: Top 21 Drugstore Beauty Bargains

M.A.C. Grey Friday duo. To celebrate the busiest shopping day of the year, M.A.C. has launched a lipstick-and-nail duo in a limited edition shade-Grey Friday. The lipstick is black-grey with silver shimmer, while the nail polish is a silver suede pearl. Available online or at the M.A.C. store in Times Square.

Design your own palette with Laura Mercier. On both Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Mercier is offering a

Elizabeth Siegel, Allure magazine

For anyone who has to spend more than ten minutes on their hair each morning (so pretty much everyone), there's one very good thing about winter: Hats are perfect for hiding a bad hair day. But here's the downside: Dry winter weather makes flyaways and static more pronounced. Here, four quick fixes:

See more: The 10 Commandments of Mascara

A tried-and-true trick from hairstylist Nathaniel Hawkins: Spritz a flexible-hold or lightweight hair spray (unless you actually want helmet head) over the flyaways in the direction you want them to lie. (Try Oribe Superfine Hairspray). Smooth them down using a boar-bristle paddle brush that's also been misted with the hair spray and you're ready to go.

See more: Top 21 Drugstore Beauty Bargains

If you don't have a boar-bristle paddle brush handy (or don't feel like getting hair spray on your pricey Mason Pearson), there's another easy way to tackle flyaways. Start the same way (by misting on hair spray),

Courtesy of drugstore.comMadaline Donnelly, Allure magazine

Last Friday, I went up to the very glamorous Chanel offices on N.Y.C.'s 57th Street-seriously, I felt like I was IN an oversize Chanel perfume bottle-to preview a new line of top-secret products (more on that later). While there, I met dermatologist Amy Weschler (who also happens to be one of just two doctors in the U.S. who are board-certified in both psychiatry and dermatology, just FYI). With a nor'easter blowing through town, I asked her for help on battling dry skin. Below, her advice:

See more: The 10 Commandments of Mascara

Take a shorter, slightly cooler shower.
I know, its wintertime. You wake up, you're freezing, and you have to hop in the shower. So you jack up the water temperature and don't exactly rush to get out. The problem? "The hotter the water, the more drying it will be," says Weschler. "Instead, steam up the bathroom for a minute-without wasting too much water, of course-and don't let the water get scalding hot." Keep

James WojcikSophia Panych, Allure magazine

Today marks the American Cancer Society's 37th Great American Smokeout. Every year, on the third Thursday of November, smokers across the nation are encouraged to use the date as a marker either to quit smoking, or make a plan to quit. I'm not telling you anything new when I say it's horrible for your health-deadly, in fact. But if that isn't enough to convince you, then how about the fact that smoking is making you ugly. Here's a headline for you-Quitting Smoking Will Make You Prettier, and here's how:

You'll have firmer skin. "Smoking destroys collagen and elastic," says Dr. Fredric Brandt, "and it decreases levels of estrogen, which is necessary to keep skin firm."

See more: Top 21 Drugstore Beauty Bargains

It will reduce redness. Smoking increases inflammation of the skin by generating free radicals and causing vascular injury, which the body then attempts to repair. And the same goes for frequent heavy exposure to second hand smoke. The

Fairchild ArchiveAlexandra Owens, Allure magazine

I'm as into anti-aging creams as the next girl-I even fight wrinkles on my neck and hands. But I'd never even considered hitting below the belt until I heard about moisturizers, such as Intimina, that promise to keep our innermost tissues youthful. (Yes, they're for your vagina.) I called Dr. Hilda Hutcherson, clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology and associate dean at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, to get the scoop.

See more: Top 21 Drugstore Beauty Bargains

Do I have to worry about vagina wrinkles now? Are there aesthetic benefits to these moisturizers? [Hysterical laughter.] I get that question all the time-patients are so concerned about what it looks like! Nobody is looking at it, and if he's looking at it, he doesn't care. No, we're talking about comfort here.

See more: The 6 Most Flattering Haircuts for Round Faces

So why should we use moisturizers down south? They're for vaginal dryness, which can