Blog Posts by Allure Daily Beauty Reporter

OMG. The beauty industry is getting OOC with the sun-protection acronyms. Here's what they all mean:

SPF (Sun Protection Factor): This one's been around forever, but it still confuses people, and it's not hard to understand why. What it actually means is that, with an SPF 15, for example, if you normally start to burn in 10 minutes without sunscreen, you can stay out 150 minutes (in other words, 15 times longer) and not burn. SPF refers only to protection from UVB rays, not UVA ones.

How much SPF do you really need?

EPF (Environmental Protection Factor). This rates the power of antioxidants to ward off UV rays and free radicals (so far, idebenone has the highest EPF of the antioxidants tested).

PA (Protection Factor of UVA). In Europe, and likely coming to the States in the future, PA is a measurement of a product's protection from UVA rays. A PA+++ is better than a PA+.

KPF (Keratin Protection Factor): Now hair-care brand Rene Furterer claims that its new Waterproof

Read More »from Decoding Your Beauty Products

New research suggest that "brown fat," a cell that rapidly burns calories, could be the key to fulfilling that whole "eat whatever you want and burn it off" pipe dream. The former hypothesis-that it was only present in rodents and human infants-has been debunked by new studies that claim adults have plenty of the stuff: It's just activated by the cold. (Scientists found their subjects' brown fat kicked into overdrive when they sat in a chilly room.)

What ever happened to good old fashioned aerobics?

The New York Times reports that these findings should help pave the way for safer, more effective ways to combat the obesity epidemic, and of course, you can bet that some day soon we'll have access to brown fat diet shakes (um, yum?). Then there are the inevitable beauty treatments. One doctor joked, "We're thinking of opening a frosty spa." Sounds recession-friendly, too. Maybe we should all just turn our heat off next winter?

Speaking of weird beauty alternatives, would you ever get a

Read More »from Fat That Makes You Skinny?

Perfect smoky eyes tend to come with stray dark powder particles all over our cheeks. Now instead of getting creative with a Q-tip to wipe specks away, we can just blast them.

Try these tips for smoldering, smoky eyes.

Air She Blows (get it?) by Miss Oops blows out puffs of air to get rid of any makeup muck; it's especially useful with excess loose mineral makeup. Not to mention the crumbs in your keyboard.

Related: Check out this video on how to apply illuminating mineral makeup in five simple steps.

-- Kayleigh Donahue

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• Former Pastor steals $85,000 from parish for facelift
  
• How to make your stilettos more comfy
  
• Subscribe to Allure right now and get a FREE TOTE BAG!

Read More »from Air She Blows...Say Goodbye to Excess Makeup

It seems like some members of the beauty industry are turning to good old-fashioned, er, bathroom humor to increase sales during these tough times. Every time we watch these out-of-control crazy, hilarious, and semi-offensive-to-the-feminists-among-us new Schick Quattro ads, our jaws drop. Watch this "Mow the Lawn" ad currently on rotation on television channels across the U.K. and you tell us if this makes you want to run out and buy a razor...or if you'd rather not think about hedge clippers and weed wackers in relation to the v-zone. Then again, they're not alone in upping the raunch factor of late: Imadeen, a skin supplement company, has a bawdy new tagline running beneath a photo of a girl lounging on her bed. It reads, "My secret to beautiful skin? I swallow." Wow. Just. Wow.

Not into lawn mowing? Follow these expert tips on how to get a great wax.

-- Erin Flaherty

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• A new iPhone app that will get you bikini-ready for summer

Read More »from Must-Watch Video: The New Schick Quattro Ad Makes Our Jaws Drop

There is nothing grosser, not to mention more dehumanizing, than accidentally wearing flip flops or flats (or any other shoes that don't require some kind of socks) to the airport: You only remember once you line up for security that you're going to have to kick off your kicks and walk barefoot on a very public, very filthy floor.

Get through airport security fast with these helpful travel tips.

Enter Eco Living's new, TSA-friendly Biodegradable Travel Booties ($5.95 for two pairs), which not only serve the handy purpose of protecting you from germs and humiliation (well, wearing booties is still kind of embarrassing, but anyway), but also save you the guilt of filling landfills. (These are compostable.) Win-win! Oh and P.S.: If any of you out there actually use shower caps, they make a green version of those, too.

More ways to be green: An easy way to recycle your makeup.

-- Erin Flaherty

More from Allure's Daily Beauty Reporter:

• Beyonce with the latest hair trend: blunt

Read More »from Germaphobic about airport security? Wear these eco-friendly travel booties

Dr. Scholl's For Her has a new shoe insert, High Heels Insoles, $9.99, that claim to ease the pain caused by your favorite stilettos (yes, even the five-inchers that you swore felt like fuzzy slippers when you tried them on in the store). They have squiggly, squishy gel pads in the ball and heel of the foot, to cushion and take off some pressure.

The most outrageous shoes from this year's fashion runways.

Our favorite part: the inserts are clear, so no one sees them and thinks you stuck odor-absorbers in your Louboutins. We tried them in our highest new Mary Janes and even after running around all day at the office, we kept standing painlessly when we went out for the evening.

Related: How to find the perfect evening dress.

--Erin Flaherty

Photograph by David Cook for Allure

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• Beyonce with the latest hair trend: blunt bangs
  
• Can PMS make you buy beauty products?
  
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Read More »from Make your high heels comfy with Dr. Scholl's For Her

Grapefruit: perfectly delicious, diet-friendly fruit. The Grapefruit Diet? Gimmicky at best, and in a bizarre case, nearly deadly at worst. Three days into a restrictive version of the diet, a 42-year-old woman in Washington was rushed to the hospital. She had developed a blood clot from the hip to the calf of her left leg while on an hour-and-a-half car ride. Doctors wrote in the medical journal The Lancet that by the time the woman reached the hospital, her leg was purple, she could hardly walk, and her leg was almost amputated. So what's all this got to do with grapefruit? Turns out that the fruit and her birth control pills had a strange reaction: the fruit blocked an enzyme that usually breaks down the Pill's estrogen. Higher estrogen levels, greater risk of blood clots. Another reason to listen to real scientists for diet advice.

Head over to allure.com for more of the latest health and beauty news.

--Daisy Shaw

image via commons.wikimedia.org

More from Allure's Daily Beauty

Read More »from The Grapefruit Diet may cause serious health risks

Mega home-shopping retailer QVC is a guilty pleasure for millions of women, but now the company has been ordered to pay the tidy sum of $7.5 million dollars by the Federal Trade Commision on charges that it, shall we say, slightly exaggerated the effects of certain dietary supplements and cellulite creams they sold. Apparently, the claims that Lipofactor Cellulite Target Lotion reduces those pesky thigh blemishes is ahem, unsubstantiated. (When it comes to topicals not working, we don't want to say, "I told you so," but hey, if you read Allure over the years, we've told ya so.)

Get the latest health and beauty news.

Acting Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection Eileen Harrington said, "The company is responsible for the product claims made on its programs, and we expect that going forward, QVC will do a better job for its audience and make sure that its programs are truthful and not deceptive." So in a way, this is good news. Next time they hawk cellulite-reducing cream,

Read More »from Cellulite Products Get Called Out, Big Time