Blog Posts by The chicks at TotalBeauty.com

I'm trapped in a codependent relationship. Well, to be more precise, my butt is trapped in a codependent relationship. For at least eight hours of every day, it's stuck to my office chair. Then, at the end of a long day at work, my bum has a nightly fling with the couch, where I park it to catch up on bad TV.

Related: 6 Best Butt Workouts for Immediate Results

Of course, keeping my butt planted for much of the day isn't healthy. Too much sitting puts me at greater risk for cancer and diabetes, increased inflammation and insulin levels, and a slower metabolism. And it's not just sloths that succumb to the sitting curse. Even people who hit the gym regularly and watch what they eat are at risk, thanks to crazy-busy schedules, long office hours, and the overwhelming desire to just sit, exhausted, at the end of the day.

Related: 8 Superfoods That'll Give You More Energy

The solution? Just get up and move, right? If only it were that easy. Thanks to my very

My last vacation was to the kind of place where a bikini is considered perfectly appropriate dinner attire -- I couldn't possibly have been more excited to get on that airplane. And when I did, I looked every inch the part of a healthy, happy, hydrated girl ready to go on vacation.

But something funny happened on the flight. When I got off the plane and caught a glimpse of myself in the bathroom mirror, my heart sank. My skin looked dry and my lips were chapped -- it was as if I'd aged 10 years during the course of my four-hour flight. Suddenly, I wasn't nearly as excited to head to the beach.

Related: 10 Best Beauty Products for Your Next Vacation

What happened? According to Dr. Gervaise Gerstner, M.D., associate clinical professor of dermatology at Mount Sinai Medical School in NYC, airplanes suck the moisture out of your skin faster than you can say "rehydration." A typical plane cabin has just 10 to 20 percent humidity -- way less than the normal 30 to 65

I was born with a puny, pale set of eyelashes, so I'm a little obsessed with finding ways to make them stand out. And since I'm way too broke for extensions, it's up to me to take them from short and stubby to sweeping and bat-able.

Related: The Best Mascaras for Length & Volume

Fluttery, totally noticeable lashes that go out-to-there -- without breaking my bank account. Is such a feat even possible?

Turns out it is. Proof: Look at the fashion runways, where expert stylists take eyelashes to the extreme, and red carpets, where celebrity makeup artists turn stars' lashes into works of art. Here are the products and expert tips you need for your most stunning eyelashes ever.

Colored Mascara

A pop of bright color on your lashes is a fast, easy way to spice up your look. So take a page from celebrity makeup artist Pat McGrath's playbook and carefully dust bright blue loose pigment over freshly applied, still-sticky black mascara. (I recommend using a small

When you graduate high school, they should hand you two important documents: your diploma, and a written guarantee that you'll never have to say the word "acne" ever again -- let alone have to deal with it.

OK, I'm biased. I've suffered from cystic acne -- bright red, inflamed, deep-down-in-the-skin pimples -- for years. And while I left my teenage life in the past, my acne has hitchhiked a ride into my adulthood.

Related: The 10 Best Drugstore Acne-Fighting Products

I've done everything to zap the zits. The Pill. Proactiv. Spironolactone, an anti-androgen that helps regulate hormones. I've even tried Acutane, the strongest form of acne treatment and one that comes with really risky side effects. I start each treatment filled with hope that maybe this one will clear my skin and change my life. And I've been nothing but disappointed.

It's time to do something. My new boyfriend, Ben, tells me he loves me for me, not how my skin looks -- but I want to love me, too,

I have a habit. Well, I call it a habit. My husband, mom, and therapist call it something else: an addiction. But wait, it's not what you think. I don't crave anything illegal or dangerous -- unless you think infomercials qualify.

You see, one of my favorite things to do is curl up on the couch and witness the Lint Lizard whisk away excess fluff, the InstaHang make picture-positioning A-B-C-D-Easy, and the Hawaii Chair whittle away someone's middle. The excited announcer makes it all seem so effortless! So simple! How can I resist?

I usually can't.

Related: 12 Beauty Breakthroughs You Must Try This Year

More often than not, I willingly succumb to the "three easy payments of $19.95" and add to my growing collection of infomercial oddities. After all, what if these really are miracle products. Maybe I really could have the perfect skin, gorgeous hair, and chiseled abs of my infomercial-aided dreams.

I knew what I had to do: I had to try them out. All of them. For one

Growing up, I always wanted to be one of the "lucky" kids who got to wear glasses. And the desire only grew as I got older and saw gorgeous women with serious specs appeal, like Lisa Loeb and Tina Fey. I wanted a pair, and I wanted them bad.

So when my optometrist pronounced I was due for my very own set of reading glasses, I wasn't exactly what you'd call disappointed. In fact, I think I shocked her with my "woo hoo!"

Related: 11 Bright Makeup Colors That Work on Everyone

While I love my new glasses, there's one little problem: My baby blues seem to disappear whenever I wear them, especially when I'm not wearing any makeup. Instead of prettily framing my eyes, my glasses hide them. But instead of swapping my specs for contacts, I looked to the stars for inspiration. The bespectacled stars, that is. Check out how these trendsetters turn their glasses into the hottest accessories around, all with the simplest, most perfect makeup techniques.

THE BEAUTY OF

Lauren Conrad said something in a recent interview that shocked me: She refuses to wear a bathing suit in Los Angeles. Why does she of "The Hills" and young adult fiction fame refuse to reveal her size-2 self?

"A couple of years ago someone zoomed in on my cellulite and it was so mean," the 26 year-old said. "I took it really personally. I haven't worn a bathing suit in L.A. in years because of that."

Related: 10 Cities with the Most Cellulite

She makes a compelling point. I certainly wouldn't hit the sand in my maillot if I knew there was a dude with a Nikon and a telephoto lens just waiting to capture me in the worst possible angle. And it's not like LC is being paranoid. Proof: Check out these other awful paparazzi shots from the beach. I'm amazed any celeb hangs out poolside in anything less than a parka.

Lauren Conrad

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Bethenny Frankel

PC: Daily Mail

Want to know how to alienate half of the population and incite an Internet frenzy in one fell swoop? It's simple. Just write an article about how beautiful you are and how everyone hates you because of it. Then write a follow-up piece about how every negative comment your first article generated only serves to hammer home your point.

Related: The Beauty Treatments That Can Backfire

It works like a charm. Just ask Samantha Brick, a British woman who did just that and got many, many pairs of (virtual) panties in a twist because, really, who says things like that? (Out loud anyway …)

While this Samantha person may deserve some props for having had the balls to unabashedly proclaim that she's hot and everyone hates her for it, I'm not entirely convinced that she's on the right track with this "thesis." I mean, sure, there are some insecure women out there who may be jealous or want to keep their leering husbands away from an attractive woman, but I'm hard-pressed to believe