Blog Posts by ForbesWoman

The guide to keeping your skin protected and bronze this summer.

As the summer begins, women have an important choice to make: Do I bravely bare my winter skin, translucent as it may be, and patiently wait for the sun? Or, do I fake it 'til I make it with tanning sprays and beds?

Whichever the decision may be--but particularly if you're a sun worshiper or you spend a lot of time outdoors--take this advice first and always start with a great sunscreen. Here are our picks for the season from some of the top names in the skin-protection industry.

In Pictures: Summer Beauty On The Cheap

La Roche-Posay Anthelios 60 is a superlight sunscreen that packs a double-whammy punch: SPF 60 is paired with antioxidants that the company says protects your skin "down to the cellular level" while blocking both UVA & UVB rays. La Roche-Posay has long been touted as the mother of all sunscreens, so you can feel confident entrusting your snowy white legs to them for the season

It's not as easy as the Obamas would have you think.

Date night doesn't come cheap--or easy.

Ask White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers. Well, you could ask, but neither Rogers nor the Obamas are telling how much it cost the couple to fly to New York City earlier this month for a one-star Michelin dinner and a Broadway show.

Let's just say that even if the Secret Service had allowed them to fly commercial (which they didn't), and even if you factor out the cost of the security detail (which you can't), the date part of their date, which the Obamas personally paid for, cost way more than average. For the record, they probably paid somewhere north of $300 for their night out--about $120 for dinner (without wine) plus $193 for orchestra tickets to Joe Turner's Come and Gone.

I have no problem with that. Hardworking people deserve a nice date once in awhile.

Now, if only the rest of us hardworking parents could afford to go out with our spouses too.

In Depth:

... and men just aren't that into their advice.

In 2007, as her 16-year marriage began to dissolve, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based writer Christina Frank turned to self-help books. At first, she devoured books on marriage savers, such as The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work by John Gottman and Nan Silver. But as it became clear that salvaging the relationship was not in the cards, she turned to coping books, such as When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron.

"When I realized that the separation was inevitable, these books really helped me navigate everything," she says. Frank was hardly an avid consumer of the genre: Previously, she'd only read the occasional parenting advice book.

In Pictures: Six Self-Help Books Women Love and (Most) Men Won't Read

However, as she writes in her blog chronicling the separation, just as there are no atheists in foxholes, there's no snarking on self-help books when one's life is in turmoil. "Some of the books were kind of ridiculous, but

Professional women have a fierce relationship with their heels.

At an awards dinner last month, CNN's Alina Cho had the audience riveted. Not just with her humor and charm as master of ceremonies, but with her deft balancing act upon a pair of black six-inch stiletto heels.

"Some women backstage asked me how it is that I can walk in these heels," Cho joked at the mike after spending the evening carefully tottering up and down the stairs to the podium. "And I say, 'not very well.'"

Cho, a New York CNN correspondent and contributor to American Morning, is known around the office for her obsession with vertiginous heels--or "stilts," as her colleagues call them. "I've always been vertically challenged," says five-foot-two-inch Cho. "Anything that heightens and lengthens me is a good thing."

In Pictures: Women With Heel Appeal

But even tall girls crave heels. Last spring, leggy Gwyneth Paltrow caused a stir when she inched down the red carpet at several European

Here's why what you do for an hour or more every day could cost you your life--and how to stay healthy.

Quick: What's the biggest threat to your health? If you're like most women, you probably think the answer is breast cancer or maybe even heart disease. Guess again. The real culprit is getting behind the wheel. Automobile accidents are the leading cause of death in women under the age of 35, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and are also a major cause of traumatic brain injury and fatality in women of all ages.

But before you throw in your keys for good, a wealth of new research shows that auto accidents are highly preventable. "The difference between getting in a crash and not getting in a crash often comes down to the split-second decisions a person makes," says Dave Teater, director of Transportation Initiatives for the National Safety Council (NSC). Knowing the right decision before you put your car into drive can help you arrive alive.

The single best

Women facing a scary diagnosis and grueling treatment find they can continue in their careers.

Subha Barry had just been promoted to manager of Merrill Lynch's corporate campus in Princeton , N.J. , when she found out she had Hodgkin's lymphoma. Her daughter was 9, her son, just 18 months. Barry was 36.

Over 10 years as a private banker, Barry had proved herself a stellar adviser to Merrill's prized wealthy clients. Yet her success had come at the price of her own health. She slept little, ate poorly and rarely exercised. It all seemed to culminate in her illness. After her diagnosis, she realized she had been sick for nearly a year, trying fruitlessly to ignore the nightly fevers and back aches.

She decided to be honest with the company about her condition. She went to her boss and offered to relinquish her role overseeing the office but to keep her client book. To her surprise, he insisted she stay on--and keep her clients. "He said he'd get me extra help, and if I

Anyone for some great advice on spending a little less while looking and feeling a whole lot better?

Downsized corporate budgets, mandatory furloughs and a renewed emphasis on saving over spending has left many of us wondering what to do about our beauty budget. What were once considered must-haves--high-end hair salons, imported or handmade bath products, and weekly massages or manicures--are now suddenly in the luxe category.

Looking and feeling good while pinching pennies is a growing concern and a popular topic of conversation among women. ForbesWoman has tapped into one secret-sharing session, asking hundreds of women how they are cutting costs--and what they will not give up. Their answers ran the gamut from using baby products (significantly cheaper than adult products and easier on sensitive skin) to trading in a monthly massage for weekly yoga sessions at a savings of 25%.

In Pictures: 10 Ways To Cut Your Style Budget

To be fair, for every cost-saving

Chefs like Traci Des Jardins are blazing their own trails in the largely male domain of high-end restaurants--and coping with the weak economy along the way.

Move over, Mario. Take a hike, Emeril. Look who's cooking now: A handful to ambitious and talented female chefs who are running their own restaurants and creating compelling brands, that's who. Unlike Lidia Bastianich or Cat Cora, who've traded restaurant kitchens for television sets, these top chefs haven't found celebrity. Instead, they are focusing on crafting menus that delight customers--and turning a profit in tough times.

In Pictures: Women Chefs At The Top Of Their Game

If executive women face challenges in the corporate world, these female culinary go-getters take even more heat. Restaurant kitchens, where every chef must train, are still male-dominated boot camps that often tolerate (or encourage) harassment and ridicule. Raising capital is tough in a world where financial networking is still very much a