Hollywood stars inspire

The stars were understandably hesitant when asked what good deeds they did this year. But eventually, they relented and graciously answered. We hope their thoughts inspire you, dear readers, to also “do the right thing” in 2014 and in all the years to come.

Emma Thompson

I tend to feel [the way] Oscar Wilde felt. He said, “I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character.” So it’s how you behave toward every person you encounter, every day—that’s what makes who you are.

kissydress bridesmaid dresses

It’s no good being nice to some people and then unpleasant to the man who’s going to park your car or the woman who’s going to do your nails. That just doesn’t wash because then you’re making a hierarchy of human beings instead of saying, “I am you and you are me.” Once you realize that, there is no good deed because you’re treating everyone the same. It makes you innately kind unless you’re very cruel to yourself—in which case you’ll be cruel to everybody else. God knows we see that in all professions.

Giving back—I hear people saying that a lot. It’s good to engage, I suppose. Giving back is being engaged all the time and being curious, speaking out when you witness injustice. Doing a good deed requires courage. Sometimes you don’t want to say it because you feel embarrassed to say to somebody, “I don’t want to listen to that. I don’t want to hear you speaking like that about homosexuals, black people.” It’s uncomfortable to challenge people, especially at a dinner or something.

Liam Hemsworth

My dad worked in Child Protection and Human Services my whole life. My brothers and I are ambassadors for the Australian Childhood Foundation, which protects kids and helps those who have been abused or could be abused. It’s about educating families in neighborhoods and schools about how serious child abuse is.

I am from a great family, with parents who are so supportive and loving. I had a safe home where I felt comfortable. I was able to dream big and had the support to live out those dreams. I strongly believe in helping children so they grow up in safe environments where they are able to dream big, too. The home is where it begins, where people’s morals and respect for others are nurtured.

Woody Harrelson

Good deeds—that’s an interesting thing because we live in this world where emotionality is muted or constrained. I used to be so much more gregarious when I was younger and maybe less famous. When I was anonymous, I would be so much more open. Anyway, one of the coolest good deeds, which doesn’t require much energy, is a smile. Haven’t you [experienced] that when you are walking and someone smiles at you? The smile just really gives you a lift.

vintage prom dresses uk

I have this nonwood paper company (Prairie Paper Ventures) going. It’s really been my dream for a long time. More people are coming into it—like this gentleman, Tom Kartsotis, the creator of Fossil. I thought it was a really good deed—how he believed in this company. He was the first guy to really get behind it. Around half the trees cut in this world are cut for paper products…like three billion trees cut a year (around 65,000 trees to make the Sunday New York Times alone). So a good deed would be to stop making paper out of trees. I noticed that I managed to promote, as well as answer that question (laughs).

Josh Hutcherson

Giving back is really about perspective. When you step back and look at your own life and then you look at somebody else who’s in a less fortunate situation, it’s crazy to not want to lend a hand in some way. Giving back can mean anything; it depends on the person.

I don’t think material things are what I want to focus on when giving back. It’s more about a new way of thinking, trying to give somebody confidence or a voice to be themselves. If you can find a way to be comfortable and confident with yourself, then you can be happy any time. The way I have chosen to go about that is to work with an organization that my friend and I started, Straight But Not Narrow. It’s a gay/lesbian/bisexual/transsexual/straight allied organization.

We are a group of straight people who try and bridge the gap between the gay and straight communities. We set up gay/straight alliances in high schools and open dialogue between kids on Twitter and Facebook, get the conversation going about being open about who you are and being comfortable with being yourself.

Jennifer Lawrence

I’m giving back to my family and my brothers, in particular. I remember when I first signed on to “The Hunger Games.” I gave back to my parents for giving up their entire lives so that I could do this (acting) but my brothers were also a huge part of that. They were actually the ones who convinced my parents to let that happen.

My brothers lost parents for a couple of years (to be with me) until I was 17, 18 and out on my own. And my parents moved back to our home. My brothers gave up their mom and dad for a little bit to help me. Lately, I’ve been focusing on giving back to my brothers in certain ways. And also to my friends, who put up with me.

Colin Farrell

A good deed could be a certain amount of inactivity, like not actively trying to make other people’s lives a nightmare—trying not to cause people pain, not to judge harshly, not to say cruel things.

My mother was a homemaker. My dad worked very hard to make sure that we had what we needed. He’s retired. The many hours that he used to work when I was growing up are a thing of the past. But it’s certainly lovely to be in a position where, if any of my family needs a little assistance, I can for sure be able to help out. That’s one of the greatest things about this fame nonsense, celebrity and all, which comes as a result of being in films.

Simon Baker

It’s not something that I dwell on. I don’t think about it like, wow, that was a good thing I just did. I work with a few different charities. Most of the time, the reality of that is, generally, the problem that most charities have is funding. So most of the time, it’s writing a check or something like that.

Mending Kids International is a charity that my wife connected us to. There are charities that are personal to you and then there are charities that you can help. But most of the time, the things that are more personal to me, as a parent or as a husband, and less to me as a celebrity, like Mending Kids International—it’s not something that I like to talk about in a massive way.

Mending Kids International is a charity that takes kids who are in developing countries and need major medical procedures and surgeries. They are brought over to the United States and they stay with families. They have these operations and then they recover under the care of host families. We have friends who hosted four or five kids for sometimes up to six months at a time. My wife and I have discussed what an impact it has had, not only on the kids who had surgeries but also on the host families. We have been involved with that and the impact on our families has been great.

Christian Bale

Doing something good is when it’s desperately inconvenient to you—that’s when it’s good. If it’s convenient to you, it’s not really that good.

I can’t help mentioning it. I landed at 4 o’clock this morning and I saw the news about this Batkid, this little Miles Cross [who is in remission from leukemia and was granted his wish to be a superhero for a day] in San Francisco and the Make-A-Wish Foundation…what an incredible thing that people got together with that…what a wonderful thing to create that for this little boy.

How To Winterize Your Skin Care Routine

When it's snowing in the Middle East, you know that it's gotten really, really cold. And what happens when temperatures take a nose dive? So do your skin's moisture levels. But frigid weather is only part of the problem. Long, hot showers, sweltering offices, and harsh soaps are also to blame. Luckily, dry skin can often be alleviated by winter-proofing your skin care routine. Here's a few ways to start.

Exfoliate. It sounds counterintuitive, but gently scrubbing (and we mean very gently) will actually help your lotions and creams work better. As your skin dries out, your dead skin cells stop shedding, keeping moisturizer from fully sinking in. Rev up the process by using a mild exfoliant, like a jojoba-bead scrub or a cleanser with fruit enzymes. I'm a big fan of Aveeno Positively Ageless Resurfacing Scrub .

Upgrade your moisturizer. Many of us need richer face and body creams during the winter. When shopping around, look for the ingredients like glycerin or sorbitol. These are humectants that help pull moisture from the air into your skin. Everyone in the office is obsessed with Clinique Moisture Surge Intense Skin Fortifying Hydrator for night. For your day cream, remember that you still need an SPF to protect from UV rays (not only are they cancer-causing, they can prevent skin from holding onto moisturizer). We like Eucerin Daily Protection Face Lotion SPF 30 .

prom dresses for sale | kissydress blue bridesmaid dresses

Get it on in the shower. Or at least right afterwards. Studies have shown that applying body lotion in the three minute window right after you shower is best. (Otherwise, moisture starts to disappear from your skin before you can lock it in with lotion.) I keep a bottle of Eau Thermale Avène Cold Cream Nourishing Body Lotion on my sink, so that I can spread it on my arms and legs after lightly patting down with a towel (that way my skin is damp, but not dripping).

Beware of your water bottle. Believe it or not, it can actually contribute to dry, chapped lips. Here's how: When you take a swig from a water bottle, you're often left with droplets on your mouth. When these molecules evaporate, they take moisture from your lips with them. You don't have to go thirsty though. Swiping on a lip balm or ointment (like Aquaphor ) throughout the day will help. So will buying a box of drinking straws.

Invest in a humidifier. They'll replace precious moisture in the air (heating systems tend to suck up every last drop of it). The small, tabletop models are ideal for single rooms and small apartments--just be sure to fill them with cold water to prevent bacteria from growing inside. Try Crane's Penguin EE-865. It was ranked highest among tabletop models by Consumer Reports and retails at only $40. Plus, it's the cutest humidifier I've ever seen.

Dior Homme Is the Latest Men’s Label to Make Pre-Collections a Priority

Dior can smell a trend in the offing. The label’s artistic director for menswear, Kris Van Assche—as well as, presumably, his corporate bosses—sensed the growing importance of pre-collections for menswear and have begun to treat them with the pomp and circumstance formerly accorded to Fall and Spring. “At the start, a few seasons ago, these pre-collections were basically pre-deliveries of the main collections,” Van Assche told. “But now, with their strong commercial success, I understood the need for four independent, freestanding collections a year. We have now started calling these in-between collections Spring and Autumn, and the show collections Summer and Winter. These independent pre-collections tell a whole new story, away from the runway. I chose to present them to the press through catalogs, videos, and installations, like the one we had in Omotesando, Japan, in November, for the Spring collection.”

plus size bridesmaid dresses 2013


The story Van Assche set out to tell for Autumn—what other labels call Pre-Fall—is about an art student from Antwerp or Berlin. (Van Assche is Belgian himself and graduated, in his student days, from Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts.) His wardrobe mixes the tailored pieces Dior Homme is famous for with more of the youth-inflected sportswear that’s a particular Van Assche fascination—sometimes in the same garment. (Blazer sleeves can be narrowed or expanded by zippers like those found on biker jackets, for example.) “His wardrobe is composed of various pieces bought on different occasions,” he says, “A blazer, a leather biker jacket, a bright red duffle coat, some knits, the typical ‘art student’ narrow black jeans, and, of course, black combat boots.”

There’s a new graphicism to some of the items, from printed suits to printed shirts, the latter of which owe a debt to the graphics of new wave (“which the art student would obviously be listening to”). But the main innovation of the collection is that, fittingly to its more commercial bent, it was conceived as separate, sales-friendly pieces. “The newest thing for me as a design concept,” Van Assche said, “was to think not in total looks but in strong separate pieces, and then make them work as an outfit.”

bridesmaid dresses

The truth about dark circles

Most of us blame dark circles on lack of sleep, exhaustion or staring at the computer screen for hours. But the truth goes deeper than those dark pools you've tried so hard to fight.

Experts and studies have linked dark circles to graver problems like anemia, liver disease and dehydration. Dr. Satish Mehta, Ophthalmologist from Moolchand Eye Clinic gives us an insight into the darker reasons of dark circles.

First, let's understand how dark circles appear. We have tiny blood vessels, which are like a web under the skin. But these capillaries are so fine that the red blood cells queue up to pass through; in the process some of them leak in the surrounding area. Enzymes are produced during the cleaning up session. The breaking down of these red blood cells leaves them black and blue. The reason why this is so visible is that the skin around the eyes is the thinnest.

Common reasons for dark circle:

Aging - The skin under the eyes is thin and delicate to begin with. As we grow older, skin around the eyes becomes thinner making blood vessels more prominent, causing dark circles.

Genetics - Hereditary and genetics can also play a big role in the development and dominance of dark circles around the eyes.

Nutritional deficiency - Dark circle around the eyes can be due to poor nutrition. A healthy and nutritious diet filled with vitamins like A, C, K, E and nutrients can help to get rid of dark circles.

Sleep deprivation and tiredness - A lack of sleep or excessive tiredness results in pale skin, making blood under the skin become more visible and appear more blue or darker.

kissydress mermaid prom dresses | kissydress red carpet dresses

Smoking and drinking - Late night parties, smoking and drinking can play havoc with your skin and result in dark eye circles. Dark eye circles could be a sign of loss of water from the body (dehydration) due to excessive drinking and intake of caffeinated drinks.

Sun exposure - Increased exposure to the sun can draw pigmentation of the skin's surface and create dark circles. Long sun exposure produces more melanin around eyes than usual, giving them a darker color. There are two main layers of skin, the outer layer of skin known as epidermis and inner layer known as dermis. When excess melanin is being made in the epidermis it appears brown, and when there is more than usual melanin in the dermis it looks blue or blue grey.

Hormonal changes - In women, the skin undergoes lots of changes during the phase of pregnancy and menstruation, causing darkening under the eyes.

Allergies - Any condition that causes the eyes to itch may contribute to darker circles due to rubbing or scratching the skin around them. Apart from that, some food allergies can also cause the area under the eyes to appear darker. In fact, dark circles in children often indicate allergy problems.

Research also suggests that dark circles are linked to anemia, and liver diseases.

Dark circles and anemia - Iron deficiency is one of the most common causes of inexplicable dark circles in many cases, which can be treated by making simple changes in your diet. Low iron levels is the most common form of anemia, and results in poor oxygenation in body tissues due to low supply of oxygenated blood. Thus, always take a balanced diet rich in green leafy vegetable, dairy products and all types of fruits to keep your body healthy.

Dark circles and dehydration - Dehydration is one of the most common reasons for dark circles under the eyes. The reason is the close proximity to the skin underneath the eye in relation to the underlying bone. When the body does not have a proper amount of water, the symptoms are often evident in this specific area. Thus it is advisable to have at least 8-10 glasses of water and include fresh fruit daily. It is also advisable to restrict the intake of caffeinated drinks such as tea, coffee, alcohol and other caffeinated drinks as it aggravates dehydration.

Dark circles and liver disease - Dark circles also indicate liver dysfunction due to various liver ailments. An example of such a liver ailment is hepatitis.

What I learned from online makeup tutorials

Ah, Jane, what a flatterer you are. For you to imagine I possess in-depth knowledge about makeup is very sweet indeed, especially as you have the evidence of my pasty-faced byline photo to suggest the contrary.

Of late, my inability to apply lipstick without resembling the clown from Stephen King's It has begun to bother me. Not as much as my inability to iron bothers certain people in my life, but a hell of a lot more than my inability to iron bothers me. So I decided to remedy the problem because, dammit, it's annoying not being able to do something that looks like a lot of fun. To the internet!

But my determination to master le maquillage has resulted in me developing a dark addiction. I really don't know what to say. I've never had any addiction problems before. I'm just not the type, you know? But this stuff – damn, it got me good. And now I find myself up at 1am, reaching out and croaking: "Just … one … more… hit!"

I am, of course, talking about online beauty videos. I love them. I watch them, hypnotised, as women (it is largely women) fiddle-faddle about with brushes as they stare into the lens and say things such as: "Then, you just flick your eyeliner – like that!" They may as well be saying: "And then you kick one leg behind your head and effortlessly do a split – like that!" But nonetheless, I find these videos inspiring, fascinating and sometimes even helpful. So after a year's immersion in beauty videos and tentative experimentation, I shall share what I have learned and what even those of us without opposable thumbs can manage.

First, I really love Sali Hughes' videos for the Guardian and her beauty blog. Yes, I know I've mentioned these before and, yes, I know she works for this paper, but hey, what can I say? She's just really good and trustworthy and I've never had a duff recommendation from her.

turquoise bridesmaid dresses | red bridesmaid dresses 2013

Charlotte Tilbury is made from a different cast to Hughes. Where Hughes is plain speaking, Tilbury is all fabulous-fabulous Ibiza hyperbole, where everyone is "gorgeous" and everything is "amazing" and looking like a movie star is everybody's aim. In the same way that I love reading Vogue, I love watching Tilbury's videos because while she may be over the top, her makeup tips are easy to follow and useful.

Hadley's makeup tips

Those of us who cannot be faffed with foundation and are scared of looking like a dowager countess should use a tinted moisturiser and the best around is by Laura Mercier. There are loads of under-eye concealers that are far better than the overrated Touche Eclat by YSL, which makes people look faintly deranged in photos. My personal favourites are Touche Veloutée by By Terry and Radiant Creamy Concealer by Nars. If you want to make an extra effort, smear Smashbox's Photo Finish Foundation Primer all over your face, which will make your skin look airbrushed and helps when you come to blend in the concealer.

Before you start on your eye makeup, slick some Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion on your lids (a Hughes tip) as that will stop your eyeshadow and liner creasing up underneath your eyebrows. Once that has dried, you can whack on the colour and the easiest way to do that is with Tilbury's brilliant Eyeshadow Pencils. You just scribble them on your lids like a crayon and they stay on for – I speak from scruffy experience here – 24 hours. They are even colour-coded so you know which to get, but don't feel restricted. My eyes are brown but my favourites are Champagne Diamonds (such a Tilbury name), which is for blue eyes, and I scrawl in a V shape on the inner corner of my eyes to make them look a bit brighter (a Tilbury trick), and Black Diamonds, which will make you look like Kate Moss at her 30th birthday. Bobbi Brown's Shimmer Brick is lovely for a more subtle dust of sparkle, as are Bourjois' always reliable eyeshadows. By Terry's eye pencils are so soft and rich even I can use them (recommended by India Knight in the Sunday Times, proving I don't have a Guardian bias) and they will make you look like a sooty-eyed demoiselle. Before putting on mascara, clamp your eyelash curlers as close to the eyelash roots as possible and pump them as this gives a bigger curl than just holding the curlers down (a Tilbury trick). My mascara choice is Estee Lauder's Double Wear Mascara, which is so resistant to smudging I suspect it was actually made by Nasa. I personally find cream blushers easier to use than powder ones, plus they tend to stay on longer, and Bobbi Brown makes the prettiest and longest lasting ones. Finally, for lips, I'm sure lipliner is great but I personally cannot be bothered and recommend Revlon's Lip Butter lipstick, which is a total bargain.

No, most of these products aren't budget but I promise they're easy to use and they will last you absolute yonks. They also make makeup what it should be, fun and confidence-boosting, as opposed to how it so often seems: an impenetrable world of expensive pointlessness.

Fashion fetish: Liberace's outfits

What is the eternal fascination with frocks of the rich and famous? I ask myself that as I trawl auction house sales devoted to the stuff. Example: today, bids close on christies for a rhinestone-encrusted suit created for Liberace in 1978, identical to one worn for his first major television special, Leapin' Lizards, It's Liberace!

It's just one lot in a Christies' online-only auction devoted to "Pop Culture", juxtaposing Lee Liberace's suit with the oddest of ephemera: an Andy Warhol-signed Campbell's soup can (an actual can, not the artist's famed impressions of), a spoon bearing John Lennon and Yoko Ono's signature, and original Sex Pistols concert posters.

But fashion – or, rather, clothing – makes up a surprising number of the lots, from Tommy Cooper's fez to stage costumes worn by Britney Spears, Lady Gaga and Freddie Mercury.

What is it that's so compelling about famous people's old clothes? Or famous people's old tat, generally?

Auctions of the accoutrements of Elizabeth Taylor and the Duchess of Windsor fetch astronomical amounts, as did the old clobber donated to a Kensington charity shop by David and Victoria Beckham, snapped up by unscrupulous customers and flogged for five or six times the original price on eBay. The estimate on the Liberace suit is a conservative couple of grand – Gene Kelly's grey wool suit, worn while whirling around a lamppost in 1952's Singin' in the Rain, will be auctioned in Dallas on Friday and is expected to rake in more than $20,000 (£12,190).

Those prices are presumably commanded by an abstract assumption that, by some kind of sartorial osmosis, the garments have been imbued with the essence of wearers past. It's kind of justified. After all, nothing gets closer to you than your clothing – at least, nothing you can legally sell.

short purple prom dresses | red carpet dresses 2013

The pull of the exhibition Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore!, currently on show at London's Somerset House, is that almost every garment was worn by the famed fashion editor herself. They're pock-marked with fag burns and food stains to prove it. The curators talked about the overpowering smell of Blow's signature fragrance, Robert Piguet's Fracas, that emanated from the garments as they handled them, like a manifestation of Blow's continual presence through cloth.

This is all very fetishistic – in the original, anthropological meaning of the word. That is, the attribution of "magical" powers to an inanimate object, like a tribal talisman, rather than any sexy stuff.

I would argue that there are two kinds of collectors that stalk these auction house sales. Both are motivated by fetishes. One kind is drawn by that aura of celebrity – the idea of living vicariously through another person's belongs, large or small. It's the association that matters, rather than the item itself.

The other people – such as myself – couldn't really give a damn who wore it, nor when. The obsession (and yes, it is obsessive) is focused on the object itself. That ties back to fetish, the magical power of the object, although the power is derived from the physical object itself, rather than its past owners.

That's a hefty load of intellectual cant to justify my lust for a Liberace suit – a suit that, honestly, I would like to wear. I'm not sure where, or when, but I wouldn't be keeping it in the box. It's like the other "formerly owned by" item already hanging in my wardrobe, an outré, gilt and crystal-encrusted sweater formerly owned by Lyn Revson, the late wife of Revlon magnate Charles Revson, from Christian Lacroix's spring/summer 1992 haute couture. That's a great back-story, sure. But ultimately, it's the sweater itself that got me sweating.

Look younger, without going under the knife

Refresh your appearance without resorting to surgical procedures. Make a few lifestyle changes to shave off the years.

A recent study suggests that the number of cosmetic procedures opted for, have risen to about 44 percent in the last few years. The study goes on to say that people who undergo such procedures may experience a morale and confidence boost but may also go through certain repercussions later, especially if they're unhappy with how the surgery went. So why would you want to go through something that might not potentially give you any secure results?

Dr Jaishree Sharad, a dermatologist placed in Mumbai, says, "If the surgery goes wrong, you have to go under the knife again to correct it. That could lead to more disfigurements. Secondly, there is a chance of scarring and it could change the way you look, not necessarily for the better."

Beauty

A few simple beauty regimes and you can completely transform your look and shed off a few years

How you style your hair radically affects the way you look. Go for cuts and styles that suit the shape of your face. Also, choose hair colour with care.

Needless to say, eating healthy is imperative.

Know your body type and dress accordingly. Certain clothes are best avoided while some flatter your body type.

Alternatives to cosmetic surgeries

kissydress plus size bridesmaid dresses | celebrity dresses uk

"People can avoid surgeries these days and can opt for non invasive procedures in which you don't have to go under the knife and bear with anesthesia trauma. Dermal fillers can do wonders for people who are scared of surgeries. In a matter of an hour or so, one can treat wrinkles, reduce the scars caused by acne, increase the volume around the cheeks and regain the lost radiance in the skin" says Dr. S.S. Trasi, Dermatologist from Mumbai.

Mind

There are a few simple rules one can follow to feel completely revitalised and fresh.

Puffy eyes, a bad attitude and headache, can all be avoided with enough sleep. Seven hours should do to keep you energised.

"Stick to your daily dose of calcium and proteins and see how starkly it affects your whole appearance." advises dietician Priya Rohra .

Meditation can help in getting that elusive peace of mind.

Healthy ways to look young

Use Vitamin-C serum once a day.

Sleep about 8 hours a day.

Avoid smoking, alcohol, aerated drinks and junk food.

Eat healthy. Include coloured fruits and vegetables that contain antioxidants, in your diet.

Drink at least 2 litres of water to keep yourself hydrated.

Exercise for an hour at least 5 days a week.

Get fruit peels done once a month.

Body

Exercising regularly not only improves our appearance, it has also been proven to nurture a positive attitude, leading to a better frame of mind.

Stand and sit with your back erect. Good posture equals a better body.

Wear body slimmers. This 'magic innerwear' makes you look toned, doing wonders for your confidence.

Jogging, swimming, lightweights are all extremely beneficial, and go a long way in not just giving you a good figure but helping you maintain it as well.