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    Renewed Beauty

    Best beauty advice for 2016: Do's and don't's for younger, better-looking skin

    Jennifer Chininis
    Jan 6, 2016 | 11:20 am
    Renee Rouleau
    Renee Rouleau relocated her beauty empire from Dallas to Austin in 2015.
    Courtesy photo

    Even though Renee Rouleau now counts celebrities like Demi Lovato, Emmy Rossum, and Sofia Vergara among her devotees, she remains accessible to those of us slightly less famous. So when we needed some beauty advice to jumpstart our New Year’s resolutions to look and feel better, naturally we turned to the Texan celebrity aesthetician.

     

     Rouleau got her start 27 years ago, inspired by her grandmother who had her own beauty salon — an entrepreneur at a time when most women stayed at home and raised children while the men went off to work. But Rouleau was equally impressed by the power her grandmother wielded.

     

    “Growing up, I observed how women would come in to [my grandmother’s] salon feeling down and would leave glowing — both inside and out,” she says. “I never underestimate how looking good can positively affect women’s self-esteem. So, from a young age, my goal was to get people to like what they saw when they looked in the mirror.”

     

    Last year she moved her headquarters from Dallas to Austin, where she’s finally settled and soaking in the Capital City scene. (She also does pop-up spas in New York and Los Angeles.) Unsurprisingly, Rouleau, who also has a high-performance line of products, was eager to share her skincare do’s and don’ts, as well as her fitness obsession and new guilty pleasure.

     

     CultureMap: What’s the No. 1 most important behavior when it comes to taking care of your skin? Nos. 2 and 3?

     

     Renee Rouleau: No 1, make caring for your skin a priority. Most people will be surprised to know that approximately 30 percent of how your skin ages is genetics, and 70 percent is up to you. You really have a say in the matter of how your skin looks.

     

    Practicing good skincare habits — washing your face morning and night, always using an alcohol-free toner and moisturizer after cleansing, treating your skin to a facial or chemical peel every now and again, and giving your body plenty of beauty sleep at night — will make all the difference in the appearance of your skin. Just like anything in life, the more attention you give to something, the better results you’ll get.

     

    No. 2, find a sunscreen that you’ll enjoy wearing every single day of the year. Sunscreen is the No. 1 best anti-wrinkle product on the planet, but so many formulas available are too heavy and pore clogging for a lot of skin types, so people just give up and don’t use one — which is a huge mistake.

     

    There are many lightweight sunscreens out there; you just need to find one that works for you, and then use it faithfully on both the face and neck. (This one is a used daily by Sofia Vergara.) It’s much easier and less expensive to prevent wrinkles than to get rid of them.

     

    No. 3, know your skin type. It is my belief that to get the best results from your products, you must use those exclusively for your skin type. Many people think they understand what their skin type is, but I find that many people get it wrong.

     

    Common mistakes people make include only focusing on one or two of their skin’s needs instead of looking at the big picture, not understanding the difference between dry and dehydrated skin, and misunderstanding the true meaning of sensitive skin. Always consult a professional aesthetician for product advice or you can take my quick and easy skin-type quiz to help determine your skin’s unique needs.

     

     CM: If there’s one behavior you could get your clients to stop doing, what would it be?

     

     RR: Caring for blemishes the wrong way. People are in the habit of automatically picking at a blemish the minute it appears and/or applying a spot treatment to immediately dry it out — which is all wrong. For most type of blemishes (not including cysts), the infection wants to come out through the surface of the skin as part of the body’s healing process.

     

    When a spot treatment is applied immediately, it dries out the surface of the skin and keeps the infection trapped under the skin when it desperately wants to come out. Then at some point in the blemish process, people will pick and squeeze at it prematurely to get it to come out when it’s not ready.

     

    The best way to handle a blemish (and prevent unnecessary scarring) is to leave it alone, let the infection rise to the surface, and only when you can see the visible whitehead is it OK to gently squeeze it out. Then, applying a spot treatment is beneficial to help dry out any remaining infection that is remaining in the pore.

     

     CM: Assuming you fall down on your beauty regimen on occasion (please tell us you are human!), how do you get back into a good routine?

     

     RR: My version of falling down in my beauty routine is not being regular about applying eye cream at night or doing a mask once a week, which are habits I preach to my clients. I get tired and lazy like most, so the way I get back into my routine is to leave those products out on the counter so they are staring at me and serve as a reminder to use them.

     

     CM: Any product lines you like — besides your own, obviously?

     

     RR: I love turning my shower into a spa experience with Malin + Goetz peppermint body scrub, Whole Foods 365 eucalyptus oil (for inhalation therapy), and Rituals Hammam shower gel in the rosemary/eucalyptus scent.
     
     CM: What kind of makeup do you use?

     

     RR: I dust ColoreScience SPF 50 mineral powder on my skin and hands throughout the day for a quick and easy reapplication of sunscreen. I keep one in my bathroom to dust on in the morning over makeup, one in my handbag for touching up on the go, and a third in my gym bag so I can apply before outdoor workouts. Although it does provide a bit of coverage to even out my skin tone, I think of it more like a skincare product to prevent wrinkles and skin cancer.

     

    For liquid foundation, I like Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation. It makes my pores appear smaller, as well as the wrinkles around my eyes. I also like the overall radiant look of my skin when I use it. It doesn’t feel heavy like a typical liquid foundation makeup and works well for my skin type, which is No. 2.

     

     CM: How do you stay in shape? Do you have a favorite workout?

     

     RR: I love to bicycle around Austin when the weather is nice, and I’m a loyal, five-day-a week CrossFitter. I love the variety CrossFit offers, because it keeps me motivated.

     

    The W.O.D. (workout of the day) changes daily, so no muscle is left untouched, and I never get bored. It challenges me physically in ways that I never would do on my own, such as weightlifting or sit-ups.

     

    I also started running two months ago, so I’ll add that in a few times a week too.

     

     CM: What’s the one item you always have in your handbag?

     

     RR: iPod shuffle with my favorite playlists. I have thousands of songs, but a few artists include Flight Facilities, King Krule, Blood Orange, and Bright Eyes. There’s no going wrong with The Beatles or Van Morrison.

     

     CM: Do you have a New Year’s ritual? Something you do every January? Like clean out your closets or go on a cleanse?

     

     RR: I start journaling about new adventures I’m planning for the year. Sailboating in Croatia, skiing in Québec, riding motorcycles throughout the East Coast, and visiting London and family in France. We moved to Austin last year and relocated our corporate office [from Dallas], so now that things are getting settled, my husband and I are itching to explore the world again.

     

    Oh, and I want to host a Halloween party in our new Austin home too!

     

     CM: Any other advice you’d like to dispense to inspire others this January?

     

     RR: When it comes to achieving goals, accountability is everything. I met a girl at CrossFit, and we both said we wanted to start running outside of our regular workouts. So we created a private message on Facebook, and we report in daily about how we are doing.

     

    We’ve now looped in a few other people, and we all give daily encouragement to one another. Find a partner who shares your same goals, and commit to each other to stay on track.

     
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    Getting a Grip on Getting Fit

    Rigorous seven-day challenge can kick-start your journey to a better you

    Molly McManus
    Feb 4, 2016 | 2:45 pm
    Rigorous seven-day challenge can kick-start your journey to a better you
    Courtesy photo
    CultureMap staff took on challenges ranging from fitness, diet changes, and things we know we should do but don’t.

    It’s that time of the year: Time for fresh starts, new beginnings, and setting goals that we may or may not keep.

     

    To get into the widespread hysteria of making resolutions in 2016, we at CultureMap took on one challenge for the duration of one week. You can do anything for seven days, right? With challenges ranging from physical fitness, diet changes, and things we know we should do but don’t, below you will find a selection of results from our resolutions challenge.

     

     Namaste every day
     Arden Ward, network managing editor
    I'm not new to yoga, but I find it ... challenging ... to maintain a practice without falling victim to long breaks. For the challenge, I sought to end the cycle of lame excuses and get centered once again. To stay engaged, I chose a different class each day. Hint: YogaDownload.com is a great resource for those hitting the mat at home.

     

    This seven-day challenge reaffirmed that carving out time for yoga each day — or the physical activity of your choice — doesn't have to be a chore. Set your intention at the start of the day, just as you do at the beginning of your practice: After work (or before work, if you please) comes this commitment to yourself. Then, on day eight, you might just keep going.

     

     Flossing those pearly whites
     Jess Dudley, account executive
    My goal was to floss every single day. I typically am not a good flosser unless I have just been to the dentist because it makes me feel guilty. I flossed every single day except one. I found that flossing is something I really have to remind myself to do, which I did by keeping the floss out — otherwise I ignore it completely. I admit that while consistent flossing definitely makes my mouth and teeth feel better, it is a challenge to make it habit. The best way to make something a habit is to do it at the same time every single day, however, with flossing I would leave it out on the counter and only floss when I saw it and remembered it. Hoping to make it a regular nighttime habit.

     

     Veg out
     Clifford Pugh, editor-in-chief, Houston
    Going all veggie for five days — no meat or fish — wasn’t as hard as I had thought, since I love salads and most Houston restaurants now offer an abundance of options. Thankfully, there’s a Whole Foods near our office that has a killer salad bar, albeit expensive since it’s by the pound — I didn’t know tofu and feta weighed so much. And a business lunch at Neiman Marcus had several veggie options — I chose a delicious open-faced veggie and cheese melt, but I had to nix the lentil soup when I found out it had a chicken stock base.

     

    Dinner was harder. We made a meal of crispy fried asparagus and veggie-steamed dumplings at a Chinese restaurant one night, and on other nights we devoured veggie and grain bowls, crispy egg rolls from Costco, and fixed an egg-and-cheese omelet with toast.
     
    I felt lighter with my veggie choices, although I consumed more carbs by eating much more bread than usual — including an abundance of croissants and doughnuts. And on the last night of my veggie experiment, I couldn’t resist a lobster roll from a food truck while at a party celebrating the new Midtown Arts and Theater Center in Houston. But I enjoyed the experiment so much I’ve decided to pick two days each week to go meatless. It’s a start.

     

     And I would walk 10,000 steps
     Lindsey Wilson, city editor, Dallas and Fort Worth
    My challenge was to reach at least 10,000 steps on my Fitbit each day, and I made it five out of seven, and only about 1,000 short on those other two days. To be fair, I was in New York City for the first part of the week, and moving/prepping my house to go on the market for the second half. So I easily cleared 10,000 steps on those days.

     

    I normally wear my Fitbit every day and have a general idea of how many steps I get for general activities — walking my dogs is about 2,500, for example — but knowing I was in this challenge made me "take the long way around" on things instead of trying to combine trips or take shortcuts.

     

     No drinky for one weeky
     Molly McManus, city editor, Austin and San Antonio
    As a writer and editor who needs to know what’s happening in Austin’s food and drink scene, there is a lot of much-needed research conducted by tasting and drinking my way through the city’s restaurants and bars. (Tough life, I know.) I decided to take a month off from alcohol, and used this challenge as the starting point. The results were almost immediate. I had more energy, was able to get more accomplished in the day, and felt a lot more clearheaded all around.

     

    I thought I’d be tempted to have a drink at a media tasting I went to, but it was football that did me in. Friends came over for the Sunday game with vodka and Bloody Mary mix in hand and I crumbled. It’s been fun to keep this going, and I’ve been sticking to it since my cheat day.

     

     Stay hydrated
     Jessica Baldwin, network marketing director
    My goal was to drink 75 ounces of water each day. Pros on my extra water intake: I had more energy at the end of the day. Cons on my extra water intake: I had to pee a lot. I will try to maintain the intake — keeping a 50-ounce bottle of water with me at all times definitely helps.

     

     Let's get physical
     Nicole Raney, associate editor, Austin and San Antonio
    My goal was to be more active. I aimed for at least one 30-minute physical activity per day. I already consider myself a pretty active person, but it was definitely a challenge to make "working out" a daily activity — although I'm not sure I can call what I did working out.

     

    Unless you're one of those magical people who thrives off of pumping iron, scheduling a workout sesh into your hectic day-to-day routine can be difficult (especially when all you want to do is watch Netflix). The only reason I succeeded in my one-week challenge was because I incorporated physical activity into something else I was already doing. For example: stretching/lifting weights/yoga/whatever floated my boat while watching Netflix.

     
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