Achieving Beautiful And Flawless Celebrity Skin

Not only vain individuals spend money on skincare. Even the average Joe understands that taking good care of their skin is a must in a world as polluted as ours today. Whenever you step out of the house, you literally brave all the elements that have become synonymous with modern living. It’s even worse if you commute daily because the struggle is definitely real of your daily grind. Now, we all know the skin is the largest organ in the body. It is also our first line of defense against germs and keeps the integrity of our body intact. We get sick when there are breaks and bruises as bacteria and other micro-organisms now have a portal of entry.

For celebrities, keeping their skin clean and healthy isn’t just enough. Their skin has to look fresh and flawless too because it is their ticket to fame and fortune. People won’t spend money watching their movies or seeing them in concerts or events if they just look ordinary. Most celebrities have that star quality and charisma that only people who are self-assured and confident in their body and the way they look exudes. Fans and ordinary people don’t just admire celebrities, they try to imitate them too by taking care of their skin and staying young looking as they age aside from patronizing the brands they endorse.

"Your skin is a window into your habits and lifestyle," says Joanna Vargas, a celebrity facialist with two eponymous salons in L.A. and New York City. Her clients include such famous faces as Sofia Coppola, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Debra Messing. But the good news is that you don't have to step into a salon to get an A-list glow.

To achieve a luminous complexion, start by giving yourself an at-home facial by cleansing skin with a foaming wash, which Vargas says does the best job at getting rid of every bit of dirt, makeup, and residue. Then, follow up with these steps for dewy, glowing skin that's red carpet-ready. Stick with this regimen on a weekly basis and you'll see a noticeable difference in your skin in as little as two weeks.

Exfoliate the right way

After you've cleansed skin, the next step is exfoliation. "There are many benefits," says Vargas. "Improved texture and tone, better product absorption, and so on—but make sure the formula is gentle."

(Via: http://www.health.com/beauty/celebrity-skin-care-secrets)

Caring for your skin is actually more complex than just simply washing it with soap and water, which isn’t exactly a great way to clean your skin as it can be drying. Celebrities follow a certain skin care regimen or a step-by-step process that often starts with exfoliation. You have to start with a clean base. Wipe off every traces of makeup and exfoliate your face to get rid of old skin cells. That in itself will usually give you clear and fresh-looking face.

Along with good nutrition and proper hydration for healthy, luminous skin, an essential skincare routine is vital. "It's super simple," Phillips says, "always wash your face before bed and always apply your skincare routine, morning and night." And "if you have super crazy irritated skin," Phillips urges you to "run, don't walk, to a dermatologist."

After washing your face, the makeup artist explains that you should, "start with the thinnest thing first and work upwards. Go: oil, then serum, then eye cream, then moisturizer." And once you've gotten your routine down pat, the most important thing to prep skin before a big event is time." Give yourself about two hours, starting in the shower. Do a good scrub and use products that won't strip moisture from your skin. Allow for much more face massage time and always incorporate masks, (liquid or sheet) for face and eyes. Also while you're in the shower, do a body mask. It feels and looks luxurious!"

(Via: https://www.wmagazine.com/story/jennifer-lopez-glowing-skin-makeup-tips)

While generally time-consuming, a celebrity-inspired skincare regimen isn’t entirely impossible. You might use up several more products than you are used to but that is a small price to pay to get glowing skin like that of a celebrity. And besides, skincare isn’t just for vanity. I guess there is no reason to reiterate further the importance of caring for your skin since it is the first barrier against certain diseases. And I am sure you also want to age gracefully too. You can defy aging just like your fave stars without necessarily undergoing expensive procedures like they do but still spare yourself from the usual horrors that old people face like skin tags, fine lines, wrinkles, and many others.

The post Achieving Beautiful And Flawless Celebrity Skin was initially published to UP

source https://www.unabashedlyprep.com/site/entry/achieving-beautiful-and-flawless-celebrity-skin/

Google’s Dream Of Speeding Up The Internet

Technology defines today’s world. Wherever you look, you can see all sorts of technological knick-knacks and gadgets that dominate our daily lives. It is almost impossible to live without relying on these futuristic objects that make our lives comfortable and convenient but at the same time more complex and high-maintenance too. Almost all our transaction has gone digital as well. More and more aspects of human life have become computerized and we all start to wonder what is in store in the years to come.

The Internet is instrumental in making all these things happen and it virtually runs our life (inconspicuously) day in and day out. The lines separating the virtual world and real life often times blur and perhaps it will become more interconnected than it already is in the coming years. With the numerous innovations and tech gadgets that have been launched to keep us entertained and assist us in almost everything we do, it seems that the Internet itself can’t keep up with all these innovations and Google is quite well aware of it for quite some time now.

As technology continues to advance at unprecedented speed, it sometimes seems as though the internet can’t seem to keep up. If we could improve internet speeds, however, it could allow emerging technology to flourish, as well as speed up research that’s already ongoing. Engineers at Google well understand the desire for faster internet, and have taken it upon themselves to ramp it up. The company plans to achieve this by creating a new congestion control algorithm, BBR (Bottleneck Bandwidth and Round-trip propagation time). 

BBR, an algorithm that was standardized back in the 1980s, detects when a network is overwhelmed and responds by slowing down data transfers. The algorithm might not seem all that significant, but it actually plays a huge role in internet speed. BBR is currently allowing companies and individuals that use Google’s Cloud Platform to access it andthe speed that comes with it. But Google wants to take this algorithm one step further by publicly publishing it, and incorporating it into the TCP transmission standard. That move would have a ripple effect across the entire internet.

(Via: https://futurism.com/google-wants-to-make-the-internet-faster-heres-how/)

We all scream for faster Internet. It’s actually a bigger problem in developing countries where the Internet speed is as fast as that of a tortoise. It’s no joke. For more developments to take place, the Internet should be on par with what we need although it isn’t always easy considering how crowded the web has become. Hence, Google’s answer is to decongest the Internet in order to speed it up.

For example, after Google in March started using a congestion control algorithm of its own design with YouTube, it saw an speed increase of 4% worldwide — and a 14% gain in some countries, according to a blog entry.

That kind of a gain may seem small, but it represents the average boost and takes into account every single site visit. From that perspective, the boost translates into a meaningful difference.

The new congestion control algorithm, which Google calls BBR, for Bottleneck Bandwidth and Round-trip propagation time, is just another example of the search giant's push to improve network speeds, said Neal Cardwell, a senior staff software engineer at the company. Google is trying to light a fire under the tech industry and spur it to follow suit, he said.

"Google wants to help the internet get as fast as it can," Cardwell said. 

(Via: http://www.businessinsider.com/google-gets-faster-with-new-congestion-control-algorithms-2017-7)

Google has always shown a keen interest in improving the web and it shouldn’t come out as a surprise to everyone knowing that Google is primarily a web-based business. Aside from developing this congestion control algorithm, they’ve also dabbled with other anti-congestion measures in the past that ultimately aims to boost Internet speed over time. The company then plans to publish this algorithm so that web developers can access it anytime they need it. They are encouraging other companies to use the BBR because by improving the web can we only come up with more daring and mind-blowing innovations the world needs today.

Google’s Dream Of Speeding Up The Internet See more on: Unabashedlyprep.com

source https://www.unabashedlyprep.com/site/entry/googles-dream-of-speeding-up-the-internet/

How Is President Trump As A Leader

Politics is a dirty game. How many times have we heard it over the years? Politicians are a breed of their own. Not everyone is meant to spend their lives in public service. However, not all politicians are all born leaders too. Some win by sheer charm alone or because they are good talkers but that does not mean they are meant to be a leader. It can also be that they can lead others but in a different way, in the world of business perhaps but not necessarily as a public leader holding an official function in the government.

We can’t deny that President Donald Trump won the election fair and square. And for several months now, he has been leading all Americans into the future – what kind that is, we don’t know yet. Despite his undeniable success in the poll, people are now complaining as to the type of leader he has become. Many are even doubtful that he’ll be able to realize his promise of making America great again when he has done nothing really of immense value so far aside from issuing lots of travel bans, trying to abolish the Affordable Care Act, and holding lavish meetings with world leaders in his exclusive clubs, etc.

He threatened. He tweeted. He lost.

President Donald Trump might be forgiven for thinking he could bully U.S. senators to vote for a measure even GOP lawmakers said they did not actually want to become law. They needed a win, the president needed a win and the bare-knuckled tactics had worked before, helping him to win the presidential election.

Instead, Trump was hit with a major loss in the wee hours of Friday morning, when three tough-as-nails Republican senators joined a united Democratic caucus to defeat a partial repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Republicans promised that the so-called "skinny repeal," which would have eliminated the health insurance mandate of Obamacare, was just a vehicle to force a negotiating session with the House on a more comprehensive package.

(Via: https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2017-07-28/donald-trump-gets-schooled-in-the-ways-of-washington)

Despite winning the presidency, he still hasn’t let go of his fascination with Twitter. His tweets were always mostly controversial and Trump’s actions continue to divide the country instead of uniting everyone in rebuilding the greatness of America. It’s quite confusing now what his intentions really are and how he sees the presidency and his role as president of the country. Even the ones who voted for him during the last election isn't exactly quite happy with the way he is leading the US so far.

In the end, nothing was more damaging to the Republican effort to repeal Obamacare than President Donald Trump himself. His performance in handling the first major legislative initiative of his administration was a complete failure of leadership. Had this been an episode of "The Apprentice," someone would be sitting around the boardroom table telling the commander in chief, "You're fired!"

Yes, it is difficult to dismantle any major piece of social policy. Once Americans become used to a program, no matter how controversial, taking away those benefits often fails. History is filled with examples, such as Social Security, where battles to retrench the social safety net go down in flames. But the Senate Republicans fell only one vote short of the number needed to keep the repeal effort alive.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is blaming the Democrats for the defeat that makes him look like much less than a master of the Senate.

Yet in this case the President must bear a huge part of the burden. This was an epic fail. With united government, a stunned Democratic Party and a promise to repeal that had been the rallying cry for the GOP since Congress passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010, Republicans faced pretty good odds that they could get some kind of bill to the President's desk. 

(Via: http://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/28/opinions/trump-complete-failure-of-leadership-opinion-zelizer/index.html)

Since the campaign, Trump was adamant in abolishing Obamacare – former President Obama’s legacy to the US. While flawed in itself, it does not mean that Obamacare isn’t serving its purpose. And besides, even the new healthcare bill being cooked up by the Republicans isn’t as great either with many Americans on the verge of losing access to basic health care services and insurance coverage if passed. But despite his immense power as the US President, even the simple act of updating the nation’s healthcare system is a total failure so far as he failed to gain the necessary votes from legislators. President Trump always took to social media to air his sentiments and perhaps the people are finally seeing his real color and capacity as a leader that’s where all this chaos and conflict is coming from.

How Is President Trump As A Leader Read more on: UnabashedlyPrep.com

source https://www.unabashedlyprep.com/site/entry/how-is-president-trump-as-a-leader/

The Dangers Of Mega Farms

The world’s population is on the rise, especially in big cities. Many skyscrapers are filled to the brim and space is more expensive than ever. With more mouths to feed and our resources already dwindling, the simple act of getting everyone fed, clothed, and taken cared of becomes a big challenge. Then, there is the problem with global warming that is affecting food production and reducing food supply aside from worsening natural calamities and disasters that make it harder for us to survive. The demand for food is ever increasing. If you rely on nature to simply provide for us, millions will probably die.

While the majority of us see problems, entrepreneurs see opportunities. The answer to this global dilemma perhaps lies in the concept of mega farms. In essence, a mega farm is simply an extremely large, factory-style farm. While mega farms solve a big chunk of the world’s problem, it has totally transformed the farming industry and ordinary farmers are suffering in the process especially that big corporations are involved in mega farming.

Nearly every county in England has at least one industrial-scale livestock farm, with close to 800 US-style mega farms operating across the UK, new research reveals.

The increase in mega farms – which critics describe as “cruel and unnecessary” – is part of a 26% rise in intensive factory farming in six years, a shift that is transforming the British countryside. 

Only 12 counties in the UK now host no pig or poultry farms classified as intensive by the Environment Agency. To be classed as intensive, a farm must have warehouses with more than 40,000 birds, 2,000 pigs or 750 breeding sows.

Herefordshire has more than 16 million factory-farmed animals, mainly poultry – which means the county has 88 times more factory-farmed animals than it does humans. Shropshire and Norfolk follow closely, with more than 15 million and 12 million animals respectively. Nearly every county in England and Northern Ireland has at least one mega farm, and they are also scattered across Scotland and Wales.

(Via: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/17/uk-has-nearly-800-livestock-mega-farms-investigation-reveals)

In the UK alone, over 800 mega farms exist to feed the Brits. They are mainly there to boost food production and generate work for many locals not just to farmers alone but they make it harder for the average farmer to survive and make both ends meet and not to mention the many cases of animal abuse, environmental destruction, and pollution issues that accompany mega farming. Even animal rights advocates aren’t too thrilled at the thought of factory farming but they exist and they’d probably be here for the long haul.

The “unnoticed” expansion of mega-farms raises serious concerns about farm animal welfare and our food system (Mega-farms transforming UK countryside, 18 July). Even less visible is the air pollution generated by intensively housed animals and the devastating impact it is having on nearby wildlife.

At high concentrations, such as from these mega-farms, ammonia and other nitrogen emissions cause direct damage to lichens, mosses and other plants, including bleaching and discolouration.

In polluted, nitrogen-rich “fertile” conditions more vigorous, “thuggish” species thrive, making it near impossible for more sensitive wildflowers to survive. Plants known to be particularly at risk from air pollution include harebell (Campanula rotundifolia), which was recently classified as near-threatened in England, and bird’s-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus), which supports more invertebrates than any other herb. Soil fungi and their dependents, including many cherished orchids, are also especially vulnerable. Species richness depletion from air pollution has knock-on effects for bees, birds and all the other wildlife which depend on healthy plantlife.

(Via: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/25/mega-farms-devastating-effects-go-far-beyond-the-chicken-shed)

We don’t ignore the benefits offered by these mega farms as food production should definitely be increased to keep up with the demands of the times. However, the planet is suffering mainly because of negligent and harmful human activities like factory farming. This type of intensive farming aims to boost productivity but at a cost and the environment may be on the losing end here. There are pros and cons to mega farming and we can’t deny it does serve its purpose. The best we can do is get ourselves educated on concepts like this one and enrich our knowledge about other environmental conservation efforts we can try to protect Mother Earth from more harm.

The Dangers Of Mega Farms was first published to The UP Blog

source https://www.unabashedlyprep.com/site/entry/the-dangers-of-mega-farms/

The Growing Popularity Of Online Shopping

Technology rules the world today. You use various tech gadgets in your every move and that is simply how society works now. Along with its progress is the rise of online shopping. Why exert more effort into going to malls and spending hours of your precious time trying on clothes or shoes when you can simply purchase one with the click of a button. You no longer also have to make do with whatever options there are in the store when you can hop from one online shop to another regardless of the store’s physical location and have more options. You can even have your items shipped to your home even free of shipping and handling fees for a minimum purchase.

By shopping online, you save from the extra expense of gas or transportation and all the consequential expenses a trip to the mall includes like food or snacks, impulse spending, etc. All these are made possible with the rise of the Internet. It’s probably the sheer convenience of online shopping that makes it such a hit with virtually everyone who has access to the web. Also, you don’t always even have to own a credit card to be able to make online purchases as some can be paid cash on delivery.

In fact, not only is Amazon's search engine considered to be a "powerful rival" to Google, the online shopping site is beating Google to become the first stop for online shoppers, Statista noted.

Statista, citing a UPS survey of more than 5,000 people who shop online, noted that Amazon is the first choice of destination by a notable margin: 29 percent. Search engines, including Google's, ranks second at 15 percent, followed by a retail store at 13 percent and the retailer's website at 12 percent.

Other online marketplaces rank at 9 percent and perhaps surprisingly, a retailer's app ranks last at just 4 percent.

"In their quest for efficiency, serious shoppers want to find the most information on the greatest number of products in the least amount of time," the UPS report stated. "Marketplaces in general have positioned themselves as the first stop for heavy shoppers, who are doing more shopping online."

(Via: https://www.benzinga.com/general/psychology/17/07/9795403/amazon-is-the-google-of-shopping-a-third-of-americans-first-look-on)

Online shopping often offers the best prices on various commodities since the products are often sold directly by its manufacturers or the brands itself. You can also take advantage of rebates and discount coupons that can reduce the price significantly. And did I mention choices already? The choices are almost endless since you can choose from various brands all in one place like Amazon, for instance.

Amazon has launched a new online store aimed at providing shoppers with everything they didn’t even know they wanted yet.

The retail giant's new Shop The Future store brings together advanced analytics and future-gazing predictions to bring together the next must-have products in one handy online portal.

Covering areas from home electronics to beauty and soft furnishings, the new store will offer an easy way to browse and get your hands on the next big thing. 

“At Amazon.co.uk, we already offer over 250 million products that our customers want now and which they might want in the future, from household goods and fashion to technology, the latest music and entertainment and food and drink," said Jamie Heywood, director, electronics, Amazon.co.uk. 

(Via: http://www.itproportal.com/news/this-is-amazons-view-of-the-future-of-online-shopping/)

Tools like these ones offered by Amazon enable consumers to make price comparisons even more easily. It is likewise even more appealing for individuals who hate crowds and don’t want to rush through when making purchases not to mention the traffic you have to deal with when leaving the house alongside parking issues.

And to top it off, one of the best reasons you got to love online shopping is for when you are making a discreet purchase like that of a sex toy or sexy lingerie. Imagine the comfort and convenience of shopping for one without constantly avoiding the questioning gaze of shop assistants or feeling embarrassed to be caught red-handed in buying such taboo items. I am sure by now you yourself prefer to shop online too although you can’t still completely do away with conventional shopping.

The Growing Popularity Of Online Shopping Find more on: Unabashedly Prep Blog

source https://www.unabashedlyprep.com/site/entry/the-growing-popularity-of-online-shopping/