Are We Doing Too Much to Our Faces? Dr. Karam on What Works and What’s Hype

There have never been more ways to “do something” about aging. Botox starts earlier, collagen banking is everywhere, at home devices promise professional level results, and the line between prevention and simply doing too much can get blurry fast.

So we went back to Dr. Amir Karam, one of the most recognized names in facial rejuvenation. The double board certified facial plastic surgeon has spent more than two decades studying how faces age, performed thousands of facial procedures, and built an audience of nearly one million on Instagram for his refreshingly direct approach to what actually works.

We’ve previously talked to him about aging, identity, and what it means to still feel like yourself and how to future proof your face. This time, we asked him to cut through the noise: What’s worth doing, what’s being oversold, and where can we all afford to do a little less?

So, What’s Actually Worth Doing to Your Face?

When someone says, “I just want to look younger,” what are the first things you look at before recommending any treatment?

It always starts with improving the quality of their skin. Youthful, bright, glowing skin plays a huge role in the appearance of youth. This is always where I start.

But it realistically depends on their age, of course. If they’re on the younger side, say in their early 40s and younger, improving their skin quality, a little bit of Botox, and possibly a touch of volume can do the trick. Once you’re in the late 40s and early 50s and structural laxity is present, a facelift would be in the near future to make a meaningful change.

“Collagen banking” is being promoted earlier and earlier. Is there real evidence that starting lasers, RF microneedling, ultrasound, or injectables before visible aging appears changes how someone ages long term, or is much of this prejuvenation hype?

As a concept, this does make a lot of sense. However, the particular application doesn’t have to be so complicated. Botox and injectables have nothing to do with collagen banking. The concept is that collagen production decreases year over year starting in our mid-20s.

The most effective way to address this is by reducing the breakdown of existing collagen with sun protection and by using skincare actives like retinol and vitamin C as some examples of topicals that help with collagen production and protection. To take it one step further, in-office treatments like regular microneedling can help stimulate collagen. The name of the game is to try to outpace collagen loss. With consistency, this can be achieved for the most part.

Some patients find that Botox, Dysport, or Daxxify stops lasting as long or no longer produces the same effect after years of injections. When that happens, what should they actually do next? Should they change the dose or placement, switch products, take a break, or be evaluated for true treatment resistance?

It’s very unlikely that the neuromodulators stopped working. I almost never see this. However, the expectations of what they can achieve as you age definitely change, and the distribution and dosage you use should also change with age.

When you’re younger, in your 30s and 40s, a little bit of Botox around your eyes and forehead can make you look significantly more refreshed. But if you use that same distribution when you’re in your 50s or 60s, oftentimes the change will be significantly less impressive because of the overall changes that are happening with laxity around the eyes, brows, etc. In fact, in many cases as you age, you want to avoid putting Botox in your forehead altogether to keep the brows from drifting down. So the tactical approach changes with age.

However, if there’s truly a resistance that happens to a particular neuromodulator, for example, if Botox stops having any impact, then it is reasonable to try a different neuromodulator.

From your perspective, which nonsurgical treatments produce a genuinely noticeable result, and which are marketed as far more transformative than they really are?

My honest opinion is that there really isn’t a nonsurgical treatment that can meaningfully lift the face.

At-home red light masks, microcurrent tools, gua sha, and facial devices are now treated almost like essentials. Which can meaningfully support the skin over time, and which mainly create a temporary effect that disappears within hours?

The foundation to beautiful, youthful skin that improves year over year starts with sun protection and the use of active skincare ingredients such as retinol, vitamin C, niacinamide, ceramides, lipids, and hyaluronic acid. This is responsible for well over 90% of the changes you can ever hope to expect.

Only if you have covered these bases should you venture into at-home devices to give you a few extra percentage points of improvement. The best category here would be red light devices, in my opinion. They are safe and have some science to back them up.

I like microneedling as well, but I get nervous with people doing it at home because of the risk of infection if they don’t clean the needles correctly.

Under-eye filler was once the go-to treatment for hollowness, but more patients are now turning to PRF as a more natural alternative. What is your take on that shift, and when does PRF make more sense than filler?

PRF is not a volume-enhancing tool. It does help with improving skin quality, but it does not bring any meaningful volume back to the lower eyelids. For somebody who has moderate to severe volume loss, they’ll be very disappointed if they’re using PRF to help them with lower eyelid hollows.

For somebody whose primary concerns are crepiness and thinning of the skin, with perhaps an extremely mild appearance of hollows, they may see an overall improvement with this approach.

Fat transfer and filler using HA are still the most reliable ways of addressing lower-eye hollowing.

What are the three most worthwhile things women over 35 can do for their faces, and the three things they can confidently stop spending money on?

Sun protection. KaramMD Trifecta. Botox.

They can confidently stop spending money on everything else.

Let’s talk skincare. Doctor-founded skincare has become its own crowded category. You have been very clear that KaramMD was not created from a white-label formula. What formulation decision in KaramMD could only have come from spending two decades studying how faces and skin age instead of just a list of trending ingredients?

I formed a deep understanding of how skin ages over the years. I’ve been treating skin from the day I started practicing. Combining different categories to address the key changes that were happening with age was a fundamental starting point.

I knew that everyone is losing collagen. The skin is getting thinner, leading to lines and wrinkles. I knew that pigment is increasing, leading to sunspots and discoloration. I knew the skin is becoming dehydrated and flaccid. I also knew that the skin barrier was changing for the worse as we age. Ultimately, aged skin would be characterized by fine lines and wrinkles, discoloration, dullness, roughness, and sensitivity.

I’ve been actively addressing all of these regions, but with separate bottles for each ingredient. The results were fine, but patients were unable to remain consistent with these products because oftentimes the routines would be six to ten steps.

So my goal was to combine everything into as few steps as possible while still addressing every aspect of skin aging. That’s what led to the KaramMD Trifecta.

The KaramMD Trifecta combines 24 active ingredients and is designed to replace several separate skincare categories. For someone who already has a vitamin C serum, retinoid, peptide product, and moisturizer they like, what does the system offer that a pieced-together routine may not, and when is it actually worth clearing the counter and making the switch?

If somebody is already using every category of skincare, the Trifecta may not plug any holes. But it’s extremely uncommon for somebody to be using everything that’s already in the KaramMD Trifecta.

If we assume that they are, then what they would be getting is a streamlined system that takes them a minute or two and just three steps, as opposed to a significant amount of time and energy to apply all the different steps. But I can always find something that is lacking in someone’s skincare routine that can be covered with the Trifecta.

The post Are We Doing Too Much to Our Faces? Dr. Karam on What Works and What’s Hype appeared first on The Chalkboard Mag.

from The Chalkboard Mag https://ift.tt/qWSfKjJ
via IFTTT

DedCool’s New Mocha Magic Is the Cozy Gourmand We’re Wearing Into Colder Weather

Some of the links in this story are affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission if you choose to purchase helping us continue to share mindful, inspiring content.

We have had DedCool Mochi Milk in heavy rotation since it launched, so when we got a sneak peek of the brand’s newest fragrance, Mocha Magic, we were immediately curious.

Launching today at DedCool and Sephora, Mocha Magic is the brand’s most decadent gourmand yet, built around freshly ground espresso, creamy mocha and tonka bean. It is warm, addictive and arriving at exactly the right time as we start transitioning into colder weather. Think sweaters coming back into rotation, dinners moving indoors and that first moment you find yourself reaching for something a little richer.

This is also the kind of fragrance that is going to have people stopping you to ask what you are wearing.

What Does DedCool Mocha Magic Smell Like?

Mocha Magic opens with the unmistakable richness of freshly ground espresso and mocha, softened almost immediately by cream. Biscotti and toffee add sweetness, while bourbon gives the fragrance a little more depth.

As it settles on the skin, vanilla, tonka bean and sandalwood come through, creating a warmer, smoother finish.

For a fragrance with coffee, chocolate, toffee and vanilla in the mix, it could easily have gone very sweet. Instead, there is enough depth to keep everything feeling balanced and sophisticated.

It is gourmand, but not overly sugary. Cozy, but not sleepy. Rich, without becoming heavy.

There Is More to the Coffee Note

Mocha Magic also features DedCool’s Balance Note™, a fragrance technology developed with perfumers around coffee’s ability to feel both energizing and grounding.

It is an interesting idea because coffee is rarely just about caffeine. There is the lift you get from it, but there is also the ritual. Making it in the morning, sitting down with a cup in the afternoon or walking into a coffee shop and immediately recognizing that smell.

Mocha Magic plays with both sides. Espresso gives the fragrance an initial energy, while creamy mocha, tonka bean, vanilla and sandalwood bring in that warmer sense of comfort.

DedCool even translated the concept into something you could taste ahead of the fragrance launch, with drink collaborations at Erewhon in Los Angeles and The Elk in New York.

Why We’re Reaching for It as the Weather Cools Down

There is something about cooler weather that naturally makes us want to switch up fragrance too. The airy, barely there scents we gravitate toward during warmer months start making room for something with a little more depth.

Mocha Magic hits that sweet spot.

The espresso and bourbon give it richness, while cream, vanilla and tonka bean keep everything soft and inviting. Sandalwood grounds it enough that the fragrance never feels like you are wearing a literal coffee drink.

It is easy to imagine wearing this to dinner, on a night out or simply during the day once temperatures start dropping. There is a coziness to it that feels especially good heading into colder months without making it a fragrance you can only wear during one specific season.

We will be wearing it on its own, but we are also planning to layer it with Mochi Milk when we want to make the combination even softer and creamier.

The Gourmand We’ll Be Wearing Next

Gourmand fragrance is having a serious moment, but Mocha Magic does not feel like another vanilla forward scent trying to capitalize on it. Coffee gives it personality. Toffee and biscotti bring in just enough sweetness. Bourbon, tonka bean and sandalwood give the dry down more dimension.

The result feels comforting and familiar while still having enough intrigue to make someone lean in a little closer. And as we trade warmer days for cooler nights, that is exactly the kind of fragrance we want in rotation.

DedCool Mocha Magic launches September 14 at DedCool and Sephora. Get it here.

The post DedCool’s New Mocha Magic Is the Cozy Gourmand We’re Wearing Into Colder Weather appeared first on The Chalkboard Mag.

from The Chalkboard Mag https://ift.tt/GBvy8g1
via IFTTT

Is There Actually a Best Time to Sleep and Wake Up? Here’s What the Research Says

We hear a lot about getting seven to nine hours of sleep, but there is another question worth asking: does it matter what time you actually go to bed and wake up?

Increasingly, research suggests it might. There is no scientifically established perfect bedtime for everyone, but several large studies have found better health outcomes among people who consistently fall asleep around 10 to 11 PM and wake around 6 to 7 AM.

That does not mean everyone needs to be in bed by 10 sharp. The bigger takeaway is that sleep timing, sleep duration and consistency all matter, and routinely pushing bedtime much later may not be the same as getting those same eight hours earlier.

What Is the Best Time to Go to Sleep?

One of the largest studies looking at bedtime and heart health analyzed sleep data from more than 100,000 UK Biobank participants.

Published in European Heart Journal Digital Health, the study found that people who fell asleep between 10:00 and 10:59 PM had the lowest incidence of cardiovascular disease.

Those who regularly fell asleep at midnight or later had a 25 percent higher adjusted risk of cardiovascular disease compared with the 10 PM group. Interestingly, going to bed much earlier was not necessarily better either, suggesting there may be a sweet spot rather than a simple rule that earlier is always healthier.

Because this was an observational study, it cannot prove that going to bed at 10 PM prevents heart disease. Still, researchers accounted for factors including sleep duration, sleep irregularity, chronotype, smoking, diabetes and blood pressure, making the pattern worth paying attention to.

What Is the Best Time to Wake Up?

A separate study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine looked at both bedtime and wake time.

Researchers found the lowest estimated risk of all cause and cardiovascular mortality around an 11 PM bedtime, while the lowest mortality risk associated with wake time landed around 7 AM.

That does not mean waking at 7:01 suddenly becomes unhealthy. Wake time is tied to everything from work schedules and exercise to daylight exposure and overall health, but the fact that several studies land in a similar window gives us a useful place to start.

And when you wake may only be part of the equation. How you wake up can matter too, particularly when it comes to morning light, cortisol and being jolted out of deeper sleep.

Is 11 PM to 7 AM the Ideal Sleep Schedule?

For someone with a traditional daytime schedule, 11 PM to 7 AM is a very reasonable target. It gives you eight hours of sleep opportunity while keeping most of your sleep within the biological night.

An equally reasonable schedule could be 10:30 PM to 6:30 AM or 10 PM to 6 AM, depending on how much sleep your body actually needs. The important part is not chasing an exact clock time at the expense of getting enough sleep.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute recommends roughly seven to nine hours of sleep for adults, while the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends regularly getting at least seven hours.

If you want to go deeper on why sleep matters beyond simply feeling rested, we recently looked at what the science of sleep tells us about health and performance. For most adults, though, seven to nine hours remains a useful target.

Does Sleeping Late Matter If You Still Get Eight Hours?

It is easy to assume that eight hours from 2 AM to 10 AM is biologically identical to eight hours from 11 PM to 7 AM. Sleep researchers are increasingly questioning that assumption.

Your body does not just measure sleep in hours. Sleep is tied to your circadian rhythm, the internal clock that helps regulate sleepiness, hormones, metabolism, body temperature and alertness throughout the day.

Light is one of the strongest signals controlling that clock. According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, bright light earlier in the day can help shift sleep and wake times earlier, while bright light at night can push the circadian system later.

If your sleep schedule has slowly started drifting later, resetting your circadian rhythm can start with something as simple as reconsidering your light exposure throughout the day.

That helps explain why researchers are interested in very late sleep. Going to bed at 2 or 3 AM often means more artificial light late at night and less light exposure early in the morning, which can continue shifting your internal clock later.

What If You Are Naturally a Night Owl?

Chronotype is real. Some people naturally feel sleepy earlier and wake easily in the morning, while others feel more alert and productive later at night.

But being a night owl may not completely erase the effects of consistently late sleep. A 2024 study of nearly 74,000 UK Biobank participants found that later sleep timing was associated with poorer mental health even among people who identified as evening types.

Based on their findings, the researchers suggested avoiding routinely starting sleep after 1 AM. That does not mean every night owl needs to suddenly force a 10 PM bedtime, but regularly drifting into 1, 2 or 3 AM territory may be worth reconsidering.

Of course, sometimes being a night owl has less to do with chronotype and more to do with revenge bedtime procrastination, that very familiar habit of staying up because nighttime finally feels like your own.

Consistency May Matter Just as Much

If there is one sleep habit worth paying more attention to, it is keeping your bedtime and wake time relatively consistent.

A large study published in Sleep analyzed more than 10 million hours of wearable sleep data from nearly 61,000 people. Those with more consistent sleep schedules had significantly lower mortality risk than people with highly irregular sleep patterns.

In the researchers’ models, sleep regularity was actually a stronger predictor of mortality than sleep duration. That does not mean sleep duration suddenly matters less, but it does suggest that healthy sleep is about more than simply hitting an eight hour total.

Another study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that people whose sleep onset varied by more than 90 minutes from night to night had roughly twice the risk of developing cardiovascular disease compared with those whose sleep timing varied by 30 minutes or less.

Practically, your body likely prefers a fairly consistent 11 PM bedtime over going to bed at 10 PM during the week and 2 AM every weekend.

What a Realistic Sleep Schedule Looks Like

Taken together, the research gives us a surprisingly simple starting point. For most adults with a daytime schedule, aiming to fall asleep around 10:30 to 11 PM and wake around 6:30 to 7 AM is reasonable, adjusting earlier if you need more sleep.

Just as importantly, try to keep that window fairly consistent. You do not need to go to bed at exactly the same minute every night, but regularly shifting your sleep schedule by several hours makes it harder for your circadian rhythm to stay anchored.

Morning light can help too. Getting outside shortly after waking gives your brain a strong daytime signal, while reducing bright lighting and screen exposure later at night can make the transition into sleep easier.

So, What Time Should You Actually Go to Bed?

If you are looking for a practical answer, current research points toward sleeping around 10 to 11 PM and waking around 6 to 7 AM as a strong general range for adults on a traditional daytime schedule.

But the goal is not to obsess over a perfect bedtime. A healthier sleep routine is about getting enough total sleep, keeping your sleep and wake times fairly steady, getting daylight earlier in the day and avoiding making 1 or 2 AM your regular bedtime.

The bigger shift may be thinking beyond the question, “Did I get eight hours?” Research increasingly suggests that when you sleep and how consistently you keep that schedule matter too.

For most of us, that is probably a lot more useful than another sleep hack.

The post Is There Actually a Best Time to Sleep and Wake Up? Here’s What the Research Says appeared first on The Chalkboard Mag.

from The Chalkboard Mag https://ift.tt/r3NB0OQ
via IFTTT

Peptides, Growth Factors and Minoxidil: The Best Hair Growth Treatments, According to a Dermatologist

Hair growth is a crowded category, but the treatments with the strongest science behind them are still relatively few. Minoxidil and finasteride remain two of the most established options, while peptides and growth factors are emerging as newer ways to support the hair cycle.

We asked board-certified dermatologist Amy Forman Taub, MD, FAAD, and clinical researcher for KeraFactor, to break down what actually works, who each treatment is best for, and where newer scalp-focused formulas fit in.

Hair growth has become such a crowded category. When a patient comes to you concerned about thinning or shedding, how do you determine what is actually causing it before recommending a treatment?

This is a very complicated question. It is best diagnosed by your dermatologist. But in very simplistic terms the most common causes are androgenetic alopecia and telogen effluvium. The former is classic male and female pattern hair loss, onset is gradual. Males have a receding hairline at the front and temples and loss of hair on the crown, and females traditionally have hair loss on the top of their head and crown, but can have frontal or temporal loss too. Telogen is more sudden shedding and is not in a pattern, but is diffuse. There can be combos. There is also a whole list of scarring and inflammatory hair loss that has different findings. 

When we talk about the “best” hair growth treatments, which options currently have the strongest evidence behind them, and how do you decide which treatment is right for which patient?

Most hair loss treatments are typically focused on androgenetic alopecia. The ones with the best literature are minoxidil and finasteride, but this hasn't changed for many years. There is some good evidence that platelet rich plasma is helpful, but it is hindered by pain with injection, the need to remove and prepare blood properly to get the plasma, and inconsistent quality due to donor health and age.  There is some emerging data that certain combinations of growth factors and other peptides can stimulate hair regrowth, and these can be manufactured biomimetically so that the dosage can be controlled in a finished product. 

What is the difference between topical and oral minoxidil when it comes to effectiveness, side effects and who is a good candidate for each?

Compliance is a big issue with topical minoxidil. Applying a serum that can be oily and/or messy every day can be a challenge for many. Many women, particularly, don't shampoo every day. It is easier to take a pill daily. There appears to be no difference between the two in terms of effectiveness. 

Finasteride, commonly known by the brand name Propecia, is another established treatment for male pattern hair loss. How does it work differently from minoxidil, and who is the best candidate for it?

Finasteride blocks dihydrotestosterone, the molecule responsible for the miniaturization of hairs, ultimately leading to the hair's disappearance. This is not the only factor causing hair loss, as it is quite complex. Minoxidil increases some growth factors that resist the miniaturization of hairs. Finasteride cannot be taken by women of childbearing years due to a potential for causing testosterone blockage in a developing fetus.

Can minoxidil and finasteride be used together, and is combination therapy generally more effective than using either treatment alone? and is it true that once you start minoxidi or finasteridel, you essentially have to continue using it to maintain the results? What typically happens when someone stops?

Yes they can be taken together and there is evidence that they work better than either alone, since they work on different aspects of hair growth. If one stops using either of these, the effects of the stimulation and/or blockage are not maintained and there will be a gradual return to the hair loss which may seem worse than before but isn't- a person with return or the baseline they would have been at their current age and not at the age they started treatment. 

Where do newer approaches like peptides and growth factors fit alongside minoxidil and finasteride? Are they alternatives, complementary treatments or targeting entirely different aspects of hair growth?

Growth factors and peptides are more aligned with minoxidil and prp as they work to stimulate all phases of hair growth. There are 4 stages of hair growth and a serum can be made it include the factors that affect all four. Minoxidil effect is dependent on a persons ability to change it internally into another chemical that is the actual effector - many people do not have a sufficient amount of that enzyme so the results can be variable. Women have a variable response to finasteride- they need a higher dose than men and can only take if menopausal. Spironolactone is another hormonal based treatment for females but the data is not robust.

Your work with KeraFactor grew out of a more scalp-first approach to hair rejuvenation. What did you feel was missing from the traditional hair growth category when the brand was being developed?

We knew that growth factors were effective for hair growth due to the success of PRP, but wanted to have a product that would address all stages of growth and not have an issue with variability in quantity or quality, not to mention being practical since it is off the shelf. Many people wanted to avoid the potential side effects of hormonal or other therapy or they weren't seeing enough results. 

KeraFactor uses biomimetic growth factors and peptides. Which growth factors and peptides are central to the formula, and what role is each one intended to play in supporting the scalp and hair follicle?

This could be a very long and scientific answer. While I can't go over every single ingredient, I will highlight a few: VEGF stimulates blood vessels around the follicle which is essential to deliver nutrients, EGF helps the hair shaft grow and develop its structure and the latter is missing from PRP as platelets are focused on healing and there is some overlap but not 100%. FGF stimulates the mature hair cycle to be turned on from resting phases.

What clinical research or testing has been done on the KeraFactor formulations, and what results have been most meaningful to you as a dermatologist?

One study has been published definitively showing that a 1927 laser paired with KeraFactor serum was better than laser alone when performed  monthly for 3 times.  An upcoming study has been completed in Europe, and we are awaiting publication, but the results are not yet available. It is also meaningful to me to hear from my patients consistently that KeraFactor has helped their hair growth whether just topically or with microneedling or laser. I personally have found the take home products very effective for improving my hair quality and density.

The post Peptides, Growth Factors and Minoxidil: The Best Hair Growth Treatments, According to a Dermatologist appeared first on The Chalkboard Mag.

from The Chalkboard Mag https://ift.tt/DowXYMT
via IFTTT

What Motherhood Taught Beekeeper’s Naturals Founder Carly Kremer About Raising Kids Who Care About Nature

Carly Kremer has spent years making the case that bees belong in the wellness conversation. When we last caught up with the Beekeeper’s Naturals founder for our Living Well series, she talked propolis, purpose, motherhood and the surprising lessons the hive has taught her about building a company. More recently, as we explored wellness’s growing pollinator problem, Beekeeper’s Naturals became part of a bigger conversation about the relationship between our own wellbeing and the natural systems we depend on.

Now, Kremer is bringing that conversation to a much younger audience with her debut children’s book, Little Bee and the Bloom. Inspired in part by motherhood, the book introduces kids to bees, pollination and our connection to nature through a story designed to inspire curiosity rather than fear. We caught up with Kremer about raising a daughter who counts bees in the garden, why she believes kids should fall in love with nature before they learn to worry about it, and the bigger message she hopes families take away from the book.

In Conversation with Carly Kremer

You’ve spent years building a business around bees, but motherhood has given you a very different lens on them. What has changed most in the way you think about nature now that you’re responsible for introducing it to a child?

I’d spent a lot of time thinking about how to help adults care about bees and the environment more broadly. Before becoming a mom and writing this book, I hadn’t thought a lot about how to get kids to care. Funnily enough, though, I don’t think they’re that different. Stories can move us from a very early age. Research shows that when kids are introduced to nature picture books, they’re more likely to be aware of their environmental impact.

Beyond what the research says, I see it firsthand with my daughter. Before reading the book, she had a familiarity with bees because of the products she uses and hearing me talk about them. But after reading the book, now she, like, really cares about bees. The other day I found her singing to a bee she found in the backyard.

You’ve created a pollinator garden with your daughter and talked about letting her take part in planting it. What have you noticed about the difference between teaching kids about nature and actually giving them a relationship with it?

I’ve found that the natural world fascinates her. Just going out in the garden and exploring–you see so much activity. So much life. There’s so much to do. We go out there every morning and check on the garden. We count how many bees we can find. Kids have a natural curiosity, and if we intentionally foster it around nature, they seem to understand the value of it really quickly. Because ultimately, kids are a reflection of our own values, right? As adults we’ve been taught to ignore the natural world so much that we forget that it’s ingrained in all of us at birth to be fascinated with it. Just evolutionarily, that’s true. Our ancestors needed to be so aware of nature just to survive in it.

There’s a place for learning with pen and paper, of course, but it doesn’t replace going out there every day and seeing it and touching it. The teaching opportunities arise so organically when we’re out there.

There’s a lot of pressure on parents now to raise environmentally conscious kids. What do you think is actually worth teaching early, and what can wait until they’re old enough to understand the bigger picture?

I’m not an expert on this subject, of course. I’m just a mom. But my philosophy as a mom is to first teach my daughter about the joy and love that can be found in nature. The anxiety can come later. Just because we’re all anxious about the state of the world doesn’t mean they need to be. I’d much rather teach her to plant a garden or to protect a creature than I would to teach her to turn off the tap water.

In my view, the best way to raise environmentally conscious kids is to get them to fall in love with nature. Let them play in the dirt, show them where their food comes from – their desire to protect our planet will follow.

You’ve spent so much of your career talking about bees through wellness and science. When did you first start thinking about telling that story through a children’s book?

When I started reading to my daughter and saw how much impact a good book can have on a child. I thought, ‘if I care about this subject, this is one of the biggest impact projects I could do.’

Who did you picture reading Little Bee and the Bloom when you were writing it, and what did you want that first reading experience to feel like?

I pictured parents reading to their kids on the floor of their bedroom before bedtime. That’s how my daughter and I like to read. It’s some of the most sacred and special time we get to spend together. It’s an honor to get to play a small part in that for other parents and kids.

You’ve spent years translating bee science and wellness research for adults. What was hardest about communicating that science accurately to children without oversimplifying it?

Honestly? The rhyming! It was tough enough to explain the process of pollination in vocabulary that young kids could understand, but to have to rhyme too? That took a lot of drafts.

Another tough thing was just visualizing it in pictures. The brilliant Katie Hunt did the lion’s share of that work. The way she found to visualize the process of pollination is, in my opinion, one of the most important spreads in the book.

The book gives families practical ways to help pollinators. What are the actions that actually make the biggest difference, and which commonly suggested ones are less useful than people think?

Growing a more wild, pesticide-free yard is a big one. Research backs that up. Even if you only have a terrace or a small balcony, plant native plants for bees (and other pollinators) to visit.

One thing I hear a lot is ‘buy local honey.’ Honey bees are actually only a small fraction of the bee species in the world. Many bees don’t make honey or live in a hive. When we say ‘save the bees’ we are talking about so many more species than just the ones that make honey.

For anyone who wants to learn more, I worked with the bee lab at UC Davis to develop a toolkit for saving the bees.

For parents who want their kids to feel more connected to nature, what are a few simple things you recommend starting at home?

Get out into nature! The more natural the better. But even if it’s a park–there’s so much you can find and love in your local park. And if you can’t find time to get to a park, bring nature into your home. Get plants. Teach them to care for the plants. It’s incredible the emotional connection a child can develop with a plant. It’s really cool to see.

Are there any rituals around food, time outside, sleep or immunity that have become non-negotiable for your family?

We visit our backyard pollinator garden every morning. And we read together every night before bed to wind down and get into a kind of meditative state. We try to take hikes together as a family as much as possible and we always stop to look at insects, animals or notice beautiful flowers. I wish that were more of a routine than it is right now.

Do you see Little Bee and the Bloom as a one-off creative project, or does it signal a broader direction for how you want to talk about bees beyond wellness products?

I had so much fun doing it. For me, building a company is a creative outlet. The book was another kind of creative outlet. We’ll see what comes next. But whatever it is, it will definitely be a product of creativity and collaboration.

If there’s one idea you hope a parent and child continue talking about after they close the book, what is it?

That no matter how small you are, with a little hard work and love, you can have a big impact on the world.

The post What Motherhood Taught Beekeeper’s Naturals Founder Carly Kremer About Raising Kids Who Care About Nature appeared first on The Chalkboard Mag.

from The Chalkboard Mag https://ift.tt/7cgCXqD
via IFTTT

These 4 Ingredient Orange Vanilla Pops Taste Just Like a Creamsicle

When we recently caught up with recipe creator and cookbook author Rachel Mansfield for our In the Kitchen With series, one thing came through clearly: her best recipes are the ones that make everyday cooking feel easier without sacrificing the fun. That same spirit is all over her new cookbook, More, Please!, including these nostalgic orange vanilla pops.

Inspired by the Creamsicles Mansfield loved as a kid and rediscovered through her own sons, the recipe requires just four ingredients and a few minutes of prep. The result is creamy, citrusy, freezer friendly, and far easier than tracking down the original in the frozen aisle.

FOOLPROOF 4-INGREDIENT COPYCAT ORANGE-VANILLA POPS

Images and text with permission from More, Please! by Rachel Mansfield, photography by Lauren Volo. Published by S&S/Simon Element.

FREEZER-FRIENDLY
MAKES 6 POPS (DEPENDING ON YOUR MOLDS)
Gluten free
Dairy-free friendly
Nut free

One summer, my son came home from camp yelling, “MOM! I HAD AN ORANGE! ICE CREAM! POPSICLE!” And in that moment, I realized he’d discovered Creamsicles. And why are they weirdly hard to find in the store nowadays? I love that my kids are getting into them now (I loved them as a kid, too), and this four-ingredient situation means I don’t have to search high

and low for them in the store. If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I do a lot of Popsicle-adjacent stuff, but I’d never done an orange-vanilla flavor, so it was time for this to join the family. And dare I say, I think these are the new favorite!

2 medium oranges, peeled (about 1½ cups of fruit), 1¼ cups plain Greek yogurt or coconut yogurt, 2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a blender, add the oranges, yogurt, maple syrup, and vanilla and blend until completely smooth. Divide the mixture into ice pop molds and freeze until very firm (I like to let them set overnight).

To serve, run each ice pop mold under warm running water to help loosen the pop.

The post These 4 Ingredient Orange Vanilla Pops Taste Just Like a Creamsicle appeared first on The Chalkboard Mag.

from The Chalkboard Mag https://ift.tt/Zd9p7Di
via IFTTT

The Post-Summer Slump Fix: 6 Wellness Gadgets to Help You Feel Human Again

Summer has a way of slowly dismantling every routine we spent the first half of the year building.

One late dinner becomes four. Bedtime moves back an hour. The workout schedule gets increasingly theoretical. We live out of suitcases, eat at strange times, spend entire weekends in the sun, and tell ourselves we’ll get back to normal after Labor Day.

Well. Here we are.

There’s something about September that makes getting our act together sound good again. Not in a January “new personality, new life” kind of way. More like: we would very much enjoy sleeping properly, moving our bodies regularly, and feeling vaguely centered again.

Which brings us back to a few pieces of wellness tech we’ve tested over the years and, importantly, actually kept using. We’ve spent enough time with BON CHARGE devices to know which ones we keep coming back to, and with the brand taking 25% off sitewide from September 3 through September 9, it also happens to be a very good time to revisit the bigger purchases we’ve had our eye on.

No full life overhaul required. We’re just trying to feel like ourselves again.

When Your Body Is Still Catching Up

Sometimes vacation ends before your body gets the memo. After the flights, unfamiliar mattresses, long days, workouts squeezed in wherever they fit and a general lack of anything resembling consistency, this is usually the point when we start craving recovery tools that ask very little from us.

The Red Light Therapy Blanket

In 2025, we named the BON CHARGE Red Light Therapy Blanket our best wellness tech investment of the year. A year later, it’s still one of the wellness devices we use most.

There are plenty of wellness devices that are exciting for exactly two weeks before being banished to a closet. This wasn’t one of them. When we first tested it, it quickly worked its way into our nighttime routine and stayed there. Read our full Red Light Therapy Blanket review

The setup is essentially two full-size red light mats zipped together, so instead of standing in front of a panel, you get 660nm red light and 850nm near-infrared light from both sides while lying down. It has 2,520 LEDs, adjustable intensity, pulsed settings, and it can also unzip into two separate mats when you want a more flexible setup.

But the real reason we love it is much simpler. Zip yourself in, lie there for 20 minutes and do nothing. It’s easy enough to keep up with, which is probably why it became part of our nightly routine so quickly. And yes, we’ll gladly be doing it every night again this month.

If there’s one device on this list we can confidently say has made it past the novelty phase, it’s this one.

The Infrared PEMF Mat Max

If the blanket is our “please let me lie here and recover” device, the Infrared PEMF Mat Max is what we reach for when our whole system feels overstimulated.

We tested this one previously because the spec sheet is kind of insane: PEMF, far-infrared heat, 660nm red light, 850nm near-infrared light, plus layers of crystals and semi-precious gemstones, all built into one full-body mat. Read our original PEMF Mat Max test

And yes, the crystals are actually in there. BON CHARGE builds the Infrared PEMF Mat Max with a crystal and semi-precious gemstone layer underneath the surface, alongside its infrared heating system and PEMF technology. The full-size mat is nearly 75 inches long and offers adjustable PEMF frequencies from 1 to 30Hz, far-infrared heat up to 176°F, and separate red and near-infrared light LEDs.

What surprised us when we tested it, though, was how much we liked it for the brain rather than just the body.

BON CHARGE maps different frequency ranges to different uses. Its 9 to 12Hz alpha range is positioned around calm and creativity, while 8Hz is associated with grounding and Schumann resonance. When we tested it previously, the alpha setting ended up being our favorite. Twenty minutes on the mat had a way of quieting the mental noise enough that we actually wanted to write, think, make something, or just sit there without reaching for our phone.

After a summer full of plans, travel, people, noise and constant input, lying flat on a heated mat and letting your brain settle for a minute feels pretty incredible.

If you’re not ready to commit to the full mat, BON CHARGE also makes the Mini, Demi, and Infrared PEMF Wrap. The Wrap is smaller and designed for more targeted areas, while the Mini works well for seated use and the Demi gives you more coverage without taking up as much space.

For us, though, the Max is still the one we keep coming back to when we want the full experience.

If Your Sleep Schedule Has Gone Completely Rogue

Summer bedtime has very loose boundaries. Maybe you were traveling. Maybe dinner kept starting at 9:30 p.m.. Maybe you watched one episode in bed that mysteriously became four. Whatever happened, your alarm is back and suddenly “going to sleep whenever” has consequences again.

Before we start throwing supplements at the situation, we go back to something much more basic: light.

We previously spent three days intentionally resetting our circadian rhythm and realized how much the lighting inside our home was working against us. Read our 3-day circadian rhythm reset

The practical takeaway stuck: your home should not look like a CVS at 10 p.m.

During the day, BON CHARGE’s Full Spectrum Light Bulbs make an easy swap into lamps you already own. They have three settings designed to move from brighter daytime light toward warmer evening light without requiring another app, hub or complicated smart-home situation.

Then, at night, we want the lighting low and warm.

The Blue Light Blocking Lamp became one of those simple changes we liked immediately. Keep one on the desk if work tends to bleed into the evening, then move it, or add another, to the bedside. It cycles through different brightness levels and uses red light at night rather than blasting you with the kind of bright overhead light that tells your brain the day is still happening.

And if you’re the person who wakes at 2 a.m., flips on the bathroom light and is suddenly mentally drafting tomorrow’s emails, the little Motion Sensor Night Lights deserve an honorable mention too. Sometimes your sleep routine doesn’t need another seven-step ritual. Your house just needs to learn what time it is.

If Summer Did a Number on Your Skin

Yes, we know. Everyone and their mother owns a red light mask now. But what’s interesting isn’t how quickly they became ubiquitous. It’s that they’re still here.

Wellness gadgets come and go at an almost impressive pace, yet red light has managed to stick around and earn a permanent spot in a lot of our routines.

We’ve tested BON CHARGE’s Red Light Face Mask more than once, including an editor who used it consistently for a full year and had her injector ask what she’d been doing differently. Read what happened after a year with the Red Light Face Mask

That kind of unsolicited feedback is hard to ignore.

The flexible mask uses 630nm red and 850nm near-infrared wavelengths, and because a session takes around 10 minutes, it fits easily into the part of the evening when we’re lying in bed pretending we’re about to put our phone down anyway.

After months of extra sun, travel, sunscreen, sweat and skincare routines that became increasingly optimistic suggestions rather than actual routines, September is exactly when ours comes back out. If you somehow made it this far without buying a red light mask, this is still the one we keep reaching for.

And Yes, Summer Happened to Our Hair Too

Our skin was not the only thing traveling this summer.

Our hair came on every flight, sat through every long day in the sun, got dipped in pools and oceans, dealt with different water in different cities, and occasionally spent several days surviving on dry shampoo and good intentions.

By September, it has been through enough.

Which is why the BON CHARGE Red Light Cap makes more sense right now than it did sitting pristine in a box in May.

We tested the Cap as part of a larger experiment with science-backed approaches to hair loss and were pleasantly surprised by one extremely important feature: you’ll actually wear it. Read our test of four science-backed approaches to hair loss

It uses 650nm red LED light directed toward the scalp, but instead of looking like a medical helmet, it looks remarkably close to a normal black baseball cap. Sessions are just 10 minutes, it’s cordless, and you can walk around the house, make coffee, answer emails or head out on a quick errand without announcing to everyone around you that you are currently doing a hair treatment.

That usability matters because hair is the ultimate long game. Anything designed to support it has to be something you’ll actually use consistently.

The One That Makes Your Home Look Like It Has a Wellness Wing

Then there’s the Infrared PEMF Sauna Dome. This is the one people are going to ask about.

It’s big, it’s futuristic, and it immediately makes a home gym feel a lot more interesting. You don’t exactly tuck this one into a corner and forget it’s there.

Underneath the look, though, is a pretty serious setup. The Dome combines far-infrared heat, PEMF, red light and near-infrared light in one full-body system. The dome itself can reach 194°F, the mat underneath reaches up to 176°F, PEMF settings run from 1 to 30Hz, and the light setup combines 660nm red with 850nm near-infrared. It also incorporates crystals and semi-precious gemstones into the mat.

Everything can be adjusted depending on the kind of session you want, which makes it a pretty compelling setup for a home gym or recovery space.

It also stores more easily than it looks. The dome sections nest together when you’re not using it, so while it’s definitely a substantial piece of equipment, it doesn’t require the same kind of permanent setup as a traditional sauna.

We’ve called it the ultimate splurge before, and that still feels accurate. See where the Sauna Dome landed in our previous BON CHARGE wellness-tech stack

Maybe September Is the New January

January gets all the credit for reinvention, but September might actually be better.

Summer winds down, work picks up, and after a few months of loose schedules, routine starts sounding kind of good again.

Not a total life overhaul. Just getting back to the things that make us feel better, which makes BON CHARGE’s 25% off sitewide Labor Day Sale, running September 3 through September 9, well timed.

If one of the bigger pieces has been sitting on your list, 25% off is a pretty good reason to finally go for it.

We don’t need a new personality for September. Feeling like ourselves again would be plenty.

The post The Post-Summer Slump Fix: 6 Wellness Gadgets to Help You Feel Human Again appeared first on The Chalkboard Mag.

from The Chalkboard Mag https://ift.tt/CcAuKJD
via IFTTT