I’ve been taking Hirsana vitamins for the past two weeks. Never heard of them? Neither had I. Hirsana vitamins are specifically designed to aid in hair, skin and nail health. Packed with Golden millet oil, biotin, zinc and vitamins they help make skin more resilient, and nails and hair stronger.

Hirsana vitamins for hair, skin and nails

You take 2 capsules per day. Each dose contains 100% of your recommended daily allowance of vitamin E, vitamin B6, thiamine, riboflavin, and biotin; and 50% of your daily amounts of pantothenic acid and zinc.

After the two weeks, I noticed my nails did seem a bit longer, stronger and able to recover quickly from the abuse I place on them. While 2 weeks isn’t enough time to evaluate potential benefits to the skin and hair- the formula makeup suggests Hirsana would be a benefit. Hirsana vitamins are available at SkinStore.com- $36 for a 30 capsules, or $90 for 90.

Do you, or have you taken, beauty specific vitamins? If so, what were your results?

Hirsana Ingredients: Golden millet oil (59.7%), wheat germ oil, glyceryl monostearate, zinc citrate, vitamin E, lecithin of soya (emulsifier), pantothenic acid, vitamin B6, thiamine, riboflavin, biotin. Capsule shell: fish gelatin, glycerin.

I was honored to write a feature article for August’s The Beauty Ideal magazine. The Beauty Ideal is an online magazine featuring 5-6 stories that surround a central beauty topic. It’s published monthly and organized by the Beauty Blog Network. This month’s topic was Timeless Beauty.

Kahlil Gibran once said that “Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror”. As women, we are constant in our hunt for perfection. Whether it’s the most promising skin serum of the year, the latest wrinkle reducer, or a mascara that extends lashes to impossible lengths.

Delve into your mind and think of timeless beauties. Women whose character and looks leave imprints in your mind. A simple photograph search of “Timeless Beauty” on Google images returns the likes of Audrey Hepburn, Bette Midler, Raquel Welch, and Claudia Schiffer. Women who are strong, outgoing, and self-aware. In fact, most women would agree that finding your beauty “self” involves becoming one with personality.

Trends in makeup come and go with each passing season. Artists and beauty companies hope to sell us their latest palettes and innovations. This summer it’s super bright nail polish and bronzed eyeshadows. This fall we’re looking at gray polishes and the standard deeper colors.
Ladies, if you want, buck the trends! Start your own. If it looks good on you, does it really matter what another person says is “in”?

A very stylish friend of mine knows she looks better in the deep, almost-black polishes that were so prevalent this past winter. And hence, she continues to rock them with confidence this summer. And she looks good doing it!

Each decade brings with it new creations in the art that is makeup. The thirties and forties featured Hollywood glamour at its finest. Black eyeliner, peaches and cream skin, red lips. The hipster seventies focused on skin- freckles shining through, playful eyes and nude lips with a soft sheen. Ahhh, the rockster eighties. Blues, purples, yellows in eyeshadows and mascaras; even green hued lipsticks. Big and bold as shadows moved all the way up to brows. And the nineties revamped the smoky eye; while currently we’re playing with that same smokiness in colors other than standard black.

Need help finding your timeless style? Open your makeup bin and have a look inside. What items are positively loved? Chances are, you’re drawn to those items because your inner self is happier when sporting those products and colors. For some, it’s a basic black mascara, for others it’s a classic red lip stain topped with balm. Experiment and find your own unique combination. Whether it’s natural-look makeup, brightly pigmented eye shadows, a wild hair color, or deep glossy lips, stick with what works for you. To be timeless, you have to recognize your true self.

This doesn’t mean give up your product stash or your shopping ways. By all means, shop on (it’s good for the economy after-all). But instead, once you recognize your inner beauty, shopping becomes so much easier! You can focus on getting the blushes that work for you (and you’ll actually use them), the trendy lipstick that just arrived in your perfect color, or experimenting with new shampoo. A sporty gal could focus on finding her ultimate tinted moisturizer with sunscreen; a fashionista on creating her own indie eye look; and the business gal on a refined face that shows off her amazing bone structure.

Change with the times, but don’t forget your sense of self. Adapt the trends and looks to suit you, your face, and your budget. Ditch the fads that don’t work for you and embrace those that do. Timeless beauty is through individuality and comes in such varied forms. Be creative, unique and in the end, you’re personality will make you timeless, just like Bette, Audrey and Claudia.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?’ Actually, who are you not to be?…Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won’t feel insecure around you…And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” ~Nelson Mandela

I’d love to hear your thoughts on Timeless Beauty! Please share them in the comments section below.

Update: As of late 2009, The Beauty Ideal is no longer published online. However, I have archived my articles and contributions here on Bionic Beauty to continue to share them with my readers.

Noodle & Boo was founded to meet the specific needs of children. But for millions of children around the world, tending to their most basic needs is a daily struggle without clean water. As a part of their dedication to children’s well being, Noodle & Boo is launching the Raise Your Hand Campaign, a crusade to fund water purification systems and make a difference one village at a time.

• Approximately 1.8 million children die every year as a result of diseases caused by unclean water and poor sanitation. That means 5,000 children die every day, 208 children die every hour, and more than three children die every minute.
• Water and sanitation infrastructure helps people take the first essential step towards ending the cycle of poverty and disease.
• HIV treatment is more effective where clean water and food are available.

The first village that Noodle & Boo will sponsor is Heerrara, a small village with a school of 200 children in Ethiopia. With funds raised through the Raise Your Hand Campaign, Noodle & Boo hopes to institute an effective water purification system in Heerrara and improve the lives of the village’s hundreds of children.

Noodle & Boo created the Believe Honey Bar ($12.50 at Noodle and Boo’s website) to facilitate world change. Profits from the sale of this bar of soap will go directly to the Raise Your Hand Campaign. By purchasing a single bar of soap, you can meaningfully improve a child’s quality of life.

*Read Bionic Beauty’s review of Noodle and Boo’s products.*

We all realize that it takes more than makeup and skincare to Achieve Powerful Beauty- you’ve got to be a beautiful person on the inside as well. Skin is transparent, what is underneath is going to show through.

A Girl’s Gotta Spa is holding a worthwhile fundraiser for a Pennsylvania girl, Meadow Quinn. Meadow’s family cannot afford a necessary and helpful treatment, so A Girl’s Gotta Spa is holding auctions during the next few weeks to raise money. The auctions feature MAC Limited Edition products, high-end skincare and makeup sets- you will be amazed at the brands. Visit A Girl’s Gotta Spa if you would like to bid on some of these collections. Please be generous if you can!

FreeRice.com is a website that will donate 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program to assist in ending world hunger. What do you have to do? Just click on the meanings for the vocabulary words.

Here’s an Example
diminish means:

1. investigate
2. lessen
3. nauseate
4. merge

The correct answer is 2. lessen. If you get the question right, 20 grains of rice are donated. It is really that simple. No fees, no forms, you do not even have to register. I’ve been playing an hour a week for the past two months, and I’ve started to remember some of those vocab words from the SATs.

FreeRice has two goals:
Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free.
Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

Be bionically beautiful inside and out!

In order to help us all be well-rounded beauties, I’m going to be including interviews of health, beauty, and other related industry professionals here on Bionic Beauty. The first interview in this series is below. Read along as I interview Emily, a yoga instructor. I hope you all enjoy! ~Bionic Beauty

Hello there! My name is Emily Grolman. I am a 38 year old mother of two beautiful daughters and a wife of almost 15 years to a wonderful man. I am going on my 2nd year of living in Las Vegas, NV. I have been practicing yoga for 7 years now and coming up on my one year anniversary of teaching it.

What draws you to yoga as a form of fitness?
I love the fact that I feel such a sense of well being and balance with the whole mind, body, and spirit aspect after a session. I am usually a more relaxed, happier, more-fun-to-be-around kind of person when I come out of class than when I went into class. I have not found another form of fitness that does that for me.

Can yoga truly benefit anybody?
Yes. There are so many different forms of yoga out there that I am sure anybody can find the one that is right for them. (Unless there are extreme circumstances and/or your doctor has strictly prohibited that kind of movement for you.)

What prompted you to become a yoga instructor?
I have two bulging discs in my lower back. I went to doctors and chiropractors, as well as used massage therapy. None of it worked, or if it did work, it was a very temporary fix. After about 4 months of doing yoga twice a week, I realized that the pain in my back had greatly decreased. After 9 months the pain was completely gone. The pain has not returned since then, unless I do something really stupid. With that in mind, I felt like I just wanted to spread the joy of yoga to everyone I knew and even those I didn’t. (I know….more than a little corny and fairly embarrassing to my children as well…lol.) If I can help someone on their road to recovery or a better quality of life, then that is just an amazing thing.

Do you have any tips for beginners to yoga?
Yes.

1. Leave all judgment of yourself and others as well as competition outside of the yoga room. Everyone is different and learns at different rates and in different ways.
2. Listen to your body. You are the best judge of what feels right for you and what doesn’t. If something does not feel right for you, then do not do it.
3. If you are just beginning, don’t expect yourself to be at the highest level with the yogis that have been practicing all their lives. Do the best you can do for that day, and be proud of yourself for trying something new and potentially life altering.

How does yoga help you “Achieve Powerful Beauty”?
Personally speaking, it gives me an inner peace and a quiet confidence to carry myself through everyday life. An added bonus is that it also gives me toned muscles EVERYWHERE! =o)

Thanks Emily, for your interview. I hope it inspires some of our Bionic Beauty readers!

Watch. Think. Respond.

How do you deal with the onslaught of the beauty industry? There’s no right or wrong answers here, but the film makes an excellent point on the affects of beauty marketing to young girls. Beauty isn’t some magic pill, miracle cream, or even 8 glasses of water a day. It’s being happy inside and out. Do what you need to do to achieve that “Powerful Beauty”!

I know some of the Bionic readers are interested in knowing which beauty and cosmetic companies Do and Do Not test on animals.

I found this resource: http://caringconsumer.com/resources_companies.asp.

I was pleasantly surprised to see how many companies are no longer testing on small n’ fuzzies! And it never hurts to be an educated consumer.

Do any of you buy products solely on the basis that they do not test on animals?

Well, things are still going smoothly with my New Year’s detox plan. The Boots product is really gentle and tastes great. I’m not tired of it, and it’s very easy to work into my day.

I did some research about detoxing and found that you should check with a doctor before starting a plan, especially if you have any health conditions. Also, do not forget to take your daily multi-vitamin supplement since your body needs those vitamins to keep up functioning; and plenty of water helps to flush your system giving your even more benefits from the detox.

Until tomorrow…

As a way to kick off 2008, I am using the Boots “Feel the Difference Five Day Detox Plan“. Today is Day One and so far, so good.

The plan includes 5 days worth of supplements that are blended from natural ingredients that help target your body’s detoxifying organs (liver, etc). Ingredients include Schizandra (an herb), Green Tea, Ginger, Grape Vine Leaf, and Marine Plant Bark. Sounds odd, and I was expecting the taste to follow suit. Truthfully though, it’s actually pretty yummy… and easy! You mix a vial of flavored liquid (mine is Strawberry) into 1 quart of water and drink it throughout the day. It takes like a light strawberry tea.

Check back tomorrow for my progress!

If any readers would like to detox along with me, you can find the Boots Detox kit at local Target stores for $19.99.