Healthy feet guide

I am shamefully guilty of neglecting my feet and am thus always open to advice on how to keep my heels happy and healthy.

Shoe design company Hotter Comfort Concept Shoes has decided to share five decades of specialist shoe making knowledge in a new ‘must have’ healthy feet guide.

The company has combined its in-depth knowledge of footwear design and manufacture with foot health advice to reveal top secrets for the creation of happy feet. Tips include:

-           Shoe features to consider which actively promote comfort

-          Tips for how and when to buy shoes for optimum comfort fit

-          Foot health advice and suggestions from leading UK specialists

-          Foot exercises to help build a healthier lifestyle

-          Shoe tips for orthotics wearers

The handy guide also includes suggestions on which type of shoes to choose for a variety of health conditions including diabetes, painful heels, corns, calluses and bunions.

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New beauty app

How about another new beauty app? There is no such thing as too much information, especially when looking awesome is the outcome.

Debenhams has jumped on the beauty bandwagon with the launch of a free-to-download app that enables users to buy products, watch beauty videos for expert tutorials and stay ahead of the entire store’s special offers and news.

Undoubtedly a clever marketing gimmick to get you to sign up for a Debenhams Beauty Club card and spend spend spend, the new beauty app has some pretty cool features. Check it out:

Personalised beauty – The Skincare Consultation section gives you personalised beauty advice for gorgeous looking skin whilst the Fragrance Finder will help you to select the right perfume to suit your personality and lifestyle.

Get the Look – Watch the latest beauty videos from Debenhams TV and have the option to purchase the products demonstrated straight from the video.

Nail it! – Banish bad nail days, with the ‘Paint your Nails’ option which allows you to virtually try nail colours from the vast Debenhams range to find the perfect shade to suit your skin tone.

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Health benefits of Spinach

Popeye thought it was delicious and in 1931, so did the rest of the world (I mean America). It’s green, it’s leafy, it’s packed with iron and has the ability to grow disproportionately muscular forearms (no, not really – just Popeye’s). It’s spinach, people, spinach.

Wikipedia, the god of all things informative, says that the popularity of Popeye helped boost sales of the leafy vegetable. Spinach consumption increased 33 per cent in the United States between 1931 and 1936 as Popeye gained popularity, saving the spinach industry in the 1930s.

Using Popeye as a role model for healthier eating may work; a 2010 study revealed that children increased their vegetable consumption after watching Popeye cartoons.

Children are most likely sold on spinach because Popeye is able to beat on ‘Bluto the baddy’ with the superhuman strength he acquires after chugging down a couple of leaves.

Although the cartoon exaggerates the vegetable’s effect, it is loaded with vitamins and minerals.

Spinach is high in manganese, magnesium potassium, iron, calcium, copper, phosphorous. It is loaded with Vitamins A, B6, C, K and Riboflavin. The veg also contains trace elements of selenium, Thiamin and Niacin.

Other than the  health benefits of spinach, one of the vegetable’s best character traits is its versatility.

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Beauty Blogger post of the week

This week’s ‘Beauty Blogger Post of the Week’ award goes to Beauty Scribbler, written by a British beauty blogger in New York.


Slipping sunglasses – the bane of existence. Luckily, there is one beauty scribbler who has THE SOLUTION. Do not hesitate to read our beauty scribbler’s tips on ear grips!

How to stop glasses or sunglasses from slipping down your nose: Ear grips!

I’m surprised that these nifty little ear grips aren’t more well known. Sure they’re not sexy but they are incredibly effective! If you have an insubstantial nose bridge (like me) or a sweaty nose in the summer (like me), then you’ll know how it feels to be constantly pushing up glasses and sunglasses.

Before I had my laser eye surgery, I had ear grips on my glasses but I left them on the frames when I gave them away to be recycled. Then I bought these Ray-Ban Aviator sunglasses and although they stayed put initially, it was a different story once I got them out on holiday in Bermuda recently where not only was the sun blazing but it was also 80% humidity. The sunscreen and sweat basically meant I gave up on wearing them completely. Aviators seem to be particularly heavy for some reason and I just couldn’t fight gravity.

So this weekend I bought this super stylish “deluxe eyeglass repair kit” which contained nice, new ear grips…

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How to get smooth hair

My hair does not believe in the power of The Smooth. Slick and suave is not the name of my hair’s game – think ‘funk and frizz’; that’s how my hair likes to roll, sadly.

The fantastic frizz that consumes every strand of my overflowing head of hair is worse in summer – sun, heat and humidity are not conducive to smooth locks. I just want to know how to get smooth hair!

Word on the street is that curly and wavy hair (that’s me!) tends to be more prone to frizz and dullness because the cuticles don’t sit flat on the surface of the hair shaft.

Luckily for all of us frizzy-haired folk, there are some simple styling tricks that show us how to get smooth hair:

- Celebrity crimper Paul Smith says that a powerful hairdryer with two heat settings is vital, as is a round bristle brush.

- Philip Bell, of Ishoka hair and Beauty, recommends using the nozzle attachment on your hairdryer to flatten the cuticle as you style.

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