Easily Bridget

If one thing is true about the beauty industry and how it relates to you as a person, it’s that it’s never too early to start taking care of your skin. If you start preventing wrinkles in your late 20’s, chances are you won’t have to worry about them until much later. This includes obvious care – things your mother probably told you like stay out of direct sunlight, use sunscreen and drink plenty of water. Later on, though, a solid skincare regimen is sometimes needed. I’m going to share with you the three Holy Grail products that have earned a spot in my skincare cabinet forever that keep my skin smooth, even, hydrated and wrinkle-free.   OYU Cosmetics’ Unscented Youth Elixir This is a recent find and I am very glad that it is now in my cabinet. I first got it as a free sample, but it is definitely something I could see myself buying regularly. It is made of mostly natural oils and ingredients and doesn’t clog the pores. The Abyssian oil is there to reduce any traces of wrinkles you m

The world is changing and I firmly believe that the future will be less ableist. I know, I know. This could just be blind optimism. With the development of cosmetics brand Guide Beauty, however, my faith in people has been restored. Guide Beauty was founded by celebrity makeup artist and beauty educator Terri Bryant who later in her career developed Parkinson’s. She was joined by Selma Blair who heads the brand with her as its Chief Creative Officer. It’s their easy to grip wands that first grabbed my attention. If someone can make applying eyeliner easy for me, I’ll nominate them for sainthood.   Right now I’m saving up for some brushes made by these geniuses, but let me tell you what I’ve been doing in the meantime. If these tips and tricks help you, be sure and give me a shout!   Eyeshadow I have so much trouble with holding onto a proper brush that I’ve decided to eschew brushes altogether. How does the eyeshadow get from the pan to my lid, then, you ask? I do what everyone does wh

My history with weight gain and weight loss has been a fairly lengthy and complicated one. I spent my childhood and teenage years as a lithe, 5’5” thing thanks to eating normally and dancing every chance I got. Once mental illness entered my life, though, and I started being treated with atypical antipsychotics to balance my mood, my weight spiraled out of control. At one point I was nearly 300lbs!   Being that heavy, for me, was not fun. My blood sugar was too high, my joints ached, and I had issues with my self-esteem. I know there are women that size and bigger who are happy with their weight and even celebrate it, but I could never manage to do that. You can call it bowing to social pressure, but when I went on a diet what I was really doing was trying to lower my cholesterol and my blood sugar.   In one year, after spending years above a size 20, I lost more than 80lbs with regular exercise and a low carb diet. Then I did what no person with the goal of losing weight should do – I

Is self-care just lighting candles and incense and hopping into a bubble bath so you can ignore your problems while Enya plays on full blast? No! Self-care is a vital part of finding a healthy mental and physical state and sticking to it. Sometimes, this happens to include a room full of perfumed smoke, lit by candles, occupied by a clawfoot tub filled to the brim with hot water and bubbles, but there are many other methods of self-care that people don’t immediately think of that I find incredibly helpful.   Cooking For Yourself Cooking, to me, is extremely therapeutic. Even if, with my parkinsonism, I can’t always do fine knifework, I enjoy measuring and stirring and carefully watching items as the timers tick away. I happen to choose recipes according to the Mediterranean diet and it has worked wonders for my health. Initially, I started cooking and eating this way because of my mother’s heart problem, but kept it up when even I started feeling more awake, alert, and my excess weight

For most of my life, I’ve had an aunt with post-polio syndrome, so you would think I would have a fairly firm grasp on what it’s like to be disabled. It’s actually only been since my wonderful Aunt Karolyn died and I developed parkinsonism that I’ve begun to understand the day to day hardships that come with an obvious physical disability.   Although my balance is poor and I have unpredictable spasms in my left foot, I do not use a wheelchair or a walker. My tremors, however, are quite obvious. I have sat in restaurants, struggling to eat or get a straw into a paper cup, and gathered quite a few stares. I’ve had well-meaning people tell me to get back inside, I must be freezing! More often than not, people tell me that I don’t have to be nervous, as if I’m trembling before them out of fright.   I’m sure I’m not the only disabled person who has trouble liking her body. Sometimes it feels like my nervous system has betrayed me, like I’m less than a healthy person. I’ve learned some thing