<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" Did you miss the chat with Redbook&amp;#039;s award-winning beauty editor? Well, odds are that Cheryl Kramer has already answered some of your questions. Read below as she discusses everything from tanning to skin care to hair and more!   Q: Welcome, Cheryl! We are so pleased that you could join us today! Can you tell us a little about yourself and how you got started with Redbook?  Cheryl Kramer: I&amp;#039;ve been at Redbook as the beauty editor for a year and a half. I came here first in 1996 as the associate beauty editor; I&amp;#039;ve always been a major beauty junkie! In the past six years I&amp;#039;ve learned more about skin care, makeup, hair, etc. than any grown woman should know!  Q: I just recently stopped tanning. I&amp;#039;m very dark now, but really my skin is soooo pale when I do it, so I have two questions. The first one is: How long does it take for your skin to get back to its normal color?  CK: Good question. It depends a lot on how long you&amp;#039;ve been tanning. If it&amp;#039;s been over a long period of time, your skin may be damaged (tanned) to the point that it&amp;#039;ll never really get back to your original color.  Q: I&amp;#039;ve been tanning for a year, about four to five times a week; I stopped because of all the stuff I hear about tanning.  CK: I&amp;#039;m proud of you for stopping! It really is so bad for your skin.  I suggest that you wear sunscreen every day -- even just for walking to your car, etc. -- and in about a month your skin will be the color it will stay. I know: I love a tan look, too. Do you ever use self-tanners? Or maybe MysticTan? It&amp;#039;s a tanning booth, but instead of UV rays, they spray on self-tanner. It looks great, really natural.  Q: Do I have to go through the trouble to change makeup shades?  CK: You probably will need to change makeup shades if you&amp;#039;re significantly lighter. I know, it&amp;#039;s tough. But that&amp;#039;s when I really recommend going to a department-store counter. Prescriptives is amazing at helping you choose colors.  Q: Do you have any tips on getting rid of dark undereye circles (other than more sleep, lol); it seems I&amp;#039;ve had them ever since my first pregnancy (four and a half years ago), and I just can&amp;#039;t get rid of them.  CK: I have a question for you first: Can you tell if it&amp;#039;s the skin itself that has gotten darker, or if it&amp;#039;s darkness from underneath the skin?  Q: I think it&amp;#039;s underneath the skin.  CK: That&amp;#039;s generally the problem. There are a few things you can do:  If you really want to blast them away, you&amp;#039;ll need to see a dermatologist. The darkness you&amp;#039;re seeing is from broken blood vessels. They can zap those away with a laser. At home, you can use a retinol eye product to thicken the skin a bit under the eyes so the veins don&amp;#039;t show through as much. Also, I like to use eye gels; they accomplish two things: One, they constrict the blood vessels so they&amp;#039;re less noticeable. And two, they help get rid of puffiness!  And yes, tea bags work because the tannins in the tea act as an astrigent to constrict the vessels.  Q: Do you use the gel together with the retinol? And is there a gel-and-retinol product that you recommend?  CK: I&amp;#039;d use gel in the morning, retinol at night. I&amp;#039;ve been using a product from MD Forte (available at doctors&amp;#039; offices) that is amazing. I think ROC (at drugstores) has a good one, too.  Q: I was wondering if you change your makeup colors with the seasons. I wear the same shadows and lipsticks year-round but wonder if I should change.  CK: Oh, I definitely change with the seasons, mostly because new products catch my eye each season. But there are also certain guidelines I go by: I wear deeper, richer tones in the fall and winter, more pinks and pastels in spring and summer. I also change up the textures a bit: I like to see more color on my face when it&amp;#039;s cold, so I wear powders and cream. In the summer I&amp;#039;m much more likely to put on sheer stains and glosses. I recommend trying something new each season, just for the fun of it. Q: You mentioned MysticTan. Do you know if that&amp;#039;s available everywhere? And is it costly  CK: I&amp;#039;m pretty sure they have a Website. It may even be mystictan.com. Yep, mystictan.com. Or (877) 668-8826. It&amp;#039;s not terribly expensive. And it&amp;#039;s cheaper after the first visit.  Q: Just curious about hair products...I&amp;#039;ve got curly hair that gets a little flat in this fall weather with all the hair products I use. But I&amp;#039;m a mousse junkie, so I need something for hold. Can you recommend anything that isn&amp;#039;t so heavy?  CK: How thick is your hair?  Q: Pretty thick -- also pretty long.  CK: I think you should probably start with a leave-in conditioner. Then, mix a good amount of medium-hold gel with a little silicone goop in the palm of your hand. That way you&amp;#039;ll get the hold you need to keep from going flat, plus conditioning benefit to stop hair from getting crunchy (the worst!).  Q: I have large pores on my cheeks. Is there anything I can use to shrink them down  CK: There&amp;#039;s nothing you can do to really shrink them, but you can make them appear smaller. Retinol products -- any kind of vitamin A derivative -- are best for that. If your pores are clogged, they&amp;#039;ll tend to look bigger, too. Salicylic acid or AHAs are good at keeping pores clean.  Q: I&amp;#039;ve tried to use pore strips, but they&amp;#039;ve never worked for me. Is there anything else I can do? Nothing has really seemed to work.  CK: On what part of your face, your nose?  Q: Nose mostly. I have some on the rest of my face, but they were never really a problem.  CK: Me too. It&amp;#039;s nice once in a while to get a really good cleaning from a facialist. Then, to keep the pores clean, use an AHA or salicylic acid cleanser followed by a retinol product at night. For quick pore pick-me-ups, a clay mask is also helpful.  Q: I always wanted to get a facial...but does it damage your skin? Create wrinkles? (my mom told me that). Does it really remove blackheads or create wrinkles?  CK: Facials are not going to give you wrinkles, but if your skin has active acne, a facial could make it worse. If you&amp;#039;re just dealing with oil or blackheads, facials are wonderful, and very pampering.  Q: Hi again, Cheryl. I have naturally curly hair, and I&amp;#039;ve heard that curly hair is much more fragile than straight hair. I&amp;#039;d like to dye my hair. Is there any way to do it without frying it? I&amp;#039;ve never dyed it before.  CK: If you&amp;#039;ve got virgin hair, the chances that your hair will be damaged from coloring it are slim. I&amp;#039;ve got curls, and I color about every six to eight weeks.  Q: Do you do it yourself?  CK: You might want to experiment first with semipermanent color before delving into permanent color. Or perhaps just a few highlights to start. No, I don&amp;#039;t do it myself; I&amp;#039;m not very handy! But for a first-time coloring, at-home really is pretty easy. It&amp;#039;s when you&amp;#039;ve got lots of different colors at play that at-home coloring becomes more complicated. Give it whirl! I think you should try semiperm, but all the major brands are good.  Q: Another question about facials: I got one a few months ago (my first), and the woman recommended them monthly (great idea, but not on my budget). How often is it best to get one? Every six weeks? Two months? The effects were great, and I&amp;#039;d love to have my skin looking like that all the time!  CK: Here&amp;#039;s the thing about facials: You get a whole new face of skin, from cell turnover, every 28 days. So ideally, a facial a month would be perfect timing. But it&amp;#039;s not as if a facial is a necessity. It&amp;#039;s mostly a pleasure, with some treatment kicked in. You can keep the effects of a facial longer by using masks weekly, to either hydrate your skin or remove oils, depending on your needs. So I guess my answer is, as often as fits your budget. Enjoy!  Q: With regards to what you said about active acne (another facial question!), do you mean chronic acne? I don&amp;#039;t have it, but about every four weeks my face does break out. Is that the time I should not get a facial?  CK: Exactly. Most of us break out around our periods. Save the facial until after your monthly breakout clears up.  Q: Speaking of oily skin, 10 minutes after I put my makeup on in the morning (oil free) I&amp;#039;ve got a slick across my forehead and down my nose. Help!  CK: What you need is an oil-absorbing lotion that goes on before your makeup. I use one from Clarins called Mat Express. It&amp;#039;s amazing! Also, you should look for a foundation that&amp;#039;s not only oil-free, but also oil-absorbing. And keep some blotting papers (I love the ones from Clean &amp;amp;amp; Clear) on hand for breakthrough oiliness.  Q: Hi, Cheryl. When I put eyeshadow on it gets on my eyelashes (where my eye and lash meet) and I heard there is a way to make that part of your eye look darker and cover the shadow. Do you know how?  CK: If you put your mascara on after the powder, you&amp;#039;ll be able to coat the shadow. Is that what you mean?  Q: No, I do put it on after -- I can&amp;#039;t get it to reach that far back.  CK: Oh, okay. What you&amp;#039;ll want to do then is try this eyeliner trick: Using a pencil that&amp;#039;s the same color as your lashes, make tiny dots in the space between your lashes. It makes your lashline look really thick.  Q: I can never wake up in the morning. I get between seven and eight hours of sleep each night, but find I continually hit the snooze button until I realize I&amp;#039;m going to be super-late for work, every day. What can I do to jump-start my morning and get my butt out of bed when I should?  CK: You&amp;#039;re asking the wrong person: I need to put an alarm clock outside my bedroom so I&amp;#039;ll get out of bed to shut it off! However, some beauty products can be really eye-opening. Put some grapefruit or mint shampoo in your shower. They&amp;#039;ll wake you up, all right!  Q: Our time is up for today. Cheryl, thank you so much for spending this hour with us. You&amp;#039;ve given us some terrific advice. Everyone else, thank you for stopping by, and be sure to visit our Redbook community at http://www.ivillage.com/redbook/boards.  Cheryl Kramer: Adios! Thank you all for logging in! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/beauty/makeup-skincare/advice/a21/get-gorgeous-yl/>