Just Ask David

Microneedling probably sounds terrifying. Even though the results are so fantastic that most of us would sit through the pain, anyway - microneedling is actually pretty painless.

Marisel Salazar joins Just Ask David once again to give us all the details on the newest skin care craze. This time, it’s all about microneedling.

Marisel is a New York City based lifestyle writer and photographer. She contributes to various publications like PureWow, Martha Stewart Living, Tasting Table, and NYC GO.

What is Microneedling?

Indeed, most skin care addicts have not shied away from the intimidating-sounding procedure. (Not even when Kim K showed Instagram her blood-streaked “vampire facial” - a type of microneedling that uses platelet-rich plasma to enhance its healing effects.)

But that’s the scariest version of microneedling. What is a general microneedling procedure like, and what does it do?

“In the office, microneedling uses a mechanized device called a dermapen and it makes thousands of miniscule needle punctures in the outermost layers of the skin,” Marisel explains.

“From these hole punctures, you get a healing response which generates collagen, alleviates acne scars, hyperpigmentation, and wrinkles. “

The price of a microneedling treatment at a doctor’s office? About $1,500. For a lot of us, that’s pretty steep.

Microneedling at Home

So for those of us who want to know what we’re getting into, you’ll be relieved to know that you can buy a microneedling roller for use at home.

And it’s only $30.

Of course, at-home microneedling rollers are not as effective as what a doctor has in their office. But it does show visible results.

“The results that you get from rolling it a couple times a week across your face… are truly incredible. It improves the performance of your serums,” Marisel says.

“Pairing [a serum] with a microneedle roller… is really the ultimate way to go in terms of making sure that your skin care is maximized.”

Follow Marisel Salazar on Social Media

Just Ask David: Can I Make My Pores Smaller?

Large pores are a confidence killer.

If you feel too embarrassed to get up close and personal with people because of your large pores, this segment is for you.

What Pores Actually Do

What Causes Pores to Enlarge

Our skin is in a constant state of renewal. When we’re younger it’s every 28 days meaning

Follow Just Ask David on Social Media!

Kombucha bars, probiotic skin care, fermented foods from the other side of the world being commonplace in every grocery store across America overnight. (And why is everyone talking about prebiotics all of a sudden?)

It seems that probiotics and gut bacteria are becoming more and more important in any conversation we have about health these days.

Marisel Salazar makes a reappearance on Just Ask David to give us the facts behind the probiotic craze. Is it just a fad? Or is it a shift in how we understand our overall health?

Marisel is a lifestyle writer from New York City who has contributed to the likes of PureWow, Martha Stewart Living, Well + Good, and NYC GO. With her background in investigating beauty trends, she’s the perfect person to help explain to us what the big deal is with probiotics.

Probiotics: The Bacteria Everyone Wants to Eat

Actually, probiotics are live bacteria that help keep our digestive systems healthy. When we eat junk food or foods high in preservatives, “bad” bacteria can accumulate in our guts over time, causing inflammation.

“Probiotics are really the health and wellness trend du jour,” Marisel says, and with good reason. “They’ve been extremely helpful in the wellness community when it comes to various disorders.”

Some of those conditions include constipation, leaky gut, and irritated bowels. Probiotics can be found in fermented foods like yogurt, sauerkraut, and kimchi.

Probiotics Break into the Beauty Industry

In fact, research shows that the benefits of probiotics aren’t bound to just our stomachs. With new skin care technology that preserves probiotics without killing the bacteria, probiotic skin care is becoming noticed in the skin care industry.

“Topical probiotic skin care is really a wonderful, natural, and clinical way to calm and soothe aggravated or inflamed skin,” Marisel says.

“A lot of these topical probiotics… defend against pollution and other strong environmental factors, which is so helpful living in New York City myself,” Marisel adds. “I am in constant environmental pollution.”

Probiotics help us become more healthy from the inside out. And now, from the outside in.

Follow Marisel Salazar on Social Media!

Visit Marisel’s website and follow her on Twitter @MariselSalazar and Instagram @breadbutternyc to discover the newest beauty trends and technology.

How do you feel about D.I.Y. skin care? Is it a hobby of yours, or do you think skin care is better left to the professionals?

Lily Diamond, author of Kale and Caramel: Recipes for the Body, Heart, and Table, is here on Just Ask David to prove to you that you’re more capable of making quality skin care than you think. Kale and Caramel has been hailed as one of the best vegetarian cookbooks of the year by the Guardian, and one of the best cookbooks period in Spring 2017.

Skin Care: Everything You Need is in Your Pantry

But here’s the thing. Most of the ingredients in that luxury moisturizer you just bought can probably be found in your kitchen or garden.

And making skin care isn’t as hard as you’d think. In fact, Lily has been making her own beauty and body products for almost her entire life.

“I grew up in Hawai’i. My mom made most of the products for the spas and resorts on the island,” Lily says. “So I grew up watching my mom concoct those beautiful oils and body scrubs and bath powders. I very early on learned to go run outside and crush up hibiscus leaves - they create a beautiful conditioning treatment that you can put on your skin. So I already had an inclination towards making my own skin care products.”

“Some friends really requested I start a blog. They wanted a place where they could read both my writing but also recreate the recipes that I made at dinner parties.”

Honey Face Washing and Other DIY Recipes

One of Lily’s D.I.Y. daily essentials is honey washing.

I’ve been using honey to wash my face for about ten years now,” she says. “It just completely transformed my skin care routine.”

Follow Lily Diamond on Instagram!

Visit Lily’s website, Kale and Caramel, and don’t forget to follow her on Instagram and Twitter @LilyDiamond!

Acne, psoriasis, rosacea - no matter the type, no one likes for their skin to break out.

Antonia Balfour L.Ac. joins Just Ask David to divulge a few of her secrets to healing sensitive skin using alternative methods.

Antonia is an acupuncturist, herbalist, and the founder of Yin Yang Dermatology. She specializes in holistic skin care and integrates Chinese herbal medicine into her practice.

Beauty is Skin Deep, So Heal From the Inside!

The solution? A customized, individualized formula just for you - in the form of herbal tea.

“The teas really are the strongest way to take herbal medicine, but they don’t taste good,” Antonia admits. “They’re medicinal and earthy, but they really work.”

The Holistic Approach - Take a Deeper Look

“One thing that happens that I see in my practice is that some people will come in and they’ll have the worst diets in the world,” Antonia says. “They’re eating cupcakes everyday, having frappuccinos from Starbucks - a lot of sugar and a lot of dairy. One of the most difficult things to change is the diet. But it’s so important and the healing happens much faster.

A healthy diet is an example of how taking a more holistic approach can benefit your skin. The foods we eat affect the health and appearance of our skin, as do plenty of other factors we often don’t think of.

Follow Yin Yang Dermatology on Social Media

Visit Yin Yang Dermatology and don’t forget to follow on Twitter and Instagram @YinYangDerm!

April was Rosacea Awareness Month. And if you missed out, you’re in luck - our favorite natural redhead is back to talk rosacea!

Cofounder of the very first online beauty magazine, Candice Sabatini of Beauty News NYC, is back on Just Ask David to break down the types of rosacea and what you can do to reduce the appearance of flare-ups -- no makeup needed!

What Causes Rosacea?

If your rosiness is of the beet variety, don’t fret.

Actually, over 16 million people in the United States experience rosacea - and the vast majority of sufferers are fair-skinned women over the age of 30.

So what’s the cause of rosacea, then? Why is it that some are more prone to flare-ups than others?

“Some people say that it’s a skin condition,” Candice says. “Other people will say it’s an internal condition that stems from the gut and shows up on the skin."

Experts are split over the cause: is it an immune system disorder or a skin condition? No matter what you think the answer is, Candice has a few solutions.

Controlling Rosacea Flare-Ups

But that doesn’t mean that rosacea has to rule your life.

“People think, ‘Oh, I have a flare-up’ and there’s nothing that can be done, and that’s not true. It can’t be cured, but it can be managed,” Candice clarifies.

We know now that rosacea is can be caused by gut inflammation - so it only makes sense that diet plays a huge role in flare-ups. Control you diet, control your rosacea!

“Everyone who has rosacea has trigger foods,” Candice explains. “The most common trigger foods are spicy foods and alcohol.”

Yikes. I guess that means no more Taco & Tequila Tuesdays.

Before You Head Out the Door - Last Minute Quick Fixes for Rosacea

“Vitamin C is great for everybody’s skin… but it’s really great for rosacea,” Candice suggests. “It has to be a fat-soluble vitamin C… not your typical ascorbic acid, which has a water-soluble base.”

Also, you can use green or chamomile tea as a compress to alleviate some of that redness. These solutions can even fit in your purse!

Follow Candice Sabatini and Beauty News NYC for More!

Follow Candice on Twitter @SabatiniOnStyle and Instagram @Candice_Sabatini for more insider beauty tips!

And for beauty news, check out Beauty News NYC on Twitter and Instagram @BeautyNewsNYC!

Why? Lots of seasonings include tons of salt for taste. Also, foods with long shelf lives like frozen and canned foods, use salt as a preservative.

“It’s very difficult to avoid salt when you eat out,” John says. “Normally, my first choice when I eat out is the plainest thing on the menu, which means either a salad or turkey. Anything that says it’s been seasoned… [or is] in a sauce usually includes a lot of salt.”

If it sounds bland or gross, that’s because we’ve been conditioned to eat a lot of salt. Still, we can’t deny the health hazards of a high-sodium diet.

“There’s just too much salt out there. Most Americans eat much more salt than they should every day,” John adds. “It took me a year or two to really wean myself off [salt]. It made my blood pressure go down.”

It’s essential to research what kind of diet seems doable for you in the long-run. For example, if chicken nuggets are your absolute favorite food and non-negotiable in any new diet, a low carb diet would be more nugget-friendly than a vegetarian diet.

John says the key to simplifying your food choices (and your life) is to “cook more at home and really study labels… Read the labels of everything you buy.”

Also, if you’re worried about feeling hungry, you have to eat foods that will make you feel full without eating lot of it.

“You’ve really gotta not just cut the calories you eat, but the types of calories you’re consuming,” John says. “100 calories of sugar is a lot different from 1000 calories of lettuce.”

So now, how important is exercise in all this? Do you have to start working out to be healthy?

Well, depends on what your health goals are. If you just want to lose weight, John says no, you don’t HAVE to.

“Exercise is important, but I’ve read over the years that diet is going to make the biggest difference,” he says.

If you think about the pure numbers of it, it makes sense. Which is the easiest way to burn 500 calories: running at a steady pace for about 45 minutes, or just avoiding that slice of cake?

Visit John Frank’s Website for More!

Visit John’s website, No Salt, No Fat, No Sugar!

It’s time to break up with your snooze button. You know it’s not a healthy relationship. You KNOW that you actually don’t feel more rested after hitting snooze a few times.

When it comes to falling asleep and staying asleep, Lindsay Champion, wellness director of women’s lifestyle publication PureWow, has got you covered.

As a matter of fact, she says that a little extra beauty sleep can actually make you more beautiful.

Beauty Sleep is NOT a Myth!

Studies on sleep all seem to suggest that sleep plays an important role in the amount of water your skin and hair absorbs.

“The University Hospital Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio studied two groups of women,” Lindsay says, pointing out one of her favorite researched studies. “One group regularly slept less than five hours a night… the other group of women slept between 7-8 hours a night, which is more optimal.

“So the group that slept less than five hours, they didn’t only have older looking skin, they had darker under-eye circles... [and] their skin was more dehydrated.”

So it seems pretty clear: Not getting enough sleep interferes with cell regeneration, which you need plenty of to maintain your youthful glow well into your years.

Tricks for Better Sleep

Lindsay recommends calculating your “sleep opportunity.” Coined by sleep scientist Matthew Walker, this term means how long it takes for you to fall asleep PLUS your total ideal sleep time. That means you need to consider how long you’re tossing and turning before you actually drift off to sleep.

Another great suggestion by Lindsay: Before going to sleep, set your phone or alarm as far away from you as possible. That way, when it wakes you up in the morning, you have to actually get up and cross the room to turn it off.

Take THAT, snooze button!

Follow PureWow on Social Media!

Check out PureWow, and don’t forget to follow on Twitter and Instagram @PureWow!

These days, people are more cognizant of the importance of their diet on their overall health than ever before.

It shows with the variety of diets that are springing in popularity. Even well-known and established diets like veganism and vegetarianism are getting a positive boost in recognition.

For everyone, the ultimate goal with any of these diets are to be healthy. Nutritionist Sam Houghton of GreenGut Wellness joins Just Ask David to talk to us about another diet that can help you lose weight, fight off (and even reverse!) heart disease, and - get this - you don’t even have to count calories.

What is Plant-Based Eating?

“On a whole food, plant-based diet, you don’t just hold off on the animal products,” Sam explains. “You also don’t eat anything that’s processed. So that includes white flour, white sugar, and a lot of vegetable oils.”

Omitting processed foods from your diet isn’t something we can all do easily. But you owe it to yourself to take care of your body, especially considering the effects of processed foods on your body in the long-term.

So what counts as a processed food?

“My favorite definition of it is from someone who’s really big in the plant-based community: Dr. Michael Gregor,” Sam says. “He defines processed food as something good is taken away and something bad is added.”

Health Benefits of Plant-Based Eating

“Heart disease is the number one killer in our country,” Sam points out. “A whole food plant-based diet is the only diet that has been shown in scientific studies not only to prevent heart disease but also to reverse existing heart disease.”

So since plant-based diets can help with heart disease, it must be great for weight loss too, right? Exactly!

“A lot of people want to lose weight but they want to do it in a healthy, sustainable way rather than going on some crazy crash-diet,” Sam says. “One of the things about a plant-based diet is there’s more bulk and more fiber, so you feel fuller on fewer calories and you don’t have to actively restrict your calories.”

A diet that you can actually feel full on? Sign me up!

Follow Sam Houghton on Social Media

Unlike most fashion trends, athleisure hasn’t gotten any less popular as time passes.

In fact, it’s still super common to see people wearing athleisure clothing everywhere you go. From to the gym, to college campuses -- even the mall.

Celebrity Fashion Stylist and Co-founder/Creative & Style Director of Athleisure Mag Kimmie Smith joins this segment to explain the hype behind this lasting fashion trend. Kimmie is also the Fashion Editor of DJ Mag and the designer of her own romper line, ROMPER Ugly Romper.

What’s New with Athleisure Trends in 2018

“Some items are worn to the gym and those are of course the core fitness function,” Kimmie explains. “But athleisure is also great transitional wear. Its items can be layered upon and [you can] go out to brunch or even the office.”

With how fast-paced our lifestyles have become, athleisure is the fashion industry’s natural response.

“It’s awesome to see over the last few years that it’s gone from the gym to other things you can wear out-and-about,” Kimmie adds. “It’s really functional, moving-type fabric, which is what makes athleisure so nice.”

The fabric used in athleisure wear tends to be breathable, comfortable, and surprisingly stylish. Perfect for - well, pretty much everything!

“What I love about it is, I can run around town in New York,” Kimmie shares. “And as a stylist, as a style director, as someone who is constantly meeting with clients, I am literally running all the time! So I need clothing that moves with me and is comfortable, stays in place, and allows me to still be presentable.”

Follow Kimmie Smith on Social Media!

For celebrity beauty tips and to keep up-to-speed with Kimmie, follow her on Twitter @sheskimmie and Instagram @shes.kimmie_.