I was surfing the net for a good chocolate chip cookie recipe when I came across this article... Just want to share with you some interesting news about the effects of chocolate on our skin:

Sometimes if you're lucky, science reverses some of its findings and dire warnings in your lifetime. For example, I'm sure, like most women, you were told as a teenager to stay away from chocolate, supposedly the #1 cause of pimples. Not that you always followed that advice. But now, halleluiah, the Journal of Nutrition is giving us our chocolate back. I don't know if teens still have to worry but as long as I don't have to...well.

Scientists have already found that cocoa can contain more antioxidants per cup than red wine or green tea do. But the even better news--depending on your fancy--is that ingesting certain compounds in cocoa can smooth the skin and decrease its sensitivity to the sun.

In a recent test, women who drank a cocoa beverage high in antioxidants called flavonols daily experienced reduced redness in response to UV-light exposure--15% less than usual after 6 weeks and 25 % less at 12 weeks--while a group given a low-flavonol cocoa drink had no change.

The women also showed significant improvements in their skins' texture and hydration, which the investigators believe were attributable to measurably improved blood flow to the skin. The low-calorie, high-flavored cocoa powder, made by the candy manufacturer Mars, is not currently available, but flavonols are abundant in dark chocolate. Of course, while a little dark chocolate is good for you, a lot is not better. Chocolate still is loaded with calories. In the meantime, I'm just happy to have it off my forbidden list and able to have a nibble now and again. For my skin, naturally.

GET LAIS' CHOCOLATE-y LOOK:

1. Start by cleansing, toning, and moisturizing your skin.

2. Spot conceal only. You will be wearing a whole lot of brown shades so a heavy foundation might look a bit too heavy as well.

3. Lightly dust some powder on your face just to set the concealer.

4. Contour your cheekbones with a deep shade of brown. Don't use a bronzer for this gives a tan/orange look. If you have a light-chocolate brown eye shadow, use this. But remember to use just a small amount because eye shadows are highly pigmented! So when you dip your blush brush, tap off excess until there is hardly any product left on your brush.

5. Use taupe as a base for your eyes. Apply from your lash lines up to your creases. Define your crease with a chocolate brown shade and blend a bone shade on your brow bones to soften the hard edges.

6. BLEND BLEND BLEND!

7. I used Lancome's Le Crayon Khol in Brun as a liner. Draw a thick line along the lash lines and blend the edges well until you are given just a faint line defining the lashes.

8. For the lips, keep it light. Your eyes already give a lot of definition so I used Lancome's Color Fever Lipstick in No. 212 Wicked Brown which is just a sheer pigmented lip color. It is lighter than lipstick, but a bit more color than lip gloss.

PHOTO CREDITS
(Model) Photographed by Pat Dy
Makeup by Sabs Hernandez for Lancome Paris
Hair by Felicity Son of Khiel's Stylist Series
Model: Lais Villela of Ahensiya Modelo
Styled by: Jennie Llamas-Garcia
Text by Valerie Gladstone