INFUSED M A G A Z I N E T he
High Tea Party
Tips for
Winter Skincare
BOOTS! Dr. Google
Reliable places to source health info on the internet
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Our monthly WOW award!
The “WOW” award signifies a Woman of Worth, a way to celebrate and acknowledge the wonderful women in your lives. We’d love you to nominate someone who is inspirational, courageous or selfless. We want to hear stories of women who have gone above and beyond to do something remarkable. It could be a family member, friend, colleague or neighbour. Every month we’ll reward a woman in your life who deserves a gorgeous excuse to pamper herself. Each month, one person will be chosen by our High Tea Party team and named “WOW” of the month. We’ll send her a gorgeous High Tea Party pack filled with lovely treats to say “thank you for being you”. All you need to do to nominate the special woman in your life is email us at admin@thepeppermintgroup.com.au and tell us what makes this woman so special and why she deserves to win. We’ll contact you for further details if your nomination is successful.
*gift package shown is a true reflection of products that can be included in a WOW award. Products used can vary. Packaging may differ.
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B EAU TY
JULY/2019 6/BEAUTY
10/ ETIQUETTE
Winter skincare.
Conversation hacks for a variety of situations.
8/ FASHION
12/HEALTH & WELLBEING
These boots were made for walkin’
Is there a Dr. “Google” in the house?
Dear Reader, Welcome to the July issue of Infused. Don't forget to nominate the woman of worth in your life for her chance to win a pamper pack in August. It’s cold out there – even in my temperate city of Sydney! So this month we bring you some tips for keeping your skin beautiful in winter. And for those lovely winter dinner parties – we bring you conversation hacks so you’ll never be stuck for something to say again. It’s not too late to get yourself a gorgeous pair of boots to see the season out! Check out our fashion feature on this season’s winter boot trends. Also this issue we look at health advice. Online health advice, that is. If you’re going to ask Google to answer your health questions, which are the best websites to trust for good intel? And which should you avoid? We’ve done a bit of Dr-Googling in our time and share our best advice for good quality health information online. As always, we’d love to hear from you if you’d like to see something in our e-magazine or if you have something you’d like to share, so get in touch at admin@thepeppermintgroup.com.au Best wishes, Sarah
Want to say hello, have a question or feedback? Drop us an email at admin@thepeppermintgroup.com.au
BEAUTY
D
winter skincare All the beauty experts agree – it’s all about the moisture in winter. Here are some ideas to try to keep your skin looking beautiful in the cooler months.
rink plenty of fluids. It’s winter and we want to drink coffee and hot chocolate to keep us warm, (especially if we’re at freezing cold kids’ soccer matches), but remember that caffeine is a natural diuretic so it doesn’t hydrate you as well as water, and you need to keep your fluids up, so consider swapping it for a herbal tea like ginger or mint, or simply steaming hot water.
B
T
B
D
ath oils. A long hot bath is a lovely winter treat, and using oils in your bath will help moisturise your skin all over. You can go to the chemist for a scentfree oil that will really work or you can get a commercial mix with an aroma that you like. ut limit hot shower time. Long hot showers will dry out your skin, so try to limit them and make sure you slather on the moisturising cream afterwards. On the other hand, some health nuts swear by a quick cold shower, even in winter, for strengthening your immune system. But I won’t be trying that.
S
erums are your friend. If you’ve ever used a serum under your moisturiser, you’ll know what I mean. It’s a lightweight, water based fluid that usually has vitamins and treatments packed in. It plumps out your skin really quickly and will have you looking great for a last-minute boost under your make-up. You can spend a little or a lot, but they are a great winter beauty trick. he sun is still there. It’s not summer but don’t abandon your SPF, especially in Australia. You can still get burned and the sun can still damage your skin. Best to include it in your daily routine, like your make-up base or day-time moisturiser. on’t forget your lips. The lips don’t have any sebaceous glands, meaning they don’t produce a natural oil like the rest of our face does. In winter, this means they can easily become dry and chapped. A simple jelly like Vaseline will help, but as lips can still be damaged by the sun you’re better off using a stick or balm with SPF 15 at least.
FASHION
These Boots were made for walkin’ Just as the sandal is to summer, the boot is to winter. It’s essential, it keeps your ankles warm, it’s comfortable and it’s gorgeous. Here are the winter boots we’re loving this season. White hot! White boots are agonisingly on-trend right now – it started last year and it’s continuing in 2019. Little pointy ankle boots or super-gorgeous go-go boots, these throwbacks to the 1960s look so cute teamed up with a colourful coat. Animal print. This print is crazy fashionable all over the world right now, either as a summer print or a winter boot print. Think zebra, snake print or leopard spots. Cowboy boots. We all know someone who rocks a cowboy boot no matter what the decade. They are so cute and look great with just about anything. Grunge it up. Combat boots (or Docs) with a long floral dress and a denim jacket will have you rocking a 1990s style that never really left our hearts. Hiking boots. Yep – they are a fashion statement these days. We’ve seen them with dresses, onesies and of course on hikers.
5
ETIQUETTE
Conversation Hacks Up your game next time you have to make small talk at a party or event.
H
ave you ever come home from a night out and spent the next day cringing at all the things you said? I have. The only way to not make any faux pas in conversation is to never go out! To be human is to socialise, to get to know other people, and to make the occasional mistake. But there’s always room for improvement, right? Here are our top conversation tips.
1. Introductions! Make sure everyone knows everyone else’s name. Even if you’re unknowingly introducing two people who’ve known each other for years, it’s far better than the alternative of having people who don’t know each other stuck in the conversation. Always start with your own name when you don’t know people. Others will usually reciprocate. 2. The best way to really enjoy yourself at a party and also to get the most out of your night is to ask and listen. See how much you can find out about a person. Keep asking questions until you get to a topic you’re both interested in. 3. There might be one person on the edge of your circle who’s not participating in the conversation. Do your best to bring them in, if you can. Ask them their opinion on the topic. Or, if you find that events or people not known to the extra person are being discussed, fill them in so they feel welcomed and not excluded.
4. Don’t just stay with the same person all night. This can also help if you get stuck with someone who’s happy for you ask all about them but not to happy to listen to you. Move on, baby! 5. Keep the phone in your pocket. Or bag. It’s really, superdooper rude to start texting while someone’s talking to you.
HEALTH & WELLNESS
Dr.
I
s there even any point in having doctors anymore? We can just find out what’s wrong with us on Google, right? Well, not exactly. It’s incredibly important to get checked out by a professional if you have a health problem that is bothering you. But it also pays to be informed so that you know the right questions to ask your doctor, and maybe just to abate some general curiosity you might have about your very own body. These days it’s far easier than ever before to access information about health, thanks to the internet. But there are websites and websites. It’s one thing to get your info from a worldrenowned university-hospital website, and quite another to trust the opinion of “Trevor from Yahoo Answers”. So here are some great, reputable websites to check out if you’ve got general health questions. But make sure you see your family doctor for anything that concerns you.
Cartoon by Tim Menees
NPS Medicinewise This Australian organisation is independent, not-for-profit and evidence-based. They seek to ensure that patients and professionals have independent information about medicines and as such they’ve been behind campaigns such as “Common sense for the common cold”, advising people to get rest and fluids for colds viruses instead of antibiotics. This is a great source of impartial information about prescribed or over-the-counter medications. They also have a free app.
Better Health Channel Sponsored by the State Government of Victoria, this website gives great advice about lots of general health complaints. It also has general health information, including healthy family recipes and information on safety around the house. There is also a free app.
The Royal Children’s
Hospital, Melbourne This is a great resource for quality information on common childhood illnesses. There are searchable fact sheets sorted in alphabetical order and they cover everything from preventing household accidents to getting help for various maladies.
National Health Services UK Another go-to website for me is the UK’s NHS website. It provides clear, trustworthy information on a range of searchable topics. It also has lots of information on topical issues, such as online health scams or whether fitness trackers help with weight loss. Some of the information on this page is helpful only to people living in the UK, such as help for finding UK-based services, but even so, it contains a wealth of general information for everyone.
Health Direct Anyone who lives in Australia and has a small child needs to be aware of this fantastic government service. You can call 1800 022 222 at any time, 24 hours a day, and talk to a nurse or doctor. It’s so good for those times at 2am when you’re not sure if you need to take your child to hospital or if you can wait until morning. It gives you sound, calm advice from a health professional. The website is also excellent for good quality information on a range of topics.
Mayo Clinic This American hospital has been ranked the number one hospital in America by US News and World Report and was the only hospital in its country to receive five stars from The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. It’s widely regarded as the gold-standard for health care and knowledge in the US and it has a website with excellent information on various issues, including a symptom checker.
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FOOD & BEVERAGE
uilt-free treats Husband-and-wife team Joe Gehrke and Daphne Raj just wanted a drink as a treat at the end of a long day working and raising their daughters. They didn’t necessarily want it to be alcoholic and they didn’t want to have a sugary soft-drink or a diet soda full of artificial sweeteners and flavourings. A delicious, guilt-free treat, was that too much to ask?
They decided to create one themselves. “We worked with an organic ingredient supplier who could get all sorts of organic juices and natural ingredients to provide a real flavour, such as gentian root for our Bitters, and a kola nut, vanilla and spice blend for our Cola,” Joe tells Infused magazine. “We experimented for days and came up with the recipes which meet the ACO organic certification requirements.” The result was Simple Organic Sodas, seven fully organic, low-sugar soft drinks in flavours we all know and love, like lemon, lime and bitters and passionfruit. The couple are environmentally conscious, and so they donate 1% of their revenue to organisations working to protect the environment. Joe’s favourite is “definitely the ginger beer. I have to stop myself from drinking all the samples.” With a fiery kick and far less sugar than regular ginger beer it’s a good one to look out for. Keep an eye out for Simple Organic Sodas at our High Tea Parties throughout the year, or check out their website at www.greenstonedrinks.com for more information.
I’m a modern Australian... with a Mediterranean heritage.
Sofi Spritz is an all-Australian wine cocktail inspired by the Italian-style of aperitivo, balanced with sparkling water, citrus & herbal extracts.
T he
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