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One of my biggest beauty pet peeves? The size of conditioner bottles compared to shampoo bottles. Surely I can’t be the only one out there with stacks of half used shampoo bottles next to squeezed-to-death conditioners in my shower rack? Give me super-sized liberty to use the amount of goop my parched hair requires, damn it.

Luckily, I have been given respite from another one of my hair product peeves: dandruff shampoos not coming with a complementary conditioner. (I don’t want product fragrances to compete with each other, nor do I want a conditioner to undo any work a treatment shampoo has done.)

Head & Shoulders Restoring Shine Conditioner livens up dull hair using natural plant extracts, and rings in at a cost conscious $7. As well as keeping hair hydrated and soft, it contains the well-recognized anti-dandruff ingredient pyrithione zinc which quickly gets to work on sorting out any itchy scratchies. www.headandshoulders.com

I also recommend trying Redken’s Soothing Balance Shampoo ($19) and Soothing Balance Conditioner ($20) Both use pyrithione zinc, licorice extract (to calm irritation), and eucalyptus (to help protect and cool the scalp.) www.redken.ca

All right, let’s get the obligatory mention out of the way: swine flu. There, I said it; please feel free to discuss your reactions, because that would interest me. One more lesson on handwashing, however, will not.

I do admit to a certain fascination with the way we all plan for disaster. (Remember stocking freeze-dried food for Y2K? Okay, actually, I have never stocked freeze-dried food.) Between economic woes, record floods in Manitoba, and fears of plague, I think many of us are feeling the need to check the basement for wind-up radios and soft, cosy blankets. Some useful links include:

• Canadian Centre for Emergency Preparedness 
• Canadian Red Cross: Disaster Preparedness
  

And some perhaps not quite so useful, but still amusing links include:

• Zombie preparedness initiative 
• Living in a fallout shelter

I have to admit though that what I’ve mostly found in my own life is that the disaster that strikes is never quite the one for which one is prepared.

But I still have beans, water, and batteries in the basement.

How are you preparing for disaster these days?

Okay, confess: you’ve looked your house up on Google Maps. (Or, for the advanced user, Google Earth.) But Rhett Dashwood’s gone further and developed the Google Maps Alphabet.

If you have a fascination with this kind of thing (like I do) you might also enjoy the Butterfly Alphabet.

Now that women over 40 are the hot new thing, I’m afraid to leave to the house lest a sex-starved college boy be lurking behind my rose bushes, waiting to seduce me.  So far the only thing I’ve seen back there is the Rakowski’s poodle doing her business but I know it’s just a matter of time.

It started when the marketing types figured out that we control the purse strings.  Suddenly we couldn’t pick up a magazine or turn on the television without seeing an ad telling us know how smart, sexy and confident we are.

At first I kept looking over my shoulder, certain they must be talking about someone else.  “Who?  Me?” I wanted to ask.  But the messages continued, assuring me that 40 is the new 25.

Well, who am I to argue with all these smart advertising men.  If they say we’re smart and sexy then gosh, I guess we are.  Though I do think my friend Audrey took the message too much to heart when she went to that southern resort last winter.  I don’t care how sexy we are, a 200 lb. woman who’s had three C-sections should not be wearing a bikini on a public beach. And then there was poor Dorothy, newly divorced and trying to get back in the dating scene.  I told her to lie about her age when she filled in her LavaLife profile but oh no, she had to be honest and put down 45.  Well, she couldn’t keep up with all the responses she got from 20 year-old guys wanting to meet her.

After all, dating a cougar is the latest must-have status symbol. ”I really don’t enjoy dating these guys,” Dorothy told me.  “They treat me like some Sugar Mamma, always expecting me to pick up the cheque.  And then there’s the sex thing.  Not only do they assume my hormones make me want it all the time, they think my age and experience means I can teach them all kinds of tricks.  My ex and I did buy a copy of the Kama Sutra once but we had only gotten to the second position before the dog chewed it.  And by then, the kids had come along and we were so tired that we just never bothered learning anything new after that. ”

And now, thanks to Susan Boyle, things have gotten even harder.  It’s not enough to be a middle-aged woman, we have to be middle-aged women with a talent.  Suddenly everyone’s looking at us, expecting us to do something, like we might burst into song or dance at any moment.  I feel immense pressure to go out and take voice lessons, or maybe tap, so I can impress the check-out girl at the grocery store.  I just can’t bear the thought of disappointing everyone when they learn that my hobbies include scrapbooking and reading Harlequin Romances.  Interesting, yes, but the stuff of reality shows?  I think not.

How I long for the days when I was simply invisible and could let myself go.  I just didn’t know how good I had it back then.  But I’ll play by the new  rules  and keep up my gym membership; reinvent myself as a life coach and flaunt my beauty to the cougar hunters at the bar.  I just hope pop culture’s pendulum swings soon and people get on to some other hot new thing.  Like middle-aged men. 

Susan Boyle is becoming passé, I know, but I didn’t want to leave without a roundup of some of the coverage. Although we here at More.ca and More are surrounded daily by stories of women at midlife – the frizzy haired and the fashionistas both -  doing amazing things, it still was a great moment of theatre.

And yet, should it be such amazing news that a 47 year old can sing? I’m not sure. Still, here are some of the stories that caught my attention:

• Slideshow of her new look - and why not?
• Those of you who don’t get the big deal are not alone.
• And can she really sing?
• Andy Borowitz’s piece had me laughing. Hard.
• The National Post’s Colby Cosh.
• And how she’ll save the Toronto Star.
• The next talented Brit to wow the world is right here.

My favourite, because it’s just that Internet-quirky: This recipe for potatoes Susan Boyle style.

And the most burning question has yet to be answered: Do I have to dust off my CDs – nay, my LPs – of Les Misérables?

So, talk to me: What do you think of the whole thing? And if you’re one of the last people not to have seen the video: here you go.

I’m a big believer in good eating habits equaling good skin. In theory, at least.  In actuality, I’m knocking back a can of pop and a bag of BBQ chips as I write this.

Of course, when my skin looks dull or I have a break out I  seek out a beauty product to try and cure my ails, rather than simply making changes to my eating habits.

But no more.

I’ve started taking Imedeen Time Perfection supplements.  (I’ve also given up on science inventing an anti-aging potato chip). This line of Imedeen pills come full of free-radical fighting anti-oxidants like lycopene, white tea, and Vitamin E, as well as zinc and fish proteins (known to help strengthen skin structure.) The tablets promise to improve moisture balance, make skin feel softer and reduce the visible signs of aging. It’s an interesting inside-out approach to beauty.

More’s fashion editor, Alisa Krost, has also jumped on the beauty-tablet regimen with me, and we’ll check back in on the blog in a few months to let you know if we’ve seen any significant changes to our skin.

If you’ve been curious to try out a skin supplement, Imedeen has recently launched a 90 Day Challenge at www.youcandomore.ca, with a buy-2-months-get-1-free offer.  Once you sign up online, you can fill out a survey about your skin’s current condition, which you repeat once a month to help  monitor any changes. 

The trial is supported with a money-back guarantee if you’re not satisfied with the results.

Shameless self promotion: Congratulations to the members of the More team who have been nominated for the National Magazine Awards. Check out their work here:

Essays

Jay Teitel
My Wife Makes More Than Me (But Don’t Tell Anybody)

Service: Health & Family

Amy Baskin
Empty Nest Envy

Jacqueline Hennessy
Burning Questions

Kim Pittaway
The Game of Risk

Society

Jacqueline Hennessy
Show Me the Money

Spot Illustration (you can’t see the illustration online – yet; we’ll keep you posted)

Anita Kunz
Bullies For You

Christian Northeast
Just Say No

You can see the full list of nominees at: http://www.magazine-awards.com/

Yes, that was the sound of our server having a “catastrophic event” yesterday. These are the kinds of days that make web editors cry – but also gave me some time to surf around and find a few neat things.

• Crazy, bohemian women: HBO’s Grey Gardens reignited interest in the story of “Big Edie and Little Edie” – I watched some of the original documentary on YouTube, but what really caught my eye was the New York Times slideshow about the house itself, and related article.
• Generation Debt: Leah McLaren over at the Globe and Mail really lets loose on baby boomers. Ah, generational sniping.
• Over at the Motherlode blog, Lisa Belkin explores whether or not we blame the parents for the Columbine shootings.
• Canadians are generally happy.
• Geeky Mom’s take on whether “sexting” is unsafe.
• John Doyle on Susan Boyle. More on this later I think; share your thoughts! (Teaser: I’m researching the Paul Potts coverage.)

What are you reading this week? Did you watch Grey Gardens?

People – you can’t live with them, and you can’t live without them. The Globe and Mail has a look at neighbourhood disputes up this week of the sort that strike fear into many an urban homeowner. 

I was thinking that probably everyone has a story about “the neighbour who…” but I have to admit my own are benign – teenage parties replete with detailed descriptions of – well, stuff no one wants to know about their neighbours’ kids; the woman who used to come into my backyard to tie my tomatoes up better. 

For the most part, I’m actually glad to have neighbours and a neighbourhood. Yes, we all have our quirks: one of my neighbours leaves his dandelions way too long and another has a dog who used to bark with glee for about 20 minutes right when my son was going to sleep. But all in all, I’ll keep them. What about you?

Sometimes I think beauty companies try much too hard to woo their customers. Whether it’s promises of magical, life-changing results that never quite happen or being blinded with complicated scientific jargon, a product can easily fall into the all-talk, no action category.

No so for Nivea and their first foray into the wonderful – and overpopulated – world of bar soaps.  Their new Happy Time Cream Beauty Bar let’s you know right away where you stand:

Hey! Hi there! It’s time to get happy – are you in? I’ve got bamboo milk and I smell like orange blossom! I’m pH balanced, too! Isn’t life grand?

Who’s going to say no?

Best of all, the cost of buying yourself a little happy rings in at under $3.50 for two bars.