Radiate Joy With These Spring Essentials — As Seen On CBS Austin’s “We Are Austin”

As Robin Williams once said, “Spring is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s party!'” so, this spring season, get ready to dance alongside the daisies, tiptoe through the tulips, and prance with the pansies.  To get into the right frame of mind, scoop up these essential beauty and lifestyle products (all featured in my latest segment for CBS Austin’s “We Are Austin), which will help you radiate joy and live in full bloom.

Check out the segment here and keep reading for details on the bouquet of products shown on air!

OLAY REGENERIST VITAMIN C + PEPTIDE 24 HYDRATING MOISTURIZER

The sun is shining bright, so it’s time to get your shine on! For a complexion so luminous that it can brighten up any room, check out the Olay Regenerist Vitamin C + Peptide 24 Hydrating Moisturizer. Formulated with Olay’s proprietary technology, this lightweight, non-comedogenic moisturizer brightens dull skin instantly, while also helping to even skin tone, improving skin’s texture, and providing 24-hour hydration.

The formula incorporates dermatologist-recommended ingredients like: vitamin C, which brightens the complexion and stimulates collagen production; vitamin B3, which helps to even skin tone and strengthen the skin’s protective barrier, thereby helping it better lock in moisture; and lactic acid, an alpha hydroxy acid that exfoliates skin, revealing smoother skin while helping to reduce the appearance of dark spots.

It’s  $29.99 on Olay.com or contact your local retailer for curbside pick-up.

NIOXIN DIAMAX ADVANCED

May is one of the most popular wedding months, with an estimated 11% of betrothed couples choosing to tie the knot at the height of spring. Between bridal showers, wedding ceremonies and receptions, school graduations, and Mother’s Day fêtes, you likely have a bustling social calendar this spring. And, of course, you’ll want to look and feel your best at every big event — which means you’re probably hoping to flaunt thicker, fuller hair. That’s where Nioxin Diamax Advanced ($53.90 at ULTA stores and ULTA.com), a leave-in thickening treatment that helps you achieve fuller-looking hair instantly. This treatment spray effectively increases the diameter of each hair strand, leaving hair looking noticeably fuller after just one use.

Not only does this treatment offer instant results (and the gratification that accompanies them!), but it also acts to deliver long-term benefits. The formula contains ingredients like: caffeine, which stimulates circulation along the scalp and thereby helps to stimulate hair roots and promote growth, and which reduces the oxidative stress triggered by UV exposure; niacinamide, which helps to reduce inflammation along the scalp, helps to reinforce the skin’s moisture barrier so the scalp can better retain moisture, and crystallizes on hair strands to boost their diameter; and dimethicone, a protective polymer that creates a protective film around hair, thereby minimizing breakage and improving manageability. With daily use, then, this leave-in treatment will help to create the optimal conditions for hair growth, so you can enjoy healthy, shiny, longer hair.

OLAY BODY FEARLESS ARTIST SERIES

If you’re slipping into your shorts only to gasp at how dry, rough, and dull your legs appear after all those grueling months of winter, fear not! Olay Body is here to help the skin below your neck look smooth, supple, and radiant thanks to its Fearless Artist Series, a collection of three new body washes that deeply hydrate to nourish, restore and balance skin.

The body washes in the Fearless Artist Series collection combine the niacinamide in Olay’s proprietary vitamin B3 complex with powerful skincare ingredients like cocoa butter, aloe, and vitamin C. For skin that needs some extra TLC, I highly recommend the Olay Fearless Artist Series Body Wash with Cocoa Butter because it does a great job of softening, hydrating and replenishing winter-worn skin. Also, the body wash features notes of Manuka honey that leave your skin smelling divine!

As part of its commitment to elevating the stories of women of color in art and science, Olay Body enlisted the help of African-American artist Avery Williamson to design the bottles in the Olay Body Fearless Artist Series. All three body washes, then, feature Williamson’s stunning abstract artwork, so that they celebrate a fearless, risk-taking female artist while helping you to be fearless in your own skin.

Each body wash is $7.99 at Target and Walmart

DR DENNIS GROSS ALPHA BETA EXTRA STRENGTH DAILY PEELS

Looking to give your complexion a fresh start for spring? Start with the Dr. Dennis Gross Alpha Beta Extra Strength Daily Peels ($88 for 30-treatment box at Sephora.com), the #1 peel at Sephora and a cult beauty favorite that counts celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Chrissy Teigen, and Shay Mitchell as loyal fans.

Each daily treatment involves two pre-dosed peel pads, corresponding to Step 1 and Step 2, that work together to deliver a wide range of skin-transforming results: reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, minimizing pores, boosting skin’s radiance, evening skin tone, improving  and softening skin’s texture,, and more.

The Step 1 peel pad is moistened with a number of high-performance actives, among them 7 acids including alpha hydroxy acids like glycolic, mandelic, and lactic acids, and beta hydroxyl acids like salycilic acid. These AHAs and BHAs help to exfoliate skin, unclog pores, balance skin’s oil production, and promote a more radiant skin tone. Step 2, meanwhile, neutralizes acid activity while delivering powerful anti-aging ingredients like resveratrol and retinol, as well as soothing green tea extract to prevent redness and inflammation. The entire process is complete in less than 5 minutes, and you’ll be helping to give your skin a complete transformation.

No wonder one peel is sold every two seconds, right?

INTELLIGENT ELIXIRS VITAMIN A, B, AND C SERUMS

Remember how your mom always told you to take your vitamins? Well, you can apply those same words of wisdom to your skincare routine and feed your complexions the vitamins it needs with a little help from clean beauty brand Intelligent Elixirs. The brand’s highly efficacious serums are formulated with clean, refined, non-toxic ingredients, plus they’re cruelty-free and contain no GMOs, artificial fragrances, artificial dyes, petrolatum, parabens, sulfates, glycols, or other potentially hazardous or irritating substances.

Just like you start your linguistic schooling by learning your ABCs, you can begin  your skincare journey by focusing on vitamins A, B, and C. Each of these ingredients plays a vital role in the skin’s health and is hence the hero component in one of Intelligent Elixirs’ Serums,.

The Intelligent Elixirs Botanical A Night Serum ($38 at Central Market) is powered by Vit-A-Like™ LS 9793, a botanical alternative to vitamin A derived from the seeds of the Vigna Aconitifolia, a legume hailing from India that’s colloquially known as the moth bean. Like retinol (a vitamin A derivative), this ingredient stimulates collagen production and promotes cellular turnover, but the skin tolerates it with much greater ease, which means you don’t have to grapple with the irritation, redness and flaking that can sometimes transpire after a retinol treatment. Designed for nighttime use, this serum also contains Revitalin, which boosts the skin’s oxygen content and consumption to revitalize and energize the complexion, and carnosine, a synthetic peptide with ant-aging and antioxidant benefits.

Hydration is the key to bouncy, dewy, supple skin. Enter the Intelligent Elixirs Vitamin B-5 Hydrating Serum ($50 at Central Market), which combines vitamin B5 (panthenol) and hyaluronic acid to replenish thirsty skin and maintain the skin’s optimum moisture balance. The result is smooth, luminous, healthy-looking skin.

And for brighter and more youthful-looking skin, check out the 15% Vitamin C Anti-Aging Serum ($65 at Central Market). The serum contains L-ascorbic acid, a water-soluble and highly effective form of vitamin C, as well as ferulic acid, a powerful antioxidant that works synergistically with vitamin C to offer the skin greater protection against photodamage, and zinc, which has anti-inflammatory properties.

CERAVE HYDRATING MINERAL SUNSCREEN SPF30 FACE SHEER TINT

Wanna do like Sheryl Crow and soak up the sun? Well, don’t forget to apply sunscreen! You can keep skin protected with the CeraVe Hydrating Mineral Sunscreen SPF 30 Face Sheer Tint ($15.99 at retailers nationwide — including Amazon), a 100% mineral sunscreen that provides broad-spectrum UVA and UVB protection. The lightweight and non-greasy sunscreen is recommended for all skin types — including those with sensitive skin.

What I love the most about this sunscreen is that it combines suncare and skincare: in addition to providing SPF protection, it features ingredients like 3 essential ceramides to help restore and strengthen the skin’s protective barrier alongside hyaluronic acid to lock in moisture. Plus, the sunscreen features a subtle tint that blends into skin seamless and helps to give you just a touch of coverage.

With the Cerave Hydrating Mineral Sunscreen SPF 30 Face Sheer Tint, then, you can flaunt the healthy and hydrated glow you crave — all while getting the solar protection you need.

BOXED WATER

We know that drinking plenty of water is key to enjoying a glowing complexion — after all hydration plays an important role in all of our body’s physical and cognitive functions. And, as temperatures rise, we’ll have to be all the more cognizant of our H2O intake in order to remain properly hydrated.

But while prioritizing hydration is a necessity, it’s equally important to do so in a way that’s not detrimental to our fragile ecosystem, and that means finding a better alternative to single-use plastic water bottles. Research shows that 69 billion plastic bottles are made every year and only 10% are recycled. Mass recycling programs simply haven’t reached the rates needed to contain — much less offset — the global plastic waste crisis. The only way to address this crisis, then, is by reducing the manufacturing of plastic materials and focusing on eco-friendly, reusable and refillable packaging.

Enter Boxed Water, a sustainable alternative to plastic bottles and aluminum cans. This great-tasting, 100% pure water is housed in cartons that are 92% plant-based and 100% recyclable, refillable and reusable. Plus, an independent Life Cycle analysis found that Boxed Water cartons have a lower environmental impact in every single category: from global warming and ozone depletion to acidification and fossil fuel depletion.

And that’s not all: Boxed Water launched an initiative whereby, every time you post a photo of your Boxed Water and use the hashtag #BetterPlanet on social media, the company plants two trees for you. As a result, Boxed Water has planted over 1.3 million trees with the National Forest Foundation.

Visit BoxedWater.com to start sipping sustainably!