This beautiful spring morning the host of Fashion  Flash is Jodell of Black Cat Plus.  Not only does Jodell discuss the  plus size fashion tips, she is now an e-tailer of some of the top clothing brands.   My cousin lives in an area where choices in plus size fashion is very limited.  She could  find the basics, but for  anything aboove that it was a struggle.  Now with Black Cat Plus she can find clothing  she loves, not something she has to settle for.

And when you’ve finished looking through  all the  dynamic Fashion Flash sites,  check out  Brown Skin by Susan Taylor MD.   A Harvard trained dermatologist, Dr Taylor provides a culturally sensitive, comprehensive  guide to  skin care for women of color.  African American, Hispanic and Asian skin has the ability to naturally resist aging, but is vulnerable to problems of too much  or too little  pigmentation.  This can cause different types of dark  or light patches such as hyperigmentation, melasma, and vertiligo.

I get  many questions from the Phillipines  asking about safety of Retin A  and IPl for darker skin tones.   Brown Skin   provides the best explanation of  what causes these skin  color changes and how to treat them.  For example for the first time I learned that  pigmentation can occur both  in the epidermis, the upper  layer of the skin and  in the dermis, the lower layer.  The brown pigments in the upper layer  can usually be treated successfully, but the black pigments deep in the dermis are much  more difficult to manage.  This is important because overly aggressive treatment can actually  make hyperpigmentation worse. For Dr Taylor all women of color MUST wear sunscreen, no so mucht to avoid aging, but to prevent dark spots and patches. 

Brown Skin also has great targeted advice on acne prevention and treatment.  And again its important to tailor  any acne program to avoid irritation which can produce darkened areas.  For example   one type of popular antibioitic, Minocycline, used for acne control can actually increase pigmentation.