My Current Obsession - Lancome Genifique

I am absolutely obsessed with this special edition 100ml Lancome's Genifique Youth Activating Concentrate. Thanks to a friend who works for the L'Oreal brand, I was able to pick this up and have not been able to put it down since. The product claims to show visibly younger skin within a week and I definitely waited it out to blog about the product. This product is not cheap and I wanted to see the actual results before blogging about it. To be quite honest, I have not been taking care of my skin lately because I have been working hard planning a handful of things and a little stressed out. Because of that, I have not been sleeping well and there's been a lot of chaos going on which has taken a toll on my skin. I do see the difference with use of the product. My dark circles are not as bad, my skin does not seem to age, but I don't think I've been using it long enough to see the actual changes in the skin. That and I never had a problem with wrinkles to begin with. I'm using this more as a preventative and precautions product. 

For the price that it is sold for, it may be a bit pricey for many, but I am currently obsessed and cannot let it go.  Simply use daily, once in the morning and in the evening. Be sure to use the product before your daily skincare regimen in order to maximize the results. All you need is to squirt one little bit and dab it all over the face with your ring finger, concentrating on the areas that you have the most problem wrinkles. 

Beauty Review - Visag’ge Eyezone Massage

I am a big fan of little goodies like this that are low in price and extremely effective with little effort. There are many gadgets made in Japan and China that promote beauty without having to pack on the creams that are full of chemicals and such.

With just five minutes of massage a day, you can reduce dark circles, puffy eyes, and wrinkles around the eye. It is best to use two to three times a day while you’re watching TV or just relaxing on the bed. The more you massage, the better blood will flow in the eye area which improves circulation and raises the uptake of oxygen in the eyes.

This is not something that you will see immediate effects in, it takes time and persistence. Aside from using the massager around the eyes, you can use on your fingers for arthritis pain and even on your temples to reduce headaches.

Stay posted on my blog to reduce water retention in the face and other ways to improve blood circulation. 

The Things We Take For Granted - Sleep

So it wasn’t until yesterday when I was catching up with a group of good friends that I realized the importance of something most of us don’t get enough of. My friends who are practically insomniacs (both guys and girls) were the ones who had dark circles. I was trying to figure out why I was the only one who did not have such dark circles since I’m older than most of them and my life is pretty darn stressful as well. The answer: sleep.

For those of you who have psoriasis, do you ever feel like you’re extra itchy after a sleepless night? When I’m low on sleep, I feel like a cranky monster which makes me enflamed and extra itchy. Doctors have told you countless numbers of time, you need your rest and trust me on this—they are right.

We all laugh when people say “I need my beauty sleep,” well sleep does maintain beauty. The reason why I have less, almost no dark circles is because I force myself to sleep a full eight hours a day. Yup, I’m known as the party pooper who heads in early while every stays out and chit chat, just to get my beauty sleep. How does it feel? Definitely worth it now that I’m aging!

Aside from dark circles, beauty sleep helps to clear up acne and retain moisture in your face. When you are sleeping, your skin cells are working to heal, as well as the rest of your body, therefore it is important to get a full night of rest. Just make sure you don’t oversleep because you’ll get headaches like I’ve done before. Don’t sleep all day either because it’ll only make your body more tired than you really are!

Please, this blog is not only for women. There have been so many guys that just fall short of looking good because of dark circles. It's not a good look, so men, watch your sleep as well. When we say we want the ideal man, we women mean it-we want the ideal man. Mister Perfect.

Beauty Tips - Spoon

A spoon can do what?

It’s pretty obvious I like to eat with my spoon! I love getting big scoops of food and just munching it down, saves time having to poke and stab haha! Aside from eating—what I love to do, a cold spoon can help reduce the swelling and dark circles around the eyes (like I did in my previous blog).

The spoon is also a popular method to get rid of hickeys. Admit it, we all went through that stage in high school and it’s embarrassing. If you’re currently in high school, don’t allow anyone to give you a hickey, it’s pretty disgusting and not pretty at all. I regret ever having one :[ Moving along, like the hickey treatment, a spoon can be used to reduce swelling and darkness of a bruise. Hickeys are bruises: they are basically clotting of the blood in the neck and therefore the same technique can be used elsewhere. It may be painful to use a spoon and “push” out the blood, but it will help the bruise heal quicker. Be sure to push from the center of the bruise out towards the less bruised areas. You can also use cold raw meat or sliced raw onions, just be sure to not put raw onions over a cut. Raw onions are not meant for people with psoriasis because we always have open cuts.

In regards to beauty, spoons come in handy when you can’t find your eyelash curler. I admit, it looks funny when you curl your lashes with a spoon, but I know people who refuse to go out without their eyelashes curled. I’m one of those girls that use an eyelash curler on a special night, but it’s great to have a backup plan!

If you’re using a spoon to curl your lashes, you should also use the spoon to prevent mascara from getting onto your face. I’ve got mascara on my face countless numbers of times in the past after I finished up with my eyeliner and eye shadow. It is annoying to have to remove part of your eye makeup because a touch of mascara. It’s also difficult to coat your bottom lashes without getting a dab or two on the cheek so to save time, protect your skin with a spoon and coat away!

Bye Bye Panda Eyes

I'm a big fan of pandas, but not the panda eyes. As the years go by, our dark circles are only going to get worse and worse if we do not treat it now. I didn't know how swollen and my panda eyes were until I did a video last week. Now, time to get rid of it! Here's a trick in the old book to lighten your dark circles: a cold spoon. You can pop two spoons into the freezer and hold the back of the spoon against your eyes where it is puffy or you have dark circles. The only problem with this is that it'll get warm quicker, especially in this hot water.

I suggest throwing a little towel which can be: a small kitchen towel, a face towel, whatever you have handy. Fold up the towel to a smaller size, enough to cover your eye bags. Depending on the towel size, you may cut it if needed or just try it out first to see if it's comfortable holding up the towel before cutting. Wet about ½-¾ of the towel (leaving one end unfrozen so your fingers wont freeze while holding it against your eye later). Zip up the bag and pop in the freezer. After frozen, press it against your eyes for 5-10 minutes. I suggest using it twice a day for quicker results.

If you're feeling a bit lazy and you wanna just plop there, you can also use the round eye make up remover wipes. Just wash of the solution, soak them in water, and freeze in a zip lock bag. You can reuse these little things as much as you want. If you don't have access to that, you can even cut out your own circles from a paper towel. Pile up a few circles before wetting. Freeze your circles and flip when placing it on your eyes to get the full absorbency.

There's also a cucumber trick that you can pop on both eyes twice a day for 15-20 minutes to relieve stress and cool down the eyes. This will help the swelling under your eyes. You can also slice your cucumber through a grater and squeeze out all the juice from the grated cucumber. Dab juice with a cotton ball and apply to the eyes to reduce dark circles. I also suggest freezing the cucumber juice to provide your eyes with more soothing during this hot weather. It'll also be a blast of coolness to your body.

Cold tea bags are also a great trick in the book to reduce swelling and cure dark circles. After you've extracted all the flavor for your tea, pop it into the fridge before placing over your eyes. Lay the tea bag over your eyes for 10 minutes but be careful to not get the tea in your eyes. Try sticking to green, black, and white tea only. 

If you're a chef or you like to cook and you have some mint laying around, crush the mint leaves and apply to your dark circles for twenty minutes. If you've got some leftover lemons and tomatoes, mix the juices of both and apply to your dark circles twice a day. 

The best thing to prevent dark circles and swelling to the eyes of course is to get your 8 hours of sleep or whatever your body needs, it differs person to person. By being well energized, you will decrease the likelihood of looking tired. The cliche drink 8 cups of water a day will help to lighten the dark circle under the eyes and it is beneficial to the rest of your body as well. You can also take Vitamin C and Iron to help reduce dark circles. Lastly, and the most fashionable is to wear sunglasses to protect your eyes from the sun.