The Goddess of Glamazonia

Or the image of self we all need to summon this time of year. Never mind the three parties we went to last night. Never mind that pile of work that needs to be done. Never mind that flab-tire collecting around our waists. We're off to conquer yet another holiday party!

Clutch stowed in utilitarian day bag? Check. Change of pumps? Check. Strategic jacket removal? Check. Now what about that face??

Ten hours in the office later, can't be fabulous, can it? I know mine isn't.  But I can look a LOT better without even stepping away from my desk.

First things first, have a big glass of water.  Then blot any oil from your nose, using oil blotting papers like these from Bobbi Brown.  (No residue!)  Perk up the skin under your eyes using a hydrating product that can be used over makeup.  I usually put oil on any dry or dull spots, like my cheeks and upper lip.  Then, hide any shadows under your eyes using a highlighter.  All-star of all time is YSL's.  Next, my secret weapon:  powder.  No, not any old powder, normally I wouldn't recommend it; it sinks into lines, makes your skin look dull.  THIS powder by Smashbox has zero glitter or shine, yet isn't at all matte.  It has a bit of coverage, but not too much.  Believe it or not, it hydrates.  Dust a bit on and you will look...amazing.  If I want to look like a diva, I dip my brush into a bit of gold powder too.

Set with water (yes, Eau Avene Thermale comes in handy again), add some eyeliner and brighter lipstick, and you're off.

To Spend or Not to Spend?

A question for the ages. I have an aunt who falls solidly into the 'it's all nonsense, don't spend more than five dollars' camp, and a friend just as firmly rooted in the, 'I wouldn't be caught dead with anything that costs less than $150 in my medicine cabinet' camp.

Does it sound like either of these approaches makes sense? I hope not. More is not always more. Less is not always more. So when to spend?  The answer is that its all in the ingredients.  Certain ingredients do in fact cost quite a bit, or are only available via one manufacturer, and thus command a premium.  Often, you're paying for lovely packaging and brand tribalism.  And if that's your bag, fine.  There is a massive psychological element in all this anyway.  But for those of us who need to arbitrage between the cost of our shrinks (or reiki healers, or accupuncture guys, or tarot readers, or whatever....) and our cosmetic arsenals, its important to know when to make the arbitrage, and when not to bother.l

For the topic that sparked the thought, moisturizer, the answer is a resounding NO.  There are so many moisturizers on the market that no can hope to keep track of them.  Most dermatologists will tell you that the best of them are available in drugstores, are fragrance-free, contain commonly found ingredients (like urea, glycerin, ceramides, and hylauronic acid), and cost around $12.  Most dermatologists will rave about CeraVe, which is very reasonably priced considering how effective it is and the range of skin types that it benefits.  There are consistencies for everyone, special add-ins that do this and that, but just to moisturize?  Meh.  I mention B5 gel all the time.  Yes, its expensive (due to the ingredient factor), but you use a very tiny amount to hydrate like mad.  Add a moisturizer on top of that and the driest of environments won't beat you down.

Other items that go on the 'don't spend' list:  cleanser, eye makeup remover, shaving cream (I didn't even know until recently that expensive versions existed), nail polish remover, body scrubs, lip scrubs, non-prescription retinol, sunscreen.  One would think that with my obsession with sunscreen, I'd be advocating for the absolute top brands.  And I do.  It just so happens that here in the US, the top performers are rarely, if ever, the most expensive.  Plus with the rate at which you're supposed to go through the stuff, you'll be spending at the rate our national debt goes up if you're doing it right.  So get yourself to the drugstore and knock yourself out.

Now happy shopping.

Product Review - Neocutis Eye Cream

I don't change products on a whim.  I give them at least six weeks to work, and if they do, I stick with them.  Unless said product is eye cream, in which I am always willing to fall for a miracle-product description.  Who isn't??

I have zero memory of who recommended Neocutis Lumiere Biorestorative Eye Cream with PSP  (well that was a mouthful, wasn't it??) from www.neocutis.com.  But I'm on my second bottle, and the skin around my eyes looks excellent, no advancement on the crows-feet front.  My main obsession is resiliency, and this product promises to tackle this particularly heinous issue, and I do think I have seen a bit of improvement in that area too.  As soon as I pat it on (eyelids included, no irritation, and my eyes are SENSITIVE) the tiny lines around my eyes, visible in the 8000 watts of light in my bathroom, are plumped a bit, demonstrating excellent hydrating properties.  I love how quickly it absorbs, minimizing the risk that it was migrate into my eyes as I sleep, causing me to wake up looking like a deranged frog.

The product comes packaged in a bottle equipped with a pump.  NEUTRAL  While tubs allow you to get every scrap of product, they also allow you to transfer whoknowswhat from your fingers to the remaining product in the jar, which may cause oxidation or decay.  Pump leaves overage?  Use a toothpick to scrape it out.  Downside of pumps is that they're often defective, and dispense unpredictable amounts of product, sometimes in unpredictable directions.

The texture is light, but surprisingly hydrating, thanks to hyauluronic acid, and sinks in quickly.  PLUS.

Miracle ingredients include PSP (glad you asked, it stands for 'processed skin proteins', egad), wild yam, and beech tree bud extract.  PSP is obtained via cultured fetal skin cells, and the idea is that such proteins will encourage your skin to act younger, eg, more resilient, more able to repair damange.  Wild yam is a phytosterol, or in other words, what Samantha in Sex and the City 2 rubbed on her hoo-ha to calm down menopausal symptoms.  As we age, our skin dries out and gets grouchy due to declining estrogen levels.  Trick it into thinking that estrogen levels are parked somewhere around 21, and skin is moister, perkier.  Beech tree bud extract is an anti-oxidant, from the 'youth tree.'  "Anti-oxidant", "Youth Tree"?  Need I say more??  PLUS.

Sadly, like too many cosmetics, this eye cream is loaded with parabens.  BUMMER.  I am avoiding parabens in everything else that I can possibly get away with so I can keep this eye cream; its worth it!

Out, Out Damn Spot! Act I

We can be afflicted with more than one kind of spot.  And they need to be treated in different ways, or we can actually make them worse rather than better.  (Ouch.)  The first kind of spot is trauma induced.  You know, like, a scar.  Say, the kind you get when you do what you swore you'd never do, pick at a zit or manually extract a blackhead.

These horrible spots are visual reminders of our shame, our inability to control ourselves, a veritable scarlet letter.  Until they turn a sort of brownish color that seems to take forever to go away, and is impervious to concealer. 

The best defense is not to pick at your face.  Or decollete.  But now that you have, if the wound is still fresh, try Mario Badescu's Healing Mask or SKII's Repair Serum.  (The former is a LOT more economical, and is specifically forumulated for blemishes; the latter works better on that red, peeling skin that you got from freaking out with the isopropyl alcohol when the blemish was active.)  Keep using the MBHC until all of the redness has gone away.  Hopefully, the dread dark spot won't set in if you're careful and didn't go off the reservation too far while the blemish was active.  If the worst occurs, apply a salcylic acid cream nightly (love Aveeno's Blemish Control, totally non-drying), let it absorb thoroughly, and then a tiny dab of Mederma.  In a few weeks, you should see significant improvement.

Let's Be Merry

And sometimes do our best Janis Joplin imitations. Whoops! Hopefully a bad case of Hangover Face is the worst thing you woke up with. Not that I'm accusing you; perhaps you know a friend that's suffered from the telltale symptoms? Puffy face, puffy red eyes, dry dull skin, dark circles, possibly also bags the size of steamer trunks.

What to do? Er, to tell your friend 'Jane' to do?  First of all, did she take her makeup off, or faceplant directly onto the sofa?  If the latter, start with a quick detox mask.  In the meantime, park either Peter Thomas Roth's Cucumber mask in the refrigerator, or a washcloth soaked in that handy mix of green and black tea that I mentioned in a previous post.  Remove the detox mask, and cover your face with PTR mask (even around your eyes), put in moisturizing eyedrops, and drink this concoction:  12 oz glass of water with one tab Berocca, one tab Alka-Seltzer, chase with a milk thistle capsule.  Alternatively, smooth on a soothing/hydrating gel (even plain aloe vera gel works), and cover with the chilled washcloth.  Put teaspoons over your eye sockets (yes, the convex bowl parts).  Emerge 10 minutes later miraculously de-puffed and on your way to sort-of normalcy.  Now get in that shower and get to work!

Random Thought Bubble

My friend Y never wears sunglasses. This drives me bats. The skin around our eyes is super delicate, and needs as much protection as we can offer. As a result of her irrational refusal to submit to my demands, she's the only person I know who has every burnt her eyelids. She claims that she doesn't burn them every time she's out in the sun because she normally wears a lot of dark eyeshadow. True or urban myth? True. Colored makeup pigments frequently have a lot of minerals, which are natural sunscreens. That being said, wear sunglasses!

Now if you do manage to burn your eyelids, brew a strong cup of tea, using one black and one green tea bag. Let it cool, then refrigerate. Soak two cotton pads in the tea, and place them over your eyes for ten minutes. Repeat an hour later, and before bedtime.

Tis the Changing of the Seasons

And potentially the end of the world, based on the weather we're having here in New York. But is that important? No! What's important is how dry our skins get as soon as the weather turns and the heat goes on. I don't know about you, but one day I wake up and my legs itch, my face feels too small, and my feet? Ugh.

A humidifier is your best friend, full stop. But you need to tweak your routine as well.

This is going to sound strange, but if you drink coffee, replace half your consumption with green tea. Really, it makes a huge difference. No idea why. Add moisturizer (or a richer version) under your sunscreen in the morning, and on top of your anti-aging cream at night. Don't hesitate to add oil during the day, and humidity as well. 

What works you ask?  Glad you did.  :-)  For body, Amlactin is the king of lotions.  Its available at every drugstore on earth, is super hydrating, lasts all day, AND is the best weapon on the market for combating KP (keratosis pilaris, aka lots of little red bumps that look like a rash, often appearing on backs of arms and/or tops of thighs, or, if you're super unlucky like me, the sides of your face.)  Downsides:  it smells funny, and the ultra-high dosage of lactic acid may be too strong for some.  To combat the funny smell, I combine it 2:1 with a scented lotion, and if its super dry outside, I make that scented lotion Malin + Goetz Vitamin B5 body lotion, which smells nicely of Bergamot plus has the hydrating benefits of B5.  At night, I put on either Aveeno Positively Ageless Firming body lotion or Weleda Sea Buckthorn Body Oil, and wake up fabulous.  Possibly also looking younger.

Under sunscreen, I use SKII hydrating serum, Sunday Riley Juno oil, or my all-time hydrating favorite, B5 gel by DermaQuest or SkinCeuticals.  Downsides of all of the above:  price tags are astronomical.  At least they all require a very tiny amount to be effective, small comfort that when you're trying to justify the insane amount that you've just spent on some tiny vial of something.  Demand samples of masks at the SKII counter to help yourself get over the sticker shock.

And finally, those feet that more closely resemble hooves:  Burt's Bees Coconut Foot Creme.  Accept no substitutes.  Plus socks.