HELLO BLOGOSPHERE! I have been a bad blogger yet again, it’s be two whole months since I last posted something! My goodness time flies when you’re having fun, right?
Recently, a dear friend of mine contacted me for some skin help. She has been through a tough year. She had just learned her & her husband would start a family and was given devestating news that their son has HLHS (Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome: means they are missing the left ventricle of their heart). They have been extremely blessed, as almost a year later their son is among the top percentiles of success rates, and overall baby healthiness (read their amazing story on their on blog). He is an adorable boy with two amazing, but tired, parents. Which finally brings me to today’s topic.
Since my friend is a new mommy, she has had MANY sleepless nights due to feedings, stress, and hospital visits. She emailed me asking what she can do about the bags under the eyes, fighting back wrinkles, and acne scarring without having to pile on a million products or become a slave to a beauty regime. And with glorious summertime officially upon us, we should all be concerned with signs of aging and dryness. So, let’s be real here. Unless you’re a Real Housewife, you have no time for facials every week and laser treatments and micro-dermabrasion treatments. Frankly, if you take care of your skin early on you don’t even need them. So save your money and explore some of these tips.
Number One: Vitamin C is underrated.
I had never used Vitamin C for anything except Emergen-C packets in my water in the winter. Elizabeth Grady opened my eyes to it’s amazingness when we got to apply Vitamin C patches for the first time. It felt great, smelled great, and the results were NOT what I expected! I am a big endorser of anything with ascorbic acid as a main active ingredient. As you can read in the informative article I found here, these products can greatly help improve signs of aging, sun damage, and scarring on a cellular level. Which means you aren’t just bracing a broken limb, you’re fusing the bones back together immediately. This means that when you’re a Grandma, you have an even better chance of being mistaken for your grandkids’ sister! Who doesn’t want that! It doesn’t really matter how it’s applied, you can do patches on your skin if you really want to pamper yourself, or you can buy a skin serum or cream for a quick application.
Number Two: Invest in a great concealer
I’m pretty sure I’ve talked about this before, but concealer is my best friend. Whether is acne, uneven skintone, dark under-eyes, concealer will win. I am in love with Benefit’s Boi-oing ($19, Sephora). It only comes in 3 shades based on your own skin tone, but it doesn’t even matter. Beauty websites & experts will tell you to get a purple concealer to hide blemishes, and a green concealer for an even skin tone, but I don’t want to buy 10 versions of the same product. If you have something you want to cover up, Boi-oing will do it. I dab it on my face, under my makeup, with my ring finger (less pressure). The heat from my skin helps melt the product a little bit so it blends easier. Start with a little at a time until you cover up what you need to. Be cautious of applying too much, you’ll still have to apply foundation and you don’t want a cake-y look. You also don’t want to wipe-off what you’ve just applied, so be gentle throughout your application.
Number Three: Water really is the best thing ever
Again, I was a skeptic until beauty school. My teacher would always comment that my skin looked dehydrated and she could tell I wasn’t drinking enough water. Some days, I wanted to tell her exactly what I was doing with water. In hindsight though, she was totally right! (Hear that Ms Wilcox??) When you don’t drink enough water for your body to remain hydrated, your body begins to draw water from anywhere it can. Up to 60% of our bodies is made up of water, and the skin cells are the first to be drained. What happens to clay when it dries out? Or any type of meat we cook? It dries up, hardens, flakes apart, cracks, all things you don’t want your skin to do. Drinking enough water to stay hydrated will not only help your appetite, it will feed your skin cells the water they need to help move through the layers of the skin and eventually shed themselves, making room for beautiful & supple skin cells which is what you actually see when you have “glowing” skin.
So there you have it folks. Three tips to fight aging, under-eye circles, and help keep your skin looking alive & with the program!
xoxo
jacanza 
