Under Eye Cooling Gels and Sticks: A Shot of Double Espresso for Your Eyes

A few years ago I picked up a Clean and Clear Under Eye Brightening Stick. I was drawn in by the claim that it would magically erase all of my under eye bags and dark circles. Of course, things are rarely that easy, and the product didn't do everything it claimed, but it did do something I didn't expect, it helped me wake up in the mornings.

Now I'm not advocating that anyone give up thier morning coffee, although, technically speaking, a nice big morning glass of water is probably better for your skin, but products that cool the area under your eyes can really help with those mornings when you just can't wake up. Most of them do, as a by product of the cooling, shrink any under eye bags or puffiness. The cold sensation causes the swelling to go down and the skin to contract, giving you at least a temporary fix. However, the real key for me, is the cool itself.

I find the cooling sensation instantly refreshes me and wakes me up, and it's much less jarring than freezing cold water, and less time consuming than using cucumbers. Just dab it on, using your ring fingers to protect the delicate under eye skin, and continue with your morning make up routine.

There are a variety of under eye cooling products. Some, like the Clean and Clear Under Eye Brightening Stick contain light refelcting particles which will help hide the look of dark circles. Others, like the Mary Kay Indulge Soothing Eye Gel, just offer cooling. In the end, the ones that promise to erase your under eye circles will work to varrying degrees depending on the severity of your circles, but all of them will offer you a quick and easy way to give yourself an extra boost in the morning.

Sunscreen: A Way of Life

Unlike anything that I have, or probably will, talk about on this site, sunscreen can help your health. Creams, lotions, exfoliaters, masks, gels and cosmetics can all help you look better, hold wrinkles at bay, and make you feel good, but none of them can help protect your health, sunscreen can. Not to sound too much like Baz Lurman, but really, trust me about the sunscreen. If you do absolutely nothing else suggested here, weart sunscreen. Dye your hair three times a week, draw your makeup on with permanent markers and remove it with rubbing alcohol, but be sure to put on sunscreen every morning.

Many day creams and foundations have some SPF in them, however, these levels are generally fairly low. Most day creams and foundations don't have more than a 15 SPF. Unfortunately layering, although very useful in clothing, has no effect with SPF. Wearing a day cream with SPF 15 and a foundation with SPF 10 does not mean you are wearing the equivalent of SPF 25, you still only have SPF 15, they don't combine.

But, what do these tricky SPF numbers mean?

SPF stands for sun protection factor. The SPF number is the number of times the sunscreen will multiply your own natural sun defenses. So, if you would burn after 20minutes without any sunscreen and you are wearing SPF 15 your time will be multiplied by a factor of 15, so 20 minutes x 15, which means with the sunscreen you will burn after 300 minutes, or five hours.

Now, I know that makes it seem like SPF 15 is all you would ever need unless you were spending the whole day at the beach, but it all depends on your skin and how susceptible it is to sun damage, and everyone's is different. Last summer I went to the beach with a friend, it wasn't a very sunny day, but we went anyway. I put on sunscreen with SPF 45, my friend wore SPF 10, at the end of the day I was bright red and was burnt so badly I had a hard time wearing clothing for two weeks becuase it all hurt my poor red skin. My friend was slightly pink and was all better in a matter of days. So, my own personal belief is that hiher SPF is better, and really even if you don't need it, it can't hurt.

For the winter, yes you must wear sunscreen in the winter too, I love Mary Kay TimeWise Day Solution Sunscreen SPF 25. It is the lightest sunscreen I have ever used, completely nongreasy and it absorbs in seconds, perfect for applying before day cream and makeup. And, because it's SPF 25, it may well be strong enough for many people the whole year through.

For me though, I like to wear something stronger in the summer months. I use Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Face Sunscreen. It is thicker than the Mary Kay one, and it does feel more akin to the sun screen you used as a kid, but it is nongreasy, and it does absorb relatively quickly for it's consitancy. The real plus is that it won't clig yoru pores, unlike some body sunscreens, which is why you should use a special face sunscreen.

Finally, for my body, especially in the summer months, weather I am going to be spending hours outside or not, I put on Coppertone Oil Free Sunscreen. It's thicker than the face sunscreens, but it is oil free and absorbs quicker than normal sun screen. Simply apply it first thing in the morning and by the time you've finished washing your face and brushing your teech it should be absorbed.

Finally, regardless of what sun screen you choose, make sure you use one consistantly. Keep an eye out for a high enough SPF and make sure you choose one that protects agaisnt UVA and UVB.

Eye Cream: The Little Cream That Could

Once you have your day and night cream needs covered, the next thing you should be thinking about is an eye cream. Why you say? Becuase nothing makes you look older than wrinkles around your eyes. And if you're already using a day and night cream for the rest of your face you're goning to look mighty strange in about 20 years when your face is pristine and smooth and the area around your eyes is wrinkled.

So, you've established that you don't want to have wrinkled eyes, excellent first step, but why use a seperate eye cream?

Well, think about it, the skin around your eyes is some of the most delicate skin anywhere on your body. And, the skin around your eyes has nothing holding it up, making it more suseptible to wrinkles and damage. This delicate skin needs special care, and a special cream.

This delicate skin also needs it's own special method of application. Although cream on the rest of your fcae can be applied any old way, cream for the area around your eyes requires something special. First, take a small amount of the cream (eye cream tends to come in a tiny container, but you only need a very small amount), then, using your ring finger, gently pat the cream into the skin, don't rub as this can cause strain and damage to the delicate skin. I've advised that you use your ring finger, I did nto just pick this finger at random. The ring finger is the best to use becuase it does not have the strength your thumb, pointer or middle fingers have, which reduces the risk of damaging the skin with excess pressure, but it also has enough dexterity to do the job, unlike your pinky finger.

Now, if you've read the posts on day creams and night creams, you will know that I am a fan of the Nivea DNAge line, and you might suspect that I'm going to suggest the DNAge eye cream. However, you'd be wrong. There is nothing wrong with the DNAge eye cream, it is a perfectly fine option, however, I have found something better.

The Mary Kay TimeWise Firming Eye Cream, is my current eye cream of choice. I like it becuase when I dab it on I can feel it contracting the skin around my eyes.

I switched from the DNAge eye cream to the Mary Kay eye cream without a thought becuase one appeared to work better than the other, and I am not a believer in the theory that you should and/or must use products all from the same line. Sure, if you find that one particular line works amazingly for you, go right ahead and use everythign they have. However, if you have a line in which you love the face wash and toner but the moisturizer just doesn't cut it for you, go ahead and try some new moisturizors, and keep trying until you find one that works perfectly for you.

When looking for a new product (be it a cream, a wash, a toner, etc), a skin care line that you already like is a great place to start. If the line is working for you, try out what they have to offer but, don't feel you have to always stay with that line. There are tonnes of options out there, so pick and choose what works best for you to really customize your personal skin care.

Day Cream: The Sidekick of Night Cream, now with Sun Damage Fighting Action

Using day cream, I feel, is simply a logical extension of using night cream. If you're going to moisturize your skin at night, why not continue the good work and moisturize during the day too? Applying a good day cream in mornings after you wash not only keeps your skin moisturized, ultimately helping to reduce wrinkles, but it also has the immediate benefit of making your skin smoother for easier and better makeup application.

Day creams differ from night creams in that day creams are, in general, not as thick as night creams. The thinner cream absorbs faster and allows you to get on with your morning routine without waiting forever for it to absorb.

Day creams also often have other features not generally included in night creams, such as SPF. I use a separate, stronger sunscreen, so it is not vital for me that my day cream have an SPF. However, if you aren't planning on using a separate sun screen, or if you don't have the time/desire to apply many things in the mornings, make sure you have a day cream with SPF. It's important to make sure your skin is protected from the harmful effects of the sun every day, not only on the summer or just on sunny days. Damage from sun exposure can lead to uneven skin tones, premature wrinkles, sun spots, or even cancer, so taking simple actions to protect yourself is vital for your health and beauty.

Olay offers a few day creams with UV protection, including Age Defying Anti-Wrinkle Daily SPF 15 Lotion and Complete Defense Daily UV Moisturizer SPF 30. Both are good options, but for a combination lotion and UV protector, my favourite is L'oreal Happy Derm. The lotion provides a couple challenges though: 1) it's a bit hard to find and 2) the colour is terribly off putting. The lotion is a light peach colour and it tends to come out of the pump top somewhat unmixed with spots of bright orange where the colouring has separated from the lotion. The bright orange colour can be a bit scary for the faint of heart, but rest assured it won't turn your skin day glow orange.

If, like me, you use a separate sunscreen in the mornings, your face cream doesn't have to have SPF, although if the cream you use does have UV protection that's fine too. However, if you're looking for a day cream, and you don't need the SPF protection, I'd suggest Nivea DNAge Day Cream. It's the counter part to the night cream I mentioned in the last post and I find it works beautifully.

No matter what day cream you decide on, make sure that it meets your needs for moisturizing and that it includes a SPF protection, unless you have separate SPF protection that you use on a daily basis.

Antiwrinkle Night Cream: A Girls Best Friend, No Matter What Her Age

Several years ago, when I was barely 21, a friend of mine admonished me for not using an antiwrinkle night cream. I thought she was insane. She dragged me to the local Shoppers Drugmart and excitedly began scanning the face cream section. The fact that we were the only people under 40 reading the boxes of the age reversing creams didn't seem to phase her. I tried to point out that if we reversed our age by much we'd have a hard time getting into bars, our perfectly youthful skin did not need to look ten years younger, nor did we need to fill in or erase any of our nonexistant wrinkles; she began dotting a few of the sample creams on her skin.

She explained to me that the key to fighting wrinkles was to start early, before you have any if at all possible. The theory made sense, it's much easier to prevent wrinkles and other damage before they happen than trying to reverse the effects later in life. And so I bought my first night cream.

A few weeks ago I found myself standing in another Shoppers Drugmart with a different friend, having the exact same conversation, but this time I was the one explaining the need for antiwrinkle creams in your twenties to my disbelieving freind. She was less resistant to the idea than I had been, but more bewildered by the vast array of skin care options. However, by the time we left the store, she had purchased her very frist night cream, at the ripe old age of 25.

So, what's the big deal with antiwrinkle night cream and which kind should you use?

Night cream is an important part of any skin care routine, and using an antiwrinkle one is just an added bonus. Moisturizing your skin is the easiest way to keep your skin looking smooth and beautiful. Your skin takes a lot of abuse during the day (wind, dirt, sun exposure, makeup, etc), night time is the perfect time to give your skin what it needs to repair itself. It's easy too, all you have to do is slather on some cream before you go to bed and voila, soft, beautiful, wrinkle free skin in the morning.

Night creams aren't miracle workers, no matter the ads say. If your skin is in bad shape you won't wake up with perfect skin the next day, but used consistently it can do wonders.

So, which one should you choose?

There are a vast array of night creans to choose from, and quite honestly, if you're starting young I don't think it really makes a difference, as long as you are using something to keep your skin moisturized in your twenties I think you're well on your way to a lifetime of youthful skin. Look for one that is a night time face cream, one that says it will reduce or repair wrinkles would be best. Don't go putting your hand or body lotion on your face, although that's better than nothing, specialized face cream will be better for your pores. Also, I find it best to get a specialized night cream, these tend to be a bit thicker than day creams. The thicker the cream the more moisture for your skin, and really, where are you going after your night time face wash, you might as well give your skin everything you can while you sleep.

Personally I'm partial to the Nivea line. I like the way they smell, they aren't terribly expensive, and I find they're effective. I started out with the Nivea Visage Anti-Wrinkle Cream. I used it for several years and really liked it, my only issue with it was that it was a general cream that I was using day and night. But it was absolutely amazing for your lips, sometimes I skill put it on my lips at night to moisturize them. Not exactly what it was meant for, but it works like a charm for soft lips.

Currently I use the Nivea Visage DNAge Night Cream. I found it in France before it was released in North America and I absolutely fell in love with it. I was so happy when it made it's way across the ocean. It's advertised as for mature skin, but I think it works great for any age.

Which exact cream you choose isn't the important part though, the important thing is that you choose one, and you use it. It's a simple thing to do at night, and you'll be happy you started preserving your skin young. When the rest of the women you know start worrying about repairing thier wrinkles, you'll still have supple youthful skin.

So go buy a night cream, now. Trust me, it was probably the best decision my 21 year old self ever made.