Eye Cream with SPF

Most daily skin care routines include cleansing the face skin, applying toner, eye cream and a facial moisturizer with SPF in the morning.  However, as much as most magazines and dermatologists emphasise how important it is to apply a moisturizer with sun protection, it has been understated how essential it is to make sure your eye cream has SPF too.  This is the area where wrinkles become first visible, and the area we need to give most care to in order to prevent premature aging as much as possible.  At night moisturize with a heavier eye cream, like Peter Thomas Roth Mega Rich Intensive Anti-Aging Cellular Eye Creme.   In the morning moisturize with a lighter eye cream with SPF (yes, even if you’ll be in the office till dark).  Murad Essential C Eye Cream with SPF 15 is my pick – provides sufficient sun protection, moisturizes without creating oily residue around my eyes or impeding the longevity of my make-up.

Every woman (and some men) need a reliable pair of tweezers that will do the job with the least possible pain and no margin for error.  Tweezerman’s Slant Tweezers and Tweezerman’s Point Tweezers are exactly what I’m talking about.  They are hand sharpened to perfection and pull each hair out with precision and ease.  The point tweezers are excellent for ingrown hairs and really short hairs. 

They are really worth every penny! I’ve gone through so many pairs of tweezers, and none of them compared in quality.  In reality, I could have saved myself the money and just bough a couple of each of these Tweezerman tweezers.  All you will ever need is two of each for the rest of your life! Tweezerman offers free sharpening on all their tweezers, so when it looses it’s sharpness a bit, you can just send it in, and use your second pair in the meantime.  I just received my pair back from them – the turnaround time was only about two weeks. 

Tweezerman Tweezers

Recently I decided to try a few recipes for natural hair and skin masks. I dedicated a whole day to these natural beauty products and have repeated some treatements a few times since.  They worked wonders! 

One of the oldest beauty ingredient is honey.  Apply a generous amount of honey on clean face, leave for 10-15 minutes and rinse with warm water.  It’s that simple.  It helps with acne, leaves skin radiant and revived.  It is especially great for hyper-sensitive skin types.  It can be applied as a mask on the chest and used in back massages too.  For really dry skin, apply plain yoghurt.  For skin that needs extra nourishing, apply mashed banana, and leave for up to half an hour.  The banana also acts as an anti-aging ingredient. To deep-cleanse face, split a few grapes in two and rub face with the grape flesh and rinse the grape juice has dried. 

These face mask recipes are extremely easy to implement, they are inexpensive and easy to prepare – chances are you have all the ingredients at home already.  And the best part is the result they produce!

Natural Face Mask Ingredients

With summer coming to an end, my hair has been feeling dry and damaged after days at the pool and the beach.  Chlorine, salt water and the sun have taken its toll on my hair too.  I decided to try using a hair masque (Kerastase’s Masquintense for Thick Hair) after shampooing, instead of my regular conditioner – I do this twice a week.  It works! My hair feels a lot softer and looks a lot healthier.  It gets a larger doze of the nutrients and conditioning elements it desperately needs.  To keep the noutrients sealed in, I use a leave-in conditioner.  I spray Joico’s K-Pak Leave-in Protectant while my hair is damp, and I just let it dry naturally, avoiding damaging it further by blow-drying or ironing.  The K-Pak Leave-in Conditioner leaves my hair looking styled “au naturel”.

Angel Thierry Mugler

We associate smells with memories on a subconsious level.  I have my fragrances lined up in a row, and when I put perfume on, I ask myself, “What scent am I in the mood for?”.  Here is a list of my top fragrances:

1) Angel by Thierry Mugler

2) Issey Miyake L’Eau d’Issey

3) Kenzo Jungle

4) Anais Anais by Cacharel

5) D&G Light Blue

6) Marc Jacobs Amber

7) Opium by YSL

8 ) Chanel Allure

In these hot summer days my skin gets oily very fast.  I always keep a packet of blotting papers in my purse, otherwise the oil can block pores and create breakouts.  The blotting papers absorb all the oil away and the skin is left matte again. 

I’ve also stopped using moisturizer, and now just use toner.  My Murad Hydrating toner gives my skin all the moisture it needs in the hot months, yet it does not overmoisturize it, like a lotion or a cream to the point of clogging and breakouts.

While flipping through Vogue magazine I came across the ad above for Nine West. The colors are really what caught my eye, and the fact that the shoes, the purse and the bangles all match.  On the Nine West website, I found the shoes – they will be available 05/29/08, the purse – will be available to ship 07/18/08, and the bangles – available immediately, but only in purple, black and grey.  The combination of the colorful purse, shoes and bangles could spice up any simple outfit – jeans and a solid color shirt, or a solid color dress like in the ad campaign.  I wonder if Nine West sold out of the yellow, green and orange bangles, or if they are still to be introduced.  The shoes are already sold out in most sizes unfortunately, and the site does not specify when they will be available again.  The leather looks like it is genuine leather, with snake imprint – it does not look like real snake leather (nor does it have the price tag for it).  The bangles are golden metal covered with snake print colored fabric.

Shakra Relaxation Oasis in Coral Gables, FL – the place I go to for my yoga and pilates classes now offers body sculpting classes too.  The environment is just so relaxing, the instructors are very competent and extremely friendly.  With candles all around, flowing curtains, clean showers and hot tea served in the change rooms, this place lacks absolutely nothing.  It is a true relaxation oasis!

They also offer a wide variety of spa procedures – facials, massages, manicures and pedicures, body treatments, make-up, vacuumtherapy and ever tarot card readings!

I had done a home manicure and pedicure yesterday, when something came up and I had to leave the house right away.  I applied Essie To Dry For Polish Drying Top Coat and on top Essie Quick-E Drying Drops and my nails were dry and good to go within a couple of minutes.  I even put closed shoes and my nails did not get ruined!!!

The small, purple-blue Acai berry is a grape-like fruit that grows on palms native to the Central and South America, from Belize to Brazil. Acai comes in bundles of 700-900 – the fruit of the same palm that gives us heart of palm! I’ve recently started buying pure acai frozen pulp and using it in my daily smoothies. It’s extremely rich in dietary fiber, antioxidants and fatty acids, which promote a healthy digestive system and reduce blood cholesterol levels. I have to remark that it is extremely sweet, so I don’t use any additional sugar or honey in my smoothies any more.