Beauty Giveaway: Vitamin C-Ester Eye Serum by Perricone MD

The last giveaway for Perricone’s Advanced Face Firming Activator was so popular that we decided to do another giveaway for another genius product by Perricone MD- the Vitamin C Ester Eye Serum

For those who are hearing about Perricone for the first time, I will shortly introduce the company. Perricone MD is a US company created by a well-known clinical and research dermatologist Dr. Nicholas Perricone. Recognized as the Father of the Inflammation Theory of Aging, Perricone developed an award-winning line of skin care products and supplements based on his long experience and research in dermatology. Perricone MD skin care line covers all skin’s needs and offers diverse anti-aging solutions.

For the next 2 weeks you have a chance to win one of Dr.Perricone’s products – Vitamin C Ester Eye Serum!

Vitamin C Ester Eye Serum is a light-weight non-oily serum. It firms and brightens the area around the eyes. It also fights lines and wrinkles with its key ingredient Vitamin C Ester. As you know Vitamin C is not only a powerful and effective antioxidant, it is also used by our skin to build collagen and to treat sun damaged skin. Vitamin C Ester is vitamin C with fatty acid attached to it. That allows it to be better absorbed by the skin than vitamin C alone, which is why it is much more effective!

Note: This giveaway is for US citizens only.

The contest starts today, 29 September, and is over 13 October.

The lucky winner will be selected randomly!

What do you have to do to win the Vitamin C Ester Eye Serum
* Leave a comment and tell us why you need/want this product or share your experience about another similar serum.

* Don't forget to provide your email for contact!

* Get an additional entry by following or subscribing to Skin Care and Beauty Blog or to my twitter account(post your twitter account in the comment)

Beauty Review: Damascena Pure Rose Water

It is the first time that I am using rose water and I like it!

Product Tag Line:
Make this your own love potion.

Promise:
Purifies, hydrates, and invigorates skin.

Product Profile in Short:
* Tones skin after cleansing
* Reduces puffiness around eyes
* Hydrates skin, leaving a healthy glow
*Softens the complexion and clears the skin
* Gentle in treating many types of dermatitis, with antibacterial properties which help combat acne
* Balances and restores the skin's Ph, helping to tighten pores.


Close-up on Active Ingredients:

Look at this beautiful list of ingredients.
100% pure Rosa damascena (rose) water, Rosa bourbonia (rose) oil, Lonicera japonica (Japanese honeysuckle) extract.

Experience:
Texture: transparent liquid
Smell: very subtle rose scent

Rose Water has been used by women for centuries as a tonic, anti-septic and an anti-aging treatment. Benefits of Rose Water for the skin are numerous. It‘s toning and hydrating; it reduces puffiness, balances skin’s Ph and sebum production. In fact, I really appreciated toning abilities of Damascena Pure Rose Water. I apply it with a cotton ball after washing my face and before using a moisturizer. It makes my skin look fresher, healthier and brighter. The results are visible almost immediately. I also noticed how well it minimizes pores and balances my medium oily T-Zone. Note that you can use rose water as a mask. I tested placing 2 cotton balls soaked in chilled rose water over my eyes to see if this treatment will do anything to eye puffiness. As a result, my eyes did look less puffy and refreshed. You can also use Rose water to moisten a mask, for example a clay mask.

Bottom Line:
Usually I avoid using toning products because they irritate my skin or make it feel tight. But this time it was a completely positive experience for me!

Price Tag:
25-40$ at http://www.duchessmarden.com/

Beauty Talk: Stretch Marks - Personal Experience

As you may know from my previous posts, I have recently become a mom. Having just gone through 9 months of pregnancy I have very close and personal thoughts about stretch marks.

Let me start by saying that starting off pregnancy at the weight of 48 kg, I was sure, I was in for a belly full of stretch marks. I was terrified at the thought of getting those terrible scar-like stretch marks and sagging skin after delivery. So I decided to do my best to prevent and treat them. After some research I decided to choose Clarins Stretch Mark Control as my preventative product.

Either I was lucky or Stretch Mark Control does work! I am happy to announce that I have no stretch marks!


So let me tell you what exactly I did.

I applied Stretch Mark Control starting from the 2nd -3rd month. I started with once a day application. At the 4th month I applied it 2 times a day plus another (less expensive) product once a day. One tube of Clarins lasted me only 1.5 months and I was using it mostly on my tummy. So get ready to shed some money on stretch marks prevention.

I also made sure to do my exercises till the last days of prego. Remember, exercising is very important for skin’s elasticity. I was wearing supporting girdle all the time starting around month 4. This helped to avoid additional stress on the skin. And of course I did my best to eat healthy so that not to gain too much weight. No, it was not a perfect diet and yes, I did enjoy sweets and other fattening stuff… But I did my best to pace myself. Despite this I did gain 15kg instead of recommended 12 kg.

In one of my next posts I will review in more detail Clarins Stretch Mark Control.

Beauty Review: Testing Duchess Marden

Today’s post is dedicated to the Rose – the most romantic flower in the world that has also been used by women for centuries as a beauty treatment. Inspired by the benefits that rose petals can offer to the skin, Marla Steur created a skin care line- Duchess Marden. It is based on completely natural ingredients with the rose as a key ingredient in every product. The line offers products for various skin types and boasts of natural scents with no artificial fragrance and no allergy provoking ingredients. Duchess Marden promises that its highly concentrated formulations will provide visible results.


I had an opportunity to test a couple products and in this post would like to make a short overview and share my impressions. I tested sample products of the Neck and Decollette Serum, Cream Cleanser, Anti-Wrinkle Serum, and Hydrating Masque. In a separate post I will review Damascena Rose Water. I was very much impressed with the ingredient lists of the products. I like to see botanical extracts and natural ingredients at the very top of the list. So let me start...

I liked the nice texture and feel of Damascena Neck and Decollette Serum. It contains sea algae extract, apricot kernel oil, aloe, rose extract and other wonderful ingredients. You need just a bit for the whole area and it absorbs very quickly leaving skin soft and smooth. I was very happy to notice a change in my skin’s texture in a couple of weeks. I liked this product a lot! Note, it has a quite intense scent of a rose with some bitter woody notes. In case you prefer subtle scents for your skin care products, you may not like the intensity of this one.

Damascena Cream Cleanser has a herbal woody smell, feels creamy on the face and leaves skin feeling clean. In my opinion, a cleanser is crucial to skin’s balance. It should effectively cleanse without irritating. I tested this cream cleanser for a week and got no break outs or irritations.

Damascena Anti-Wrinkle Serum feels to me like a light face oil. Even though the product description reads that it does not leave oily residue, it did feel oily on my skin. Unfortunately I developed sensitivity to this product so I could not appreciate its benefits to the full.

Damascena Face Cream: This moisturizer has a light rose scent, contains mushroom extracts, organic shea butter and apricot oil. It feels rich but absorbs wonderfully. My skin really loved it! It felt hydrated and looked glowing.

Hydrating Mask is of clear gel texture with no obvious scent. Feels nice on the skin, leaves it feeling hydrated, comfortable and looking refreshed.

So my overall impression is truly positive. Duchess Marden is a great line of products for those who like their skin care to be based on botanical extracts, natural and pure. And it is quite affordably priced with products costing between $25 and $60.

Beauty Review: Eau Flirt - Smell Sexy!

I am very excited! Recently Harvey Prince, creators of the one and only anti-aging perfume Ageless Fantasy, has launched another unique scent "Eau Flirt". This time male sexual arousal is at the center of their attention. Their idea was to create a perfume that makes you smell flirty, hot and desirable. As was the case with their anti-aging perfume, this idea is also backed by research. Alan Hirsch and Jason Gruss (Taste and Smell Treatment and Research Foundation) looked into the impact scents produce on male sexual arousal.

So, actually, the release of this new perfume from Harvey Prince makes two of us “excited” me AND my husband ;-)

Are you curious what smells “sexy” to men? Researchers came up with a surprising twosome: lavender and pumpkin pie!! These scents appear to be the two things that turn men on! Who would have thought… But don’t rush and smear a pumpkin pie all over yourself to seduce the object of your desires. Using a complex and elegant fragrance with the notes mentioned is a better strategy. I am happy to be one of the first to try and share my impressions of Eau Flirt with you!
Eau Flirt blend is composed of berry and fruity top notes: black currant, plum, raspberry, apple, black licorice and lavender, floral and spicy middle notes of jasmine, ylang, nutmeg and cinnamon (the classic aromas of pumpkin pie), and a drydown of musk and rare and precious woods


My first impression was that this is not a light fragrance. However it has just the right intensity and spice to excite but not to overwhelm. To draw attention but not to overpower… I prefer to wear Eau Flirt as an evening scent. Fresh and juicy notes of berries and sweet florals flirt with more heavy, “serious” and spicy notes of cinnamon, precious woods and musk. To me raspberry, jasmine and cinnamon notes stood out from the bouquet. Something in the fragrance distantly reminded me of a lollipop I used to love in my childhood. But that is just a personal association… though I wouldn’t at all mind if my darling thinks I am a lollipop :-) ya know what I mean ;-)

Beauty Talk: What Can Botox Do For You

Since Botox first hit the stage in 1989, it has gone through numerous reinventions. Started as an ophthalmologic treatment it was discovered to be effective against facial wrinkles and in 2002 was welcomed by FDA to the US market. Since then it has become US most popular cosmetic treatment. And it's wildly popular not only in the US but around the world. Botox applications grow with each and every year and currently there are more than 90 uses for this drug only 5 of which are approved in the USA and 16 in other countries. So here are some examples of what Botox treatment can do for you nowadays.

Get wider eye
By injecting a minuscule amount of Botox in the center of the lower lash line docs can create effect of a widening of the eye and give it a more almond shape.

Create a nicer nose
To lift up a tip of the nose without a plastic surgery, doctors inject Botox into the bottom of the septum. If you already have and upturned nose and want it to slope downward it is possible to achieve by injecting Botox into the nostrils. The difference measures in raising or lowering the nose tip by 3 millimiters.

Better (not Wider) smile
Botox makes it possible to fix the horse-teeth smile- the type of smile when your upper lip pulls up too high. A total of 5 strategically calculated injections around the upper lip will solve the problem. This procedure requires lots of experience. Inject in the wrong place and you will get flat lip or asymmetrical mouth.

Treat acne and smooth out skin
Botox can be used to reduce acne by shrinking pores. It is injected superficially without affecting the muscle to paralyze the oil-producing sebaceous glands. Treatment can provide up to 50-75% reduction in pore size.

Give you perky breasts
Botox can give you results comparable to surgical quality in lifting up your bust. To achieve the result, the drug is injected below the sternum to underneath of each breast. However, be warned, results are extremely unpredictable. Some procedures show none at all.

Delete cleavage crinkle
To treat the deep V on the chest caused by the weight of the breasts and sun damage, doctors use a combination of laser and botox treatment. This is a complicated procedure, so stick to an experts with breast experience.

Alleviate migraine headaches
Injecting Botox into the back or sides of the head, forehead or brow area proved effective to relieve migranes.

Plump Up Lips
A pouty lip can me achieved with just one injection of botox under the bottom lip.

Wipe away sadness
You know how with age corners of the mouth tend to turn down. Botox can help with that. Injected into the corners of the mouth it help to slightly turn them up.

This is not the end of the list. Other effects achievable with Botox include relaxing bands in neck, treating muscle spasms and eye twitching, smoothing dimpled chin etc. Just remember, if you decide to use Botox for any of the reasons mentioned above, make sure to find an experienced certified specialist!

Beauty Buzz: Harvey Prince Releases a New Perfume Eau Flirt

Harvey Prince & Co., creators of the anti-aging perfume Ageless Fantasy, came up with just another scent-sation. This time they are really playing with fire. The new perfume Eau Flirt was designed to heat up passion and romance. Using data from a reasearch on the impact of scents on male sexual arousal Harvey Prince created a formula for a perfect flirt: sweet and fruity top notes, floral and spicy middle notes, woods and musk bottom notes, combined with vanilla and pumpkin essences. Eau Flirt is released today and can be already purchased online at http://www.harveyprince.com.