Beauty Review: Estee Lauder Stress Relief Mask

Promise:
Pre-moistures pads hydrate and soothe skin, diminish puffiness and other signs of fatigue, reduce appearance of tiny lines and wrinkles.

Product Profile in Short:
Pre-moistened pads sealed 2 in a packette
Contain targeted anti-stress, anti-fatigue hydrating ingredients, botanical soothers like aloe vera, cucumber and allantoin

Close-up on Active Ingredients:
Water
Glycerin - humectant
Butylene glycol - Humectant, Emollient
Bifida ferment Lysate - probiotic
Aloe barbadensis leaf juice – soothes, regenerates
Polysorbate 80,
Sodium Hyaluronate – humectant (super-moisturizer!)
Cucumis sativus (cucumber) fruit extract – soothing, softening, anti-inflamatory
Caffeine - anti-inflammatory, relieves skin redness
laureth-4 - surfatant - emulsfying agent,
Disodium EDTA - chelating agent and a viscosity adjuster (as I can see ther are some safety concerns about this ingredient but I don’t think any official facts)
BHT,
Sodium dehydroacetate - Organic salt used as a preservative
Phenoxyethanol - preservative
Methylparaben


Experience:

Texture: pads are moistened with colorless liquid that feels a tiny bit oily to the touch
Smell: no fragrance

Another one of my favorites by Estee Lauder! I can’t remember how many years I have been using this product. The first time I tried it – I fell in love! It’s convenient to use, has nice texture, and it works! The pads are very thin and feel like they are made from thin soft cloth. There is really a lot of liquid on them so they are dripping and you can get some more liquid from the bottom of the plastic packet.

This mask is really effective! Especially helpful to get rid of small thin lines around the eyes. I apply the mask on the area right under my eyes and give it 10-20 minutes to work its wonders or sometimes I allow even longer time till the pads are almost completely dry. I remove them and reveal to the world smooth moisturized skin under my eyes. Thin lines just disappear! And skin is more elastic! I know this because when I smile lines around my eyes are not there to stay, they just relax and smooth themselves away. However, note this mask doesn’t seem to have much effect on under eye puffiness. Such a pity!
I used to do this mask 2 times a week but now with years I resort to it more often. It really works great to revive dehydrated, tired eyes.

Price Tag:
35-40$ for a package of 10

Bottom Line:
Excellent product! Everyone just has to try this! However be warned, this mask won’t do much to deep wrinkles and puffiness.

Makeup Tip: How to Choose the Right Shade for Foundation

Perfect skin tone sets the perfect canvas for perfect makeup. A very common mistake when choosing foundation is testing it on the back of your hand. This way you most surely will select the wrong tone. Test foundation on your jaw line. Get the one that matches ideally or the closest. And better never go for a darker shade – it just makes you look older.

Beauty Tip: Get Break-Outs Under Control

Those nasty red pimples always appear just before a party or a date… Or worse: they just constantly seem to be there. You think you finally are about to concur them but here they are popping up in just another spot. Oh, don’t you hate them? Today I am going to share my personal experience with break outs. I have a couple tips that worked for me and that, hopefully, you may find useful. So here is how I got acne under control!

I had a bad problem with break outs as teenager and in my twenties. First thing that really improved the situation was finding the right cleanser! Your cleansing product is extremely important for the health if your skin. It has to be JUST the right intensity. Too strong and it will be stripping and will cause more acne, too weak and it won’t cleanse skin enough to keep pores clean and free from acne-causing bacteria. Many people with break outs make one similar mistake – they overcleanse and over peel their skin. I did the same before I found my perfect cleanser! I am using Estee Lauder Verite Cleanser and I love it.

Second step that made a DRAMATIC change was using paper towels or Klenex instead of a regular towel to dry my face. Surprised? I came across a tip from a dermatologist for those suffering from acne to change a towel every 2-3 days. So I decided it would be even better to use something single use to dry my face. And the difference it made was really amazing!

Another tip in line with the one above is please, do keep your hands off your face! If you pick on pimples you will just spread bacteria to other areas of your face. Very often people subconsciously keep touching a red spot that is bothering them with their hands. Be aware of this habit and stop it.

And finally find the moisturizer that works for you. Non-comedogenic is the key feature. It should be light but at the same time nurturing to your skin.

So here it is in a nutshell. I list the tips in the order of a difference they made for my skin:
1.Find the cleanser PERFECT for your skin. Do not overcleanse
2.Use single use towels to dry your face or use Klenex
3.Keep hands away from your face
4.Find the PERFECT moisturizer

My New Year Beauty Resolutions!

1. Get regular facials – This has been my dream for a long time and I would never be able to do this: either could not afford the money or the time. But now I am 30 for God’s sake! Time has come! (…Regular professional facials can really benefit your skin – you can never do a facial at home as well as an expert can…)
2. Start using SPF regularly… again! – Time for a confession: I stopped being careful about wearing SPF with the birth of my little one. I am always on the run, so I just forget or am too much in a hurry to take a sec and apply that sun protection. Have to get back on track here :-)
3. Eat less sweets – Oh my, that would be the toughest one to go through with. I have a sweet tooth!
4. Drink more water – drinking lots and lots of water used to be my best beauty habit alongside with applying SPF. I am not kidding, I used to drink liters of water in the course of a day. Then it suddenly changed and got much worse when I became a Mom. Now I often don’t even have time to think about drinking a glass of water. This has to change again for the sake of healthy skin!
5. Eat less meat – I used to prefer fish and veggies over meat. But again with the pregnancy and birth of my DS, this changed and now I eat meat every day. Which is not so good for my skin and my body on the whole. More greens for me in 2010!
6. Learn something new about Beauty... I feel I should learn more about makeup application. I just never had the time to do it. Will I manage this year? I hope so…
7. Try something new in Beauty Blogging – Am thinking about trying video reviews on YouTube!

So these are my 7 beauty resolutions for New Year 2010... 7 is my favorite number - hopefully it will bring luck and help make everyting listed above come true!

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Skin Care and Beauty Blog Made it to the Top!

Just discovered that Skin Care and Beauty Blog made it to the Top 100 Beauty Blogs carefully selected by skincare-news.com editors.

Yay! Thanks for selecting my blog for this awesome list of best beauty blogs! I am really flattered :-)

I recommend all beauty fans check out this list for blogs in your area of interest: guys at skincare-news.com spent a lot of time browsing through, reading and reviewing beauty blogs for their top 100 list. Wow, great job!
Oh, and if you have a favorite beauty blog that is not on the list, you are welcome to send it in for consideration!

Looking For Holiday Makeup Inspiration

This year I didn’t have time to blog about all the holiday make up collections out there. And they are as always lovely!
Today I was looking through this year’s collections searching for some inspiration for my holiday makeup. Here are some looks that attracted my attention…






I really like Dior’s look in light purple! I have to confess, I just love all the shades of purple. I have quite a collection of them from various brands. However in terms of Christmas and New Years I still gravitate to red and gold as the colors of choice for the holiday evening look. Funny but even my Christmas tree is decorated in red and gold! So I guess that’s why my favorites would be Estee Lauder’s Ultimate Red and Clarins’ Palazzo D’Oro.

Beauty Shopping: What Beauty Products Are on Your Christmas Wish List?

This Christmas as always my hubby inquired sweetly what I would like to see among the presents under the Christmas tree. I didn’t tell him I have been dreaming about trying an SK II product and am very curious in giving a try to Galvanic SPA from Nu Skin. I think I’ll reserve these for anniversaries or something like that. But there are 2 products currently on my wish list: Guerlain eye cream – Success Eye Tech Up-Lifting Wrinkle Reducer (Eye Cellular Amber) and Dior Svelte Reversal Body Contouring and Firming Concentrate. Actually, I just realized that Guerlain’s eye cream is extremely expensive. As I can see in online stores it is around 100$ so maybe it was a bit too much to ask for :-)

If you read my blog you know that I am constantly in search for an effective eye cream to keep eye puffiness and wrinkles at bay. I need to upgrade from my favorite Guerlain Happylogy to something a bit stronger. So I am constantly asking for samples of eye creams whnever I buy a skin care product. I’ve tested a lot of eye creams some of which were really great and showed great result, like Bio Performance by Shiseido, for example. But I am sensitive to most of them and get irritated red eyes as a reaction. Guerlain’s Success Eye Tech seemed to work ok for me so I want to try and make a switch.

As for Dior’s Svelte Concentrate, I’ve been curious about it since summer. I tested Clinique’s High Definition Body Lift which was ok. I know winter is not the high season for contouring your body but I personally try to stay fit and keep skin smooth all year round! So now I would really love to try Dior’s product.

So are there any beauty products on your list?

Makeup Tip: Give Your Eyes an Immediate Lift – 3 Quick and Easy Tricks

How to get more open bright younger looking eyes with the help of makeup? If you don’t know yet these tricks, you will be surprised how easy it is!

Arch! Create an arch by shaping and combing up your brows. Brow’s importance in defining the eye area is often underestimated. I tend to ignore my brows so often – big mistake! By shaping and creating a nice arch, you will visually lift up the whole eye area and get a younger look. Determine a brow shape that works for you using the three point technique (see a very short video below). Pluck your eye brows, brush them up and fix with eye brow gel. You can also use some hair spray on an eye brow brush to brush brows up.

Highlight! Create a highlight. Apply some light shadow or highlighter right under the brow starting from the arch and toward the outer edge. Blend well. This will give immediate lifting effect.

Curl! Curl your lashes – twice! First try to get as close to the lash line as possible then curl again in the middle. As a result your eyes will look more open and bigger.

Beauty Find: Clothes Help to Fight Acne

Can you imagine: clothes that's not only stylish but has SPF and also fights acne! Unbelievable but true! A smart company SunSoul created a line of clothes “blumod” that, as they claim, will help blemished skin. How? With the help of “professional light treatment technology”! SunSoul specializes in clothing made from what they call Fluorescent Therapeutic Materials. The latter provides protection from the damaging UV rays and uses sun light to benefit your skin.

So the type of material used in the blumod line turns broad-spectrum light into a narrow wavelength of blue light which kills bacteria and this way helps to fight acne. Obviously it treats acne only on the parts of the body it covers. Blumod line offers men's and women's shirts, unisex shirts, hats and accessories.

I find this a very interesting idea. As a teenager I suffered from acne on my back which was so frustrating and embarrassing for me then. So I can really associate and understand a need for such clothes… I wonder if it really works… What do you think?

Beauty Ingredient: Syn-ake

Photo by Pedro Marinello Kairath at Flickr.com
What only cosmetic industry doesn’t resort to to provide us with the most modern effective anti-aging solutions. They even turn to snakes in search of inspiration! Syn-ake is a chemical modeled on the paralyzing snake venom of a southeast Asian temple viper. Syn-ake as you probably already guessed is actually meant to sound similar to “snake”. The chemical is used in skin care to achieve Botox-like muscle relaxing effect and is manufactured by a Swiss company Pentapharm. Syn-ake penetrates skin and blocks the nerve receptors bringing down the muscle movement.
Why resort to Botox if the same effect could be achieved with a topical product? Of course there are those who say that applying a muscle paralyzing product all over your face is extreme. And that does sound weird, doesn’t it? But I say, I would give it a try and see if it works. Here are a couple products containing Syn-ake that I found:
Peter Thomas Roth Un-Wrinkle Line
Z. Bigatti Rescue

Beauty Review: Clarins Stretch Mark Control

Promise:
Helps Reduce the Appearance of Stretch Marks, Promotes Skin Elasticity and Comfort

Product Profile in Short:
Three targeted actions help prevent and reduce the appearance of stretch marks while comforting skin during pregnancy or periods of weight fluctuation.

Close-up on Active Ingredients:

Aqua, Cyclomethicone, Catearyl Alcohol, Carpylic/ Capric Triglyceride, Isononyl Isononenoate, alcohol, hydrogenated coco-glycerides, Glycerin, Cetaryl Glucoside, Squalane, Potassium Cetyl Phosphate, Asiaticoside, Pluacrylamide, Dimethicone, Carbomer, Octyldodeceth-25, c13-14 Isoparafin, Disodium Edta, Ethylhexylglycerin, Sodium Hydrozide, Sodium Cetearyl sulfate.

Experience:
Becoming a mom is the most exciting event of your life. I was really looking forward to this fulfilling experience. However motherhood comes with certain “side-effects”. Namely – stretch marks… Determined to do my best to minimize the imprint of pregnancy on my body and skin, I chose Clarins Stretch Mark Control to help prevent stretch marks. Read more about my experience below.

Texture: creamy, but not overly oily nor heavy
Smell: no fragrance

I liked the texture of this product. It is not too heavy but very moisturizing and nourishing. I used it mostly on my tummy and breasts. After massaging the cream in I could get dressed in about 3-5 minutes. It gets absorbed fairly quickly and leaves skin very soft and smooth. However you have to watch the amount you put on. I noticed that if you use too much it would turn into crumbs and would feel unpleasant, kind of itchy on the skin.

I didn’t have much problems with irritated itchy skin so cannot comment on weather Clarins Stretch Mark Control relieves itchiness from the stretching. But what I can say is that I had NO stretch marks after I gave birth! So either it is good genes, good luck or Clarins Stretch Mark Control works. Note, I was very diligent with applying this cream. I started early on at 2.5-3 months and from 4th month would apply it twice daily. And let me tell you, Clarins Stretch Mark Control was quite an investment. I would go through one tube in 1.5 months…

Price Tag:
49$

Bottom Line:
This is a very good product. However, no one will guarantee that it will work for you... but it worked for me so it’s worth trying!

Quick Fix: Sooth Red Irritated Skin

Be it a hot summer day or freezing winter weather, smokey bar or a peeling session gone wrong, but as a result you have a situation with red stressed skin. What can you do and what will work quick?! To sooth red irritated skin soak a cloth or a towel in cold milk and apply to your face. Repeat several times. Milk Protein has soothing effect on the skin. Cold constricts blood vessels and relieves redness and puffiness. Other soothing ingredients you can use instead of milk are Chamomile, Aloe Vera and Witch Hazel.

Beauty Review: Dove Nutrium Moisture Body Wash

Tagline:
Cares for surface skin ten layers deep

Promise:
Restores skin’s natural moisture while cleansing with body wash

Product Profile in Short:
• Repairs and maintains skin’s protective layer during cleansing
• Unlike moisturizers in other body washes, Dove Body Wash with NutriumMoisture™ penetrates surface skin deep down to replenish and nourish
• Clinically proven to significantly reduce dryness and improve moisturization


Experience:
Texture: creamy, similar to a body lotion
Smell: light warm feminine scent

Dove Nutrium Moisture line of body washes is available in Deep Moisture, Sensitive Skin and Gentle Exfoliating. Recently I have been using the Deep Moisture and my Mom, who seems to be allergic to everything and can use only unscented baby soap, has started a Dove Sensitive Skin Body Wash. I have to say when it comes to indulging into a body care product, Dove is at the top of my list. Ever since I was a teenager I loved those moisturizing soaps by Dove and now I regularly use moisturizing and anti-aging skin care products like Dove Pro Age Neck Cream and Dove Silk Glow. That’s why Dove Nutrium Deep Moisture completely lived up to my expectations. It has creamy beautiful texture that makes it a pleasure to apply in a shower and nice light but not overwhelming scent. But don’t expect much of the lather it feels more like a creamy body lotion on the skin. Such texture and the smell just make you want to keep rubbing it on another extra minute… After washing it off my skin feels very soft and it has this nice warm feminine scent. Dove Body Wash does its job gently without causing dry skin. It actually contains some natural moisturizing ingredients such as soybean oil and sunflower seed oil so it not only cleanses your skin but helps to keep it moisturized.
Oh and my Mom is very happy about her Dove Sensitive Skin Body Wash – she gets no allergies, only clean and soft skin!