Ok! so here is a simple sounding topic…something we all deal with from time to time, some more often than others, but we all do at some point. When i came up with this topic i had so many questions running through my head i didn’t know where to begin! But having done more research i’ll do my best to break it down for you in some surprisingly simple ways how to fairly naturally and effectively reduce eye puffiness:)

What causes eye puffiness??

Improper sleep: Eyes often appear more puffy in the morning after a long night’s sleep. This is partly due to the fact that when reclining, blood flow is increased in the face. Also, when the body is deprived of sleep, the eyes become strained and overworked, usually causing dark circles under the eyes, puffiness and or redness.  Be sure you’re getting the recommended amount of time for sleeping every night to reduce puffy eyes.

Crying: When we cry, our eyes  get swollen and puffy. Even after you have calmed down and stopped crying, the puffiness is there to remind you of why you were crying, No?

Fluid retention: Not having enough water will tell your brain that you are dehydrated. This will cause an anti diuretic hormone to be released which will cause your kidneys to allow water back into your body instead of going out with your urine. Also, if you consume too much salt, more water will be reabsorbed into your body by osmosis. That is why salty food and dehydration cause edema (swelling). So, in this case, and in general, sticking to lower sodium diet will greatly help, from the inside out, as well as adequate water intake.

Other reasons for puffiness: allergies, taking certain medications, weather, hormonal changes, or even heredity!

Note: Visit a doctor if you have sudden or severe swelling in the eye area; it may indicate sinusitis or an allergy.

Here are some helpful things to try in reducing puffiness, redness, or some dark circles:

1. Apply chilled fruits or vegetables! Cool cucumber, apple, strawberry or potato slices on top of your closed eyelids for a few minutes until the slices warm up will reduce puffiness naturally.
2. Chilled Teabags! Cover your closed eyes with damp, chilled teabags. The tannic acid in the tea bags helps sooth the entire eye area. (This also works for red eyes if you do not have drops available) Simply dampen two teabags and chill them in the refrigerator for a few moments. Lay them over your closed eyelids putting very light pressure on them for 3 to 4 minutes.
3. Use Cold Spoons! Stick two teaspoons in the refrigerator or freezer, and gently lay them over your eyes until the spoons warm up.
4. Try Ice! Simply wrap some pieces of ice in a soft paper towel or washcloth and gently apply to your eyelids and the puffy area.
5. Cold Milk! Dip some cotton pads in ice cold milk and then squeeze excess milk out. Apply on lids until pads warm up. You may do this a few times until swelling is gone.
6. Witch Hazel! Soak a cotton ball in chilled Witch Hazel, squeeze out excess then place on closed eyes.   Note:  Position your face upright, elevated above your chest, to decrease blood flow from the face. This basically means don’t lie down!
7. Chill Your Eye Cream! Keep your eye cream in the refrigerator. The coolness will instantly help reduce puffiness when you apply it. Be sure to apply it gently with your ring finger and tap gently when applying.
8. Apply Hemorrhoid Cream! While Hemorrhoid cream is not completely natural, it is also known to do the trick. This used to be an old models trick for the instant reduction of puffiness. From what I understand however, some of the creams in the United States no longer have the ingredient that made this work so well. Note: Be sure to find a cream that has shark’s liver oil and yeast in it. (Also, be very careful to not get cream in eyes.)
9. Use an eye serum! Find an eye serum that is specifically formulated to reduce puffiness. There are many on the market that do this. Keep all products that you are using to reduce puffiness out of your eyes. If they get into your eyes, these products may add to the puffiness problem.

1. Use a Gel or Water Mask! Again, while you might have to purchase this item in a store, it also works very well. Wearing a cold gel or water mask for a few moments not only reduces puffiness, but can be very soothing as well!

          NOTE TO REMEMBER: Drink plenty of water!! remember Water retention, which causes bloating, occurs when the body has too much salt and not enough fluids to flush it out.

So there you go!! A few simple ways to take care of yet another one of those little things that bother us:)

~maresah~        

…continued from part 1

C.  Eyebrow tinting/lightening.

note: Eyebrows are generally 1-2 shades darker than ones natural hair color, so be observant when coloring your hair to stay within those parameters so as not to look too artificial.

1. Lightening your brows can lighten the look of your face. To get a rough idea of how bleaching will look, take a light brown or taupe eyeshadow and rub it on your brows.

2. Darkening your brows can definitely add more definition to your face and eyes. to get a rough idea of how tinting them will look, gently sweep your mascara wand across the brow out towards the ear. Apply more if you want them darker. (this can also be a quick daily fix to enhancing your brows without the risk of chemicals near your eyes.)

Because of the potential damage to your vision, always have your eyebrows tinted/lightened by a professional.

D.  Filling in your brows.
If your brows are sparse or spotty and you want to fill them in, there are several ways to do it.

1. take an angled eyeshadow brush and press just a bit of eye shadow to the brow. (medium or dark brown for brunettes. Taupe for blondes or redheads. Charcoal for silver or gray hair). Follow the direction of the brow and extend the brushed-on shadow to the edge of the eye.

2. Pat a tissue on top to blot up any excess.

note: If your brows are really thin, you can pencil them in slightly thicker, but it’s difficult to make this look natural.

3. Take an eye pencil under the brow and follow the brow line out to the edge of the eye. Use a powder sponge to press some powder on top, very gently, to soften the line. then use a brush to lightly fill it in with shadow.

So there you go! Good luck with your brows…. they really can make all the difference to a fresh face

~maresah~

Even if you never touch another cosmetic again, buy a good pair of tweezers and develop the skill to use them. Because no makeup trick on the planet will make you look better than a pair of beautiful brows!!

So How exactly do we achieve these brows you say?

well follow these simple tricks and you’re on your way to much more naturally shaped brows, designed perfectly for YOU!

 Define your parameters. 

1. Look in the mirror, hold a pencil vertically against the highest bone on the side of the nose, and note where it meets the brow. (if you need to, draw a line as a guide.) do this on both sides of the nose. Pluck only in between.

2. To determine the end of your eyebrow, extend a pencil (or tweezer) diagonally from your nostril, over the outer edge of your eye toward the brow. Where it lands is where your brow should end.

3. Whatever you do, don’t pluck the top of the brow. if you do, it will become fuzzy and then you won’t be able to create or contour an arch.  Although, if your brows are messy on top, have a professional wax them. But make sure to talk to her first about the shape that you want.

note: If you have never plucked your brows before, my advice would be to see a professional the first time because it’s possible that once hair is tweezed, it may never grow back. it’s rare, but in case it happens to you, you’ll want to get it right the first time!

 Plucking your own

some women prefer to moisturize before they pluck; they say it hurts less that way. honestly, I prefer to pluck when my skin is dry because i can be more precise with tweezer. But if that is too painful for you then try putting a dab of Anbesol on the area to numb it, or hold a cold washcloth to the brow for a few seconds before you start.

note: A tweezer with a slanted or pointed tip will grip the best.

1. Always pluck below the brow line, so the hair won’t grow back in a scraggly-looking line, and follow the natural arch of your brow.

2. Use the top of the brow as a guide on how to shape the bottom. Pluck the hairs out toward the ears, in the direction in which they grow. Remove stray hairs, but don’t pluck too much at once.

3. Pluck a few hairs and then stop. Look in the mirror, step back, and see how you’re doing. You can always take out more later, but once you’ve over plucked, you’ll have to live with that thin, artificial line until the hair grows back….if it does.

Part 2 coming soon!

Well, the experts say brown is on the rise for Spring 10. Can’t say I mind, I like brown. Neutral, goes with everything. What’s not to like?

Go cool: 

Makeup artists Matin says cool browns are most flattering: “Warm browns—like orange or brick tinted ones—look beautiful on some girls, but if you don’t have white teeth they can be detrimental to your smile.”

Mauve Tinted Brown:

Instead, makeup artist Gucci Westman says to go for a mauve-tinted brown. “There’s a bluish purple undertone to it,” says the Revlon global artistic director, who applied Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Chocolate Velvet on models at Richard Chai’s spring 2010 show. “I always love how it looks, and it works with just about every skin tone.”

_______

Get a fresh tube for Spring- $7.99 at your local drugstore.

Sometimes it’s the little things that can really help our skin routines-

Chanel’s makeup up artist Peter Phillips shares one of his secrets: “Aquaphor takes the creases out of lips so you can get smooth, rich color.”

Aquaphor Healing ointment, $6 at drugstores.

That’s my kind of price.

Ever wondered the secret to moist shine rich hair? Often the answer lies not in a specific product but how you apply and rinse your conditioner.

Condition:

Bleached/Highlighted: 

If you hair is currently chemically treated, like me,  you’ll want to condition end to root every time.

Natural Hair:

For natural hair, i only conditioned the mid-lengths and ends every time and the roots about once a week.

 Step By Step

1) don’t worry so much about hitting the top of your head with the mass of conditioner your holding in your hand. Try starting from the ends of the hair, working towards the top. This will help eliminate excess moisture on the scalp which causes that premature oily feeling.

2) Try just conditioning the mid-lengths and ends every time you shampoo and only the top every other time or about once to twice a week. Your hair is healthier the closer it is to the scalp, so the target area should be the mid-lengths and ends as this is where most splitting and damaging occurs  from brushing, hot tools, pony tails, clothing contact, and hair coloring.

This How To is for those of us trying to treat our hair better, but keep getting frustrated because our tactics do not seem to be helping.

Hair Patterns

There are many things that cause us to change the pattern of how and when we care for our hair:

1. New job that requires more bathing.
2. Just heard that washing your hair everyday is not good for it
3. Can’t understand why you hair gets oily so fast
4. Can’t understand why its so frizzy, but feels like silk
5. New hairstyle that requires more or different product
6. Stuck on old habits
7. Etc, etc, etc.

I know my frustration came from a few things, but mostly I was avoiding washing my hair everyday (who has time to style their locks every 24 hours?) but then I felt my hair wasn’t really clean! This frustrated me, because i had many friends doing the same thing with great success! Well one day i had a hair teacher say “if you can’t seem to get it the first time around, do it again” so i decided to try washing twice before i conditioned. What a difference!!! The soap even lathers up differently the second time. Weird? It totally works.

So now i shampoo every two to three days and am very happy with the results.

Shampoo: Try This

Shampoo: better to shampoo twice in a row than every day.
(unless you have that oh! so awesome extreme oil prone hair)

Many times people who try not to wash everyday fail to wash more thoroughly when they actually do shampoo. This causes frustration because the hair seems to get oily or dirty faster.

 Double shampooing: Try it. 

#1: Focus on the Scalp. Once to focus (and i mean really focus) on that scalp! you need to remove the dead skin and oil buildup as to allow the scalp to breath and help new hair grow appropriately.

#2  focus on the rest of the hair and really make sure all of the grime is out!

Hair brittle after your shampoo? Come back for tips on conditioning your locks.

A couple weeks ago our dear Maresah blogged on several companies that feature natural skin and face products.

This week we are highlighting a face mask from Arbonne as a giveaway to our readers.

Not to be left out in the dark, I decided to try a bottle of the product for myself. And i can tell you, this stuff is powerful! Not only does it rejuvenate the skin, it helps clean out all those pesky dead skin cells that cause black heads! The bottle recommends once a week, which means it’s going to last for a long time. ::happy sigh::

$45 dollar value. No, it’s not cheap (natural products never are) Which is why you should enter the giveaway!

Giveaway ends the 22nd. If you post a link from Facebook, twitter or your own blog we’ll enter your name twice.

*Leave a comment to enter, we will track your site links through our blog back-end. Let us know you posted a link and we’ll be able to match the link to the entry.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ENTRY #60, Emily at Glenn Fashions- YOU WON THE ARBONNE MASK. !

Number one myth about hair: Trimming it will make it grow faster!

This is not only false its crazy! Your hair is dead the second it grows out of your scalp! So no matter what you do to it on the outside, it will not effect whats going on at the root!

I tell you honestly and truthfully that the only thing that helps your hair grow faster is all internal!

So you want to make your hair grow faster?

you are still in control and you don’t have to cut it! i have one simple word for you….

PROTEIN !!!!!

Eat it, drink it, bathe in it, breathe it, however you must get it in your body! : )
If your body is not healthy then neither is your hair! Unhealthy hair means slow growth….and that’s it!

Protein Suggestions:

Eggs, Meat, Beans, Greens, Protein bars/shakes…..just make sure you’re getting ALL your vitamins!

Remember and spread the word!!

Although trimming your hair may help it appear healthier as it grows,
it WILL NOT MAKE IT GROW!!!

hahahaha what a break through

~Maresah~

p.s. Prenatal vitamins work wonders!!

Here are some very simple things to do to help you get a cleaner, longer lasting shave and better looking skin!

Exfoliate before you shave!: this will help clear dead skin cells on the surface of the skin, and in turn, cause more of the hair to be exposed, providing a cleaner and closer surface for shaving.

What to use:   Kosher salt! It dissolves easily and is not as abrasive as Sea Salt….although sea salt works fine: ) also raw sugar works well. Sea salt and raw sugar are larger crystals, therefore, those with sensitive skin should be careful not to apply too roughly.

How to use it!: Mix any one of these with a dash of olive oil to make the application a bit easier and to help soften the hair and add moisture to the skin!
Just put a scoop of the mixture in your hands and work the whole area to be shaved in long circular motions. Rinse with warm water and proceed with your soap of choice and shave! (many times, the oil left behind from exfoliating will be enough for me to shave, although you really have to make sure you clean your razor well!)

Use a SHARP blade!: I know we are all trying to save even down to the smallest thing like our razors, but really? I have to say I’m quite fed up with razor burn and ingrown hairs because I’m skimping where i could be potentially saving!

1) Your blade will last longer if you properly prepare your skin to be shaved as it will not have to fight hard hairs and dead skin (causing unnecessary buildup and dulling of the blade).

2) It will also last longer if you clean and store it properly! (make sure your razor is dry and free of debris before you put it away. If you leave it in the shower, then try to get a wall razor hanger or just be sure to put the guard back on it before placing it on the shelf.)

Post Care: After shaving, towel dry and either apply a small amount of oil or a lotion (remember to refrain from lotions with mineral oil as this ingredient clogs pores).
It is so important to moisturize after shaving or even showering for that matter!..i mean we go through such lengths to make sure our faces stay clean and moisturized to reduce lines, remove dead skin cells, and grimy buildup so we don’t break out….Well same goes for the rest of the body ladies!!

I’ll leave you with that……Good luck with your next shave!

~maresah~

ps. This simple mixture of salt/sugar and oil is a great way to exfoliate the whole body! It is not only cheap, but easily done in the shower or during a nice soak in the tub : )