For The Kind Of Bags That We DON"T Want

This post is at the request of my beautiful friend, mother of two, and style star (you know who you are ;) So we all love bags...you know the ones that you carry around as fashion statements as well as your home away from home. Its those pesky ones that we get under our eyes that we don't like! You know...those ones that scream to the world that your preschooler kept you up all night with an ear infection, you were up late finishing your daughters science project because she didn't tell you it was due until 7pm the night before, or that your husband came home and told you that he needed 100 cupcakes for the firm's bake sale tomorrow. Here are a few suggestions I've found to help minimize those bags and help you look like you spent the night at a spa...not in the kitchen!!

• Make sure that your skin is well moisturized. Well moisturized skin retains elasticity better than dry skin. This allows your skin to maintain its shape under the eyes, instead of sagging, creating that baggy appearance.
• Apply tea bags soaked in cold milk - milk has healing qualities that helps stimulate the skin around eyes and therefore decrease the swelling. The cold causes vasoconstriction, thereby decreasing the swelling as well (this is the nurse in me talking :)
• Use vitamin E or caster oil under your eyes before bed. Vitamin E is a wonderful moisturizer (see above). Caster oil helps improve circulation and reduces congestion. Increased circulation moves excess fluid away from the under eye area, therefore reducing the bags. Reducing congestion that has settled in the area also helps reduce the appearance of bags under the eyes.
• Make sure that you completely remove your makeup at night before you go to bed.
• Use egg whites beaten with a drop or two of witch hazel. This makes the skin look tighter and less puffy.
• Decrease salt intake. Just like fingers or feet swell when you retain water from a diet high in salt, so do your under eyes.
• Sleep on your back with your head elevated so that fluid does not settle under your eyes.

Hanna's Manicure

Daughters need manicures too! Hanna's pretty pink manicure...she loves getting her nails painted :)

Shellac Removal

So my beautiful Shellac Manicure was two weeks old yesterday. It actually still looked great, but my nails had grown quite a bit over the last two weeks and I am more comfortable with them fairly short and neat because of my job. So, last night it was time to remove the Shellac. You can go to the salon to have them removed, and some specialty beauty supply places carry these little covers that you slip over each finger that then dissolve the polish. I had time for neither of these last night. So, after reading a few sites that discussed removal, I gathered tin foil, acetone based nail polish and cotton balls. I dipped each cotton ball in the remover, placed one on each finger, and then wrapped each finger individually in the foil. I let them sit for ten minutes. When I removed the foil and cotton balls the polish had lifted around the edges and kind of shriveled up. I used and orange stick and just pushed the residue off each nail. After washing my hands I inspected my nails. They were perfectly smooth and seem to have been strengthened by being protected by the Shellac for two weeks. It was so different than when I had gels in the past. Since the nails are not buffed down before the Shellac is applied there are no rough patches or weak tips. It was great. I filed my nails down to where I like them and put some pretty bright pink polish on to celebrate the nice weather (Exotic Liras by Essie). Shellac manicure and removal a huge success :)