Anti-aging tips and secrets…and announcing my new store!

~ Emmie ~ Leave a comment

Hello readers and followers of my online journal.  Over the years, I have really enjoyed writing articles for this site and talking about fashion, make-up, alternative trends, and having a healthy mind, soul, and body.  One of the top concerns us women have is how to stay youthful; not only the way to do it, but finding a healthy, natural way. Yes, it is possible and I will tell you what works for me.

My kid is 14 years old now, and I had him my third year in Art College.  If you do the math, you can imagine how old I actually am.  I will not give a number, but most people cannot believe I am his mom!  I’ve been asked if he is my cousin, my brother, my nephew.  So many guesses, but mom is not really one of them.  I raised him on my own since he was four, living in a small apartment in the west end of Toronto, and I had my shares of ups and downs, good times, and bad times, great boyfriends, and bad ones.  And I’ll admit one of the first secrets of staying young is attitude.  Always be positive, try not to stress out, and accept yourself, and others for who they are.  Be at peace, find religion and God.  And remember, you get what you give.

Me and my kid. Can you imagine, I raised him since he was a baby? Now at 14, he towers over me!
Me and my kid. Can you imagine, I raised him since he was a baby? Now at 14, he towers over me!

And after the inner work, comes the outer work.  Cosmetics and skin care can only enhance and reflect what you already do have.  So treating your body and skin with the respect it deserves is key.  If your skin is dry, moisturize, if it is oily, tone it.  Listen to what it wants, and always understand that there is no turning point when skin is damaged. So prevention is most important. Stay out of the sun or use sunblock all times.

My 5 step night routine is where all the voodoo happens:

  1. Cleanse your skin.  My skin is very dry, so I use a mild liquid castile soap to do the job.  Castile soap goes back in time to the days when soap was simple.  Just oils and lye mixed together to make soap.  If you wear lots of make-up and have oily skin, you may need something stronger, like a specialty face soap, but for me, I have been loving my castile soap, as it cleanses my skin thoroughly without over drying.
  2.  Coconut oil.  Virgin, cold pressed and smelling like roasted coconuts is the way to go.  After cleaning, I slather a light amount all over my face to soften and prepare it for vitamin E absorption.  Because vitamin E and other antioxidant oils are usually thick, the coconut oil increases the spread-ability of the vitamin E.
  3. Vitamin E oil: the promised land!!! Anti oxidants are naturally ANTI WRINKLE!  I spread a layer of this stuff on problem areas first; such as the corners of your mouth/ smile lines, the corners of your eyes and high cheeks, the forehead and even under the chin.  After years of smiling, crying and just being human, our emotions try to carve out “character” in our faces by leaving lines.  Let emotions do that?  I say, no.
  4.  Use an anti-wrinkle balm/cream: I make an awesome anti aging balm called “Face Tight”, that not only aims to prevent wrinkles, but also aims to prevent the skin sagging that is often the giver away of age.  If your face stays tight, you stay young!  I apply “Face Tight” after the vitamin E application.  (Between each step, I give time for my skin to absorb each oil before slathering on another.  For me about 30 mins is usually good, but feel for yourself how long it takes for your skin to be ready for the next treatment.)
  5. Finish with a night cream–light or heavy, whatever you need.  Just before I go to bed, I like to put a thin layer of night cream to top off all of my treatments for extra protection.  During the night, your skin loses so much moisture, so I find the night cream seals all the goodness in and lets me wake up with benefits only.

    So these are the 5 products I use nightly! it's a lot, but don't knock what works: (left to right) liquid castile soap, virgin coconut oil, vitamin E, anti-age balm, night cream.
    So these are the 5 products I use nightly! it’s a lot, but don’t knock what works: (left to right) liquid castile soap, virgin coconut oil, vitamin E, anti-age balm, night cream.

So that is my nightly skincare routine!  I’ve been doing my face this way for years now, and I find it the way for me to prevent and heal fine lines that want to creep up.  I also find this is how to keep collagen and face elasticity up, during the years when your face becomes tired and wants to sag a bit.  So gear up and fight this!

My anti-aging balm is now available for sale through my newly opened E-store online at dreamecosmetics.com Check it out, and maybe place an order on “Face Tight” or on any of my other natural based cosmetics aimed to give you results you want, and nothing else!  Thanks for all the years of loyal reading! ❤

Make-up for sad, puffy eyes!

~ Emmie ~ 1 Comment

My spring/summer of minor health problems continues, only this time end of June hit me with eye allergies.  After trying out a new skin oil on my face, I developed an allergic reaction.  My eyes went from normal to bright red over night, and had me running to the doctor hoping it was not an infection.  Finding out it was just an allergic reaction, I treated it with eye drops and allergy medication.  Soon the red started to disappear…but to my frustration, the symptom of puffiness lagged on.  I would wake up with swollen eyes daily. I was using everything from ice, chilled tea bags, to cucumber slices to reduce the swelling….but nothing seemed to fully get rid of the puffiness on the top lid and puff bags underneath.

Not that puffy, swollen eyes are the most horrendous looking thing for a girl to have, it was still better than the acne I suffered from earlier this spring.  But I did have comments from people saying I looked “sad” or “stressed”; questions about if I was going to cry!?  I am an emotional gal, and am sensitive about it, so it was definitely not pleasant to have my facial mood judged and commented on.  All those perceptions from others were made based on my face appearance when in reality, I was just recovering from eye allergies! So this was a problem. I was also meeting people around this time, and knew for a better first impression, I needed a stronger fix than cold tea bags and ice on my eyes.

In comes the smokey eye make-up!  I have never been a fan of the smokey eye. Too dramatic for everyday, and bordering on a goth art student aesthetics…it was just not practical, semi-dated.  I usually opt for a more minimal approach to my make-up; sticking with youthful light coloured shimmer shadows. But there is nothing that covers puffiness better than matte black, greys, and neutral shadows.  Something about black matte shadows suggest a receding in effect, perfect to combat my eye’s puffing out effect.  So I set out to rediscover the “smokey eye”.  I figured out a way to do a subtle smokey eye that could be worn daily by me to hide puffiness as my eyes continued to heal…or for days where they puffed up again. yikes.

How I took out excessive “glam” in the smokey eye make-up:

(Apply foundation/bb and setting powder first and prep face)

  1. Start with a nude eye shadow as base over the whole lid from lashline to brow.  This helps with blending a smooth gradation between different shades of shadow that will be applied on top of eyelid.
  2. Use a really dark, matte black shadow as a liner, and line a thick line above your lashline accentuating your eyes shape.  Thicker in the outer corners, and flicking up slightly as if doing a cat eye shape.  Thinly line the bottom lid corners with black shadow too.
  3. Fill in and soften the black shadow line with a grey matte shadow.  This gradation should be subtle, and also following the angled shape of the black shadow.  Stop about mid eye lid so that it is not overly dramatic.
  4. Use a tiny bit of liquid liner to clean up the outer edge of the cat eye made by the black eye shadow.  Do this by out lining the shape lightly, and filling in more intensely in the outer eyes corners, and thinning away at mid point of the eye.
  5. Very important: Use a clean, fluffy shadow blending brush all over the top and bottom lid to smudge and make extra “smokey”.  Without this step, you will not get a nice blurred gradation, and that is what makes a dark smokey eye not harsh.
This is a really cool shadow palette I got from NYX. The reason I like them is that their shadows are really pigmented...this helps to cover up puff...
This is a really cool shadow palette I got from NYX. The reason I like them is that their shadows are really pigmented…this helps to cover up puff…

 

not sad, or puff, just shadowy cover when you need it.
not sad, or puff, just shadowy cover when you need it.

I find this look is not overly dramatic, and can be worn daily, even on simple errands.  And as a make-up for a first meeting or date, it knocks it out of the ball park, because I says you’re “fashion”, but not “high-maintenance”.  And it helped me hide those “sad” puffy eyes of mine, and kept random, public judgements at bay.  😛

My first battle with acne came much later than my teens!

~ Emmie ~ 2 Comments

So, acne.  What is it?  It is red blemishes that infiltrate your face, puff up, ooze crap and possibly get infected and leave long lasting scars.  What acne sounds like is something similar to a relationship with a bad boyfriend; unavoidable to some degree, and once its started you have to get the f*** out, with minimal damage. Yep, the bad boyfriend relationship is an accurate analogy and so is the idea that avoiding them is key.

So many things can trigger a series of pimples, cold sores or blemishes.  Recently, I went from being a blemish free beauty, to a skin ravaged freak within a couple of weeks.  I have just recovered from two really red spots of infection brought on by a harsh strain of acne bacteria, and a cold sore that would not stop looking gross and diseased until recently.  Needless to say, I survived, but not without battle scars.  My left cheek now bears two red marks, even after they’ve healed for months, and there is still discoloration from the cold sore on my upper lip that healed just last week.  And what have I learned from all of this? Acne and blemishes are something better prevented than treated, like all illnesses.

How I dealt with my adult acne so it doesn’t come back:

  1. Clean everything and sanitize everything: Wash your hands 20 times a day, try not to touch your face, there are bacteria on your hand that want to infect your pores.  Sanitize your make-up brushes by washing them every once in a while, wipe all your make-up surfaces with rubbing alcohol on a cotton swab.
  2. Boost your immune system: believe it or not, your immune system can fight off skin afflictions.  So get plenty of rest, vitamins, minerals and exercise, eat well. Bacteria and viruses cannot take over when your skin is in top form.
  3. Don’t pop your pimples, or pick at them. The odd pimple I used to have I would squeeze them to reduce swelling.  However, I found out this can cause more scarring, and redness, so now I leave them alone.
  4. Get medication.  Most of the time, my acne is mild and will go away without problems.  But sometimes medicated oitments and creams help keep the inflammation at bay and speed healing and minimize redness.  I like to use anything with salicylic acid, as it is pretty gentle and will still dry out and encourage skin regeneration after a zit has died. But don’t over use it.
  5. Wash off all traces of make-up at night.  I have dry skin, so sometimes I just wipe off make-up with coconut oil and call it a night.  While this is very gentle for your skin, it can also leave you with a clogged pore, which if bacteria gets at it, then it is game over.  Finding a balance is important.  Don’t over strip your face of natural oils and moisture, but also cleanliness is very important.

Have any of you battled with adult acne recently?  Wasn’t it embarassing?  Mine was followed with a cold sore when my immunity was weak from a cold.  Plus with spring coming into Toronto, I feel a whole new batch of germs is following suite.  We don’t want to be germ phobic, but really…blemishes are the worst.

Waahh. :( this is me first thing in the morning without make-up on, and yes, you can definitely see the red blemish scars on my cheek and the dark discoloration on the lip corner. Only time can erase these and it is going to take a while.
Waahh. 😦 this is me first thing in the morning without make-up on, and yes, you can definitely see the red blemish scars on my cheek and the dark discoloration on the lip corner. Only time can erase these and it is going to take a while.