Under eye wrinkles – do I need to buy a special eye-cream?
November 17, 2011 by Nikkiu24
Filed under Anti Aging Eyes
This is a question that I often get asked, and the short answer is – yes. This can be a little hard to swallow if you have just spent money on the latest must-have anti aging facial cream that has just come out. Especially when you see the price tag for that teeny, tiny little jar of eye cream!
The skin around the eye area is much finer and more delicate than the skin on the rest of our faces and is therefore more prone to showing those signs of aging we know as wrinkles. It’s actually the eye area where we are most likely to notice that very first wrinkle and boy do I remember that little defining moment.
“So, why can’t I just use my facial moisturiser around my eyes, isn’t it all the same stuff?”
The reason that you can’t just use your regular anti aging cream around the eyes is all to do with molecule size and targeted ingredients. The size of the molecules that contain the active ingredients is different in the two products. In eye cream, the molecules are much smaller and specifically designed to penetrate that delicate and easily wrinkled skin. If you were to use, let’s say, your day cream for example, the molecules in the day cream are way too large to penetrate that fine eye area skin. At best they would just sit on the surface and do nothing, at worst they could cause congestion, puffiness and even allergies and irritation. This is definitely not what you are trying to achieve.
The other reason that you do need a specialised eye cream is due to the active ingredients. The skin around the eyes is prone to puffiness, dehydration, dark circles and sagging and eye creams contain specific ingredients to target these concerns.
The good news is, that even though anti wrinkle eye creams generally come in tiny little jars or tubes, a little really does go a long way. I can usually get a good 6 months out of my eye cream, and if you break that down by a daily amount, that’s a pretty good deal.
In my opinion it is worth investing a little extra money and going for one of the good quality brands of eye creams. Simply because, as I said earlier, the skin around our eyes is so precious and delicate that it really doesn’t pay to skimp in this area.
To make the most out of every drop of that precious anti wrinkle eye cream, here are my top tips:
- Buy the best quality eye cream that you can afford.
- Use an amount the size of one grain of rice, to do both eyes.
- Use your ring fingers to apply – we exert way less pressure that way.
- Gently tap and pat the cream along the orbital bone (that’s the bony bit you can feel around your eye socket).
- Be careful not to put the cream too close to the actual eye area.
- Apply your eye cream after cleansing and toning and before your other anti aging creams and serums. This ensures that you don’t get any of the stronger ingredients from the other products near your eyes.
- If applying your eye cream before bed – don’t lay straight down and go to sleep. Sit up and read, or potter about for ten minutes or so first. The blinking action of your eyes will help the eye cream to penetrate properly and work more effectively while you sleep.
To help the under eye area to stay young, firm and beautiful looking you do need to take a little extra care, but with the information and tips above, you will make the most of one of your most precious assets.
Bye for now,
Nikki
About Anti Aging Utopia
November 17, 2011 by Nikkiu24
Filed under About Anti Aging Utopia
My name is Nikki and I have worked in the beauty and health industry since I was a teenage girl working in my local pharmacy after school. From there, I went on to hold various positions within the skincare industry from traveling makeup artist and promotional adviser to sales manager.
From day 1, I fell in love with all the fancy lotions and potions, the beautiful fragrances, the never ending array of colourful makeup products, anything and everything to do with skincare and beauty, and the love affair continues to this day.
I also have a Diploma in Naturopathy and am passionate about the issues we face as women concerning our weight, our appearance and health.
In my years in the industry I have worked for most of the big name French and American cosmetic and skincare houses that you would have heard of such as Estee Lauder, Christian Dior and Clarins. I have used every product you could imagine from Nivea (when the purse was empty) to the thousand dollars a jar La Prairie. I know them all. I know the ingredients they use, why they market a certain way, and which ones offer great value and why. I’ve also tried every diet in the book, from the downright dodgy to the divine, and have learned all their secrets too.
My aim is to share my knowledge with you, let you in on some of the insider secrets, and empower you to make the choices that are right for you when it comes to your skincare needs. I welcome your feedback and comments so please let me know your thoughts by writing to me at contact@antiagingutopia.com
Thanks for stopping by, enjoy!
Anti Aging Essentials – Take Baby Steps
October 29, 2011 by Nikkiu24
Filed under Anti Aging Tips
When it comes to doing all the things we know we need to do to prevent premature aging and keep ourselves looking and feeling as good as possible for as long as possible, it can sometimes seem like an insurmountable task. Anti aging essentials such as eating the correct foods, getting the right amount of exercise, looking after our skin, giving up this and stopping doing that – it can all seem so daunting that the easiest thing in the world seems to be to grab a packet of Tim Tams and hide under the covers! Not so. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was good skin.
Here’s where taking baby steps can really work. Take a look at each thing that you might need to address and break it down into its smallest components and start with that. Just do easy, small things that feel manageable and use your success with those to lead into the bigger things.
Here are a few examples to get you started.
Anti Aging Essentials
1. Drink More Water
Instead of trying to go straight from 6 double-strength-decaf-mocha-lattes a day to drowning in 2 litres of water all in one fell swoop, try just having a big glass of water when you first wake up. After you’ve managed that for a few days, try substituting one or two of those lattes for some water. Carry a water bottle with you and keep one on your desk at work. You’ll soon be getting those needed H2Os in.
2. Eat Breakfast
You’ve heard this one a zillion times and for as many reasons but still cant face the thought of food in the morning, so what do you do? Redefine what constitutes food. Breakfast doesn’t have to be a 3 course cooked affair. Neither does it need to be pre-soaked in organic apple juice with goat’s milk handmilked by swedish virgins, bircher muesli. It just needs to be something initially, you can work on the fancy stuff later. A yoghurt, some fruit, a slice of wholewheat toast – anything to just get started on the habit of having breakfast.
3. Exercise Daily
OK folks, we’re not all training for the ultra marathon here, but we do need to get out and move our bodies (no, just getting out of bed doesn’t count). Start small. Leave your walking shoes by the bed before you go to sleep and when you wake up in the morning, put them on. Go out your front door (you may want to swap your PJs for a tracky first) and turn left. Walk for 5 minutes and come back. You just went for a 10 minute walk. Easy wasn’t it? Promise yourself that you will do that every day for a week and reassess at the end. I can almost guarantee you’ll be limbering up for your next marathon before too much more time passes.
Tiny, baby, doable steps are the keys to lasting success in so many areas of our lives and incorporating the anti aging essentials into your daily routine is no different. Start small and work up to the bigger things.
You can do it!
Anti-Aging Eye Cream Application – How to Avoid the 5 Most Common Mistakes
April 27, 2011 by Nikkiu24
Filed under Anti Aging Eyes
A good quality eye cream is an important weapon in our anti-aging arsenal, but can be quite an expensive one.
Many people ask me why they can’t just use their other facial products (cleansers, moisturizers etc) around the eye area, particularly when they have invested a reasonable amount of money on good quality products.
The reason is that the skin around the eye area is finer and more delicate than the skin on the rest of the face and body. It is more prone to the first signs of aging and often the first wrinkle that someone notices is around the delicate eye area.
A specifically targeted anti-aging eye cream is specially designed to treat the unique problems of this area and will contain ingredients to treat concerns such as dryness, puffiness or dark circles. The molecules in an eye cream are smaller than those in our regular anti-aging creams and lotions and will penetrate quickly and easily into the under eye area without causing puffiness or congestion.
A little really does go a long way – which is good to know considering the price for one of those teeny little jars or tubes.
To help you get the maximum benefit out of your eye care product – here are the top 5 mistakes that people make and how to avoid them.
1. Using too much of the product – remember, a little goes a long way. Using too much product can cause puffiness and even irritation. An amount the size of one grain of rice is enough to do both eyes.
2. Contaminating the product – no matter how clean our hands are, there are still bacteria on our fingers that can cause the product to become contaminated. This will lessen the effectiveness of the active ingredients and can also cause irritation. An eye cream that comes in a tube is a great way to avoid this but if the product you buy comes in a jar – use a tiny spatula (often supplied in the box) or a fresh cotton tip to remove the product. Never dip your fingers in.
3. Incorrect application technique – the skin around the eye area is extremely fragile so we need to be very careful not to rub, pull or stretch the skin when applying our anti-aging products. Use the pads of the ring finger to gently pat and tap the eye cream into the skin.
4. Timing of application – many people tell me that they have used eye care products in the past their eyes were puffy when they woke up the next day. This can be alleviated by remembering rule 1, but also by making sure that you apply your eye cream at least 10-20 minutes before you lie down to go to sleep. The cream needs time to absorb correctly and this is aided by the blinking motion of our eyes. Put your eye cream on before you get into bed unless you plan to stay awake reading for a bit.
5. Incorrect storage – good quality anti-aging products of any kind are a little like fine wines, they don’t like to be stored anywhere warm or light. Heat and light can cause deterioration of the product which at best will lessen it’s efficacy and at worst can cause irritation. Store your eye cream in your medicine cabinet, or bedside table drawer. Eye creams do not belong in purses, desk drawers or glove compartments!
A good quality anti-aging eye cream is an investment, and with the correct storage and application will provide you with the results they promise.
Flabby Arms – An Inevitable Aspect Of Aging?
April 27, 2011 by Nikkiu24
Filed under Anti Aging Body
There’s nothing youthful or appealing about soft, flabby upper arms. Horrible terms like bat-wings or, if you live in Australia like I do, tuck shop-lady-arms (YIKES!!) do absolutely nothing to make us feel any better about this part of our bodies, and yet it can be one of the hardest areas to keep looking slim and youthful. My sister, who spent 10 years involved in the sport of figure sculpting, tells me that the upper arm area is one of the most difficult to keep firm and smooth.
As we age, the skin on our faces begins to lose it’s elasticity, resulting in the sagging and loss of firmness that we spend so much of our time (and money) trying to correct. The skin on our bodies is no different, except that it’s generally not as noticeable because we are mostly covered up by our clothing.
Then along comes summer, with it’s beautiful sunny weather and more revealing clothes – halternecks, cutaway sleeves, singlets and let’s not forget the bathing suits. Nowhere to hide in those babies!
Unfortunately there’s is no such thing as spot-reducing when it comes to getting rid of specific areas of fat on our bodies, unless you resort to the extreme option of liposuction or surgery. And yes, while there are specific exercises that you can do to target the upper arm area, these will not reduce the actual fat deposits in that area. The exercises are well worth doing as they do increase muscle firmness and strength and provide a more toned look.
Yet again it comes down to our old friend the diet. If you are overweight then a good, sensible weight loss and exercise plan will slim and tone your whole body and definitely help to diminish those bat-wings.
I love success stories, so please let me know if you have any tried and true tips or products.
Bye for now,
4 Anti-aging Beauty Myths – Ignore these at your peril!
April 24, 2011 by Nikkiu24
Filed under Anti Aging Tips
There are some women out there who are lucky enough to have a limitless budget when it comes to being able to buy anti wrinkle products and beauty products. Luxurious sounding names with extravagant ingredients such as caviar and gold flakes, packaged in gorgeous velvet boxes with their own special spoons and spatulas to decant their precious cargo, are within reach for some but not all of us.
It is possible to have beautiful skin without spending a fortune. There are a load of wonderful products on the market that will help to fight wrinkles and keep your skin looking ageless without needing to take out a second mortgage to pay for them. Just beware of these 4 anti aging beauty myths that truly are false economy when it comes to taking care of your skin.
1. I don’t need to use a cleanser because I don’t wear makeup – this might be true if you live in an airtight bubble on a remote mountaintop somewhere, but if you live anywhere near the real world this just isn’t true. Whether you live in a bustling city or a quiet country town, your skin still gathers dirt, grime and dust through the day, not to mention perspiration, dead skin cells (you getting the picture here?) etc that need to be removed properly before you go to sleep.
2. I don’t lie out in the sun so I don’t need a sunscreen – if you do nothing else for your skin, EVER, get this beauty myth out of your head. The number one cause of extrinsic aging (that’s the stuff that goes on outside our skin) is exposure to the sun. The sun gives off UVA and UVB rays which burn and age the skin even on cloudy days and even through the windows of your house, office or car. You absolutely must make sunscreen as much a part of your day as putting on your knickers and brushing your teeth. You wouldn’t leave the house without them, right?
3. I can use the same moisturizer day and night – well, in some cases you can, but that is going to depend on what kind of moisturizer it is and what you want it to do. For instance, if lack of hydration is your only concern, then yes, a good hydrating cream can be used both day and night. But, and it is a big but, remember that you still need a sunscreen during the day and a product that can be used day or night will not have a sunscreen. The other thing to take into account is that if you have really specific concerns like deep wrinkles, age spots or uneven skin texture, you will need to apply a cream scientifically formulated with ingredients designed to target those concerns. These ingredients are best absorbed by the skin at night when it is in repair mode, so a night cream is a must.
4. Oh, I just use plain old soap and water and my skin looks OK – really, ya think? How do you know how good your skin could look if you were just a little kinder to it, if all you’ve ever done is treat it like the pots and pans in your kitchen sink! That nice squeaky sound you get after you wash your face with soap and water? That’s your skin screaming because you’ve scrubbed all it’s natural protective oils away! Please, save the soap for the plates and invest in a proper cleansing milk, cream or gel. You’ll hear your skin sigh with relief.
Our skin truly is a wonderful thing, and all it takes is a tiny bit of loving care to look beautiful and ageless regardless of the number of birthdays you’ve had or the amount of money in your bank account.
Thank you for reading, take care and be beautiful!
Nikki xx