Friday, December 31, 2010

Tired Eyes After Ringing In 2011 Tonight: Look Forward To New Non-Prescription Botox


Many of us will be celebrating the new year tonight, and that means plenty of champagne and spirits to go around and around, until the room starts spinning.

By tomorrow, we will have some very tired-looking eyes. And we're not talking about wrinkles. We'll get to those in a minute.

First of all, you need to plan ahead. If you're going to be in the mood to merry-make, then you will need to give your peepers some extra TLC. It's all in the eyes, ladies:

Eyes get very dry from too much alcohol. That's called dehydration. You need drops. We recommend Visine Tears Lubricant Eye Drops ($9.99, drugstores). Instantly get dry eye relief in a natural tears formula. These drops refresh tired eyes and provide coolness and comfort.

And here's some super beauty news to look forward to in 2011:

No-needle, non-presctiption Botox.
That's right. In cream form, right in the privacy of your own home. For real? Yes, indeed. In fact, hopefully, sometime in the new year of 2011, the amazing wrinkle smoother will be available in a topical cream called Revance. Say goodbye to the sting of the Botox needle and hello to a simple and painless rub-in cream. Genius, we say. Botox already enjoys a huge following. It is THE most popular cosmetic injectable.

The latest clinical trials on Revance show amazing results:
"The benefits of RT001(Revance) are clear; patients achieve meaningful aesthetic results with a simple, painless procedure" said Richard Glogau, MD, Clinical Professor of Dermatology at University of California, San Francisco and principal investigator for the study,
"The superficial muscles in the crow's feet area can be relatively difficult to inject; this treatment will allow physicians to obtain a more consistent result while maintaining patients' natural expressions".

This is quite a beauty breakthrough, ladies and gents! Revance has been shown to be very effective for those pesky crow's feet, which is welcome news by many.

So, for this evening, and into early tomorrow, 2011, forget about the wrinkles, and just focus on those tired eyes, and throw a little bottle of Visine in your makeup bag. You might just need it.

Happy New Year!!

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Prevention Magazine Loves NeoStrata's Foaming Glycolic Wash AHA 20

Here at Beauty Tip Today, we're always on the hunt for a super facial cleanser. And we have found yet another!

Santa Michelle over at the NeoStrata skin care company located in Princeton, New Jersey, graciously dropped one at our doorstep.

It's called NeoStrata Foaming Glycolic Wash AHA 20 ($32, 3.4 fl oz.), and worth every penny. In fact, Prevention Magazine featured the cleanser in their July issue, as part of the popular magazine's, 'Defy Your Age' challenge:

Smooth Your Fine Lines and Wrinkles!
"Smooth wrinkles with the following products and these 3 Defy Your Age basics:
1. Cleanse Every Night: Leaving dirt, excess oil, and makeup on overnight can irritate skin, clog pores, and trigger break-outs. To refresh skin in the morning, splash with lukewarm water."


This is why we adore the NeoStrata Foaming Glycolic Wash AHA 20. It is an excellent beauty product containing 18% Glycolic acid and 2% Lactobionic acid. The formula is pH balanced and quite strong, but also gentle on skin. It is recommended for experienced AHA (AlphaHydroxyAcid) users.

We found the Glycolic wash to be very effective....It deeply cleans the skin, keeps acne away, and leaves you with a much smoother texture. And a little foam goes a long way. Quite an economical beauty item.

Let's be honest. It's time to switch to a 'big girl' cleanser. Say bye-bye to soap formulations. You must exfoliate your skin, and this NeoStrata Glycolic Wash AHA 20 does what it says on the bottle.

For more details about NeoStrata skin care, and the Prevention mag 'Defy Your Age' challenge, click here.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Trend Alert: Turquoise Chandeliers Hot For Winter Style


Hey....Look at me!

If you're wearing a pair of turquoise chandeliers, you will get noticed. Remember Samantha Jones (here) with those gigantic turquoise danglers in Sex and the City 2?! Okay, maybe those were a bit gaudy, but if anyone could rock them, it's Samantha.

When you think of turquoise, you're reminded of warm summer days and cool ocean breezes. But Hollywood's hottest celebrities are chasing away the winter blues these days with a bright pop of color.

Trend alert: Turquoise chandeliers are so in!

A-list beauties like Vivica A. Fox, Rachel Zoe, and Rose McGowan are just a few showing up at major events with some major aquamarine ear accents. And not to worry, because a little turquoise never hurt anyone-----it flatters all complexions.

We found a really cute pair of Gold-Plated Turquoise Chandeliers by Amrita Singh Water Mill earrings ($40, at Fashion Hippo) (bottom photo).

You don't have to spend hundreds of dollars for great turquoise earrings, but owning one pair will help you set the winter trend for 2011.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Halogen Bulbs Best Lighting For Applying Makeup When Daylight Won't Do



This is an important beauty question.....Under what lighting do you apply makeup?

We've all heard that natural daylight is the best light for putting on your foundation, concealer, blush, mascara, liner, powder, and so forth.

Why? Because you can see every 'nook and cranny' across your face. Natural daylight is truly unforgiving, but at least you can tell when the blush is a bit much, or the powder you've applied, has been over-done and settled into your fine lines.

What you don't want to do, is put on your makeup under the nasty fluorescent lighting that you see most commonly in offices and office bathrooms. The lighting there gives off a harsh green cast, and no one's complexion looks pretty under afluorescent halo.

Professional makeup artists will tell you that halogen lighting is the best way to go when applying makeup, if you can't get a good dose of natural daylight into your room, or you are applying makeup at night.

Halogen lighting is incandescent lighting and very close to the look of natural daylight. But it gives off sharper detail.

Most of us have incandescent bulbs in our lamps at home. And the lighting that emerges is soft and yellow, and flatters the skin, but the halogen bulbs give a better level of detail, and that is key when putting on makeup.

The only bad thing we can find about halogen lighting, is that the bulb gets very, very hot. It is excellent in overhead lighting like a chandelier. But when replacing a halogen bulb, one must use caution:

"Do NOT touch the glass envelope. The salts in your skin oils penetrate and weaken the glass. The bulb not only has a shorter life, but when the bulb dies the filament doesn’t merely burn out, but rather the bulb envelope shatters."

Well, having learned all that, if you can put on makeup in natural daylight, you will always get the best and most honest lighting for your skin.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Retinoids Refresh Face And Neck: Now Add Some To Baby Hands


Retinoids.

We know some 40 years later, that these Vitamin A derivatives, most notably Retin-A and Renova, do a face and neck a lot of good.

Retinoids have the chemical compounds that can brighten skin, soften fine lines and wrinkles, and improve skin texture.

So why not take a little left-over from your nightly ritual and baby your hands.

Let's be honest here.......Hands can be a dead giveaway, as we like to say. Most times, we are so busy trying to 'save' our faces and necks, that we forget to even treat our precious hands.

New York Dermatologist Heidi Waldorf has this advice:

Apply the same retinoid you put on your face and neck to your hands. And then, add a layer of Vaseline on top. Wear a pair of cotton gloves to bed.

In the morning, your hands will feel and look a lot smoother and softer. And you will be protecting them from further environmental damage. Even brown spots on hands will slowly lighten up and gently fade.

Retinoids usually come in prescription form, such as Retin-A, Renova, Avita, Tazorac, and several others.

But you can buy retinoids in creams and serums over-the-counter and still get excellent results. These might not be as powerful as Retin-A, but they are certainly less irritating. Try RoC Retinol Correxion Deep WrinkleNight Cream ($22, at drugstores).

Here's to younger-looking hands in 2011!

Sunday, December 26, 2010

How To Beat Dry Tired Skin That Results From Holiday Flying



Sometimes, the only way to get there fast, is by taking a plane. And when it comes to the holidays, you and your skin could be spending quite a few hours in the clouds trying to get to and from your destination.

So, what does flying have to do with your complexion? And what's the big deal?

If you've ever spent time on a flight, you would notice how dry your skin can feel after landing. It's all about the airplane cabin's very low humidity.

Oh, yeah. Your skin gets robbed of moisture. So, here are a few fabulous flying tips for healthy skin:

1. Sunscreen. Think about it. When you are in flight, you are sitting much closer to the sun. You need to protect your face and neck, especially. Get a sunscreen with a decent SPF. One of the best around--La Roche-Posay Anthelios XL Lait SPF ($34). This company has been in the forefront for quite some time now when it comes to superior sun protection. Great for sensitive skin

2. Moisturizer. You need to nourish your skin, when traveling by air. To get rid of dry, tired skin that results from time spent on an airplane, look for ingredients that contain alpha lipoic acid. We like this one--Perricone MD Age Correct Face Finishing Moisturizer ($65). This stuff will leave your skin looking luminous and smooth.
By the way: Apply the moisturizer first; allow to dry, then apply the sunscreen.

3. And don't forget to keep lip balm nearby, too. Your lips will definitely feel the extremely low humidity upon flight. Eye drops like Visine, also help irritated, sensitive eyes feel and look refreshed. And consider saline nasal gel to battle a dry, itchy nose from spending time in the air. And lastly, bottled water always does a body good.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Come On, Anna Wintour: GaGa One Of Vogue's Best Dressed In 2010?!


Okay, we have had absolutely enough! We can't take it anymore with the 23-year-old pantless wonder. Tell her to please go away.....go very far away.....

Her real birth name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. We're talking about Lady Gaga, of course. This year ,Vogue magazine has named the very talented singer, The Visionary for her eccentric sense of fashion and her constant shocking pieces of apparel, in their Best Dressed list of 2010??!!

Lady Gaga's latest look-at-me stint happened Monday evening in Paris, as she walked into a Bruce Field store, well, pantless. Oh yeah, GagGa got a little 'cheeky,' might we add, in the freezing cold air. Apparently, her concert in the City of Lights had been canceled, so she decided to do a little Christmas shopping.

Black leather jacket, black fishnet tights, and a dominatrix collar, and Gaga was good to go.

We are just baffled at Vogue magazine. The fashion mag of all fashion mags is telling us that Lady Gaga is one of the publication's best dressed? Are you kidding us, Anna Wintour?!

Vogue magazine has enjoyed such a fine, classy reputation all these years, and this is how they continue the Vogue tradition?

Legendary model Iman was recently asked about Lady Gaga's style, whether it was good or bad. Iman politely and diplomatically answered that Gaga is an artist, and therefore, we assume, she gets a pass on her kooky trashy costumes.

We take nothing away from the young singer's brilliant work as an artist, or any outfit she might wear at a concert. But to walk around the globe trying to 'shock' people, over and over again with her tired acts of attention, well, it's a bit much.

We do not believe that Lady Gaga is a fashion visionary, and for that, Vogue, we are puzzled. We remain a longtime subscriber, but this one has us scratching our heads.