Are My Eyes Glowing?!

I mean... are they?!

Kind of? But like...no. Not really. Since I've gotten older, I - like many of you I'd guess - have bags when I never did before. I have wrinkles when I never did before, it's a hot mess. I've started buying eye creams when I never thought about eye cream, I'm always looking out for the newest tip or trick.

In one of my Ipsy bags comes this little gem:

Glamglow Brightmud, which promises to minimize dark circles, puffiness and fine lines, while delivering bright, hydrated and "amazing" eyes. Glamglow is virtually a cult favorite, the entire line treasured by beauty afficinados everywhere. Admittedly, this was my first experience with the line, I was pretty excited!

Since this is my first experience with the line, I don't know if this is how it's packaged regularly, but this is the package I opened. Curiously, I follow the instructions and tap it on.

Y'all, this is not cute:

So basically, don't wear this if you're in front of someone that you want to think you're really hot, because this is not...

Especially if you're following it with some Queen Helene Mint Julep mask in the t-zone. Yes, I own some. And yes, if you've got oily skin, you should too!

So, Sephoras notes on the Brightmud eye mask says you'll see results in as few as 3 minutes, I left it on at least 10, partly to get maximum results, and partly so I didn't have to rinse off one mask while leaving one in tact.

I felt a little light tingle, almost a cooling effect when I wore it. It's not overly scented, no stinging or burning. I kind of expected the black pieces to flake off as the mask dried, and they didn't.

So does it work?

Yes, but not overwhelmingly so. My eye area definitely looks lighter, and brighter. And the wrinkles are absolutely less pronounced.

But let's be serious you guys - Glamglow Brightmud retails for (and I'm not kidding) $69 for 12 applications. For $69, I ought to have the eyes of a teenager! For the sky high retail price tag, I'm just not sure I could justify the extreme price tag you guys. It'd have to be a real "treat yoself" type of day for me to go in on this, for sure.

So I'm not ready to pull the trigger on the full sized product, but if you are, Sephora's got your back.

No self-respecting eye cream junkie owns a blog without talking about eye cream a few times. I've done it before!

It's Even Better Than I Thought!

Eye cream!

Aah, eye cream. My great love. It promises a lot of things I'm not sure it can deliver on (what is a peptide? Why is it important to my eye skin?), and yet, I can hardly resist one. I can think of five in my house, right this very second. Six, actually.

GoPure Naturals promises products that do what they say that they do, naturally, without any fillers like parabens and waxes. With consistent use of their eye gel, they promise that they can take two years worth of aging off your eyes in just two months!

Sold. Let's talk, right?

My eyes are...weird. Not baggy, necessarily. Like, anti-baggy. There's a hollow. And there's no crows feet, but I have a few wrinkles that go across the bottom of the eye. And no real dark circles to speak of.

GoPure Naturals "Youth Glow Eye Gel" promises to work on under eye circles, bagginess and puffiness, with noticeable results after one use, and removing 2 years worth of aging in a single month.

I happily ripped the package open right in my driveway, and slicked it right on. And I'll say - this pump is super high powered. One solid pump will dispense enough eye gel to do both of your under eyes, and the under eyes of six or seven of your friends! I've found pressing the pump down about halfway allowed for the amount of product that I needed, without any extra.

I smelled the smell of cucumber when I used this product pretty consistently. Which is funny, because I don't actually see cucumber listed in the ingredients. No dyes, or scents, other than the cucumber thing. The gel absorbs quickly, and wears well. I've tried similar products that dried to a shine (yes, shiny under eyes. That was what I was after...), but there's none of that here!

The official GoPure Natural website is here, and it can explain the science a lot better than I can.

I feel a little worried that I'm being a little vague with you guys, and I don't mean to be. If you can think of a question that you have that I'm not addressing here, leave your question in the comments section, and I'll be all too happy to talk about it with you!

But in the mean time, some pictures!

Product shot! Light, easy to read, and clearly identifiable. The last eye cream I bought came in a bright red tube. Believe, when you put them next to each other, this stands out!

And the Before and After shot, which was even better than I realized;

You guys! You GUYS! The wrinkles under my left eye are GONE, and the ones under my right eye are half of what they were. And this is after maybe a week of use. Oh my word. I'm sold. Everybody needs this stuff in their life, right now. I knew I liked the cream, but I didn't realize the results were so awesome. I'm in love!

GoPure Naturals is running a promotion on their website right now where you get 50% off your first purchase if you sign up for their email list. It's totally worth it. Go Pure. Go NOW! Go here!

DISCLOSURE: The good people at GoPure Naturals were kind enough to supply me with this eye cream in exchange for my opinions on it, all opinions are my own.

Later, beautiful!

I'm well moisturized, and working on my video skills...

This week, I get well moisturized, and continue working on my videos! I don't feel like I've got a house that's very conducive for videoing - the best places to sit and film a video, have warm lights! And that's no good!

At any rate, this week we're discussing moisture, courtesy of our friends at Olay!

First up, the Olay Fresh Effects "Long Live Moisture!" moisturizer. This moisturizer promises the "rich hydration of a lotion, with the light feeling of a gel". And that's mostly exactly what you get. If you've got dry skin, or just otherwise like a richer feeling lotion, this ain't your guy. If you want a light, basic moisturizer that will absorb quickly and get you on your way, and you don't mind scents - you have met your match, right here!

Next up, on this Olay moisture-stravaganza, the "Bright On Schedule!" eye roller. I talked about this once via text, back in the Spring (read it here.), so gave it a video try, just to really cover all my bases.

Similar to it's sister "Long Live Moisture!", "Bright On Schedule!" is a light, fast absorbing, all purpose eye cream. If you need your eye cream (or moisturizer) to be doing something specific, if you like the feeling of a richer, creamer lotion, Fresh Effects is not the line for you.

If you need a basic, all purpose moisturizer or eye cream, and you don't mind scents, you'll be very happy with either of these products! If you need or want a richer moisturizer, or you need something specific from your products (sensitive skin, anti-aging, etc.), or you're bothered by scents, you need to keep walking past these two.

So, I like to think I'm doing alright with this video thing, for being a new kid at it at least. I'll keep trying. ;)

See you later, my lovelies!

Confession...

A couple of nights ago, I had one of those big, ugly cries that girls are prone to having on occasion. And as a result, I've spent the last two days, tangling with puffy eyes, that felt like they were about to overtake the rest of my face.

Which is doubly bad, because not only is that not pleasant, but the one day I did try to put makeup on over all that puff, all you could see was my eyeliner!

So I spent today combating the puff. Pinterest is curiously lacking in tips for this sort of thing - most of the recommendations involved purchasing product. So I was sort of winging it on my own.

And for the sake of things, said puffery:

Pretty bad, right? Like, if it grew just a couple millimeters more, it could take over my eyelashes, level of bad.

First, I tried an eye cream, with a roller. I'm quite fond of Olay Fresh Effects Bright on Schedule eye roller (as evidenced here), so I gave it a shot. Felt great, didn't appear to do much to help.

Next, I even gave Allegra a crack at it. Figuring maybe I was having a reaction to something (last time my eyes swelled like this, it was because of Clean & Clear face wash - years later, when a dermatologist actually recommended Clean & Clear to me, I couldn't contain my laughter!). I actually feel like this helped some. My eyes were brighter, I didn't feel as foggy. This one was a bit unconventional, but it might have been worth something.

And then we turned to the ever popular torture chamber - SPOONS. Every website you read looking for tips, everywhere you turn - spoons. Put them in the freezer until they're good and cold, put them on your eyes until they're not. Simple, fool proof, everybody's got a spoon, right? I began dancing around my kitchen! This one was pretty brutal. And I really am not sure how effective I even think it was. I even proclaimed it worse than the Ice Bucket Challenge, and my eight year old went "Oh, it's not THAT bad...", haha...

And I resorted to that good old fashioned, cure all beauty trick - water. Lots and lots and LOTS of water. It seems super counter intuitive, but they always say that if you're retaining water, drink more, because it will start to flush out the water that's in there. I even went swimming, hoping that would help! When I was pregnant with said eight year old, I discovered that apparently, when I'm pregnant, I gain the super power of being able to retain water - simply by looking at it! Don't be jelly, ladies, haha! At any rate, my OB suggested swimming. He said that the water would put solid, consistent pressure on my body from all angles, thus forcing the retained fluid out of the areas that were retaining it. And I often said I think that man was super crazy, but I know he's right on this one! So I even gave that a shot!

So here's where my day of puffery battle got me:

Not bad for a days work, right? So maybe the spoons were worth more than I thought!

But here's a few more tricks that I found, just in case the spoons don't do it for you;

They say Vaseline works for everything, right? I'm actually planning on trying this one tonight, if I can remember where my vaseline is, haha!

Curiously, this website recommends mashed banana. I didn't get a chance to get to this one, but doesn't this just sound terribly messy?

The typical recommendation of cucumber. Potatoes actually got several recommendations, and curiously, so did soy milk.

I'm depuffed, and hopefully looking terrific for dropping my third grader off for school for his first day tomorrow. I'm not typically a first day of school crier, which I'll have to remind myself of tomorrow. Because sure as the world, I've said that, and I'll cry. I can't cry, I just spent a whole day depuffing my eyes from my last cry! Although I guess if I cry, I better stop off for a potato and some soy milk on the way home, right? :)

I'm also working up a special Wednesday edition of the blog, which I'm hoping to have live this coming Wednesday. Stay tuned for that! :D

Later, lovelies!

Bright on schedule? You betcha!

(Note: my seven year old helped me with these pictures, so some of them aren't great. We tried. Haha...)

After seeing the latest commercials for the Olay Fresh Effects line, promising a full nights sleep, no sleep required, I knew that I had to have it. I don't get a full nights sleep...well, ever - and I know I'm not unique in that. Even the slightest.

Olay promises that their Fresh Effects line will give skin a "refreshing blast of hydration" with honeysuckle and white tea. And judging by the looks of the advertisements, I'm a few years removed from their target market (ahem...), but I'm also a sucker for new products, so...you know how that goes. :D

The Bright On Schedule eye awakening cream uses a unique three roller ball system as the applicator. And I know that the roller ball applicator system isn't unique (Garnier has been doing it a while now), but Olay has THREE! They promise that it cools the eye. Does it? On it's own, I find it hard to believe that it would. But I popped mine into the fridge, for a little extra cooling power. Wowza!

The cream is easy to use - give the tube a little pinch, and apply to the eye. Bingo, bango. If you can apply lip balm, you can use this. I typically find that it absorbs quickly and easily, although the other day, I had a little trouble - I guess I went a little overboard, and found that the excess, rather than absorb, formed a crust under my eye. I went in to several stores before my son was nice enough to point that one out...oops. The texture is light, and silky smooth, so if you know you need eye cream, but don't generally like the feel of thick lotions, you should get along nicely with this one.

The one thing I've noticed in using Olay products for the last few weeks? They smell. It's perfumey, and it's a nice enough scent, but if you don't like smells on your face, you'll have a hard time with this particular quality. I was initially so thrown off by it, that when my seven year old got to me in the school pick up line, I promptly bent down to his level, and went "Smell my face!" He liked the smell, I've gotten used to it.

It takes almost no product to satisfy your needs, and as such, one tube lasts a long time. I've had it probably two months, and I've hardly scratched the surface!

The good stuff. Bright, cheerful packaging. Easy to use, easy to understand.

The three ball roller, with a little bit of product squeezed up. This is slightly blurry, this is one of the ones my seven year old took. :)

How easy the product is to use! Like I said - if you can use lip balm, you can figure this stuff out! :)

My rolled, rested, refreshed eyes! Instant sleep, no sleep required!

I totally bought this eye roller just on a larf - saw the commercial, went "Huh, that looks interesting...", the spokesmodel had gorgeous skin (because of COURSE she did...), and ordered it on Amazon. I love this stuff. I'd buy this again in a minute. I highly recommend it. The ingredients seem pretty standard issue for lotion, so unless you've got trouble with scents, you're probably fine that way. I recommend!

I've actually talked about this one more than once - the other time, I did it on video!