Posts Tagged ‘puffy eyes’

Making It Off – Adventures in Makeup Remover

Up until I was 22, I slept in my makeup. Coming home late (or sometimes wearing it to bed on purpose) left my sheets, pillow, and duvet in a rainbow of smudges.

Then, along came Halloween. A bad reaction to dime-store eyeliner practically glued my eyes shut. Those Rocky Horror party plans? Turned into a run to the Emergency Room. After a 20 minute lecture from a not-so sympathetic doctor, (echoed by my boyfriend in the car) I accepted the truth: I need to take proper care of my eyes. Gone were the days of dime-store liner, $2 shadow and glitter mascara. Instead, I find myself triple checking labels for artificial colourants or perfumes.

The biggest thing that will set my eyes off, even using great make up, is leaving it on too long. Those “All-Day” or “24 Hour Last” products are great- but by the time I get home, I’ve already been in them for 12 hours and my eyes start to feel tired. Instead of waiting until right before bed, I do a quick makeup removal when I’m washing up to start supper. With my sensitive eyes, I really love Eminence Herbal Eye Makeup Remover (5.07oz). Soothing, gentle AND takes of regular mascara! Not suitable for water-proof mascara or other waterproof products.

If you’re a regular waterproof mascara wearer, I would go with something a little more directed, such as Decleor Aroma Cleanse Eye Make-Up Remover (150ml). Great for people with sensitive eyes or contact lens wearers, it takes off waterproof mascara really nicely. As it is an oil/water based cleanser, you do have to shake it before using.

When it comes to the rest of your makeup, it really depends on your skin type and what you’re looking for in a cleanser. If you have sensitive skin, our estheticians recommend GM Collin Sensiderm Cleansing Milk: Lait Nettoyant (200ml). It has a neutral pH which leaves your skin feeling supple, clean, and soothed. The active ingredients work to eliminate skin impurities and prevent dryness.

For me, there’s still a fair bit of that lazy 22 year old and I love products that do as many things as possible, such as the 3-in-1  Laboratoire Dr Renaud HydraPure Make-Up Removing, Cleansing and Toning Water.

The one product I really wish my lazy 22 year old self had known? Bodyography Mineral Makeup FACE IT Cleansing and Soothing Wipes (50 count). Super easy to use, you just wipe it all off and toss. It even does that notorious waterproof mascara! Superfast, your skin is left cleansed, softened and protected. A must for the lazy makeup junkie. They leave no excuse for waking up with raccoon eyes.

As always, just for being a follower of our blog, enter coupon code BLOG10 for 10% off your next purchase! Also, remember to follow us @spaboutique on Twitter, like our Facebook  page, and check out our boards on Pinterest! You could be the lucky winner of one of our many contests!

Sensitive Skin Make-Up Q&A

Today, we’ve decided to tackle some of your questions about sensitive skin and make-up. Like nearly 62% of women, I suffer from sensitive skin. Some days, picking out a new product can feel a little like Russian Roulette – you never know if it’s going to help or make the problem worse. Everyday, our esthetics team receives a lot of questions about how to manage, treat or make up sensitive skin.

Dear Spa Girl: I have sensitive skin but want to try some of the crazy eye shadow trends. Is there a brand that won’t hurt my skin or make my eyes water?

This is a really common problem, especially with office workers. Staring at that computer all day? It’s a recipe for some serious eyestrain. As silly as it sounds, my first question is, are you blinking enough? Often we’re eager to blame the make-up when we really need to look at our life style.

Either way, it sounds you need the Lady Jane Iredale. Her wide array of natural mineral make-up goes on soft and doesn’t flake. I really like the Pure Pressed Eye shadows. There are 40 fun colours to create as many looks as you can imagine.

Jane Iredale PurePressed Eye Shadow: Choice of Colors
Jane Iredale PurePressed Trio/Triple Eye Shadow (2.8 g)
Jane Iredale Eye Gloss (10 Shades)

Dear Spa Girl: Recently, I’ve noticed my favorite lipstick is making my lips chapped and so sensitive I can barely wear it. What is the best lipstick for sensitive lips like mine?

Oh no! Lip chapping is one of the most frustrating skin issues. Before we jump into lipsticks, it’s important to ensure you’re treating and protecting you lips. Do you use a protectant as well as a lipstick? Our estheticians recommend adding a pre-treatment, such as Jane Iredale Lip Drink SPF 15 (5.2g).  Your lips will recover faster and you’ll notice less irritation.

Also, you should try adding a proper exfoliating treatment, such as Jane Iredale Sugar & Butter Lip Scrub & Plumper (3 g),

to help prevent flaking. The scrub will leave your lips feeling refreshed and you can wear the plumper on its own, or layer with lipstick! Try it with one of our most popular lip products:

Jane Iredale PureMoist LipColours With SPF 18 (3.4g)
Glo Minerals Perfect Lip Duo (Available in 3 colours)

Dear Spa Girl: When I put on foundation, my skin starts to itch within the first 3 hours and I end up washing it all off by lunch! Is there a better product I should be using?

It really sounds like you may be using chemical heavy or expired product. If it’s a severe itch, you should get a proper consultation from a local esthetician. Your skin may have become sensitized to one of the chemicals in the foundation.  First, discontinue use immediately. Then, try introducing a product with some healing qualities, such as the Institut’ DERMed Licorice Serum (15ml) or Eminence Aloe Mint Hydrating Cream Gel – Face (2.0oz).

Also, try moving to a light foundation or tinted moisturizer and gradually introducing powders. The fewer products you have on, the easier it will be to sort out which is causing the irritation.

Here are a couple of Foundations that we really love:

Jane Iredale Dream Tint SPF 15
Eminence Antioxidant Mineral Foundation (0.28 oz)
Skeyndor Aquatherm Tinted Defence Cream SPF 15 

Do you have a Beauty Question for our Spa Girls? We want to help! Send an email to info@spaboutique.ca . Our estheticians are here to help.

 

As always, just for being a follower of our blog, enter coupon code BLOG10 for 10% off your next purchase! Also, remember to follow us @spaboutique on Twitter, like our Facebook  page, and check out our boards on Pinterest! You could be the lucky winner of one of our many contests!

Vivescence – Swiss Ingenuity At Your Finger Tips

At Spa Boutique, we are please to announce the arrival of Vivescence. Canadian owned and Swiss manufactured, Vivescence believes the key to younger looking skin is to produce an extremely active product line.

Vivescence is a brand built on perfection. They control every aspect of their product. In fact, they even own the Award Winning State-Of-The-Art Laboratory in Switzerland where all of their products are synthesized and manufactured.  Working with experts in all aspects of cosmetology, researchers, engineers, biologists, pharmacists, and more, they strive to produce products that will provide real, visible results for their clients.

Truly “Cosmeceutical”, combining cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, Vivescence uses the latest scientific developments to slow down aging. An extensive line, there are several products geared towards a specific need or skin type. They were one of the first companies to isolate the stem cells from Swiss Apples that help make their anti-aging products some of the most active on the market.

“My skin feels great for this time of the year!” Nancy Mudford, owner of Spa Boutique, raved, “I can really feel it working as soon as I put it on.”

Nancy has been trying Vivescence for the past 4 weeks. She is completely in love with the SkinLess Refining Smoothing Treatment. Great under make up, this serum reduces the appearance of pores, tightens skin, and minimizes shine. Like most of us, she worries about winter dryness. So, she combined the SkinLess Refining Smoothing Treatment with the HydraTotal Gel Cream. Leaving her face feeling smooth and soft, even in January!

Each line offers a concentrated serum to complement their lotions, gels and masks. If you can only invest in one product, grab the serum for your skin type. They have the highest concentration of active ingredients without a prescription and deliver optimum nutrition and care. Designed to mix and match depending on age and skin type, the products can be combined to meet your exact needs.

Need more moisture? Add a HydraTotal product to your routine. Looking to brighten dull, stressed out skin? Try the Nutri-energy Re-energizing Vitamin Concentrate.

Oily skin? Acne? The Matifying Skincare Treatments, Hydra Mat, Hydra Mat Lift, and Pure Mat Water, are designed to regulate sebum and leave your skin feeling clean.  This line, especially the Pure Mat Water, works to matify, cool and leave your complexion clear. It’s a fantastic cleanser that targets acne. Finally, an oily skin treatment that hydrates and won’t leave you feeling dried out. Perfect for oily or acne prone skin.

As we age, our skin’s needs change. Vivescence focuses on generating products that offer visible results and long-term change for any skin type.

Looking to add a little Vivescence? Here are our top 5 Must Try Products:

1.     Vivescence Crystal Patch Regenerating Eye Contour Treatment – great for travelling (no more jet-lagged eyes!), relaxing before a big event, or pumping you up Friday night after a long week at work (A Spa Girl Personal Fav!)
2.     Pure Mat Water – a cleanser that works to fight acne, matify, and hydrate
3.     Cell Perfect Concentrate – worried about aging? This serum promotes the development of collagen and works to rebuild the dermis. It’s a fantastic product for achieving lift and tightness.
4.     Nutri-energy Re-energizing Vitamin Concentrate – A fantastic night cream, it feeds your skin. Phenomenal for high stress times and revitalizes dullness.
5.     HydraTotal Gel Cream – anti-aging, pure hydration, heaven on the skin. Available in several different weights depending on your preference.

 

 

  Plus! Purchase $250 in Vivescence products from www.spaboutique.ca and receive a Hydra-Replumping Kit (7pc) Plus a Metal Cuff Bracelet FREE! An $80 Value! *One Gift per order, not valid with any other promotions, available while quantities last. Substitutions may occur. Limited time offer.

 

 

 

As always, just for being a follower of our blog, enter coupon code BLOG10 for 10% off your next purchase! Also, remember to follow us @spaboutique on Twitter, like our Facebook  page, and check out our boards on Pinterest! You could be the lucky winner of one of our many contests!

 

Friday Fun-Day! Cat-Eye Candy!

There are a lot of downsides to winter, especially not being able to hide my tied eyes behind a pair of sunglasses! I love my eyes, but after a long week staring at a computer screen, they need some serious attention before Girls Night! Especially now that I’ve entered my “Late Twenties”, I’ve started to notice how nights out, heavy food and a couple of drinks can really wreck havoc on my skin. Instead of layering on a rainbow of shadow, liner and glitter mascara, I’ve simplified my routine and invested quality product that won’t irritate my eyes.

The biggest secret in my arsenal is the Crystal Eye Patch by Vivescence Crystal Patch Regenerating Eye Contour Treatment (4 sets). I cannot rave enough about this mask! It’s a pre-cut gelatinous mask that revitalizes in 20 minutes. The coolness is really refreshing and you can feel it working as soon as you put it on.  It is an extremely active mask. Once my eyes are refreshed, I can move on to really making them pop.

Right now, I am really into Cat-Eye Eyeliner. It’s a lot of effect without adding a lot of shadow. Great for tired eyes. To get a phenomenal Cat-Eye, gently apply a basic line with Glo Minerals Glo Cream Eyeliner. Using an angled brush, trace a small flick where your lash lines meet and gently connect with your eyeliner. Next, take your Glo Minerals Glo Liquid Eyeliner – Coal (0.13 oz.) and fill out the wing. I like to keep mine subtle but for more punch, use the precision tip to thicken the line and expand the wing. Highlighting will help brighten the line, especially if you add your shadow after your liner.

Now, it is a hotly debated topic as to whether you apply your eyeliner or shadow first. Personally, I like to add my eyeliner first, let it dry and then do the shadow. I know that the liner can get powdery- BUT it also means I’m not scrubbing off absolutely everything if my hand slips. I may be in the minority here but I kinda like how you can soften the aggressive Cat-Eye with a touch of powder.

The past few years, it’s been a struggle quitting glitter. It’s fun, It’s Fast, It creates tons of impact… but when you find yourself fighting off a tween-age Belieber for a star specked electric purple eye shadow- It’s time to admit you have a problem.

Fortunately, there are tons of fun shimmer tones available, including some with real gold flecks! If you can’t have glitter, is there really anything better than gold? For a natural look, all you really need is a mineral shadow for underneath, a green with gold tones, a shimmery pink or for the ultimate in stunningly simple, a pure gold.  Heavy on the lid, soft up to the brow, maybe blend with a neutral, if needed. You really want to let your liner create the drama and keep the shadow simple.

TRY:
Glo Minerals Glo Eye Shadow (0.05 oz.)
Mica Beauty Single Stack Mica Mineral Shimmer Powder
Jane Iredale 24-Karat Gold Dust Powder (1.8g)

As always, Finish with Peter Thomas Roth Lashes To-Die-For Mascara (8ml)!

Still stuck for inspiration? Try adding a pop of colour for truly electrifying eyes!

 

 

As always, just for being a follower of our blog, enter coupon code BLOG10 for 10% off your next purchase! Also, remember to follow us @spaboutique on Twitter, like our Facebook  page, and check out our boards on Pinterest! You could be the lucky winner of one of our many contests!

 

How to Revitalize your Eye Area with Celazome Clinical Skin Care

Unless you’re getting regular Botox, fillers, or have had some sort of other intensive treatment done to your eye area, you probably notice some level of aging around your eyes.  The eye contour is usually the first place that we begin to see fine lines and loss of elasticity because the skin is very thin and fragile and it’s also an area of expression (repeated muscle movements).

There are all kinds of eye creams, gels, and serums out there – all claiming to bring back youthfulness to your eye area.  Are you like me, tired of trying eye cream after eye cream with no results?  Are you ready to take your eye treatment to the next level without going to the doctor’s office?  This is where Celazome Eye Therapy comes in.  Celazome Clinical Skin Care is a fluff-free, straight to the point, pharmaceutical-grade skin care line that focuses on ingredients and results.  You won’t find any fancy packages or advertisements with touched up models with this line.  Celazome is famous for their unique nanotechnology which is a technique of encapsulating active ingredients for time-released, deep penetration into the skin.

Celazome‘s eye treatment products really stand out because of the rapid and remarkable results they yield.  This is due to the nanotechnology which delivers the active ingredients deep into the skin, rather than just to the surface like most other skin care products.  The same nanotechnology allows for powerful ingredients like peptides, retinol, and hyaluronic acid, and vitamins to be stable in one single product.

Which eye treatment is right for you?

What if you have concerns from both charts? Use the Eyelyph Serum during the day and the Eye Treat at night.

Results:

If you have any questions about these eye treatment products or any other Celazome Clinical Skin Care product or system, don’t hesitate to ask me or one of our other estheticians!

 

As always, just for being a follower of our blog, enter coupon code BLOG10 for 10% off your next purchase! Also, remember to follow us @spaboutique on Twitter, like our Facebook  page, and check out our boards on Pinterest! You could be the lucky winner of one of our many contests!