Oh What Dark Circles You Have

OMG, Dark Circles

Oh, my goodness, can dark circles been hidden? I mean seriously, can dark circles that make you look like the night of the living dead zombie's, actually be hidden? YES! Yes, my friend the dark circles can be hidden... but first, what causes dark circles?

There are a lot of different things that causes dark circles.. some medications you may take can contribute to dark circle because some medications causes blood vessels to dilate.   During the wonderful allergy seasons, when you are rubbing your eyes a lot because of the pollen, it can cause dark circles. During my research, I found that sleeping on your stomach causes dark circles, I never knew that!! Of course not getting enough sleep causes them, as well as being fatigued.  Now this is something I found really interesting, when we have those wonderful horrid bags under our eyes, it cast shadows and that makes us look like we have dark circles.  And of course let's not leave our aging. Yes, beauties, aging causes our skin under our eyes to get thin and because of the loss of fat and collagen like magic, we have dark circles appear!! Lovely, right?

Don't give up hope, that is the most important thing.  There are different makeup techniques you can do that will help to hide the dark the circles, and believe it or not, this can be done without having the makeup crease under your eyes to make them look even worst.  I have watched A LOT of videos by some fantastic Makeup Guru's and I am in the process of trying the techniques as well.

You will Need:

-Under eye Moisturizer
-Foundation
-concealer (one shade lighter than your foundation)
-Setting Powder
-beauty blender 
-concealer brush

Start by placing a good moisturizer under your eyes and allow it to set and/or absorb for a least five minutes or so.  Next add your foundation to your face with a dampened beauty blender and try to avoid putting foundation under your eyes. Next 'pat' the concealer on your under eye area with a concealer brush.. remember pat the concealer on.  Next take your dampened beauty blender (yes, the one you used for the foundation will be fine) and pat the concealer into your under eye area until it is smooth. DO NOT RUB the concealer onto the eye area or anywhere else. Once the concealer is placed and you feel it looks smooth, take a small fluffy brush and dip it into your loose powder and tap the brush to knock off any excess powder.  GENTLY, and LIGHTLY apply the powder over the area's you placed the concealer.  Apply the rest of your makeup the way you normally do.  Place some highlighter over the concealer, but use it sparingly.

DO NOT FORGET to use a setting spray-that will help set your makeup and it will also give you some hydration.  Evian has a fantastic mineral water mist that is great to carry along with you and during the day if your eyes begin to look like they are creasing.. use this misting spray, it feels great, hydrates your skin, and smells really good to me for some reason!!

**Please note:  if your dark circles are VERY DARK you may want to consider using a peach correction concealer before you place the lighter concealer under your eyes.

These Bags are not for Traveling

What in the world? Bags under your eyes-O.M.G.!! Well, this is another article in my Mature skin problems. When many of us hits our 40's - 50's- and so on, we start to experience many different strange things.  When we age, fat deposits collects under our eyes causing "Bags" or eating too much salt makes us retain water and the fluid builds up in our eye sacks. Or when we do not drink enough water, the water rushes to these bags because the eyes feels dehydrated.  I have the worst problems with bags under my eyes.. and I refuse to even think about getting surgery. That is just not my kind of road trip!! So instead I research and I do a lot of it.

I have watched numerous video from some fantastic people YouTube. I have read so many articles my bags under my eyes feel like they are loaded with rocks.. but yet, I continue on my quest to try and find answers some where.  I love reading makeup tips from Cosmopolitan, they often have some great tips and tid-bits that can help many of us. They had a list of the top 10 eye creams and at first I was going to add them, but decided against it.  But this was pretty interesting, they said the skin under our eyes is 10 times more thinner than the other skin on our face.  What?  And it goes on to say that it ages 36% more faster.  Good Grief I did not know that!!

Okay so they say using L'Oreal Revitalift is an excellent eye cream and was listed number one on the list.  Hmm.. So L'Oreal Revitalift triple Power Eye Treatment contains hyaluronic acid which steeps into the skin and plumps the skin up. The container has a metal tip and supposedly that helps to shrink bags. Wouldn't putting spoons in the freezer do the same thing?

So, bags under the eyes.. Aging, Generics, Fluid build up, not enough sleep, water retention... what can we do?  Elevate our heads at night by using two pillows..I do that, no change. Bags under the eyes in not generic in my family that I know of... so that leaves the one thing that I do know a little about.. "MAKEUP".  Hide'em and keep on keeping on.

When you look into a mirror, put your head down, like your are putting your chin to your chest.  By doing this you will see the dark shadows that the bags are casting over your eyes. This is what I do, if you do it different, I promise it will not break any kind of etched rules.  I put my concealer on under my foundation.. many will put it on over the foundation. It does not matter which way you do it!!  Use a small angled brush that fits in the shadowed area fairly good.  Place some concealer a shade lighter than your normal skin tone. DO NOT RUB THE CONCEALER ON.. Pat it into the shadow area.  Next use a loose powder and lightly pat onto the concealer to seal it.

What are some things you do? Please list them below in the comment section, thank you in advance.. I promise, so many people suffer with this problem, that I am always looking for new things to try.

To Young To Know Better

Unfortunately, we did not know until later in life about all of the damage we were doing to our skin. As teenagers growing up in the late sixties and seventies our main concern was getting as dark as we could, as fast as we could.  I personally remember using a lot of baby oil and of course I had to use the silver blanket sheets because I had to draw as much of the sun to me as possible! The more sun, the more burnt, the darker the tan. A motto used by a ton of teenagers when I was young.

One of the best or should I say most beautiful things about being so tanned was wearing soft colored clothing, pinks, lavenders and even white just enhanced our skin so much. Those colors just looked so beautiful with the bronzed skin, oh man did we look good!!

A few years down the road you begin to notice these crazy little brown spots appearing. Like one day there were none and the next day like magic, wham... there they were!!  What in the world? Then brown spots start appearing on your face, except now they are large brown patches! You try a thousand and one different concealers, along with foundation and the darkness still sneaked through!  You try adding color correction concealer along with regular concealer and foundation now not only can the brownish color still be seen, but now your face looks cakey, ashy, and you feel like you just want to give up and just wear a mask!

This is my own experience because my only concern as a teenager was worrying about how dark I could get. Today I have a lot of sun damage on my face, not the best place for discoloration. I have literally tried so many concealers, that I felt there would never be any hope in hiding the patches. I have wrote a few articles about some good products I have tried. Like Julie August correction concealer pallet, Mac has a peach correction concealer that is semi ok, Ben Nye has a pretty good correction concealer pallet and neutral set colorless powder, but to be honest nothing seems to work as good as the product I am about to tell you about.

Younique Cosmetics has three different kinds of foundation, cream, powder and liquid. Since my skin is mature, I wear the cream foundation. Along with the foundations Younique has a very good concealer called Touch Mineral Skin Perfecting Concealer. Remember, I have tried a lot of different products and this one is among one of the best I have used. But there is a trick to applying the concealer and cream foundation that will indeed help to hide brown patches.  Always try to apply a primer first.  Next take a concealer brush and pat the concealer onto the brown area you are trying to conceal.  Let it set for a moment, if you do not have the coverage you want, pat another coat of the concealer on.. be sure to smooth out the edges!  Wait a second and take a small brush and use a colorless powder and lightly tap the powder over the areas you added the concealer.  This helps to set it. Tap on the cream foundation and you will be amazed of the coverage you will get.

The whole point to this post is just to let you know I am fully aware no matter what you read, often in life we need to experience and learn things the hard way.  Now I often wonder, if the beautiful bronze skin I had as a teenager (which was temporary) was worth all of the imperfections I have today which are now permanent.

I would love to tell you more information about Younique Foundations and Concealers, just contact me here or you can check out the product here.  I can actually help you earn these two products FREE if you are interested in hold a virtual online party.

Judith August Cosmetics

As most of you know, I have been doing a ton of research for different cosmetic products because of my Makeup Artist Course. When I found the item I am about to tell you about, I honestly feel like I found gold.

As I have mentioned many times before on my blog WhiteOak's World, I have really bad skin issues. My skin issues are at a point that I refuse to go without foundation.  I have no excuses and no one to blame, my skin issues are from me being lazy and/or not really thinking about the consequences of what I was doing. Like many of million other people, I too use to love laying in the sun, wanting to get the beautiful bronze colored skin. There is nothing I can do about it today, except learn how to hide and/or mask it the best way I can.

So during all of my research, I had found where using orange correction cream, will help to cover discoloration and brown spots really well.  I researched found a few different brands, got them and they were either TOO orange, TOO light orange, or did nothing to cover the areas I needed to cover.  Another time I was researching bags and dark circles and that is when I found Judith August Cosmetics!

At this point, I was using Mac orange correction stick, and although it was okay.. I still needed something better.  I went directly to Judith's website and found several things I had to have, including a book called Gotcha Covered... I just started reading it, and I am already in love with the book, I know it is going to be a great asset to my career! Without even thinking twice, I got her Orange Masking Cream and the book and something else. When I got them yesterday (March 3rd-2016) I wanted to try the product so bad but waited until today. 

Don't be frightened, but here is a before and after photo after using the orange masking creme:

HUGE, HUGE difference, don't you think? It makes me want to cry personally. The product is easy to use, it is creamy, and oh my goodness, to me it is as good as gold. The pallet comes in a little sleeve with a black sponge, a little spatula, and an instruction booklet on how to use the product. Judith honestly thought of everything!!  It takes very little product...to get the job done.  I will be writing a review on her book as soon as I finish it. 

Here is the link to go straight to this little pot of gold!!  Orange Masking Creme 

Of course, when I opened the package, I was too excited to read the directions, so this is how I applied it.  After I put my primer on, I dabbed a little of the orange masking creme all over the brown area using a concealer brush. Next I used a sponge and gently blotted it over the area using a tapping motion, I did not rub it in. Afterwards,  I added a little bit of loose powder to seal it in.  From that point, I put on my foundation (again dabbing it on, not rubbing it in) and the above picture is the final result. I did that this morning and here we are well into late afternoon.. and my makeup looks the same as when it did when I first applied it.  The actual 'After' picture was taken just a few minutes ago.  

I am in love with this product no doubt.. on a scale one to ten?  I would give this product a ten-fifteen times!!