Yesterday was my “Take-care-of-me” day. My roots were soaking up jet black dye. I am not part of the grey/gray/white/silver movement. Black Roots Matter is my hair color mantra.
And now you know why it is far better for me to get my roots done at the salon when my budget allows. I am the sloppiest applier of hair dye. It took forever to scrub this off my face!
I conditioned and roller set to lessen the damage to my tresses. I also tried a new product to hide my baldness. I picked it up at Sally Beauty. It looks like a dupe for my beloved Toppik only about eight bucks cheaper. Ion Hair Building Fibers.
Same amount of product as Toppik. But at a fraction of the price. And…….
Let me tell you—the Ion product worked just as well as the Toppik did. And at a lower price point, I think this is a definite “yes” for women who are on a budget and still suffer from hair loss. I’ll be reviewing this in the very near future!
It worked! Left photo, I’m sorry but I took the photo after I filled in a bit with the Ion. Luckily I remembered to take a before pic with a bit of baldy sticking through! Right photo, all covered up. I just needed to set the product with spray and finger comb my hair.
I also ran around in the nude! No. Not my body—but my face. I’m kept a naked face to give my skin a rest! The clouds were preparing for rain, I’m off from work for three days, and I’ve nowhere to go except to take Chippy out to do his business. And it was the perfect naked face day!
Me and my naked face. Completely nude, birthday-suit visage! Why am I hiding my turkey neck from you????????
And I really want to discuss skin care for us women 60 and over. Once again, the media leaves us out of the loop and when they do add us, we are nothing more than a blip. But we are a team that needs to stick together like lash glue!
What got me started on this topic was an infomercial I saw earlier in the morning. While waiting for Bonaparte to brew the daily coffee, I turned on the TV. I was greeted with a view of Place Dauphine’s Le Caveau restaurant.
I’m telling you, most visitors to Paris are in love with the romance and the Eiffel Tower. I’m in love with Place Dauphine because of the two restaurants I get to stuff my face with great food! Le Caveau has the chairs stacked in the front. I snapped this early in the morning!
It’s a restaurant we’ve been to many times, so naturally I got all excited and started screaming and dancing and crazy!
Only I was dancing around naked–face naked, that is!
It was the old “Bait and Switch”. The beautiful Parisian scenario was nothing more than a “set up” meeting between Cindy Crawford and a Z-list celebrity to pontificate and drool over Crawford’s “Meaningful Beauty“; a skin care line she collaborated (i.e. allowed her name to be used to make mega-bucks for shilling this stuff) with a French dermatologist, Dr. Sebagh, to give women of all ages (Under 60 years old) to make their beauty as meaningful as Cindy’s. Oh. I forgot to add, other celebrities such as Debra Messing and Valerie Bertinelli also use Meaningful Beauty. Maybe they use it because they are being paid to infomercialize it.
From the “Meaningful Beauty” site. Look. It states “results will vary”. Is this a red flag or what????
I get really pissed off at these ads. When will women learn that these creams and potions will never, ever, ever, change your skin’s natural aging process. And it drives me nuts to see “before and after” pics. The “befores” have the women looking all blotchy and the lighting sucks. The “afters” are taken in better lighting, slightly filtered, and faces covered in cosmetics. Cindy Crawford’s Meaningful Beauty has nothing to do with the afters. It’s cosmetics!
Messing at 40 and 45. She looks great in both photos. Cindy Crawford’s product line had nothing to do with Messing’s 45 look. It was the lighting and make up artist!
I’m not saying potions and lotions won’t work. Temporarily, they do. And creams will hydrate. But how many times do I need to say that nothing short of plastic surgery and fillers, along with great genetics, will really, really make you look years and years younger!
Take a close look. Left pic is my cheek. Look at the crepey lines. Look at the broken capillaries. Upper right pic and you can see that gravity has taken it’s toll on my face. Bottom right I have lines under my nose and above my mouth. THIS IS THE 60 + NAKED FACE CLOSE UP and nothin’ is going to turn back the clock on a permanent basis!
The key is to keep hydrating. Like with “H Two Eau”. Drinking lots of it. All day. So you need to either be close to a bathroom or you need Depends.
Water. One of the best and cheapest ways to hydrate your skin and your body! And perhaps strengthen your bladder???
Sleep is a great beauty tool as well. We all know that when we wake up after a great and long sleep, we look better and more alive. Lack of sleep makes us look tired, drawn, and drained of any pep.
A good night’s sleep is another inexpensive and great way to take care of your skin! I need a nap!
Caveat! One product that I absolutely loved as part of my skin-care routine a few years back was Benefit’s She-laq. Originally used to “set” eye makeup from melting on those hot days, I found it was the perfect temporary face lift. I’m not kidding. I used to brush She-laq out onto the crow’s feet next to my eyes. This product tightened those lines to the point of being nearly invisible. Then Benefit went and discontinued it. Supposedly due to a bad chemical. I cried. It couldn’t have been worse than the processed food filled with ingredients that one cannot pronounce; and couldn’t have been worse than hormone-injected milk.
Hands down, this was an eyelift in a bottle. It was epic and Benefit discontinued it. I still dream of this. I’m still pissed at Benefit cosmetics for getting rid of it. I wrote them a letter and they never replied!
Back to the care of the skin.
In the morning (as well as the evening), I have a loofa-like facecloth that I use to scrub my face. That’s right. I scrub the crispy bits that fall where the bottom of my nose meets my cheeks. I scrub my mouth. Rub-a-dub-dub. My face I scrub! It’s my budget version of exfoliation!
The rough texture of this face cloth is great for sloughing the nasty bits off. I wish I could remember where I purchased this!
In the morning, I wash my face with Dove Beauty Bar. It doesn’t make my skin feel taut or tight at all. It’s a good product. In the evening, I take my makeup off with Albolene. It looks like lard and literally melts the makeup away. I always have a backup jar! And I always use my little loofa face cloth to scrub both the Dove and Albolene off for a smooth-skinned face!
I’ll gently pat my face dry and then….
Moisturize. I’m not using expensive products either. Take away the expensive packaging and the product is just about the same. It’s all temporary. I’ll take inexpensive temporary over expensive temporary.
Equate brand–the Walmart Special. No difference between this and high-end except dollars. Moisturizers are a great temporary fix to smooth the skin out before making up. BTW, even though this is NIGHT TIME cream, I use it in the daytime!
I’ve been trying out StriVectin Intensive Concentrate for Wrinkles and Stretch Marks. I received a sample from one of the vendors at work. The sample is a decent size—1 fl. Ounce and is a $40.00 value. I’ll be using it till I run out and review it. Hopefully it won’t be a dud. It’s too early to tell if the claims of the return of a youthful appearance are true.
Lots of outstanding claims on this. We’ll see–it this gets rid of the crepey skin, then it’s a miracle product. I’ll be reviewing when I run out of this sample.
After the moisturizer soaks in, I’ll apply a serum. I’m low on the Lancôme Genifique—which was pricey but I’ve had it for well over a year. I picked up Caudalie Vinoperfect Radiance Serum back in October at CityPharma in Paris. It was dirt cheap and works just as well as Genifique. It was a shock to the system when I saw this online at Sephora for $79.00. I paid 10 euros for it!
Actually, I ran out of the Genifique this morning. So it’s the Caudalie serum for now. I almost DIED when I saw the Caudalie online for $79.00. I spent 10 euros for the same sized bottle—-highway robbery!
Do the serums make me look ten years younger? Nope. But both these serums give my skin a nice glow and prep aging skin for the foundation that will go on top of the primer.
It’s important for us to be aware and realistic about our aging skin. This is even more important when we are within a certain budget.
The average woman cannot afford the face, eye and neck lifts. The majority of women are also not able to afford the luxury of fillers.
I also treated myself to a few moments of spa time with these revitalizing eye pads…
…as you can see, they are completely different looking IRL than on the box. They also burned the hell out of my skin. You can also see that they did nothing!
And that’s why skin care is important. Basically, it’s making sure your skin is clean before you go to bed and keeping hydrated. Simple. Easy Peasey! Nothing too complex and doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg.
We need to take a good look at what we do have and work with it! Fortunately, I have pretty thick skin. I guess being born with a thick skull can come in handy, but my neck looks years older than my 61 years. You take the good with the bad and buy lots of scarves!
And after a day of nudity, today I’m back to a made up face and…..
..the end result of a roller set. And I still look like an older woman. But it’s all cool because I’m happy in my skin. Whether it’s naked or made up skin. I’m ok with it!
Please forgive me if I sound like a broken record, but I get really upset with the beauty industry and their false promises of making aging skin completely youthful. I also get upset when I see celebrities (if you can call them that) endorsing products. These are women who are working in the field of entertainment and make a shitload of money. They are merely sales people for these cosmetics companies.
We average women cannot afford hundreds of dollars for one beauty cream, nor can we spend thousands on surgery.
We need to work with what we have and within our budget!!!
We older women have a lotta! A lotta life. A lotta creativity. A lotta personality A lotta wisdom! And–a whole lotta natural beauty!
So let’s get naked for a day or two and take care of us!!!
In the words of the great Al Kooper. “(Be Yourself) Be Real”!
