Kiehling Over

Listen. This is serious. There are three non-negotiable things about skincare. You can do them however you care to do them, use whatever products work for you, but you have to do them if you want good skin now and in the future. They are:

1. Daily cleansing. Even when you're tired. Actually, especially when you're tired. You have to take all your makeup off, every day.
2. Sunscreen. Even if the only time you spend outside is the time it takes to walk to and from your car. UV rays go through glass, too, and they'll find you and wrinkle you wherever you are unless you protect yourself.
3. And...eye cream. Your undereye area is the first thing that will show aging (even as early as your twenties,especially if you drink or smoke or don't sleep well), so you have to pay attention to it. Your eye cream doesn't need to have sunscreen--you can dab on your whole-face sunscreen after your eyecream to take care of that. It just needs to moisturize the right amount for you.

I will say right here that if you already have an eye cream you like, stick with it. If you don't, I have two suggestions. They both happen to be made by Kiehl's, but that's just a coincidence. They are both awesome, unfragranced, and aren't tested on bunnies.

If you are age 20-40 (or have extremely oily skin), get Kiehl's Creamy Eye Treatment With Avocado. This is a slightly strange product. You can't just slap it on and rub it in, if you try rub it in, it won't work. It must sit on your skin a minute or so before it will absorb. It is very cooling and moisturizing, but not overly so. There is definite de-puffing action with this.

If you are 40 or over (or have extremely dry skin) , get Kiehl's Imperiale Repairateur Moisturizing Eye Balm. This isn't a cream as much as it is a kind of clear grease. I know that sounds gross but bear with me. Put it on after your shower in the morning, and just walk around with your shiny undereye area while you drink your coffee and get dressed, then apply your regular concealer right over it. You will be less haggard all day. Sometimes "less haggard" is all I can hope for. Really, though, this stuff sticks with you and helps zap all those fine lines.

Whatever product you pick, use your eye cream, at minimum, twice a day. After your shower (when your skin is still plump with moisture--the cream will seal that in) and before you go to bed. If your skin is particularly dry, spring for an extra pot of eye cream and keep it in your makeup bag for a midday application. You can put it over your makeup, nobody cares. It really will refresh you.

Imperial Bedroom

In my opinion, the only good thing about this time of year is the availability of good grapefruits. I hate everything else--especially my skin, which is dry and cracked and sore and horrible. Last week I went shopping to cheer myself up (fortified with grapefruit) and happened upon the Kiehl's counter at my local Saks. I love a lot of Kiehls products, especially their Imperial eye cream, which looks for all the world like fancy-ass Vaseline, but does wonders for the undereye (their AVOCADO eye cream is good for those of you under 40. I hope you are using eye cream whatever your age. Or you'll be sorry. And, later, wrinkled.). Anyway, I think there must be such a thing as shopping roofies, since I got home to find I'd spent $42 on a large (it only comes in large, actually) pot of Kiehl's Imperial Body Balm. I think it's called "imperial" because only inbred European royalty would spend that kind of cash on her ashy legs. But I gave it a try and it is worth every penny. We are talking day-long softness, people. Even in winter, even on skin as winter-gross as mine was: elbows, shins, hands, everything. I am officially addicted--it even made my nails grow faster, I think. Find a Kiehl's counter and ask them to give you a sample of this stuff. I still think it's too expensive, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.
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Black and Blue and Back

So this isn't exactly a beauty hint, except in the sense that bruises are really ugly, and the sooner you get rid of one, the prettier that place is. Bear with me: Three weeks ago, on a very icy morning, I was walking my dog and stepped out onto a patch of black ice (while wearing sneakers, like an idiot) and went into a split on the sidewalk. Which is something my body has pretty much avoided for 40 years. A quick ambulance trip to the emergency room later, I found out that I'd torn my left hamstring. Within a few days, this injury bloomed into a bruise that blackened the back of my entire left leg, from the back of my knee to my waist. Not bruisey purple, not black-and-blue. Black. Like it was about to fall off. It was quite shocking, really--it even grossed out my physical therapist, which was not reassuring. So hobbling back from her office one afternoon, I ran into a friend who immediately started making fun of my limp (Yes, I have nice friends). I flashed him my disgusting bruise in an effort to make him feel bad about himself but it didn't work. He just said, "Limp your ass to Whole Foods and buy yourself a tube of Arnica Gel. It'll fix you right up." And you know what? I did, and it did. Within three days, applying this colorless, odorless goo, the entire bruise had dissipated. Only its perimeter was still visible--the interior of the bruise was my normal pink, healthy skin. My physical therapist was freaked out yet again at my next visit. She had never seen such extensive bruising disappear so quickly. Nor had she ever heard of the stuff, so she looked it up and confirmed that arnica is completely safe. I was surprised when I found this drugstore.com link above that the touting arnica as a pain reliever. My Arnicare tube has slightly different packaging, so this must be new. I did not notice any pain relief, but even vicodin wasn't giving me pain relief from this sucker, so take that into consideration. But bruise relief? Absolutely. If you are clumsy like I am, it's worth keeping a tube around.

Feeling Blue. Or Purple. Whatever.

Do you know that certain color that's purpley-blue? Where cobalt veers off into violet? I never knew what that was called, you usually only see it in sunsets. But there's a name for it now, 'cause it's also a damn nail polish: "Grape Going" in the Sally Hansen Insta-Dry line. It's new, look for it in the display of all the new post-Christmas new crap in your local drugstore. This is the most gorgeous nail color I have ever seen. Bonus points for the awesome broad brush in the bottle. Now excuse me while I go hide it from my daughter. Except first I need her to take a picture of it for me. Damn.