This week a couple of science news items caught my attention, in that they could potentially be revolutionary and have connections to beauty! So I’ma break it down for ya.
In a step closer to “Death Becomes Her”-alike perpetual beauty, scientists have successfully prevented the greying of hair with a topical treatment! Read on »
For those of you wanting to prep your skin in time for summer clinical skincare producers Neostrata have just the products for you; that’s of course if your budget will allow for it. Neostrata products can be expensive but boy are they worth it. Read on »
Using antibacterial products never used to be part of my usual routine but that all changed once I became a regular visitor to our nations hospitals! Its also certainly not something I thought I would be writing about on Dollyrouge but when a press release popped in from Cuticura last month I knew I had to share some experiences with you and why I recommend that everyone carry around some anti bacterial hand serum! Read on »
I really never thought I would have need of a triple firming neck cream in my twenties and indeed I shied away from these types of products that are typically aimed at ladies of a more mature age!
In all honesty though there was a part of my neck/décolletage that had begun to worry me. I take medication for Crohn’s disease (immunosuppressants usually) and they come with a warning that skin can become sensitised, especially to the sun. Hence anyone taking these types of medications must equip themselves with some decent sun care creams. Long story short when I first started taking these types of drugs I read the information leaflet enclosed with my medication briefly and thought nothing more of it. It was only as I became accustomed to chronic illness and medications that I began to take more notice of what I was pumping into my body. That and the fact that for the first time ever I burned in the sun; and I burned quite badly. Enough to cause pretty deep wrinkles on my décolletage; that happened four years ago and needless to say I now wear sunscreen even when its not sunny. Unfortunately though the damage was done; don’t get me wrong now, it wasn’t anything of the Deirdre Barlow type wrinkles. Its more just lines that shouldn’t be there for someone of 29 years old! The photo below doesn’t really give you the true extent of it but you get the idea. Like I said its not too noticeable or bad but I had noticed it myself and it was irritating me!
So long story short a few months back I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to meet with some of the Neostrata team and I took home with me a tube of their Triple Firming Neck cream. I was genuinely excited to try this product especially as I had no idea where to start remedying the sun damage on my décolletage.
Triple Firming neck cream contains a whole host of powerful ingredients including Pro-peptides (which stimulate the production rate of collagen in the deeper layers of skin), NeoCitriate (which helps to produce new collagen) and NeoGlucosamine (which helps to create a supportive skin structure and also reduces discolouration and age spots in the neck.). The inclusion of Apple Stem Cell Extract stimulates and preserves healthy skin cells. Nice work as always Neostrata!
So does it work? Yes, it really does! My décolletage is almost back to its former glory. Granted there are some faint dark spots and slight creasing left, but I expected that as you cannot ever undo sun damage. What this cream has done is allowed me to feel a lot happier having my décolletage on display, the wrinkles are smoothed, skin tone is even and generally I am a happy camper! I have been using it every other day since the summer and the product is still going strong. Its something I will definitely purchase myself. The cream has a nice medium to thick consistency that sinks in very easily, it is not scented (so you can apply your normal body lotion or perfume on top) and it works out quite cheap for the amount of uses you will get from the tube and from how little product you actually need to apply. Its priced at €39.95 and available from Neostrata stockists nationwide.
This is another review that has been a while in the making mainly due to the fact that I was CONVINCED the product would fail miserably and not live up to the hype surrounding it. I even said I would eat my hat if this worked (my winter hat by the way).
I’ve heard people raving about Avon’s Anew Clinical Pro Line Corrector Treatment with A-F33 but to be honest I didn’t believe all the fuss being made; that was until I put it to the test myself. Well that’s a little bit of a white lie really as my mam put it to the test for us!
Let’s get the facts and figures out of the way first shall we?! Avon partnered with powerhouse cosmeceutical brand Neostrata to develop the apparent “biggest innovation in skincare since the discovery of AHAs”. Avon have announced that with this launch they are bringing a powerful new anti-aging molecule to the market that even dermatologists do not have access to. The molecule A-F33 (Amino Fill 33) is a molecule that has been found in testing on skin cells to work in a way that other well known anti-aging ingredients such as glycolic acid, retinol and CoQ10 don’t. Now, I am no scientist (Kat wears that hat) but I do know that I love a nice product full of glycolic acid or retinol so if A-F33 can do a better job then them well, just consider me sold Avon lady!
Thankfully my mam doesn’t tend to read much online or in print about beauty products so she was blissfully unaware of the hullabaloo surrounding this product when I asked her to be our guinea pig. (Avon’s PR people had kindly sent us a some of the product to test as it was not yet available to order).
Mam was given the product in early August and I promptly forgot about it (well it was on my spreadsheet of products to follow up on) until Mam came to visit recently. She has smoker’s skin, and anyone that has ever smoked will know what I mean. Skin that feels dehydrated with fine lines from puffing on the ciggies can be tricky to care for. She is also a sun worshipper and I am constantly telling her to wear spf to no avail!
Long story short having not seen mam for a couple of weeks she arrived over and I immediately commented on her skin. It was plumped, brighter and fine lines did seem very much less obvious. I actually could not believe it. Mam is RAVING about this serum, and it takes a lot for her to rave about a beauty product.
This product is coming to a catalogue near you soon (if not already, I’m trying to track down my local Avon lady as I type!) and will cost €39.00 at full price. I did hear a whisper it’s on offer at launch for €26 so if you can grab it at that price do. Either way myself, my mam and gran and all of the girls in the office will no doubt be getting orders in. This stuff works and I HAVE just eaten my hat!
To keep up to date on all things Avon check out their Facebook page!
The timing was perfect. We were sent a box of Clairol eXtreme n’ Easy in Cherry Red, just about when I’d been feeling rather annoyed with my limp, dark locks and was craving a change. I’ve always wanted to be a redhead, so thought it was fate. Unfortunately my hair is not very cooperative. The last time I tried to lighten the tone, the only thing that was dyed was my scalp. So I had an idea – lift the dark brown permanent dyes I’d been using for a couple of years, with a colour remover. After doing some research I learned that it should lighten my hair to a ginger shade, without any damage, and could be dyed over immediately. Sold.
I picked up Adee Phelan Hair Colour Remover for dark tones, and got to work with the laborious routine: apply, rinse for 10 minutes, apply, rinse for 5 minutes yada yada yada. I followed the instructions to the letter and the results were great! Ginge Kat!
Unfortunately it turns out that you should use a dye 2 shades lighter than the desired colour, as it will turn out darker than expected (thanks for your tips Dee!). After dyeing I was back to my original colour with a hint of red. Feck sake. Disappointed that my efforts which took up half the day were futile, I resigned myself to the fact that I could never go red with box dye and went to bed.
And the next morning, I was red! Just not in the place I wanted. Read on »
…or the one where Kat nearly burned her face off.
So I was going about my usual nightly routine (brush teeth, remove makeup, inspect mug in mirror and apply necessary product to ward off wrinkles/acne/vampires) when I noticed my skin was a little flaky. “Needs some exfoliant,” I sagely noted and I grabbed my exfoliating cleanser of choice. But alas it was empty, nary a drop to be had. Not to be dissuaded from the task at hand, I hunted for another product. My eyes alighted upon the little jar of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda, bread soda) I keep in my bathroom, for teeth whitening every so often. I had used this in the past as an exfoliant and had good results, so a la The Beauty Brains‘ instructions I mixed in a bit with a non-exfoliating cleanser and set to work.
I left it to sit for a minute or two as I brushed my teeth, so the chemical exfoliant could work its magic, when I noticed a whiff of something odd. I casually glanced around for the culprit (the other half’s smelly socks, a pongy towel) when I realised what the stink reminded me of – hair dye. Then it occurred to me that the smell was getting stronger… and it was coming from right under my nose. Read on »
The photo above shows the difference between two sides of the face, when only one side has been exposed to the sun for decades. The gentleman pictured was a truck driver for 28 years, who spent most of the day driving with the sun to his left. His left side almost looks like it’s affected by palsy, drooping significantly lower than the right, not to mention the pronounced bags and wrinkles. All this just from sun exposure through the glass of a window. Scary. Read on »
This post is going to be a long one, but a good one. I’d really love for everyone to read and take it in properly, as I truly believe that vitamin A ingredients are the only ones which deliver potent anti-aging results. So if you’re not up for a long, science-y read right now, come back later. I promise it will be worth it.
Vitamin A is a skincare panacea. It’s the most effective treatment for the two big skin issues plauging the first world:
Heh! Bad joke I know!
Oooh, I do love a good pair of ranty pants, and these ones fit me well.
I was blog browsing earlier today and a post from the awesome Beauty Geek UK piqued my interest. It seems that quite a few people who received this month’s Boudoir Prive box had an unusual reaction to one of the samples supplied, Vinies Luminous Skin Mask by Vinies Veda.
