Beautiful Eyes

Beautiful skin care starts with what people notice first. Eyes are what others notice immediately; so start your skin care program eye-to-eye!

Here are four major skin care issues related to eye care, work them successfully and look 20 years younger.

Dark Circles

Check the color of your circles. If they're blue or gray, allergies or pooling blood may be to blame. Receive the firming, moisturizing, and corrective benefits (including the reduction in appearance of dark circles) of just released DNA Repair Creme, found at www.ihdistribution.com.

Undereye Puffiness

To beat those bags, diagnose the cause: If you're puffy only upon awakening, fluid retention is the likely cause; sleeping on two pillows can prevent liquids from pooling. Been using a new face cream or rubbing your eyes? These can cause swelling. A gel that contains a blood-vessel constrictor, like witch hazel, and an anti-inflammatory, like chamomile extract, can temporarily reduce irritation. Or make a home remedy: Mix one drop each of witch hazel, brewed chamomile tea, and over-the-counter cortisone lotion. If you've got time, lay a cucumber slice on top to help the paste penetrate better. If puff is always present, try IH Distribution's DNA Repair Creme to reduce puffiness and repair the delicate tissue around the eye.

Crow's Feet

When you smile, your eyes pay a price when the muscles around them contract, and a little elasticity is lost. Combine that with sun exposure and, in about 30 years, you've got crow's feet. DNA Repair Cry me, found at www.ihdistribution.com, is effective to repair fine lines and wrinkles around the eye. The products are natural and botanical-based.

Drooping

Most firming creams have little, if any, effect on sagginess so this is a job for cosmetics, strategically applied to define and visually lift the eyes. First choose a shadow palette:

-Apply the midtone from lashline to crease. This adds soft shading to your lids.
-To draw attention to the highest part of your arch, dust the light, shimmery color along browbone, starting from middle of brow and blending outward.
-Sweep the darkest color over your crease, blending into the midtone, then toward the inner corner of your brow. (This softens the harshness of using the dark tone alone.)
-Line your upper lashes with the darkest shade, intensifying the color and slightly flaring it up at the outer edge. Finish off with a curling mascara to open up your eyes.
-You can find a vast assortment of eye shadow colors produced from cucumber and aloe extracts that are designed to soothe and moisturize lids.

Eye Color Hints = Big Impact!

-Enhance your eye hue with a single contrasting shadow shade. For blue or icy green eyes, choose a warm, yellow-based hue; for brown or olive-y eyes, opt for a cool, red-based shadow.
-Perk up dull eyes. Irises lose pigment as you age, but brightening your hair helps compensate, says Boston colorist Michael Perry. To achieve, use a shine-enhancing shampoo (try IH Distribution's Self-Adjusting Shampoo & Conditioner).
-Neutralize blue or gray circles with a yellow-based concealer. Cover-ups with a drier consistency often have more pigment.
-Offset bloodshot eyes. Blue liner works, but it can look unnatural. Better: Glide a neutral eyeliner (brown or black) along upper lashlines, then apply a blue liner on top; blend.
Groom ragged brows: They can accentuate droop. For quick cleanup, use a colored brow wand to thicken and add arch.

Control Tips

How you live affects your eyes. So to keep yours looking good, consider changing some daily habits.

-Perfume. If your eyes are sensitive, fragrance can make them red. To diminish this effect without giving up scent, avoid classic spots - like behind your ears that are too close to your eyes.
-Diet. On a low carb. plan? It's dehydrating (to metabolize the extra protein, your body uses more water) and your eyes may show it. Compensate by drinking ten glasses of water each day, two more than what's usually recommended.
-Prescriptions. High blood pressure medicines and antihistamines for allergies can dry your eyes. Rehydrate with drops sans preservatives (they can be irritating) and, if you wear contacts, a moisturizing cleaning solution.
-Exercise. When sweat drips into your eyes, so do dirt and oils and rubbing your eyes with your fingers can start an infection. Instead dab sweat with a towel and try to wear a sweatband.

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Natural Haircare Part 1

Extra volume, extra shine, anti-dryness, anti-split ends, curly hair, straight hair, frizzy hair, flat hair. The choices are endless when trying to select the right shampoo. And in the ned, all of them are filled with unescesary chemicals.
Take any shampoo from the drugstore and read the lable. You will most likely find isopropyl, a solvent that dehydrates and irritates your skin, is known to increase aging and can damage your immune system; propylene- and butylene glycol which can penetrate your skin and weaken your protein structure, among other things. And those are just two of the forty-something ingredients found in shampoo.

So what does one do to maintain a beautiful head of hair without damaging the scalp or the enviroment?

There are plenty of alternatives.

The first one is to stop using shampoo and simply use apple cider vinegar and baking soda. I use this method and my hair is reborn! My hair has a fine texture, but I have insane amounts of it, so it was always flimsy and very difficult to set. After I switched from a hair-salon shampoo to vinegar and baking soda my hair has become silky, smooth and soft and is incredibly easy to set, even in very elaborate hairdos with minimal use of styling products.

To wash your hair this way, mix 1 tablespoon of baking soda with 2 tablespoons of water and apply it to your roots. Massage well to increase bloodflow to your scalp. Let it rest for a few minutes and rinse it out.
Next, mix about 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar wit 0.5-1 cup of water depending on the length of your hair. Pour it over the ends of your hair, let it rest for a minute and rinse.

Done! That's all there is to it.
If you are not quite ready to take the leap and stop washing your hair, a good option is to change shampoo, and perhaps decrease the frequency of using it. Ask any hair expert and they will tell you that you should avoid washing your hair more than once or twice a week.
Go to your local health store and ask the clerks. You will want a shampoo with as little content as possible, something that would suit hyper-allergy. It doesn't have to be expensive, but remember that decreasing your hairwashing and using less shampoo will make a bottle last longer.

Taking Photos While You're Protecting Your Skin

If you're a shutterbug like me, and you enjoy taking photos outdoors, you will often find yourself in direct sunlight.

Other than protecting yourself from the sun by wearing a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses, and by applying sunscreen every two hours, there is one more thing you can do. And it's good for your photos and you--

Take pictures in early morning or late afternoon when the sunlight, including UV light, is less intense.

When the sun intensity peaks around noon, and you shoot some pictures, you're likely to see harsh dark shadows and very bright highlights. These translate into light and dark areas in your photos and an absence of detail.

The worst possible lighting for people portraits is direct sunlight at high noon, says the editors of Photographic Magazine in Complete Idiot's Guide to Photography Like a Pro.

Besides, if your subject is facing the sun, he or she will undoubtedly be squinting, and the direct sunlight can accentuate wrinkles. On the other hand, if you shoot toward the sun, your subject in your photos may be too dark if you focus on bright areas or too light if you focus on dark areas.

The camera compensates for high contrast between light and dark by underexposing or overexposing the film in an attempt to achieve balance between the light and the dark areas.

But one solution is to use flash-fill or reflective (card) fill to reduce the contrast of your subject's face, as well as to remove unattractive, deep shadows.

Otherwise, take your photos in the morning before 10 a.m. or wait until later in the day after 4 p.m., when sunlight is less intense and you're less likely to get a sunburn and skin damage.

In the early morning and late afternoon, sunlight has to pass through more atmosphere. Consequently, the blue light is scattered, leaving longer wavelengths, such as red and orange, which are not as easily scattered.

When the sun is low in the sky, you'll be able to capture catch lights in your subjects' eyes as they look toward the direction of the sun. There will be more ambient (scattered) light and less contrast between light and dark.

The result will be more facial detail. And take your people portraits from different camera angles and at different times, from early to mid-morning and then from late afternoon until sunset. Experiment.

However, please don't look through your camera at the sun, nor should your model look directly at the sun.

About The Author

Diana Clarke is a teacher, photographer and freelance writer.

http://www.yourskinandsun.com; dianaclarke2001@yahoo.com