How to Depuff and Conceal Under Eye Circles

'Tis the season ... for no sleep.

 Which sometimes leads to under-eye circles and dark, puffy eyes. A one-way ticket to looking older than you are! 

One of the reasons you notice puffiness under your eyes so quickly after a sleepless night, crying, or overindulging in salty foods or cocktails, is because the skin around your eyes is thinner and more delicate than anywhere else on your body. Most likely the cause of puffiness is fluid retention, but sometimes genetics are to blame. If you see a bluish tint under your eyes, it is caused by the blood vessels underneath which become more noticeable as we age and the skin here becomes more translucent. 

In place of sleeping pills, here is my Beauty Fix ToolKit for under eye bags:

1. Depuff. Ideally you should sleep with your head elevated - totally impractical, and luckily gravity usually takes over by noon and naturally reduces some of the puffiness you saw under your eyes when you first woke up, but thankfully there is more you can do: Place anything cold under your eyes, like cold cucumbers or spoons soaked in ice to speed things up. Try Patricia Wexler's Instant De-Puff Eye Gel $19.50 or some of the new cool gels with caffeine to tighten that are sold in a rollerball applicator like Clinique's All About Eye Serum De-Puffing Massage $26. You may have heard beauty pageant girls talking about using Preparation H to constrict blood vessels under their eyes, but the ingredient that worked for this effect is no longer contained in the US version, so save your money unless your ordering it from Canada.

2. Stay Hydrated. Drink water to remove toxins and extra sodium from your body, and keep your skin properly hydrated with an eye cream rather than a regular lotion because they tend to have higher concentrations of emollients to help them remain in the ever-mobile eye area.  Daily use of any cream will temporarily plump up the skin so that the blue-ness of the blood vessels are less visible. I personally love using Clarisonic's Opal Sonic Infusion System, it vibrates at amazing speeds, delivering more than 7,500 micro-massages a minute to help the eye serum penetrate into the skin better. 

3. Brighten. A luminizing pen is one of the best kept secrets that models use for erasing those missed hours of sleep. It is seriously like a magic wand for under eye circles. The best is YSL's Touche Eclat $40. Just dot it under your eyes and blend! The light reflectors in this product will help make the area appear less depressed.

4. Conceal. Do this last after you apply foundation and use concealer with moderation, especially for puffiness or you may just draw attention to what it is you are trying to conceal. Be sure you choose a creamy formula and apply it using a concealer brush to get to the areas your fingers cannot saturate. This should be just a shade lighter or warmer than your regular foundation.

Be careful to avoid scented products and those that contain ingredients like salicylic, glycolic or alpha hydroxy acids and retinoids , which can irritate delicate eye tissue making redness and swelling worse. Also, skip mascara on your lower lashes alltogether so you won't look like a raccoon by adding darkness to your lower eye.

Shelley GoodStein is a 47 year old FORD model who speaks to women through television, national articles and public forums about a model's secrets to looking good from the inside out and the beauty of aging! She is the author of Face This: Real Advice From Real Models, Photographers and Make Up Artists on How to Become Picture Perfect!

Holiday Makeup Up Trends and One Perfect Dress

To view the Holiday Trends video {Click here} 

Deciding what to wear for the holidays can be a tough choice but so is choosing what makeup you'll pair with it so don't wait until the last minute ... just in case Mr Right shows up at the same party you'll want to be looking your best!

This year channel your inner  Hollywood glam and think luminous for makeup!

Smokey eyes and red lips are always in fashion for the holidays, but this year the red lips are also matte. Bold lips can instantly change your day look into a dramatic party ready lip! The eye gets a little update with a soft shadow and heavy winged eyeliner reminiscent of a 1940 pin up girl or Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra. A q-tip goes a long way in trying to perfect this look and clean up mistakes!

If you're going to a party after work, before piling on some extra mascara, take your eyelash curler and run it under hot water for a few minutes to heat it up. Then, carefully, so not to burn your eye, squeeze your lashes to soften them up so they are ready to accept another coat 

of mascara without gunking them up or ripping out your lashes. The heated eyelash curlers for about $25 by Dior is a great tool to use for this too, it melts the mascara and curls perfectly.

Gold, shimmery highlights are also a big trend for the season and the perfect glow with candlelight! The key is to choose choose just one place to shine so you don't end up looking like a glitter bomb!

Eyes, cheekbones, nails or lips can all benefit from the midas touch! For luminous, pearlescent skin try Benefits Girl Meets Pearl $30. TO use it, after all your makeup is applied, dot it starting at the top of your cheekbones creating a "C" all the way to your brow bone. Blend with your fingertips until it disappears. And for a golden pucker use Nars Lip Gloss in Albatross $24 over any lip color to give a golden shimmer. To do it yourself, take any gold shimmer eye shadow and dust it on top of cheeks, eyes or lips!

Shelley GoodStein is a FORD model who speaks to women through television, national articles and public forums about a model's secrets to looking your best! She is the author of Face This: Advice From Real Models, Photographers and Make Up Artists on How to Become Picture Perfect!

Learn how to take one red pencil dress and style it in different ways to take you to every party this holiday season by changing up three key pieces:  Footwear, accessories and the "topper"  - a key part of extending the life of this dress ... especially if you intend on party hopping!

A casual, biker influenced look. The cool as a cucumber vibe to take you for drinks with friends, holiday gift exchanges and date night!

Perfectly polished for an office party, church or charity brunch.

All blinged out for New Year's Eve!

Turkey Neck - How to Banish a Double Chin in your Photos

If there is one comment I hear most from women about taking photos, it is regarding the dreaded, double chin. Just in time for Thanksgiving and holiday picture taking, the turkey neck is a subject that I can offer you some advice about!

Before giving you the on-camera tips, keep in mind that the biggest cause of double chins is excess body fat and some people just carry fat on their chin more easily than anywhere else. In this case losing weight is your solution. Our muscles can weaken as we age and the skin becomes looser there, but sometimes you're just born with a little more fat around the chin. It's possible you also have a genetic tendency to retain too much water in this area so check out my post about how to de-bloat. 

A previously non-existent double chin can show up on anyone at some time or another in a photo. But if you are breaking out into a sweat, dreading being asked to take a photo because you can't seem to crack the curse, then we need to break it down and look at why this is happening in your photos but not in real life. Caught off guard like this woman on the left, when someone points a camera lens at them, people seemingly drop their heads back into their necks. Self consciously trying to hide extra rolls, this only worsens the effect,  leaving her looking like a turtle. Standing up straight with her shoulders 

back like mom said to, would have been the quick fix for this girl's double!

There are many techniques that will work to make you stop mutating into a ninja turtle if you can just remember to take a breath and put them into play:

• Make sure the camera is above you, not below eye level. Any photo taken below you will automatically increase a double chin effect as seen here ------------->
• Lean in a bit forward and look up if you're sitting.
• Lift your tongue, resting it behind your front teeth. This action will bring your chin up and naturally tighten the muscles of the neck a bit. 
• Extend your neck out and then bring it down ever so slightly. Your image is to think "swan princess".
• Hide a real double chin by resting your hands underneath your jaw, or by wearing high collars.
• Putting your hair up or wearing it short will make your neck look thinner and longer, especially if you play up your eyes.
• Trick the camera with makeup. Use a darker shade of powder, foundation or bronzer along your jawline and under your chin to make it appear to recede in a photo. Then use a highlighter on the center or tip of your chin to make it pop forward.

Kim K's camera phone twitter pic has another hint hidden in her pose that you can take a lesson from, which is angling her head while jutting her chin forward. Don't forget when you are using a camera phone that you want to make sure you hold it at a slightly higher level than your eyes so you have to raise your head up.

Remember, taking consistently great photos doesn't happen by accident ... they take some practice! 

If you want to learn more about the secrets to taking prettier pictures check out my new book FACE THIS, almost 200 pages full of tips and advice from models, photographers and makeup artists on how to become Picture Perfect! Available on Amazon, Nook, Kindle and iTunes for iPod, iPhone and iPad users.