I am constantly working with my skincare, but my husband calls it fraud.  He says that I commit fraud every day.  I tell him that women know two things–good bait and camouflage.  He fishes and hunts so I’m using terminology that he should understand.

I’m talking about my face.  At 63 it is sliding down my facial skeletal frame, and I keep applying every control that I can find.  I guess the controls are what he calls fraud.

So let’s talk about what I do or have done in the fraud department.  Maybe, it will help some of you with your choices.  Maybe, you will have an even better idea!  If you do, I hope you’ll share it in the comments below.

This post will be in several installments.  I’ll talk first about my evening cleansing and skincare routine, and later I’ll post about my morning routine and the more invasive procedures I’ve tried.

In a final post, we’ll get to the camouflage part.  I’m in the middle of trying to figure out how to apply eye shadow at this step in my aging process and what products to use.  I’m finding that my old shadows are looking too harsh.  Something needs to change, but I’m still not sure how to proceed.

Cleansing & Sloughing

Eye Makeup Removal.  I use waterproof mascara, so I begin with a good eye makeup remover designed to remove waterproof makeup. I use Arbonne’s Easy on the Eyes Make-Up Remover.  This formula is perfect for old eyelids like mine.  It goes on easy and leaves behind a little bit of softness, which is needed for our dry eyelids.

It isn’t greasy, though it seems to be when first applied; it quickly dries.  You can find Arbonne’s eye makeup remover here.  If you need an Arbonne consultant, try my daughter Jamie Sheehan.  Just click on her name to find her email address. She’ll get you set up.

Why do I use waterproof mascara?  Because like so many older women, my eyes water.  It all began when I was about fifty.  All of a sudden I couldn’t go out in the winter without my eyes watering.  It is so bad that now I wear waterproof mascara and only wear it on my upper lashes.  I’ll try to remember to write another post about this problem as I’ve tried several things to cope, and I’ve had some successes and some failures.  I’ve lived with this about ten years now.

I’ll try to remember to write another post about this problem as I’ve tried several things to cope, and I’ve had some successes and some failures.  I’ve lived with this about ten years now.

I found that there are several eye makeup remover products that will do the trick.  I used to buy the least expensive, but this Arbonne product is the best I’ve found.  I apply it with a cotton disc.  I like these because they leave no pieces of cotton behind nor do they tug on my eyes.  The discs can get expensive, so I buy them in bulk at Cosco’s.  Cotton balls leave threads behind, and tissues tug.

Sloughing.  First, I don’t slough every night, but I wanted to begin here.  After removing my eye makeup, every fourth day I add sloughing to my cleansing routine.  I prefer the Ageless Collection at I Image Skincare.  I use two of their products for sloughing.

For that fourth night, I use I-Image’s Ageless Total Resurfacing Masque.  I wet my hands, put a dime size amount in my palm, add another dime size amount of their Total Facial Cleanser, mix the two with my finger, apply the mixture, massage my face for about a minute, and wait about 5-10 minutes.  I just sit down with my latest book.   The Resurfacing Masque is gritty, so I actually massage my face while initially applying it.

Sometimes if I’m having trouble with skin sloughing, I use a cleansing brush.  I never went for the Clarisonic brush system, but instead bought the Olay ProX Advanced Cleansing System.  If you have followed my blog very long, you’ll find that I’m just cheap like that.  Instead of massaging my face as explain above, I use my brush.  It gets deeper into the layers.

Then when my face is dry or almost dry, I use a baby’s washcloth to remove it.  More on the washcloth routine later.

A Secret Serum.  One secret of my complexion is that I use a sunless tanning serum about every fourth night, which is also my sloughing night.  My face is cleansed, sloughed, and gets a break from all the peptides and retin-A creams (that I’ll explain later) because I apply a tanning serum.

Why a sunless tanning serum?  Well, I’ve found that tanned skin looks younger.  More camouflage.  Just ask our current President?

Next, I apply my eye cream which I’ll describe later.  Then I apply L’Oreal Paris Skin Care Sublime Bronze Self-Tanning Serum. Yes, you heard me right.  I apply it on my face.

I do this not only for my face but also my neck and decolletage.  The serum is in a pump bottle and I use only about three pumps on my face, about two more on my neck and about three on my decolletage.  I blend it evenly into each area before moving on to the next.

The secret is blending and blending until it begins to dry.  Then I just go to bed.  I don’t add anything else, except make sure it is washed off my hands, well.  It will stain your palms.  By the way, if I let it dry, it does not stain my clothes.

Cleansing.  On the other three nights when I just want to cleanse, I only use good old Noxema.  Again, I apply about a dime’s worth and massage it into my face, neck, and decolletage.  Then I remove it with a damp baby’s washcloth.  This leaves my face better than all the other cleansers, and it is a bargain.

You might be asking why I have Baby Washcloths in the house?  No, I have an empty nest, but here’s why I still have them.

I love the sloughing action it gives, plus it dries quickly.  We live in a hot, humid climate where some times of the year a regular wash cloth will not dry before it sours.  Also, these little guys are thin and easy to use.  They hold just enough water, but not enough to drip.

It is like using one of those make-up removing towelettes.  I use a washcloth a day and throw all of them in the wash about once a week.  I keep about a dozen of them, and they sit in my towel closet in a little stack.  Love my little wash clothes.  I hate splashing water on my face because it isn’t convenient.

Eye Cream.  So let’s talk now about eye creams.  I apply one every night.  My mother had huge bags under her eyes; and by the time I was in my mid to late 40s, mine were making me look like I never got any sleep.  I always slept well back then and tried to get at least eight hours, so that wasn’t the problem.  I think my problem was hereditary and stress.  At the time I was in a high-stress job.  I slept soundly because I was exhausted.

I tried every eye cream and concealer known to womankind. The best cream I found and still use today is an eye product called “Eye Doctor” by Cosmedix.  It is extremely pricey for my pocketbook, but I keep going back to it.  Plus the tiny tube lasts almost a year.  It takes only a little bit of the product.  You can find it here.

They have another product that I believe is almost as good.  It is called CoxMedix Opti Liquid Crystal Eye Serum.  It is about half the cost of Eye Doctor.

Moisturizing Cream.  I am over sixty, and a couple of spots and cell build up are a problem.  Apparently, I had some cell damage before I became so conscious of sun damage.  So the cream I use at night is vital to my routine.  I apply it sparingly to my face, neck, and decolletage.

I use a Tretinoin Cream USP .025% which I get from my dermatologist.  I don’t use it every night, as I don’t have to do so.  In my four day cycle, I use it the first and third days, which means I use it about every other day.     I have only been using this for about a year.  I had to actually ask my dermatologist for it.  She didn’t mention it first.  Boy, am I glad I did.  It is an amazing miracle skincare cream.

On the second day of the four-day cycle, I use again another I Image Skincare product called Ormedic Balance Bio-Peptide Creme.  I love the way this feels on my skin, and I can also use it on my neck and decolletage.  Sometimes I apply this, too, on the fourth night just before I apply my sunless tanning serum.  I make sure I use it sparingly, though.

However, my decolletage is looking more slack, so I began using a new cream from Arbonne called Age-Defying Neck Cream.  I think it is helping.  You can find it here.

So that is my nightly skincare routine.  It runs on a four-day cycle.  It is the same for every day except for the night creme and sunless tanning serum.  Day one and three, I use the Tretinoin Creme, day two and four I use the Bio-Peptide creme and day four I also use the sunless tanning serum.