As long as the coronavirus doesn’t ruin the party, We’re just under 5 months away from the Tokyo Olympics so I thought I’d do a bit of an eye check with you to see if your sufficiently stocked of eye cream, masks and concealer to make it through the long olympic nights!

1. Under-eye bags bigger than my New York suitcase? Check.
2. Red-rimmed eyes redder than after a long lunch that turns into a long night? Check.
3. A general haggard-type appearance that comes from staying up too late to watch the heats of the swimming, only to set your alarm a couple of hours later for the finals? Check.

Answer “yes” to any one of the above and I would suggest you have The Fever. Olympic Fever.

Once The Fever sets in, it’s pointless to fight it.

Instead, arm yourself with these five eye products. They won’t cure The Fever but they will go a long way to disguising the symptoms. Don’t forget to try this list of best night creams for optimum effect. There’s nothing worse than rocking into work with puffy eyes.

Oh, and just quietly … the below suggestions come in very handy should you partake in one of the long-lunch-turns-into-a-long-night sessions I alluded to above. The fight against bags under your eyes is real and neverending!

While you’re sitting on the couch watching the world’s best athletes fight it out, scoffing down a glass of red wine and a block of chocolate, give your eyes a fighting chance by applying an eye mask. Look for soothing, cooling and calming formulas.

Estee Lauder Stress Relief Eye Mask (Pack of 10) $65

I’ll always apply some sort of eye cream as part of my morning skincare routine in the vain hope that it will make a scrap of difference. Well, even if the wrinkles and dark circles persist, having a cool, soothing roll-on formula to apply to your under-eyes is the bomb. Don’t just do it first thing … keep applying all day.

NIVEA Visage Anti-Wrinkle Q10 Plus Eye Cream $18.97

Concealer has been my makeup best friend since giving birth for the first time 17 years ago. Well, not actually right from the moment of birth … but you know, that really ugly time afterwards when babies think that it’s super fun to wake every few hours during the night? Yes, that time. That’s when the dark circles moved in, set up camp and they’ve refused to budge since.

Napoleon Perdis The One Concealer (new) $36

Shhh, don’t tell concealers but illuminators are my second-best makeup friend and fast vying for best makeup friend status. Feel the top of your cheekbones, underneath your eye socket? That’s exactly where you want to paint a line of illuminator to brighten up your eyes when they feel anything but bright. Blend using your fingertips otherwise it will look like misplaced luminescent zinc cream.

Australis Paparazzi Perfect High Definition Brightener $11.95

This is a little makeup artistry trick that I don’t use everyday but pull out on-demand as required. By required, I mean whenever the rims of my eyes are looking like I’m a member of the Cullen family.  I find the white waterline pencils a little neon and too obvious on my eyes but a pencil with a pinkish tone works wonders to brighten things up without making me look like the toy doll I never had as a child. If your eyes are a little sensitive, it may tickle … you need to draw the pencil on top of the inside lid at the bottom. If you’re really tricky, pull out your top lid a little and draw inside that too.

Benefit Eye Bright Pencil $37

Check out all of these recommendations, and let me know what you think in the comments! Also check out more of our beauty recommendations.

Dealing With Grey Hair

One of the more common and obvious signs that we are entering our mature age is the fact that for many of us, our crowning glory becomes looking a little less lustrous and a little more seasoned. Salt and pepper hair can arrive very prematurely if your parents passed down the dodgy grey gene. In researching for this series, I am starting to blame my Mum and Dad for everything!

Sometime, maybe in your late twenties, you will be brushing your hair and notice a silvery strand poking out. Say hello to your future. I still recall finding my first grey hair. In fact, I found it along with a dozen others.  Horrified, I pulled each one out by the shaft, one at a time. While this is surely one way to get rid of grey hair, your can’t keep this up for a lifetime!

FACT – despite the rumour, if you pull out a grey hair, six more do not come to its funeral.

FACT – If I pulled out all of my grey hair, I would resemble Sinead O’Connor.

Here are more facts on why our hair goes grey

Each hair follicle contains a finite number of pigment cells, which produce a chemical called melanin. It is this melanin that determines your hair colour. As you get older, these pigment cells start to pass away peacefully in their sleep. Which is the only reason I think of why you can wake up with new grey hairs overnight.

“That can’t be right? That wasn’t there yesterday…”

“Nutritional and hormonal factors can affect hair colour as well as stress but, by and large, the predisposition to go grey earlier or later in life is genetic.” Well, gee thanks Cosmo..

There are some things you can do to assist in the slowing down of going grey gracefully IF you prefer to remain faithful to your chosen colour. They include doing yoga (seriously! Is that the answer to EVERYTHING?) stop smoking, eat foods containing copper such as yams and turnips and stop hooking onto refined sugar and white flour. So what are your options for a natural defense? Lets recap.

How To Stop Grey Hair

• Give up the cigarettes
• Reduce your stress levels
• Eat copper-rich foods
• Eat more eggs, fish – foods high in amino acids
• Cut out the sugar and white flour
• Add a multi-vitamin into your daily routine
• Try Yoga

Or you can do what I do, and turn to ye olde faithful 4.15 Iced Chestnut and let the box do the talking. That’s right ladies, a simple hair dye is often the easiest path to enlightenment.

But you do not have to fake it. Many folks are embracing their lack of pigment cells and are working with it, producing amazing results!

But if you want to fight the white, cut down on your stress and up your intake of Vitamin B-12. You can always spend a lot of time and appointments visiting the specialists who can check out the function of your pituitary or thyroid glands. Or you can get all Donna Hay-esque and whip up a hearty yam and turnip stew. Or turn to the chemist and get yourself a box of happy. Which is the cheat’s way. Which is MY way.

A Cure for Grey Hair?

Thanks to a team of European scientists, grey hair may soon become a thing of the past… but would you truly want to permanently reverse the aging process that sprouts out of the top of your head?

Imagine all the beautiful white-haired older people you know – now imagine their beautiful older person faces with their young person hair (try not to think of Rupert Murdoch’s bad hair dye job from a couple of years ago as you do this.) According to a new research report published online in The FASEB Journal people who are going grey “develop massive oxidative stress via accumulation of hydrogen peroxide in the hair follicle, which causes our hair to bleach itself from the inside out.”

Most importantly, says the report, this massive accumulation of hydrogen peroxide can be remedied with a “proprietary treatment developed by the researchers described as a topical, UVB-activated compound called PC-KUS (a modified pseudocatalase).”

Whatever that is. The short story is that messy hair dyes may be a thing of the past. (The new research shows the same treatment would work for the skin pigmentation condition, vitiligo.)

Although your first instinct might be yes, when can I get it – would you really want to stop the natural ageing process?

Take a look at these images and use our homepage to tell us what you think…

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Via Advanced Style

Going grey. Stop worrying about it, as you are only making it worse!