Romy Raves

In my opinion, French skincare products always strike me as beautifully made, high quality, luxurious, and results oriented–like someone really cares and puts their heart and soul into making these products. Skincare made in France often has a very distinct addictive fresh citrusy smell and always feels so indulgent going on my skin.

Case in point: SAMPAR Urban Active is an inspired line of skincare products made in France that effectively target the signs of aging as well as environmental pollutants. I am just starting to discover the wonderful products in this line and so far it has lived up to my expectations of products made in France.

My current addiction discovery from this line is the Sampar Nocturnal Line-up Mask. OMG! This is one fabulous, amazing, results oriented anti-aging product. Basically, you apply this lovely instantly nourishing and hydrating mask at night before you go to bed, and viola you wake up with visibly refreshed, supple, energized, firmer looking skin! I just love what a noticeable difference it makes in my skin and I totally dig the very French fresh green scent (the smell of luxury skincare IMO.) BTW this is a great product to use on those nights you stay up way too late but want to look awake and refreshed in the morning.

So what are the magical ingredients behind the Nocturnal Line-Up Mask you ask? It has a proprietary anti-aging cocktail called Age Antidote Complex, which is a powerful anti-wrinkle complex that contains:

• Adenosine-a cutting edge active ingredient that stimulates the production of collagen, elastin and hyaluronic acid during the night
• Biopeptides-diminish wrinkle depth and length by stimulating the cellular renewal process
• Soy Isoflavones-stimulate cellular regeneration and the production of collagen, diminishing wrinkles and improves firmness
• Horse Chestnut Extract-fortifies and tones the facial contours as well as diminishes redness

This product is definitely worth checking out and while it doesn’t come cheap (about $95), I think the results are well worth it and little product goes a long way towards preserving your youthful glow.

What is your late night secret weapon product? You know, the one that makes you look like a million bucks in the morning? Do Tell, I promise not to give away your secret

Happy New New Year Beautiful Ones! It’s time for an amazing giveaway, don’t ya think? During the Fall, I raved about a wonderful line of  Skin Care for 40 Somethings  that has anti-aging peptide technology that can help you treat your aging related skin concerns. Well, today is your lucky day because I am giving away 2 full sets of all four of the Striking Skin Care Products to TWO lucky Romy Raves Readers–each set is valued at $170!  You don’t want to miss this fab giveaway. 

It’s simple to enter this giveaway contest, all that you need to do is follow the easy steps below for your chance to win this amazing set of products:

• If you are on Twitter, you MUST Tweet or Retweet @romyraves and mention the Striking Skin Care Giveaway and you MUST link back to the original blog post: http://romyraves.com/2009/11/17/skin-care-for-40-somethings/

        OR

• Sign up for a FREE email subscription to RomyRaves.com simply by clicking: http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=RomyRaves&loc=en_US 

   

   

  AND

• Everyone who enters this contest MUST ALSO leave a comment HERE ON THIS POST telling us:
  • If you Tweeted or Retweeted about this post OR became a RR Subscriber (or just tell us that you are already a RR subscriber)
  • What are your favorite anti-aging products and why do you love them? This beauty junkie is always looking for something new

The Fine Print:

• Please make sure to include your name & e-mail address
• Anonymous posts will not be counted since we won’t be able to identify you
• Only ONE entry per person; You are only eligible to win, if you have not won any Romy Raves giveaways within the last 3 months
• Comments, Twitter Tweets and RTs, and email subscriptions will be tallied and a winner will be chosen by using Random.org
• You must have a U.S. shipping address in order to enter
• You have until Sunday, January 31st, 2010 at midnight (PST) to enter
• The winner(s) will be contacted via e-mail for current shipping information

Good Luck,

Romy, The One Who Raves

If you follow beauty trends at all, you probably know that there has been an emerging trend in skincare towards using ingredients with caffeine to wake up the skin and make it glow. This sleep deprived mother and career woman needs all the help she can get in this department, and the right perk-up products make a WORLD of difference.

Fresh (one of my all time favorite brands) has been using instant results ingredients like caffiene for a while–in products like Lotus Eye Gel (one of my Hall of Fame Favorite products) because it hydrates and wake up the eyes rapidly. And now, Fresh is using Black Tea (as a skincare ingredient, not for drinking) in several of their products because it is a wonderful anti-aging, hydrating and instant results ingredient. I have become addicted to a couple of products in Fresh’s Black Tea line:

Black Tea Age-Delay Eye  ($65)

This delightful eye cream utilizes the powerful antioxidant and enzyme inhibiting properties of black tea to firm and smooth the eye area. This eye cream hydrates, maintains elasticity and firmness, diminishes under-eye circles, reduces puffiness, and instantly illuminates the eye area.

The active ingredients include: Black Tea extract which defends against free radicals and maintains the skin’s elasticity and firmness; Lychee seed extract which stimulates collagen growth; Blackberry leaf extract which preserves collagen and elastin; Peptides and antioxidants to diminish under-eye circles and reduce puffiness; Hyaluronic spheres to hydrate, smooth, and firm the skin; Illuminating microspheres to instantly brighten the eyes; and rose flower oil and cucumber flower extract are soothing and smell fresh and clean.

What I love about this eye product is that it is the perfect amount of moisture for my eyes, absorbs instantly, quickly refreshes and perks up my eyes and has a yummy fresh cucumber scent. I definitely notice diminished puffiness and a smoothing of my fine lines after I use this cream.

Black Tea Instant Perfecting Mask ($85)

This is an intense hydrating treatment mask that immediately reveals softer, more supple, and younger-looking skin. This innovative product firms the complexion and improves the skin’s elasticity; it leaves skin feeling velvety, soft and smooth and looking resilient and radiant; it smooths the texture of the skin and decreases skin roughness; and it hydrates, nourishes, soothes and improves skin tone.

The active ingredients include: Black tea to refine the skin’s texture, enhance radiance and smoothness; Lychee seed extract; Firming polysaccharides which give an immediate lifting effect and work to reduce fine lines and wrinkles over time; and Hyaluronic spheres to immediately hydrate and plump up the skin.

I absolutely LOVE this product! It is uber cool to use and touch because it has a very silky lighter than air texture that glides on beautifully, is slightly cooling calming hydrating and plumping all at the same time. My skin adores this mask, especially when it is dry and irritated (like now). My face drinks in the moisture and it instantly looks plumper, refreshed and brighter (I use it before special occassions for the that ‘wow’ effect). And I think the best part about this product is that the user experience is SO good, you feel it working to heal and transform your skin. You can find all these wonderful Fresh products HERE.

Rumor has it that 40 is the new 30 (lucky me!), so beauty companies are smartening up and creating anti-aging products that address the concerns of our maturing skin. Let me introduce you to Striking Skin Care.

Striking is a wonderful new line of skin care products that I recently discovered which are specifically marketed to women over 40 (woo hoo!). Supposedly, us forty-something babes (and our flux of hormones) tend to have more age related skin concerns than our younger counterparts. We tend to be more concerned about fine lines and wrinkles, so Striking has seized the opportunity and designed a line to address these more focused aging concerns.

The line consists of four anti-aging skincare products: Multi-Vitamin Cleanser, Multi-Peptide Serum, Restorative Moisture Cream and a Rejuvenating Eye Cream which all contain a proprietary blend of SmartPeptides which stimulates collagen, reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, and increases the firmness of the skin. This advanced technology helps your skin feel firmer and more supple, and look younger, vibrant and refreshed—this is certainly something I am looking for in my skin care, how about you?

What I am really liking about this new line is the simplicity of it all. Simple and clean packaging, a simple four step regimen, and straightforward effective products. I like the clean fresh smell of all the products and I especially like how gentle it is on my skin–I think even those of you with sensitive skin would be pleased with the gentle efficacy of this line. I especially like the Multi-Peptide Serum which absorbs instantly and noticeably hydrates and slightly firms my skin. I have noticed a subtle shift in my skin since using this line–softer, brighter, and perhaps a bit younger looking. And while this line is geared towards us older broads, I really think is gentle enough to benefit any skin type young or ‘mature’.

If you would like to find out more about this inspired line or purchase products please visit www.strikingskincare.com And I would love to know what your age related skin concerns are and what products you love using that help soften the blow. Make sure to check back next week for your chance to win a Striking Skincare Set of your very own–I will be giving away 2 sets valued at $170 each!!

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am obsessed with good active skincare and have been since I was a teenager. Being a forty-something-year-old, I am now constantly on the hunt for the best anti-aging skincare products on the beauty landscape, and given that I consider myself a maven in this category when I find something good that changes my skin, I am over the moon. I get even more excited when I find anti-aging products that are organic and actually work. Let me introduce you to a wonderful new line of products I discovered over the summer at Cosmoprof called Skin 2 Skin

Skin 2 Skin is an advanced, anti-aging, natural, certified-organic, cosmeceutical skin care line made with cutting-edge peptide technology. The products contain antioxidants, anti-inflammatory agents, natural antibiotics, moisturizers and natural UV protection and are formulated without parabens, petroleum, mineral oil, paraffin, synthetic color or fragrance, PABA , harsh-chemicals, carcinogens and animal ingredients/animal testing. And to add to their environmentally friendly appeal, this company adheres to strict green practices by using local ingredients, lightweight, recyclable packaging and labels with non-toxic inks. In addition to all the amazing benefits that I mention above, the reason that I am loving this line is because it feels incredible on my skin and it delivers beautiful results. I have been giving this line a thoughtful trial since August and I am truly pleased with the results (even though I am historically skeptical about the effectiveness of organic products). My skin is more even, supple, smoother and healthy looking and it just keeps getting better. Today, I would like to tell you about a couple of my favorite standout products in the line:

Anti-Aging Revitalizing Eye Gel

I am all about the eyes, specifically with keeping mine looking youthful, fresh and awake and this great new eye gel really does the trick. It absorbs quickly, has an appealing cooling sensation (which makes me feel like it is really working), reduces puffiness, dark circles and fine lines and leaves the perfect amount of moisture around my eyes. I also really like that all of the Skin 2 Skin products are designed to impact and reverse the undesirable signs of photoaging (the build-up of sun damage on our skin that makes us look weathered and old, who needs that? Not me!) I really love the way my eyes look after I apply this product (awake and hydrated), it is a subtle but noticeable difference that makes me smile.

Skin 2 Skin’s Anti-Aging Revitalizing Eye Gel contains a proprietary concentration of aloe vera, arnica oil, noni juice, white and green tea, cucumber and horsetail extracts and ginkgo. These natural anti-oxidants (which sound more like food or vitamin supplements) all work together to reduce puffiness, visibly brighten, nourish the cells and protect the skin from harmful sun damage. Love it!

Anti-Sagging Renewal Serum

I absolutely fell in love with this product from the very beginning because it is one of those high tech, super cool feeling products that instantly changes the look and feel of your skin. Immediately after I apply this fast absorbing product, my skin feels silky and looks smooth—and then the next morning my skin is transformed (with the help of the other fab products in this line). My skin feels wonderful to the touch and it looks a bit more youthful and even toned each time I use this skincare regimen.

The Anti-Sagging Renewal Serum is formulated with a high concentration of Matrixyl, an innovative anti-aging ingredient that constantly reminds our cells to replenish water. Matrixyl significantly decreases the appearance of surface wrinkles, strengthens elasticity, promotes tissue repair and gives the skin a firmer more youthful appearance.

I could go on and on about these wonderful products that truly work as a system to turn back the hands of time and undo the stupid sun worshipping mistakes that we all made as kids, but I will quit while I am ahead.You can buy these fabulous products HERE and as an added incentive all Romy Raves Readers will get a 20% discount on their first purchase using the Promotion Code: Firstbuy.

Please stay tuned for a couple of AMAZING giveaways of these transformational products coming soon.