Dancer, I have to say that in the week plus since I've been brushing my lips, they feel healthier, fuller and oh, so soft! What a great tip that was (considered I laughed at myself at first)!! Thanks! When you're in the mood to write more, go for it. I'm trying out this and that...a lot of fun AND finally some nice, personal things we can do to love and care for ourselves.

Sure Lady Jane,
I'll gather up some good ones and write more shortly.
dancer

Hi dancer...
I developed really bad allergies about 10 years ago. Suffered terribly with them for 4 years and that is when the dark circles started. The allergies have gotten somewhat better, but the circles remain. Maybe it's just my age (52). I had been to the doctor for allergies, and was given allergy medicine that didn't really help all that much. And yes, my eyes are a little puffy at times too. The dark circles are mainly under & near the outer corner of the eye. I haven't tried anything else except make up. I have read that Preparation H works for puffy eyes. I'm a little nervous about trying that! Maybe if I would slip the tube of Prep H into a pretty box and label it eye cream instead of butt cream......

( I'm back with these by popular demand. I thank the ladies that ask me for these and like them. It's something I can contribute to the forum and that makes me happy.)

Okay, warming up for more tips!
Feet: Feet are important, they are what you stand on everyday! Have a pedicure or give yourself one at least every 6 weeks or so! There is a miracle cream for feet! It will soften your feet, get rid of the dry skin, and it's magic! It is over the counter, "who ever thought of trying this," drug-store stuff. The name of it is: Kerasal. You want it, you need it and you need to use it. If you really want to help your feet, put the magic cream on them and wear socks. I'm telling you, you will see the cream is wonderful on your FIRST try.

Puffy eyes: What rocks the world and is least expensive is called: Hydrogel Undereye Recovery Patch. Find it at Drugstore.com or Beauty.com which is the same site, they are connected. This product is by earththerapeutics and there is an earththerapeutics.com. THIS patch under your eyes for awhile, although CHEAP, will keep your puffiness under control for DAYS at times! Each 2 patches cost a bit over one dollar and they are the secret that works! It works, it works.
If you are one who likes to spend money, the favorite of women is the Chanel eye cream that works on dark circles and puffiness. Others have a lot of hype and are good, but this one from Chanel is what those who do not know about the one above use. It is good, yessiree. Get the patches, be good to yourself and don't share this secret beyond this forum or they will catch on and raise the price. Learn to keep your beauty secrets! (See how much I love you guys here?)

If you are overweight, the one mistake you can make when needing to look nice is to wear untailored clothing! If you are a bit overweight, you will look great in structured clothing as crisp and clean as you can get them. You want a collar, you want cotton or any other fabric that is crisp and you want it to FIT. Even getting a tailor or tailoring yourself is perfect! Most of those with some weight on them go for just the opposite. That's fine to be comfortable but learn to be comfy in clothing that look like a suit or pants and a blazer and one that FITS!

A wardrobe needs, and you should spend money, as much as you can on the following (in black, grey, beige, a color that you look nice in and feel good wearing):
-A dress for dinners and cocktails.
-A white shirt of any kind that is nice on you and that is classic enough to wear forever.
- pants/slacks, that are a classic cut and beautifully made. Nice fabric, nice fit and ready to go.
-A trench coat. A trench goes to dinner over your dress or over your jeans. A trench goes anywhere and you can even ONLY wear your trench in a pinch! Buy a trench.
- a sweater, it can be a turtleneck, (best,) or any style that is classic but make sure you spend your money on it because you will use it over and over again. It is like gold, it goes with everything and looks great.
-One great skirt. A line, pencil skirt, any classic skirt that you invest some money in. Make sure it's cut well, it looks good on you, and that you spend some time trying on skirts.
-pearls, faux or real. Pearls go with everything and make you look dressed. They look good on anyone, anytime. Make them the classic length so they never get dated.

There are a few more pieces but if you invest dollars in these pieces and build around them, you will have a brilliant wardrobe and be ready for anything. Really nice wardrobes can be built with very few clothes! Just invest in the pieces that count and play with the rest! I know they sound like they are too boring but trust me, if you have them and if you buy them carefully and they are comfy, you will wear them forever and you will always have something to wear. Make them a mission.

Never put eyeliner on the bottom of your eye after you are thirty! Never, never wear eyeliner on bottom! It makes you look terrible and older. Put all the eyeliner and mascara on your TOP lashes and you will look ten years younger.

Wear bold lips or bold eyes but never BOTH, not ever! If you love your lipstick, then keep your eyes very simple. If you never leave home without your eyebrows done and your mascara, don't wear loud lipstick... Both worn together on women of a certain age, of ANY age, well, makes you look like you may do crack or charge,...if you know what I mean!

Low pony tails, ladies. NEVER high ones! Please don't EVER wear a high pony tail and NEVER wear a scrunchy, just like they told you on "Sex in the City," never wear a scrunchy. They are "out," and will never come back.

IF you wear ONE thing on your face and HATE make up, make it blush if you are...say, over 40. A bit of blush makes us look years younger and brighten our look. If you like to go naked faced, try a natural color blush and watch yourself look lovely, refreshed, younger and just, well, lovely! Try Blush, make friends with it. It's great if you ONLY wear it, but wear it if you only have time for one thing leaving the house. Check this out...

If you have wrinkles you hate, I've lots of tips.

Big secret "save me," trick of actors and such: If you don't have time to treat your face with goop, every morning, fill your bathroom sink with ice water and yes, SPLASH it on your face a bit. It will take away puffy eyes, close your pores and make you look all fresh and loveable! I promise. A sink of ice water is your friend. Most I know put their face in ice water after a certain age, every morning. I'm lazy, I only do it for public appearances. Still, it's a good thing.

I am giving tips that work for most races and back grounds. There are special tricks for different racial backgrounds too. These are equal opportunity tricks and fun things to do for yourself.

whew, it's fun, to give these now and again. Dotsie, brush your lips and be proud about it. Why not?

with soft lips and love,
dancer

Cookie,
I gave some ideas for puffy eyes in my post on tips. If you have dark eye circles, there are over the counter eye treatments that work to reduce the dark circles. I have dark circles under my eyes because I am European and if you have those, make up is the best way out. Some people find the dark circles sexy! I know fashion photographers for Great magazines that like natural dark circles. Puffiness is another problem all together. I gave some tips on that. There is a chiropractic move I have had done that worked well for puffiness. I'll try to describe it here:
Take your thumbs and put them in the corner of your eye. Push in and feel your eye socket, (the bone,) trace your thumbs along your eye socket pushing down on the bone all through that eye socket, working in to out. When you reach the end of your eye socket on the top, stop, do not circle to the bottom bone. Do that three times and do it slow in a massage mode. Just use your thumbs to trace your eye socket without lifting your thumbs and do it on the top.

After the top, take your forefinger and place it in the corner of your eye. Slide your finger, as you did your thumb a slight ways, this time, along your bottom eye socket. Stop when you have traced about to a place besides your nose and slide down then and that should slide your fingers down your sinuses. You should feel pressure on your sinuses clearing them as you slide down. Slide about to your lips to clear those sinus cavities. Do this as well, in a massage mode and do it three times.

This never fails to drain the puffiness out of my eyes. I had a chiropractor do it for me everytime I saw him for sometime so I do it myself because I like the effects.

You can try this and see when you do it in a mirror if it helps you. Again, it helps me. I have puffy eyes too and it solves those fairly well. There are products I listed in the tips that will do it as well.

If you are sleeping 8 hours and I mean EIGHT hours, and you have those dark circles, if you have had a doctor look at them and tell you they are normal, then I would do two things:
First I would love them because some think they are sexy and mysterious!
Second, take your concealer and you have two choices: waterproof by Lancome or any other. Lancome has a waterproof concealer that is wonderful if you want to invest in an eye concealer. You only use a bit and it lasts forever, and I mean forever. It is good so far as color and it stays where you put it. You can use a less expensive one of course, it is fine. ONLY conceal from the corner of your eye out to a slight bit around your eye socker. Don't make raccon rings and don't use a light color if it is too light for your face. If you use a light color it reflexs light and draws attention to your dark circles. It's better to blend in the concealer well and only in the corner of the eye. Use a color near your skin color. Think about leaving them if you like your eyes when they are less puffy. They could look pretty sexy, right? Think about it!

If these directions aren't clear I can try again! I hope something I've typed helps! Please let me know! We are sistas in the dark eye look!
dancer9

Lady Jane, I'm so happy you enjoy them! It's nice for me to have something to share with the forum.
I'm not an author, (yet,) but I have experiences in the strangest places! This is one. I wrote another group of fun things for you!
dancer

Thanks so much again, dancer! I love it! I'm turning into such a beauty now...LOL. What fun we all could have at a real girls P.J. party....trying all these things! I imagine it and smile I used to have girls night out when I was in ministry and we'd do all the make up and skin care things...even massage each other's feet. It was wonderful! I like it better now because I can add some wine to the mix Yeah, it's nice being me now. Keep 'em coming, dancer...whenever you've got the urge.

Wonderful tips Dancer! I am going to check out those products & techniques you suggested. Me and my "sexy" dark circles thank you.

Hey dancer, I agree with the tip of not using eyeliner on bottom eyelid when one ages ...and especially if one already has fine lines/wrinkles around eyes.

But geez, ....I haven't worn any eye makeup, not even mascara since I was 20 yrs. old. It's been 28 yrs. since I've worn the stuff. My eyes feel 'weighted'/tired with the stuff on. I just gave up. Partially not wearing eye makeup because am relying just natural black lashes ....to give me the natural dark emphasis. For many Asian women, not having a deep eyelid, just well..for some women like me, just don't bother.

I agree that many women and men could benefit from wearing some crisp, tailored shirts with a standup collar. It is disappointing how the quality of tailoring has gone downhill in the past decade..unless one pays more money. 'cause I used to sew tailored blouses (yes with French cuffs, with standup collars that were properly stiffened with interfacing material) and tailored, fully-lined jackets (with French pockets and buttonholes, etc.), so I am abit particular in quality and longevity about clothing that I buy at any price.

Turtlenecks with a flattering colour that don't sag nor pill over time, are always classic.

Pearls...I haven't seen women in my(our) age bracket wear round white pearls in past 10 years. At this time, I would not choose to wear them. It would date me. Instead I wear freshwater irregular-shaped small pearls...might be done in unusual design.

For longest while, I've been wearing primarily silver earrings. Right now, am not eager to wear gold..I don't have much in gold anyway but on me, gold might date me at this time. More creative, artsy designs exist in silver. At least in earrings which is the....only type of jewellery I wear. Which means real silver (since my earlobes are allergic to costume jewellery) is cheaper than real gold.

I don't wear rings at all, but I've tried, even when I was single to wear a ring or 2. Found it a hassle when working with paints, gels, etc. and concerned about forgetting to put ring(s) back on fingers. I gave up wearing necklaces/chains for past 10 years except maybe once or twice annually for special occasions. I gave up wearing nailpolish 20 years ago. For unknown reasons, when I wore nail polish, my fingers felt colder. Now focus just on keeping my nails always clean and neatly shaped.

It seems like fashion has gotten..simpler and simpler for me as I age.

The more I cared about/spent more time on exercise and health, the less ..ironically, I cared about wearing the latest fashion. Which is strange, because usually when a person is in better physical shape/fitness, they want to buy/wear a snappy new wardrobe, better makeup, etc.

One of my sist4ers who lost 50 lbs., earns a sizable income as a doctor, did not run out and spend a pile of money on a gorgeous wardrobe after discarding her "fat" clothing. She just found it great to buy occasional nice but competitively priced clothing pieces at a smaller size ...and look better because she was more fit. She felt "freer" to choose from a wider range of styles and colours given a slimmer body shape. She was spending her wardrobe dollars like a recent new university graduate, not as a salaried professional with a good income and working for past 10 years.

Oh well, she paid off her house mortgage...

Hi Orchid! I agree with most you say works for yourself. I've a good Asian friend and one of the things she does beautifully is know how to adorn herself with jewerly.

I have dark eyelashes myself and when I am tired, I just curl them up with an eyelash curler to open my eyes and go.

My Asian friend who has a gift for adorning herself, her way has a knack for her jewelry. She wears a white gold chain that is of a unique design, and it is as long as say...her collar. It is a beautiful chain and it is well made and an investment. She wears this chain with everything and wears small white gold hoop earrings. Very small hoops. The necklace has become "her," and without it she would not be as together as she looks, yet she achieves that "together," look with this one chain necklace no matter if she is in jeans and a T shirt. It is lovely on her and no one could pull it off except perhaps and Asian woman who can wear small and simple jewelry with such an impact.

I thought I'd mention that in cases it gave you any ideas. Again, her chain is unique in it's links, but it is a simple and short chain.

dancer

P.S. You are Asian and that means you are classy and beautiful with very little adornment, Perhaps a natural lip color if your face does look good with adornment and your lashes a bit curled do the trick. Still, have you tried a bit, just a bit, of natural powder blush on the apples of your cheeks and feathering out and up towards your ears? It might look lovely if it is the only make up you wear and it is subtle.
The thing I admire about my Asian friend is the LITTLE amount of work required to make her beautiful! Less is more for her and she is lovely.
D.