To Those Taking The Time…

To those of you taking even teeny bits of time to chat with me on-line, thank you. Y’all know who you are: Kent, Ewa, Chris…and we all know you don’t have to. I’m going to keep this part very short, but that is not because this is a matter short on importance to me. The past few years have been very hard for me…very. I can not overstate enough how many smiles it has brought to my days just having someone respond to me from time to time. Thank you <3

A General Note:

I know it’s April Fool’s day, but this is definitely not a joke! I even considered posting last night so that nobody would even suspect that, but alas, I was running too short on time. I am going to be taking the next month of from posting. I am just super burnt out, working on restructuring some of Tony’s therapy hours, and I need some extra space in my life to take care of me and do otherwise non-essential things like assemble puzzles, read trashy novels, and binge watch Season 2 of Bridgerton or Madre Solo Hay Dos. I know I promised to head into April with a speech therapy update, but I want to feel refreshed enough to give it all of the attention and love the therapist involved deserves for her hard work and efforts on our family’s behalf…so that’s coming first part of May after I’ve had a bit of time off for myself.

Since I am not going to be posting for the next month, but we are in the height of allergy season where I live, and I know I am not the only one experiencing eye-related symptoms that can interfere with a person’s make-up routine (or even being able to see properly for that matter!), I am going to put down a quick but photo intensive run through of how I deal with some of that for me here in this post before I get into any reading recommendations.

Allergies Got Your Eyes Puffed?

So, this is how I looked March 29 after my morning routine:

But, I definitely didn’t start out that way. It started like this:

And, I had taken an Allegra and 3 Vistiril before bed. I also use an antihistamine eyedrop in the mornings. And, on the morning I took the above pictures, which was March 30 (I was running a tight schedule on the 29th, so didn’t picture the swelling that morning, but it was actually worse), I had gotten a little bit more than 7 hours of sleep, so…definitely not the culprit. Those of you who can drink copious amounts of caffeine may not have this problem to this extent (it’s a diuretic), I know I never realized exactly how many of my allergy symptoms the caffeine was masking until I developed POTS and became unable to tolerate anything but the most minimal amounts. So, this is what I did:

First, put on some caffeine eye patches. Start the morning routine…part of which needs to include those antihistamine eye drops! But trust me, when you’re this puffy, you’ll need far more than that to save you. While I’m eating breakfast, I’m going to hold frozen bits of paper towels over the swollen areas. This will take quite a bit more of the swelling down, and then I’m going to hit it with a cooling stick before I do any of my priming or makeup routine.

Strategically, it’s important to think about the placement of your eye shadows, because for me, everything I shared still won’t fix every last bit of swelling if it’s a bad pollen kind of day. If I am struggling with this problem, I will put a darker matte all along the base of any areas that are still swollen, because that will visually make them fall back to someone looking at my face. I will also assemble my eyeshadow in ways that are going to pull the eye in multiple directions (like the very first picture shown above), making it harder to focus on the swelling…such as darker spots on both corners of my eye lid, different colors above and below, an intense inner corner highlight and a spot that is more intensely highlighted just below the arch of my brow. This can even be done with neutrals, just carry a mid tone neutral matte all through the swollen parts.

There will be some issues that you can’t get around quickly or easily. The skin will have some extra lines from having been recently swollen and deflated. That can be seen a bit better in these pictures I took to text to Andy after a haircut I gave our son this past week: eye shadow can settle into those deflation lines, and they will be visible no matter what you do. However, using a cream based eye primer with a silicone based pore filler will help minimize this a bit. Be careful again, not to use to much of that pore primer or everything will crease. In the future, I have considered purchasing something like a Nira to see if that will help make those lines go away quicker after the worst part of my allergy season, but that’s an expense I’m not up to yet, so it’s a game right now of how to depuff the eyes and make them look as close to normal as possible.

Something to avoid: These are looks (shown below) I did last week before the swelling started. Notice the lighter colors over the part of the skin just above the crease near the inner corners…if you do that, it’s not going to do anything to mask any residual swelling…you need a darker shade to basically contour that out visually. Hope that helps, my fellow allergy sufferers <3

And, if all of the changes happening via age or allergies are affecting how you feel about yourself, I’d like to reference the sentiment in Leorah Hallel Goldberg’s review of the “Still Pretty” palette (linked here)…whatever your age (I’ll be 46 in May, so I definitely get some of what she’s saying), size (I’ve been a size 20 before, so again…her comments on that resonate), allergy symptoms (not really addressed, but every allergy sufferer knows problems related to this can dramatically alter a person’s appearance in ways others can be critical of): life changes each of us in some way, and “you are still pretty!”

Some Reading To Consider

Music May Be Just As Powerful As Exercise At Improving Mental Health, Research Says, by Arielle Weg for Prevention Magazine

I read an original summary of this article on a Spanish News App, and it reports on a study which concluded that music was has just as powerful of a positive effect on mental and physical health as exercise. Good to know in difficult times, and good to know if something has impacted one’s ability to be physically active I think!

The Ex-Hex, by Erin Sterling

I read this because it was listed by Amanda (from Makeup.Just.For.Fun, a great YouTube channel to be aware of for anyone who wants reliable and through reviews on all things Colourpop) in her February favorites. And you know, after reading it, I agree it was a cute and fun book! Definitely has some swearing and sexuality that won’t be in keeping with the standards of someone looking for a clean read. So if clean is a must for you, be aware this definitely isn’t that! The book starts out with a heart broken young witch who casts a vodka-influenced curse on her ex-boyfriend. I think part of the fun is not knowing the rest of the plot-line, so you won’t get it from me. But if you want something other than puzzles or music to distract you during stressful times, this could be a quick and fun read for you.