Confession: I am a side sleeper. I know this because every time I wake up there’s a little wet spot on my pillow from my own saliva and when I splurge on eyelash extensions, one side comes way faster than the other. I tell myself, this is fine because I sleep on a silk pillowcase, but it is something I’d like to work toward changing. While my dedication to fierce lashes has its limitations, skin care is something I am a more rigid about. For this reason, I figured putting a hydrating, luxury skincare product on my face at night should prevent me from burring one side of my face into a pillow. It did… mostly, but more on that later.
^Each of the unedited photos above was taken one month apart. The first one is after no treatment. The second was one day after microneedling and the third was after using Dr. Brandt’s mask, antioxidents and microneedling and jade rolling at home + wearing makeup which includes a light concealer.
Diet, stress, aging, antibiotics, and even harsh beauty products can strip away beneficial microorganisms, upsetting your complexion’s perfectly balanced ecosystem. All that puts you on the fast track to breakouts (see my chin), blemishes, dry patches and crepey skin. With the Biotic Balancing Complex, Dr. Brandt Skincare developed a technology that supports the skin’s natural bioshield (that’s a real word), optimizing skin health. Their Recovery Sleeping Mask is powered by Biotic Balancing Complex that works to strengthen the skin’s ecosystem by balancing naturally occurring flora on the skin’s surface while fortifying the skin barrier.
I slept with it for a week hoping it would do all that it promises and magically turn me into a back sleeper. On night one, I had 2 glasses of wine at dinner and buried my face into my pillow per usual. I blame the wine. By the second (and decidedly soberer) night, I slept on my side, but with my face up to the ceiling. when I woke up, there was no drool on my pillow and the mask seemed to be mostly equally distributed so I am assuming I slept like that the whole night (despite sleeping with a toddler… winning!) By the fourth morning, I could notice a difference. Success! My skin was much more hydrated, the crepey undereye skin I have was much less pronounced. I smiled big so my crows feet would appear. It’s not something I like doing in the mirror, but it’s an excellent way to test the effectiveness of skincare products. Crepey skin and crows feet were less pronounced.
I still had bad dark circles. That’s something I’ve noticed since childhood. I had heard that microneedling can help with undereye bags and thinning skin or crepey skin so despite fearing needles, I let a doctorrepeatedly puncture my skin with tiny needles. It was amazing, but since that time-consuming treatment is not sustainable for me, I added microneedling to my at-home routine. This article talks about it at length and I can only add that I strongly recommend it. If you can, do it both at your physician’s office and follow up with at-home treatments because the results you get with your doctor are much faster and then numb you so it actually is less painful than doing it on yourself.
If like me, one of your resolutions was to hit the gym more often, it’s time to get serious about antioxidants. Why? Exercise creates free-radicals which cause cell damage due to oxidative stress. That sounds scary, but simply taking supplements with antioxidants will prevent cellular damage while strengthening your body’s defenses. I added Dr. Brandt’s Antioxidant Water Booster supplement to my water 1x/daily. It has green tea in it which has been proven to significantly interfere with the glycation process while stimulating collagen creation. I was not drinking green tea regularly before because I don’t like the taste, but the supplement doesn’t taste like green tea in the least and it’s 100% natural. For the record, it tastes ever-so-faintly like the Mio drops my MIL uses.
The last thing I owe my newly replenished skin to is jade rolling. I use this roller in the morning after applying my CE Ferulic Acid and it feel so good to have a little face massage and has reduced my under eye circles noticeably. P.S. I have heard this is a decent alternative to CE Ferulic Acid if you don’t want to spring for it. I highly recommend CE Ferulic Acid because I’ve seen what it can do for skin and one bottle truly lasts all year for me, but I do cringe a little at the price despite knowing first hand that it is so worth it and it is 20% off right now. 🙂 
