SOPHIE SAYS
ELLE BEAUTY DIRECTOR SOPHIE BERESINER TACKLES your BEAUTY WOES and FRAGRANCE DILEMMAS. THIS MONTH, HOW TO get RID of DARK CIRCLES for GOOD
Beauty director Sophie Beresiner on how to banish dark circles for good
I’m struggling to sleep and it’s affecting my face! My concealer isn’t holding up; I look tired. What’s the best one to use?
HANNAH, SURREY
“I HAVE AN ARSENAL of TRICKS UP MY PILLOWCASE - be LESS TIRED, LOOK LESS TIRED; SIMPLE BEAUTY MATHEMATICS ”
I could wax lyrical about Hourglass Veil Retouch and its magical concealing ability (it’s a game-changer), but I’d prefer to unpack your eye bags and put them away so they don’t clutter the hallway – I mean, your face. Your problem is not with concealer, it’s with intermittent insomnia, and it’s something of a busy-person epidemic right now. I, too, am a sufferer, so I have an arsenal of tricks up my pillowcase, as it were. Be less tired, look less tired; simple beauty mathematics.
The first useful thing I can impart is Pranayama breathing. If you control your breath properly, you can calm your body and mind and regulate your heart rate. Please look up a YouTube tutorial and give it a go. It’s so simple and I find it helps me with sleep, with anxiety, with anxiety-induced sleeplessness. But it takes a little concentration and more space to explain than I have here. Also magnesium citrate is a double-tasking muscle relaxant that also helps your, ahem, movements in the morning.
Since my role here is less sleep therapist, more a beauty prescription service, there are products I can suggest that really, honestly help. And if they can multi-task to take advantage of your most cell-regenerative hours (apparently it peaks at 2am), then even better.
I highly recommend smelling your way to better sleep – lavender has long been recognised as sleep-inducing. It’s thought to slow the nervous system and, because your olfactory system is next door to the emotional centre in your brain, smelling will release feel-good chemicals in your body. This is why pillow sprays usually contain lavender, but the Susanne Kaufmann Pillow Spray also has orange oil to help respiratory passages – so good for snoring. This Works Sleep + Hair Elixir slowly releases essential oils for better sleep, plus argan and jojoba oils for relaxation, so you sleep better and wake up better. More of that, you say? OK; Aromatherapy Associates is the authority on using essential oils – its five-step Relax and Sleep Edit is carefully curated to soothe skin and balance the senses, plus the ritual of doing the steps makes you feel like you’re actively investing in your skin and your sleep.
So, on to the beautifying. Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair Eye Complex Recovery helps fix the visual effects of no sleep and even exposure to blue light at night (when you look at your phone when you can’t sleep. Bad! Don’t do that!). Murad Revitalixir Recovery Serum, £7O, contains cannabis (good for sleep and skin) and refreshes and plumps skin so it looks like you’ve slept well, even if you haven’t. Oh, and that Hourglass concealer. Hides all manner of sins, but if you need super-coverage, try a peach-toned primer first, to counter the purple tint of your eye bags.
I will leave you with the best news you’ll hear all day: there are studies that show cutting out carbs can make sleep worse. Yes. This is your excuse to eat pasta before bed – take it.