face cream / beauty /middleage /lifestyle /skincare

My friend Gemma turned up for the weekend bearing gifts. Firstly, a bottle of organic Prosecco. It tasted fantastic, without the slightly synthetic aftertaste I find lots of Prosecco seems to have these days,. Few bear little resemblance to the light, pale Italian fizz I remember drinking 20 odd years ago. But, this was like the real stuff, unlikely to cause headaches, night-sweats or palpations, (that is, unless you drink several bottles – I can’t vouch for that.)

….But I digress. She also gave me some LaCura Caviar Night Cream, which she swears is the best night cream she’s ever used and the packaging was certainly lovely. Then I realized both gifts were from Aldi, the low-cost supermarket that wins all the awards.

The LaCura Caviar Night Cream costs just £6.99. That’s right! I said £6.99. “Have a look at Graziadaily.co.uk” Gemma said, “They rave about the LaCura range!” ………. As do Woman&Home, Mumsnet, The Independent and the Daily Mail it turns out.

It’s been described as comparable, (or nearly,) to the La Prairie Caviar Collection, the Swiss super-expensive skincare range often promoted in magazines, but at £292 for 50ml, out of most people’s league.

The Aldi LaCura Caviar Night Cream contains ingredients that certainly seem to promise the youthfulness we all dream of: Hyaluronic Acid, which improves hydration and stimulates the production of collagen, maintaining the elasticity of the skin, (so important as we age,) and Snow Algae, clinically proven to extend the life of cells and replace damaged cells, (equally important as we age.) Add to these, actual Caviar Extracts, which deliver nutritive benefits to reduce signs of ageing and active ingredients to detoxify and you’ve got a combination of ingredients as good as anything I’ve seen in other night creams on the market.

Some beauty writers compared the effects of La Prairie and LaCura after testing over a 4 week period and La Prairie did come out slightly better, but then for the sake of those people who have forked out £292 I’d rather hope it would! However, it has to be said, the praise for LaCura is very high. It’s too early for me to make a massive judgment, as I’ve only used it for 2 days, but I will let you know in 4 weeks….What I can say is that it really does feel nourishing. So far so good!

BTW If you’re wondering about my headband, it’s an old trick of mine….cut off one leg of a pair of tights (I mean, when was I ever going to wear that green colour anyway,) then cut off the toe and tie in a knot!

For info on the Aldi’s LaCura skincare range, go to: https://www.aldi.co.uk/specialbuys

How it happened I still don’t really know, but one minute I was stationary, looking back over my shoulder and the next I was falling down a bank. The snow was fresh and soft and I was off-piste. Every skier knows, hurting yourself off-piste can be a very expensive mistake, so as I landed, and heard the top of my left arm crack, I knew whatever I’d done, I’d have to drag myself back up that slope. Somehow I managed it and fortunately we weren’t far from an actual piste.

Two painful hours (of slow skiing) later I arrived back at our hotel, had lunch, (yes really) and then caught the bus (again, really,) down the mountain to the doctor’s surgery – all the time telling myself I hadn’t broken anything. Half an hour later I knew I had. I then waited impatiently in a bar whilst the pharmacy continued its 2 hour lunch break, and where I was to buy a ridiculously expensive sling, though not, as I thought, to get prescribed painkillers. – Oh no! I was given 4 paracetamol to last me 2 days. As I stared mournfully at the coffee in front of me I thought “Nah! I need a proper drink!”

…..For the rest of that week, I was thoroughly miserable. I’d skied for 30 years without ever hurting myself, and neither the expensive facials I booked for myself, nor the luxury lunches, hotel cocktails and ‘jollying up’ of my family, were ever going to improve my mood.

Back in England the doctor in the orthopedic department of the local hospital almost gleefully told me I’d never again be able to hold my arm above my head, giving me more feelings of doom and gloom. Then my inner competitiveness kicked in. I decided I wouldn’t miss another ski season and I absolutely would regain total movement in my arm.

I religiously did the strengthening exercises I was given. I got myself a personal trainer and went to Pilates every week. I spent many hours with my arm above my head pressed into a wall or lay on my back practising arm extensions. Then my personal trainer introduced me to boxing. How I wished I’d discovered boxing years before. Not only did I quickly regain strength and movement in my left arm, but I loved the excitement it gave me, the sweat it caused and the improvement to muscle tone. I imagined myself to be as good as Nicola Adams.
Why am I telling you this story?

Because punching above your weight is what you should be doing all the time. We’re living in a fast-changing world and hopefully, younger generations will more easily attain positions of power and influence, but even in our personal lives, we’ve still got a long way to go to have inner confidence and equality. I’m no ‘shrinking violet’ and can be pretty feisty, but I’ve still been walked over. Managing to recover from that injury showed me a part of myself of which I wasn’t aware. I could focus, set a goal and achieve it. I certainly don’t do this all the time, but now I know I can –and that’s important.

So come on, raise a fist and get punching!

No matter how tired (or, uh! drunk,) I might be, I always take off my makeup and brush my teeth before going to bed. There have been mornings when I’ve woken up without any memory of this action and have been surprised to see myself ‘fresh’ faced. (And once or twice, it has to be said, have been equally amazed I’d actually neatly hung my clothes up……In my youthful past of course, not now!)

My lashes are naturally pale and even though I dye them black from time to time, I really don’t like myself without mascara, and usually that means 2 or 3 coats of the stuff. Over the years I’ve tried a multitude of different brands of eye makeup remover, from designer luxury versions to the big brands and cheap and cheerful. I used baby oil for quite a long time, but I feel that tends to drag the skin a bit and I don’t think it does my ageing eyes much good. As well as that, it tends to put an oily film over your eyes and more than once I’ve woken up to a blur thinking my eyesight had rapidly deteriorated over night!

This all brings me to my favourite ever eye makeup remover and you’ll be pleased to know it comes in the cheap and cheerful category! It’s good old Nivea and it’s called Double Effect Eye Makeup Remover. You just give it a good shake to mix the makeup removing solution with the cleansing solution – which promises extra effectiveness, and then wipe gently over your eyelids and lashes and ‘voila!’. It removes several layers of mascara easily and gently, even the waterproof type. Importantly I feel it’s gentle on my lashes keeping them looking good.

It’s normally about £3.59 for 125ml wherever I buy it, but I’ve just seen Superdrug are selling it for just £1.49. So I’m going to stock up!

https://www.superdrug.com/Nivea/NIVEA-Eye-Make-Up-Remover-Double-Effect%2C-125ml/p/477150

In her eighties, my mother said to me, “You know, in your head, you don’t change much after your late 20s. What makes you laugh then, what you love, how you feel, will be the same years later.” Those were wise words.

I’m not young! There, I’ve said it. However, in my head I’m still that 25 year old I was in the late 70s. I’m passionate about fashion, I still love dancing, I love (loud) music of many genres, I like skiing down a mountain as fast as I can, I like going out and staying out with a group of girl friends, I like being silly and watching ‘rubbish’ on the TV…But, I like to think I do what I do, with style and a certain elegance.

What I don’t like about getting older is the assumption that women become invisible and are not as memorable as they were when they were younger. Still, I have to say, things are changing! There’s been a huge shift in women fighting for greater work opportunities and equal pay and of course, people in general are working longer, so that also applies to my generation. I believe there needs to be a shift in how people value older women.  We’re a group who often have disposable incomes, travel regularly, eat out, are aware they need to keep fit and healthy and want to look their best. So why aren’t companies waking up to this fact and marketing to us? You know what, they are dipping out big time! There is so much advice, so many products, so many clothes that could be created for our group….or exist but aren’t marketed to attract us.

I want to look and feel great for my age (or any age if it comes to that.) I want to eat well, dress well and look amazing. I’m out to share ways to do all this and more. It’s not just about anti-ageing products and hair colours to cover white roots.  Let’s talk how we can break the rules of fashion to make them work for women in middle-age and older. Let’s discuss what makeup will make our faces look fabulous without looking as if we’ve tried too hard or spent too much money under the knife.  Let’s look at ways to make us feel mentally happy and strong, sexy and sensational.

I want to inspire you to believe you are the best and be the best in doing so, I want to join the journey with you. So let’s go Behind the Woman.