Kids sneaking into your bed at night? Waking up thinking about work? Overdo it at happy hour or wine o’clock? Any one or more of these could be happening at one time to me. But adulting means that I still have to get up and work/take a kid to a birthday party/grocery shop and I don’t really want to look half dead. Sometimes coffee is just not enough to let my face know that it’s time to wake up.

I have tricks! So I will put these in the order of how I use them, but I don’t always have time for everything. Like the eye mask takes twenty or thirty minutes. Clearly weekend material. 

First: 

I keep seeing posts and articles about under eye masks and I have been so curious to try them.  I didn’t want to spend an arm and a leg on some bougie stuff so I turned to Amazon. Amazon did not disappoint! After searching through scores of weird stuff, I finally found something promising and inexpensive. 

It comes in this cool box with 15 sets inside and it is UNDER 20 BUCKS!

Each eye patch set comes individually wrapped. When you open them up you can see that there is a set in a tray that is wet.  The idea is to moisturize, de-puff, and refresh the area below your eyes, so I assume this is what this stuff is for. You just stick each one to a clean, dry face, underneath your eyes. And - they are sparkly!

You keep them on for about 20-30 minutes and then proceed with your regular routine. You do NOT wash your face after you take them off. You let your skin continue to absorb all the moisture. I typically use a set on the weekends after a shower when I am ready for a little self care. I love them and I feel like the effect lasts a day or so. You can find them here!

Next:  

Clinique “All About Eyes” eye cream. I use this daily. It has caffeine in it so I think of it as eye-coffee. I just use a dab below my eyes and a dab on the eyelid (to de-puff) and gently rub it in.

This is my little secret to get my tired eyes to open up before my coffee has kicked in. It’s hard to apply makeup when my eyes are still looking like they want to be closed. I use this every. single. day. You can find it here. No one wants to show up to the breakfast meeting looking half asleep.

Sidebar: did you know breakfast is the new lunch? Crazy. But now we all work through lunch so no one has time to eat lunch out anymore. We eat at our desks. So now we power breakfast. Or just power coffee. But, yeah, millennials are lazy, right? 

I consider this a critical part of my routine before I put primer on my eyelids.  

And I saved the best for last!  

Check it out!  

This is my favorite morning hack. I got this Thrive brilliant eye brightener in a Fab, Fit, Fun box a while back. I looooove this so much! You just run a little on the inside corner of the eye. (On the skin, obviously.) I run it on the inside corner of the lid then a little on the bottom as well. 

And if I’m REALLY tired I also run it along the lower water line too.  

It just really brightens up my eyes. It truly amazes me how much of a difference it can make. I have used this when I am dead tired and had about half a night of sleep and it SAVES me from looking like the walking dead.

It stays on and lasts through the end of the day as well. I also use this pretty much daily. Even if I am not heading out to work with full makeup, I will just swipe this in the corners of my eyes before I head to the store or errands on the weekends. It makes me look like a human and not the zombie-mother-business-owner that I am.

These are my hacks. No matter how much I try to get to bed early, be super healthy, do everything right and drink all of the water, life is busy and complicated and bad sleep happens. I still like to look and feel my best so these little hacks are getting me through. Enjoy!