A real eye opener

I’m seven months knocked up and while the idea of giving life is great and all, there’s The Fear of the newborn phase lurking beneath the surface. Those moments of being dazed, glazed and confused at 3am with a mewling infant attached to a mammary or bottle are less than ideal. Usually it’s a time when you can hear the hordes of youths coming home from a mammoth bender as your pneumatic eye twitch starts to kick in.

When Mae, my toddler was born I looked like I’d been on a three-month session to Ibiza’s Pacha – but without the fun times. I had blood shot eyes, the sort of dark circles associated with students in their first term of University and a pasty pallor that had aunties (and strangers on the 55 bus to Leyton) querying, “are you OK?”. There was little that could Sellotape over the maternal cracks other than coffee and hugs.

My mum (@grandmother_pukka) by contrast seemed to breeze through motherhood in the 80s looking fresh as a daisy with the dewy skin of someone who hadn’t touched a drop of caffeine or booze in her life. I looked back at photos of her and wondered how she managed to look effortlessly fresh, while I was all rough around the edges.

There are four things my mum had down:

• A good eyebrow shape. She is a whizz with a pair of tweezers.
• Rose water to keep that dewy complexion and deliver a calming scent every morning.
• Oil of Ulay (now Olay) to keep her skin moisturised and soft as a baby’s derriere
• Oh and she said “talk with your eyes. Whatever is going on around them will light up if you stay sparky in the peepers.”

So when I hinted at my fears for the new arrival, she got the tweezers out and plucked those little bushes into submission. She bought a vat of rose water to keep me going and ordered the new Olay Eyes Collection to help banish the purply bluish darkness, ease away the fine lines of weariness and bid adieu to any puffiness.

Apparently my mum is an enigma in her fresh-faced aesthetic – according to Olay research 80% of women report having worries about their eye area with 32% saying dark circles are their biggest issue. Armed with a perfectly arched brow, an abundance of rose water and the Olay Eyes Collection (Ultimate Eye Cream, Firming Eye Serum and Illuminating Eye Cream), all that’s left to do is get that sparkle back in my eye.

Might start that bit after the sleepless nights have subsided. Wish me luck.

Eyes on the prize

NEW Olay Ultimate Eye Cream is a three in one, multi-action eye cream that de-circles, de-wrinkles and de-puffs for instantly younger looking eyes. Keep your eyes on the prize team. Or simply try and stay awake.

This blog post was written in partnership with Olay.