I know I mentioned I wanted to start sharing more beauty topics with you guys on the blog and one thing I have been wanting to share for awhile are my anti-wrinkle tips. This post IS NOT sponsored by anyone – just good old tips, tricks, and products I have found to work for me!

I remember when I was 17 or so and wanted to use my Aunt’s eye cream and she just thought that was the funniest thing ever. Presumably because I had absolutely zero wrinkles at the time but hey I was trying to be preventative about it, what can I say? There are tons of things you can do to prevent wrinkles during the day i.e. WEAR SUNSCREEN, don’t smoke, consume foods with lots of collagen, drink water, etc (that’s another blog post) – but I want to talk about things you can do while you are sleeping to help preserve that flawless face of yours. If you are in your early twenties you may not see a need for this yet but as you inch closer to the big 3-0 you will know what I am talking about! By the way, I think it’s never to early (hello eye cream at 17) or late to start these wrinkle reducing practices! Okay, now to get to it…

1. Become a back sleeper – I never quite believed this one until I started seeing some fine lines around my eye and mouth area which greatly decreased once I started sleeping on my back. Now, I taught myself to start sleeping on my back and then I got pregnant and you are supposed to sleep on your side so yeah, now I am trying to re-learn all over again! The reason WHY sleeping on your back is going to help to prevent wrinkles is because you aren’t smashing your face all up into a pillow! Think about it – when you lay on your side your cheek is usually pushed up towards your eye creating all those little wrinkles on the outside edge of your eye. Not only that but over time gravity is just pulling your face down to one side. I’ve heard so many aestheticians say that they can tell when one of their clients is a side sleeper and can usually tell which side they prefer! If you sleep on your back you are not squishing your face up into any weird position at night and therefore you aren’t creating those wrinkles! I will say it is VERY hard to start sleeping on your back especially if you are used to sleeping on your side. I recommend surrounding yourself with fluffy pillows, even up kind of by your head to make you feel like you are in a cocoon – makes it so much easier. Just practice each night and if you have to turn to your side that is okay just keep practicing and eventually you will be falling asleep on your back and experience a lot less wrinkles especially over the years.

2. Silk pillow cases – If you absolutely CANNOT fall asleep on your back, and even if you can, I recommend investing in silk pillow cases. These are going to lessen the amount of wrinkles you are creating in your face when you lay on them because of the smooth surface of the silk. Also – it is great for your hair because it helps to reduce the amount of split ends and breakage that can occur when sleeping on a regular pillow case. I mean, who knew?! Right?

3. Over night Retinol – Okay so this one might not be for all of you ladies out there but I truly believe retinol is one of the biggest way to help combat wrinkles! I currently CANNOT use this because I am breastfeeding but OMG as soon as I can you better believe I have a few lined up. I have this night cream that has a retinol in it that I am dying to try. Retinol helps your skin cells turn over faster revealing new skin which in turn causes your skin to produce more collagen which is that stuff that keeps our skin looking plump and young.

4. Facial Stickies – Alright guys, this is my absolute favorite trick to use to get a smooth forehead. This is my alternative to botox since I am just not ready to pull the trigger on that yet! Not saying I’ll never get it but I know once I start I will need to keep it up. So, in the meantime these facial stickies are pretty much THE best invention ever. I found these because I got a little obsessive about some wrinkles around my mouth a few years ago and started reading how women would use scotch tape on their faces at night! Yes, scotch tape! What you do is open up the wrinkle (so like pull your skin taught so you can no longer really see the wrinkle) and then tape that area. I tried scotch tape a few nights, not gonna lie, but it was seriously a pain in the butt and I looked like a weirdo. Not to say you don’t look like a weirdo with the facial stickies – but you get the point. Anyhow, these stickies are the same concept as the scotch tape but are made specifically for this purpose. You are basically making it so that for those hours while you are sleeping you don’t have that wrinkle. It is giving your skin time to be in a non-wrinkled state and when you pull them off in the morning you can seriously tell a difference. You do have to use these regularly for them to work so ya know if you are in a new relationship I would give it a few months before you start sticker-ing up your face at night but for real ladies, I think these are the best kept secret ever. I linked the ones I use down below but I know other brands make them too I just haven’t tried any others yet.

5. And last but not least – I like to keep things moisturized. From eye cream to hydrating my lips we all know that more moisture = less wrinkles. I have been using this lip treatment religiously for awhile now and absolutely LOVE how moisturized it makes my lips. Stays on for hours too! I always put it on right before I hop into bed. I was using this eye cream for a long time but I just got a sample of the IT Cosmetics bye bye under eye cream and hope I love it as much as I do their CC cream!

What are you secrets to keeping your skin looking young? Please share with me in the comments below – I love to try new things!