Last week I had fun hosting an online hangout with some friends on Google+. Rather than hanging out in my kitchen, we each hung out at home and chatted online. With busy schedules these days, it is hard to get together with girlfriends to chat about pampering (let alone get pampered!) so this was the next best thing. But we had fun playing around with some of the fun tools that Google+ hangouts have.

When my friend Lollie from The Fortuitous Housewife hung out with me, we added facial props that represented how we hide from bad skin days! You know, those days you don’t want to leave the house, but have to, and you do everything you can to hide your face from the world? Yeah, those days. So we had fun with how we would hide!

Then, Julie (a blogger and PR maven at Dennehy PR) and I spoke about time management and taking those 5 minutes everyday for ourselves and our skin. When you have good hair days and good skin days, you feel so much more confident. If you spend that 5 minutes a day on a consistent skincare routine, then those 10-15 minutes you spend on makeup to hide the flaws are a thing of the past. Much better time management!

RoC Academy

On the Google hangout, I also shared some of the tips I learned from taking the RoC® Academy course, and being a paid part of the RoC campaign that I wrote about here. Do you know that you can get Vitamin A from foods, and Vitamin A is a key ingredient to manage aging? Yet, let’s face it, we don’t eat enough of these food to make it count. Furthermore, our skin starts to age the minute we are born, with the effects really ‘showing up’ in our 20s.

Plus, here are some interesting facts that really stuck out to me: 32% of women feel the eyes are the areas they first see the signs of aging. 60% of women are always on the lookout for better products and 86% feel the right skin care products can slow the signs of aging.

And here are some interesting myth busters I found fascinating too. First, you CAN use retinol during the day – not just at night. As long as you pair it with some sunscreen, you can use retinol products during the day. Second, you should give products MORE than a month to work. The skin has 6 layers, and, on average, it takes six weeks for the lowest layer to reach the top. So, as you can imagine, you are not going to see results for at least 6 weeks because the other five top layers didn’t get the full effect of the ingredients you just started using. Plus, you need to be consistent. Ask yourself if you really used the products for 6 weeks. Or did you just use them off and on for 6 weeks? There is a difference.

I know some of you had questions from my last post. Common concerns were fine lines, sensititive skin and age spots! I know that RoC® has Retinol Correxion Sensitive Night Cream for those looking for fine line treatment that minimizes the harsh effects on sensitive skin. Or course, the entire focus of RoC is on fine lines so definitely check out all the products they have to offer! As for age spots, a lot of that has to do with sun exposure! Many of RoC products have sunscreen that can prevent new ones from forming. Plus, they have Multi-Correxion products that combat a variety of issues all at once, and they have the Resurfacing System, that I mentioned in the last post, that is supposed to be 4 times more effective than dermatologist peels.

Also, if you have the time, hop onto Twitter at 1pm ET on April 3, 2014 for the #RoCAcademy Twitter Party. Not only can you win some great RoC® products, but a board certified dermatologist will be answering skin care questions! (No co-pay required! LOL.)

And here is the winner of the RoC gift basket from the previous post’s giveaway! Congrats to Janet!!