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Valentia Night Revive Retinol Serum – Review

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I received this product free for purposes of my review. All opinions are my own.

It’s just so much fun that the Valentia brand is named after The Roman Goddess of healing, Valentia. She relied on nature’s gifts to heal the citizens of Umbria. And that is what Valentia does as well. Valentia Skin Care products have been formulated with natural and organic cosmetic ingredients that will repair and protect the skin. Their products are free of toxins and paraben-free.

And they work great for me. I have tried several Valentia products and every one of them has been wonderful. Both gentle on my skin and effective. The perfect combination in facial products.

This time I got to try Valentia’s Night Revive Retinol Serum. A transformative retinol serum that fights wrinkles and provides hydration, for visibly smoother, rejuvenated skin.

This Retinol Serum Will:
– Diminishes wrinkles
– Stimulates collagen
– Improves skin tone
– Manages breakouts
– Conditions skin

Specially selected ingredients work together to achieve optimum results.

KEY INGREDIENTS:

– Retinol (Vitamin A): Works at the cellular level to stop winkles, manage breakouts, and evens out skin discoloration.

– Vitamin C: Guards skin against environmental free-radicals to prevent premature aging.

– Vitamin E: Provides intense hydration to diminish the drying effects of retinol.

– Squalane: Derived for pure olive oil to soften and condition delicate skin.

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USAGE:

As with all Retinol Serums, you don’t want to use it every day. I did this without thinking with this serum and used it 3 days in a row, the 3rd day my skin was just a tad irritated. Nothing terrible, but then I remembered reading on the bottle that I probably only wanted to use this a few times a week or every other day at the most. I dropped back to every 3 days and the results are way better – and non-irritating.

I use it in the evening before applying my nighttime moisturizer. It helps my skin absorb my moisturizer better for softer and more moisturized skin. Just don’t use it every day.

This is another great product from Valentia!

Purchase some for yourself at Amazon or from Valentia.com.

Follow Valentia’s Instagram and Facebook for product updates and beauty tips.

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Mom’s Night Out – Review

Got to see a pre-release screening of Mom’s Night Out with some friends Thursday night and I loved it! The first pre-release I’ve ever seen so I didn’t know what to expect. I had three other friends who came as well so we had a nice group going. My husband was a little nervous about feeding the baby and getting him to bed on his own (the movie started at 7:00pm which is right when we start our bedtime routines) but things went pretty well for him. The baby ate 3 pieces of french toast and then didn’t drink very much of his sippy cup, which concerned my husband a little – but I’m sure the little guy was just stuffed from his dinner and wasn’t hungry for milk. Which definitely seemed to be the case because he didn’t wake up any more than usual last night.

Back to the movie…so we get to the theater and walk in and there’s a table set up on the way in to our showing, everyone gets a swag bag. Awesome! I was going to be really disappointed if they didn’t give us something. There was a magnetic notepad, pen, car sticker, resource DVD, two movie posters, nail file, some little cards, keychain, and my favorite “Dad’s Big Book of Tips for Moms’ Night Out”, hilarious tips for Dad’s watching the kids.

So I’m already excited. Then, what I hadn’t realized before, during the introduction, I discover that the movie is created by the same people that made Fireproof, which I haven’t actually watched but it gives me hope that the comedy will be a clean comedy. You know, I invited friends to this, all of our husbands are home with the kids, I’m really hoping for a good movie!

Mom’s Night Out is hilarious and heartwarming at the same time. They did a great job on the movie, me and my friends thoroughly enjoyed it!

The comedy was clean so you could take kids to the movie (though they probably won’t find it as funny as parents do). There were only 3 men in the entire theater last night, which I expected because the marketing for this movie has been primarily to moms. But, I’m sure that men will love it just as much as women do.

It’s a nice, happy, hilarious view of motherhood and parenting and left me, as a mom, re-engergized for the stage of motherhood that I’m in. (or maybe it was the giant piece of New York Style Cheesecake that I ate after the movie…)

I really think any mother would love this movie, regardless of how old her kids are. It comes out May 9th, just in time for Mother’s Day. So if you don’t have plans for your mom yet, try dinner and a movie, and you’ll be glad you did!

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Sleep

So, what is the definition of a good night’s sleep? Seems like it changes every few years. I was reading an old health book the other day and it said 12 hrs a night was needed for an adult. I thought it was 8? And is 8 hours of interrupted sleep enough or does it have to be uninterrupted. As the mother of an infant, I’m definitely getting interrupted. What I considered a good night’s sleep before kids is way different than what I consider a good night now.

Someone posted an article the other day on how nursing a baby at night is so good for your baby. That’s nice, but how about some sleep for me? (actually, I sleep while I nurse at night). I saw this awesome nursing timer for using in the middle of the night, it lets you know when it’s time to switch sides so you know how long the baby’s been eating. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve woken up over an hour after I started nursing and found the baby sound asleep in my lap. (no worries, I know this happens so I make sure my arm is well supported with a pillow and the baby can’t go anywhere when I fall asleep)

The advice to “sleep when your baby sleeps” is great advice, but I’m not sure how I’m supposed to do that with two other little kids as well. I’ve tried it, and the house turns into a disaster zone while I’m snoozing. Or, better yet, they decide to join me in bed. I’m remarkably good at sleeping through things like i-pad games, dvds, and spilled beverages. (in the days before kids I also slept through tornado alarms, fire alarms, alarm clocks, and who knows what else).

So, what is a good night’s sleep? For me these days, it’s getting at least 8 hours and only getting interrupted once. And somehow, my day seems normal after a night like that. Even having to get up twice to take care of kids in the middle of the night isn’t too bad…

I compare this to my days before kids when I was getting 9 to 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep and if something woke me up I was so tired and grumpy the next day.

I remember as a teenager calling my mom in the middle of the night (1 am, 2 am, something like that) and talking for over an hour because I’d just had a really bad day. For some reason, mom never seemed to mind. I never understood, how was she not totally irritated that I’d woken her up?

As a mother with 3 little ones I finally understand, if my kids need me, I’m there for them. It’s ok that it takes me 3 cups of coffee to wake up in the morning. I still prefer my full night sleep, and 1 cup of coffee in the morning. But I know, there’s just those days when I’m needed, and when I need to be there, I’ll be available. And the truth is, I really don’t mind. (like these last couple of nights when the baby is teething, or last week when the girls were up sick, I know they need me and it’s all ok).

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A night with the new addition

Life with 3 kids is definitely interesting. I do think I have the baby sleeping better now. Horray! He’s still up every 2-3 hours to eat but he pretty much slept from 8 to 6 last night just getting up to eat. It was so nice to not sit in the rocking chair with him all night!

However, he did leak through his diapers twice (I am really not liking Huggies diapers!) and my 2 yr old wet her bed (which never happens).

Oh, and the baby decided to roll over, I’m pretty sure he’s NOT supposed to be doing that yet! Which means, I can’t leave him anywhere unsupervised. I had seen him almost do it a couple of times so I’m not completely surprised, I do hope this doesn’t mean that he’ll be crawling early. The girls are going to have a tough time of it when he can get around and eat all their toys! I still haven’t figured out what’s going to happen to all the Polly Pockets…

When I started potty training my 2 1/2 year old a few months ago I did a lot of research on amazon and ended up ordering this Wet-Stop Twin Waterproof Mattress Cover for her bed. At the same time I ordered her a new Memory Foam Mattress. I like the mattress ok, but I’m not sure I want it for me when I get a new one – which I need to do one of these days soon since my mattress is almost 8 years old and not quite as comfortable anymore.

Since I had ordered the new mattress, I couldn’t have it getting wet so I had to order the mattress cover as well. She’s done really well. She had to have over a week of dry diapers before I would let her go without them at night since she wet her bed the first time she tried to sleep without a diaper.

It’s been a few weeks now of dry nights, and last night I think she wet her bed (she wasn’t entirely sure either). It smelled like she did, but apparently, the mattress cover I have is so absorbant that her sheets were barely wet. It definitely lived up to it’s high reviews! Thankfully, this means I just have to remove the sheets, mattress pad, and pillows (I don’t know how the pillow always gets wet) and wash and dry them. I probably needed to wash her sheets anyways. No drying out the mattress since it didn’t get wet! Which reminds me…I need to go switch the wash…

On another note, Huggies diapers don’t seem to work well for infant boys. I have a 3wk old and he leaked through his Huggies twice last night – and I’m changing him every 3 hours when he eats, so I was truly unhappy with the diapers last night. I haven’t had any trouble with the Pampers though, now I know why Pampers is my preferred brand. I am going to pick up some Kroger diapers today when I’m out shopping since this brand worked really well on my daughter and it’s half the price of the Pampers, I’m hoping they work just as well on the baby.