REMOVE YOUR EYE MAKEUP BEFORE YOU GO TO SLEEP!!!! For every one day that you don’t remove your makeup, your skin will age 12 days. So make sure that you apply your eye creams day and night on a clean face to prolong your youth. Worldwide Spa Review consultant Nicholas Caridi is an international makeup artist, who travels throughout North America, Mexico and Europe creating "fashion for the face". His makeup looks have been featured in national publications including Bazaar, The New Yorker, Women’s Wear Daily and Jet Magazine. His work has also been seen in New York and Miami fashion shows for Calvin Klein and Bill Blass and he has created makeup for film and theater. Some of Hollywood's leading actresses, including Gina Davis and Morgan Fairchild, have consulted with him. Although Caridi works with the cream of fashion, he is down to earth and relaxed in his approach. “Makeup should be fun,” he says, “and there are lots of insider tips that can transform the face.” He offers tips for bright, youthful eyes in this holiday column: Start with a good eye cream. This will smooth and keep the skin around your eyes moist and hopefully tight. Ask friends their preferences, and go to the department stores and ask for samples. When you’ve chosen a cream use it morning and evening on one eye for four days and examine the difference. Remember to use your ring finger when applying the eye cream since it exerts the least amount of pressure. Cover up or concealer has a thicker consistency than liquid makeup and is designed to cover up imperfections. This product should be two shades lighter than your liquid makeup or your complexion. Remember when applying concealer that you must pat it on with your ring finger; do not rub. You can also use a flat nylon brush or sponge as well to apply the concealer and watch the years fade away. If your concealer should cake up or look too thick, you can mix it with some eye cream for a smoother look. Most people have a problem with puffy eyes, better known as bags. I get puffy eyes every morning so I keep some eye cream or eye gel in the refrigerator. This not only helps to reduce the swelling, it feels very refreshing. You can also make homemade eye compresses. Try using two chilled teaspoons or soupspoons to cool the eyes. Other options are a bag of frozen vegetables or a washcloth that has been soaked in herbal tea. All of these work very well as eye compresses. A makeup artist once told me, “Nick, you tweeze eyebrows and you pluck chickens.” So tweeze, wax or thread your brows but never PLUCK. Brows make a big difference to the framing of your face so if you are tweezing your brows for the first time you might want to seek some professional help. If you’re going to attempt this on your own, this next tip is for you. Get good tweezers. When tweezing, make sure to hold the skin tightly. Tweeze at the root of the hair and in the direction that the hair grows. Only remove the hair under the arch of the brow. If pain is a factor for you, try icing the brows, or you can use the toothache pain medicine Ambesol to numb the area. Be careful not to get it in your eye! This trick will lift the brows. Use a white or beige eyeliner and draw a line under the arch of the brow and blend well. You can also use a very light eye shadow (light pastels) all over the eye for brightness. This effect also works well on top of the brows to illuminate them, which gives the appearance that they are lifted. The following trick works well on mature eyes: use a liquid or pencil eyeliner on top of your lash line, then apply dark mascara only on the top lashes. Take a big brush, half of the size of a blush brush, and apply light pastel eye shadow to brighten the eye. For big eyes use black mascara on the top and blue or brown on the bottom lashes. False eyelashes are back, but use the individual lashes, which look more natural, and only use about three or four on the outer half of the eye. My colleague, makeup artist Janice Geise of Miami, adds this very important tip: REMOVE YOUR EYE MAKEUP BEFORE YOU GO TO SLEEP!!!! For every one day that you don’t remove your makeup, your skin will age 12 days.  So make sure that you apply your eye creams day and night on a clean face to prolong your youth. For more information or a free consultation with Nick Caridi in the New York or South Florida areas, call (516) 330-2666.