Count down to school reunion. Aaarrghh!

[cissyandbessy]

Got a school reunion in a years time and am also fast approaching 50. Honestly, I feel super drab and old looking, bad skin (quite spotty, number 11's and lines from corners of my mouth) 5st overweight, and just quite bleurgh about myself at the moment. I really struggle to spend money on myself and have never had facials, very regular haircuts, seldom wear make up, wearing boring plain clothes 'just till I lose weight' Any recommendations of what to spend on to get the best effects over a year - I've got around £800 I could spend but have no idea where to start? Really hoping that some seasoned beauty experts can help me avoiding making a load of mistakes!

Do you want to lose the weight? You have a year, money for a nutritionist and motivation! Go fo it! Good diet will help your skin also.

Losing weight would probably make the most difference to you, physically and psychologically- and it doesn't use up your budget!
Eat less, eat healthily over the next year and your skin will improve too. Those 11s - I wish I knew what to do about mine.... but if it's a school reunion, and you're all the same age, most people will have them.
Save your money for new outfit, including underwear, shoes and bag. Plus haircut in advance and blowdry on the day, and a complete new bag of make up.

Teeth whitening
Filler in 11's
Microdermabrasion

Then regular hair trim / conditioning, a decent facial scrub and moisturiser for face and body. I've recently discovered, that despite having quite oily skin, Decleor oil serum works wonders. Also planning to try some of the Vitamin / H Acid serums and oils.

Last minute jobs - haircut (and colour?), manicure / pedicure and get your makeup done in a store.

As others have said . Healthy eating and lots of water will help with weight skin and hair . Also spend some time or money on getting to know your colours too , as this will make a huge difference to your appearance . Wearing the right colours next to your face and a top colour lipstick takes years off you . As a long term investment and confidence boost a House of Colour session would be money well spent .

At 50 you must begin to spend your hard earned cash on yourself you deserve it .really whatsthe point if you don’t
I’m glad you are under pressure to do something.
Once you start you’ll never look back.
You don’t have to spend lots

Closer to the time get a personal shopping appointment with the likes of John Lewis or Debenhams close to the time to sort the outfit. No pressure to buy and the advisors are great at look at what would suit you now - without your hangups of what you hate/like about your body, your dismay at what DC have done to your once perky boobs etc etc. Having that fresh, uncritical pair of eyes (along with their knowledge of what is in season/in stock) really helps.

And yes, haircut etc closer to the time.

But as PP have said -if the weight is the thing that is making you feel the worst can you kick start a weight-loss thing? MFP plus personal trainer? Use the majority of the money you have for that - you should be able to do outfit/hair etc for less than £300 - so use the rest where it has the most impact.

You have a year, you are very overweight so loose the weight and everything else will follow. You'll probably lose quite a lot just from cutting out calorific drinks (swap to water), not having seconds at mealtimes and cutting out snacks.

Start doing some regular exercise as well, try swimming or a gentle yoga class so start building muscle. Then even if you are overweight you will carry yourself better.

Get a good haircut (ask friends with good cuts where theyget their hair cut) to make yourself feelbetter straight away.

Oh, and as well as weighing yourself regularly measure your hips, waist and bust and keep a record of your loses to motivate you.

Thanks lovely people! Yes as many of you said losing the weight would likely make the most difference and so I'll commit to something there. Also, yes to saving cash for manicure, haircut etc before the event. Right feeling inspired to do some stretching over next couple of weeks and then will try swimming. Really appreciate time you took to reply.

Hit the retinoids, or preferably prescription strength Retin A asap. If you're in the UK you'll have to order it from Spain/Portugal (there was a thread on this recently) but its cheap and has decades of research proving that is dramatically slows, and in some cases reverses fine lines, wrinkles etc. Plus it gives you smooth, flawless, perfect skin.

I'll find a blog link in a second which shows a lady who took photos and did updates over five years, its an amazing difference.

I've just started prescription Retin A, and I'm kicking myself for not starting it years ago. It takes a few months for the effects to be visible, its more of a long term thing, but you would get striking results if you've got a year.

I can't get the link to work for some reason, but if you google "Hot and flashy Retin a three year or five year results" you should be able to find it

Thanks Eaten, that does look like a pretty amazing result - can't believe how much better her eyes look. Will definitely look into this further. I've not had much luck with retinol - though understand that's a v weak version in comparison. Tend to have quite reddish skin which easily irritates. But it also could have been me chopping and changing with the bewildering array of products I ordered on from The Ordinary.

You're welcome cissy it isn't just her either, I've got friends at various stages of using it from six months in to having used it for years, and watching the difference it made to them was what convinced me.

In real life the difference is even more shocking than in photos/on blogs, their skin all has this amazing glowy, lit from within look.

I didn't get on with over the counter retinoid products either, they stung, burnt and irritated my skin, but so far I have none of that with the prescription strength stuff.
My skin feels a bit tight on the mornings after I put it on, and I'm taking it slowly and making sure I slap on the Vaseline every night before bed, but I think with prescription strength its worth the wait for the results

Eat less and take more exercise. Walk upstairs and avoid lifts for fewer than five flights. Cut out seconds of anything and drink more water, pints and pints of it; every time you feel like a snack, drink water until you are sated. And sleep more and earlier. Insufficient sleep makes you want to eat carbs for the energy boost. Then think about what to wear. You will look so much younger. You'll be surprised and delighted, and motivated. Your skin will glow with health.

Xing yeah, you are right I should address sleeping and keeping hydrated - I do have a burst sporadically of being really good but fail to keep it up. I notice when I am off work I sleep and look so much brighter.
Eaten so do you order Retin A online without a prescription if in UK? Did you worry about any of the supposed health issues - there were some discussions in the comments of that blog?