If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, STYLECASTER may receive an affiliate commission.

There’s one thing most people can’t live without because it makes them feel refreshed and wide awake. I’m talking about caffeine, which I myself love to sip on. But did you know caffeine can do more than just give you a jolt of energy? When packed into a skincare product, it can help reduce puffiness. The under-eye area is especially prone to this concern whenever fluid builds up beneath the skin. It could be due to allergies, genetics, a late night out on the town, binge-watching K-dramas until the early morning and the list goes on. Luckily, you’re not doomed to swollen under eyes thanks to The INKEY List’s Caffeine Eye Cream. 

This lightweight cream targets puffiness, dark circles and fine lines under your eyes. Caffeine assists in reducing fluid retention, while Matrixyl 3000 peptide promotes collagen production (translation: it smooths fine lines). Albizia Julibrissin Bark Extract (which comes from Persian silk tree bark) works to make your under eyes look extra refreshed. 

So if your under eyes could use a pick-me-up, don’t reach for anything but the Caffeine Eye Cream. One shopper wrote, “Really makes my eyes look like I’ve had a good night’s sleep!” 

Essentially, this depuffing product is like a cup of joe for your under eyes. Shop it for only $8 with StyleCasters exclusive sale code, STYLECASTER20. When you add it at checkout, you’ll be able to save 20 percent on the best-seller.

RELATED: Reviewers Are ‘Shocked’ By How Fast This Growth Oil Transformed Their ‘Short, Brittle Lashes’—& It’s Down to $13

Photo: The INKEY List.

You might be impatient to get rid of puffiness, dark circles and wrinkles around your eyes, which is why this cream is perfect for you. According to the brand, you could start to see visible results in as little as two weeks. Full results take six weeks, but it’s well worth the wait.

In fact, one shopper said they noticed results even quicker. They wrote, “Love this eye cream. Very good price. Visibly reduced dark circles in a week. Definitely recommend.”

Another reviewer wrote, “I have tried many eye creams and gels, but this is the best. I have dark circles and eye bags… this gets rid of both! Brilliant stuff which I buy on repeat (and now also for my daughter!).”

Apply the eye cream in both the morning and evening on a daily basis. This step should come after you’ve cleansed and applied serums. Be sure to use your ring finger and keep your movements nice and gentle, since this area is super delicate. 

The brand also has a pro tip that’ll enhance the product’s cooling effects. It’s simple: Toss the Caffeine Eye Cream into the fridge for 30 minutes prior to application. Who doesn’t want to feel like they’re at the spa when they’re applying this product?

Give your eyes the T.L.C. it deserves by adding The INKEY List’s Caffeine Eye Cream to your arsenal. Make sure you scoop it up before the sale code expires.

In my reading life, I did something different this year. I kept track of all the books I read, along with comments about what I liked or disliked. Friends often ask me to recommend a book, and this method helps me remember what I read two or three or four books ago.

This week, it was fun to look back over my list and review my thoughts. I read MANY books I loved and had a hard time narrowing my list down to 12 favorites – a book for each month in the new year.

After much obsessing – drumroll please – my top choices of the past year…

This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel

Be kind. Don’t judge. Written proof everyone is dealing with something we know nothing about. We all carry a secret of some sort.

This novel jumped onto my radar after my conversation with Susie Orman Schnall. And I regret I didn’t read it sooner. 

“I’m worried about what I want to be when I grow up,” said Claude, the youngest of five sons. 

Once I settled in, I appreciated Ms. Frankel’s rambling sentences and spot-on multi-hyphen descriptors. Because that’s how we process our universe. We grab bits and pieces and store them in our mind’s various compartments. 

Although the book is fiction, the author draws from her own family dynamics and transgender child. And isn’t this why we read books – to get a glimpse inside another’s world and discover what else exists?

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

If you travel to New York City, I beg you to set aside an hour or two to pop into the Morgan Library and Museum. Tucked along Madison Avenue at 36th Street, J.P. Morgan’s personal library originally faced his Manhattan mansion.

One of my favorite historical fiction novels (ever!), this well-researched book tells the story – based on her diary and letters – of Belle da Costa Greene, J.P. Morgan’s librarian. During her tenure, Belle amassed the most impressive collection of rare books, manuscripts, and artwork in the United States.

Well-respected and well-read, Belle was a Black woman who passed as White to protect her legacy and career and support her family.

These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant

“The thing about grace is that you don’t deserve it. You can’t earn it. You can only accept it. Or not…”

After hearing the author interviewed on a podcast, I added this book to my “to be read” pile. This suspenseful novel is not a dark and creepy story that will give you nightmares. I promise.

Cooper and his 8-year-old daughter, Finch, have lived in a cabin in the remote Appalachian woods for eight years. Living off-grid, two people know where they are – Jake, who delivers supplies once a year, and Scotland, a nosey neighbor with questionable intentions.

It was easier for Cooper to hide from his past when his daughter was young. But now she’s older, smarter, and asking more questions.

I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys

This book may sit atop my 2022 list. I’ve been singing the novel’s praises to anyone who will listen and imploring them to read it. And those who have surrendered to my urging have loved it.

Until the revolution in 1989, Nicolae Ceausescu (and his wife, both with third-grade education) terrorized the citizens of Romania. They bulldozed homes and buildings, installed listening devices in the newly erected, cramped, universal cement-block apartments, and switched off electricity and water.

Although fictionalized, Romanians interviewed for the story – including Olympian Nadia Comaneci – insist it could be true.

A remarkable tale of hardship, heartache, and resolve.

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

“When you go home today, ask yourself what you will change. And then get started.”

This quirky (in a good way!) novel, set in 1960s Southern California, revolves around a female chemist and a whole cast of men who don’t think women are as wise as their male counterparts.

Elizabeth Zott, a single mom, is determined to change the era’s existing beliefs surrounding pregnancy, marriage, careers, and roles. As the host of a successful television cooking show, she has her chance.

With a delightful and humorous feminist bent, readers will rip through this London-based author’s debut novel. Ms. Garmus proves, at age 64, it’s never too late.

Apple TV has optioned the book, with Brie Larson to star.

The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post by Allison Pataki

In the 60s and 70s, my mom stocked our kitchen cupboards with a variety of wonderful foods – Kool-Aid (yes, red), Tang (the astronaut drink), Twinkies, Ho Hos, Log Cabin maple syrup, and an assortment of breakfast cereals. And I have Marjorie Post to thank for them all!

In Battle Creek, Michigan, Marjorie’s father, ahead of his time with his healthy eating philosophy, introduced Americans to Postum, a grain-based powdered coffee substitute, and Grape Nuts, the first-ever breakfast cereal. After his death, 27-year-old Marjorie was not content to bide her time as a luxuriating heiress to the Post cereal fortune.  

Intelligent, rich, and kind, Marjorie expanded the company’s holdings and devoted her life—and her millions – to serving others.

With a book cover as beautiful as the story inside, I loved this historical fiction novel from beginning to end.

In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss by Amy Bloom

Wow. Just wow.

In this thought-provoking memoir, author and psychotherapist Amy Bloom travels to Zurich with her husband to end his life at Dignitas, the Swiss nonprofit organization offering accompanied suicide.

After his early-onset Alzheimer’s diagnosis, Amy’s 65-year-old-ish husband announces “the long goodbye of Alzheimer’s is not for me.” Of course, Amy struggles with this decision and must lead the delicate dance of supporting her spouse.

Witty and introspective, Amy flips readers between the couple’s unimaginable week in Switzerland and flashbacks to their former life.

This isn’t a sad or depressing story or one where readers might judge the author for holding her husband’s hand as he drinks sodium pentobarbital. It is factual – here’s the problem, this is how a man chooses to solve the problem, here are the steps he takes.

This beautifully written memoir reminds us Alzheimer’s will, most likely, touch every one of our lives.

Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan

I didn’t want this book to end!

Fans of the Hallmark Channel, please take note… My favorite read of last summer, this novel is fun and light without being fluffy or silly.

Nora Hamilton writes formulaic movies for the Romance Channel in the tea house of her beloved, well-worn home. Her scripts are all the same. A quaint small town. A cupcake bakery or a flower shop or a romantic inn. Two people butt heads, only to fall in love after the commercial break and live happily ever after.

After her divorce, Nora pounds out the best screenplay of her career. Heartthrob Leo Vance is cast as her loser husband, film crews take over Nora’s home, and her life will never be the same.

This feel-good, happy book would make a great movie in real life. I can picture it on the big screen!

True Biz by Sara Novic

True biz (adj./exclamation; American Sign Language): really, seriously, definitely, real-talk

This is the first book I’ve read focusing on a deaf community’s perspective. I enjoyed this dive into sign language, cochlear implants, and homes with hearing siblings or parents.

At River Valley School for the Deaf, a boarding school, readers follow students and their hearing headmistress through the ups and downs of high school life. Although the coming-of-age story was entertaining, I was more intrigued by the deaf world I knew nothing about.

Author Sara Novic, also deaf, attended college and graduate school classes with an interpreter, often feeling isolated from the mainstream. She wanted this bestselling novel “to be a place where deafness is the norm and you, as the hearing reader, are the weird one.”

Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout

“It is a gift in this life that we don’t know what awaits us.”

After finishing this thought-provoking book, I had one question for myself. How in the world was this my first Elizabeth Strout novel?

In 2020, when the world shuts down, Lucy and William leave their Manhattan apartments for a seaside cottage in Maine. The divorced couple rides out the pandemic together, rekindling friendship and compatibility.

Strout writes in an autobiographical, relatable way. Her reflections about love, aging, suffering, grown children, and hope might be any reader’s thoughts. I saw myself time and time again as I lost myself in the pages.

Now that I’ve met the characters in this novel, I plan to pick up Strout’s bestseller Oh William! in 2023. And also, her Pulitzer Prize-winning, Olive Kitteridge. I have some reading to do!

The Social Graces by Renee Rosen

Fans of HBO’s The Gilded Age will also savor this historical fiction novel narrated by Caroline Astor, Alva Vanderbilt, and Society. Caroline – the Mrs. Astor is a Knickerbocker. Alva is new money. And Knickerbockers do not want to mingle with the nouveau-riche.

Alva will stop at nothing to persuade society to accept her. Based on fact, this novel is a delightful romp of the extravagant measures the two women undertook to maintain their places in society’s hierarchy.

Several of Ms. Rosen’s other novels seem intriguing, including her next one (April 2023), which revolves around cosmetic icon Estee Lauder.

The Real Mrs. Tobias by Sally Koslow

As the mother-in-law to two daughters-in-law, I fret over what I should and shouldn’t do. Or what I did or didn’t say. As wonderful as my sons’ wives are – and they are! – mother- and daughter-in-law relationships are tricky.

A huge thank you to author Lynda Loigman for putting this novel on my radar. I ripped through the page-turning story about family dynamics and the ups and downs of mother- and daughter-in-law behavior.

Sally Koslow, the former editor-in-chief of McCall’s magazine, weaves a heartwarming story told by the three generations of strong Tobias women. Confronted with surprises, struggles, and loss, Veronika, Mel, and Birdie work to solve problems and try to hold their family together. But are they the people who should confront these issues?

This mother-in-law learned some excellent lessons!

Please help us to improve Sixty and Me. We’d appreciate you filling out

our short end-of-year survey.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

What is a favorite book you read in 2022? What book are you looking forward to reading next year? What is your favorite genre? (I’m a historical fiction fan)

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, STYLECASTER may receive an affiliate commission.

There’s one thing most people can’t live without because it makes them feel refreshed and wide awake. I’m talking about caffeine, which I myself love to sip on. But did you know caffeine can do more than just give you a jolt of energy? When packed into a skincare product, it can help reduce puffiness. The under-eye area is especially prone to this concern whenever fluid builds up beneath the skin. It could be due to allergies, genetics, a late night out on the town, binge-watching K-dramas until the early morning and the list goes on. Luckily, you’re not doomed to swollen under eyes thanks to The INKEY List’s Caffeine Eye Cream. 

This lightweight cream targets puffiness, dark circles and fine lines under your eyes. Caffeine assists in reducing fluid retention, while Matrixyl 3000 peptide promotes collagen production (translation: it smooths fine lines). Albizia Julibrissin Bark Extract (which comes from Persian silk tree bark) works to make your under eyes look extra refreshed. 

So if your under eyes could use a pick-me-up, don’t reach for anything but the Caffeine Eye Cream. One shopper wrote, “Really makes my eyes look like I’ve had a good night’s sleep!” 

Essentially, this depuffing product is like a cup of joe for your under eyes. Shop it for only $8 with StyleCasters exclusive sale code, STYLECASTER20. When you add it at checkout, you’ll be able to save 20 percent on the best-seller.

RELATED: Reviewers Are ‘Shocked’ By How Fast This Growth Oil Transformed Their ‘Short, Brittle Lashes’—& It’s Down to $13

Photo: The INKEY List.

You might be impatient to get rid of puffiness, dark circles and wrinkles around your eyes, which is why this cream is perfect for you. According to the brand, you could start to see visible results in as little as two weeks. Full results take six weeks, but it’s well worth the wait.

In fact, one shopper said they noticed results even quicker. They wrote, “Love this eye cream. Very good price. Visibly reduced dark circles in a week. Definitely recommend.”

Another reviewer wrote, “I have tried many eye creams and gels, but this is the best. I have dark circles and eye bags… this gets rid of both! Brilliant stuff which I buy on repeat (and now also for my daughter!).”

Apply the eye cream in both the morning and evening on a daily basis. This step should come after you’ve cleansed and applied serums. Be sure to use your ring finger and keep your movements nice and gentle, since this area is super delicate. 

The brand also has a pro tip that’ll enhance the product’s cooling effects. It’s simple: Toss the Caffeine Eye Cream into the fridge for 30 minutes prior to application. Who doesn’t want to feel like they’re at the spa when they’re applying this product?

Give your eyes the T.L.C. it deserves by adding The INKEY List’s Caffeine Eye Cream to your arsenal. Make sure you scoop it up before the sale code expires.

Turns out, maintaining a 55-pound weight loss – after age 50 – isn’t as easy as one might think (quick backstory: I lost the pounds in my early 40s and have kept them off for 17 years now. I’m 58 as I type).

Especially in December.

I love a tasty buzz as much as the next girl, but at the same time I don’t want to drink what are essentially boozy desserts and run screaming from my scale on New Year’s Day.

Having maintained my loss for years now, I have zero interest in gaining and then re-losing the weight all over again. So, behold the alcoholic calories that I rely on throughout November and December.

But First a Few Tips

Go for the Lowest Calorie Drink

When you’d love something to sip during the holidays, consider the lowest calories in the wine world: brut champagne that comes in at 65 to 95 calories for four ounces (half-cup). We’re not talking sweet champagne, our drink is the driest of dry champagnes, so look for the word “brut” on the label.

Of the hard liquors, vodka is just64 calories for one ounce (eighth of a cup).

Do Ruin Your Meal

Don’t dive into even the lowest calorie drinks until you first “Eat Before You Eat.” Remember how your parents always said, “Don’t eat this close to dinner, you’ll ruin your meal!”

Well – sorry, Dad – ruining our meal is exactly the idea for those of us losing and maintaining after age 50. Before the meals where you know you’ll be tempted, eat an apple or banana with a teaspoon of peanut butter, have a half cup of cottage cheese or a small bowl of cereal.

If you’re anything like me, being hungry at a beautiful spread is a surefire way to overeat and over drink.

Limit the Number of Drinks

Decide in advance to keep your drink limit to two. No matter how low the calories, these beautiful drinks add up.

On with the show!

Fun Recipes to Try

Santa Clausmopolitan

Forget for a second that this is the cutest holiday drink ever, it’s also – if done right – seriously low in calories too.

Begin creating your Santa Clausmopolitan by ignoring the recipes that say to rim your glass with a lime wedge and then dip in sanding sugar.

Why? Because sugar is very high in sugar.

But if you’re looking for super-pretty, rim the glass in sugar!!

The Clausmopolitan I drink is created with vodka, low-calorie cranberry juice, a splash of triple sec (high in calories so a dribble is best), fresh lime juice and fresh cranberries.

A Chilly Chocolate Peppermint Patty

This tasty drink is my very own creation. Did you know that you can buy chocolate almond milk and that it’s only about 100 calories for a full cup? (Somebody upstairs loves us.) Add one ounce vodka to your chocolate almond milk, a drop or two of mint extract, and ice. Yum.

The Snowflake Martini

This delish of a drink is absolutely the living end.

Ingredients:

• A little white sanding sugar, for rim (although I only rim when I’m really feeling wild and crazy)
• 1/2 cup ice
• 1.5 oz. white chocolate liqueur (121 calories)
• 2 oz. vanilla vodka (128 calories)
• 1 cup of vanilla almond milk (30 to 60 calories)
• 1 lemon wedge, for rim

Directions:

Rim your glass with the sugar, if you like to go that route. Add in the ice.

Pour in the chocolate liqueur, vodka and milk, and finish by placing the lemon wedge on the glass’ rim.

Delicious, right?!

Hot Boozy Chocolate

Don’t be scared of making your own low calorie hot chocolate – this is totally do-able.

Ingredients:

• 8 oz chocolate almond milk
• 2 tsps cocoa powder
• 1/8 tsp stevia powder or 3-4 drops of liquid stevia
• 1.5 oz vodka or 1 oz rum (64 calories)

Directions:

Heat your almond milk on the stove stirring continuously (burnt milk is not fun). Once heated, add the rest of the ingredients to your hot chocolate.

Finish up with the vodka or rum.

For fun, I squirt a bit of whipped cream on top and add chocolate sprinkles (because I’m five).

And my work here is done!

Boozy Eggnog

My darling grandma – who rarely drank – always said yes to a cup of eggnog laced with bourbon. As I got older, I realized that the quintessential holiday drink held about a gazillion calories per innocent-looking, festive cup.

But then – cue angels singing on high – I stumbled upon the nut-nog market that sent the high calorie eggnogs packing! (These eggnogs are so delish that I have to limit myself to one cup or I’d drink the entire carton. Just sayin’.)

Check out these sweet little numbers:

• I love the Trader Joe’s nog (in the cold section by the yogurts) with its insanely low 50 calories for a half-cup.
• The Blue Diamond Almond milk Nog is also low at 60 calories for a half-cup. (I serve this one to company.)
• The Silk nog’s soymilk comes in at 80 calories.
• The So Delicious coconut milk holiday nog clocks in at 90 calories for a half-cup.

Just add bourbon (100 cals for 1.5 ounces) and a light sprinkle of nutmeg to create a boozy holiday adult drink.

Dirty Snowmen

For dinner I might have a small bowl of brown rice and veggies, followed by this bad boy.

Ingredients (2 servings):

• 1/4 cup melted chocolate, for rim (optional, I forgo)
• 1 cup vanilla almond milk “ice cream” (if you haven’t yet known the pleasure of almond milk “nice cream” prepare to be wowed. (There are 120 calories for a half-cup, but again, this recipe is for two servings).
• 2 cups heated chocolate almond milk (about 100 calories if you buy unsweetened)
• 1/4 cup Baileys Deliciously Light is lower-sugar and lower-calories than the regular Baileys. About 110 calories for two ounces (quarter-cup).
• ½ cup chocolate shavings (again optional, I only do this for guests)

Directions:

Start with rimming your glass with the melted chocolate – if that is your thing. Pour in the almond milk ice cream, heated chocolate almond milk and Baileys drink.

Top off with chocolate shavings – or whipped cream.

Yum-city!

Skinny Girl Cocktails

I should tell you right off the bat that the Skinny Girl drinks come in rich-girl prices. I love the Skinny Girl low calorie margarita, but the brand also offers pina colada, mojito and several other flavors. But the really good news is that other brands have gotten in on the reduced calorie drink game too (like Jose Cuervo). So shop around for the best prices in your area.

The Simple Vodka Soda

Pick your favorite low-calorie soda and add 1.5 ounces of vodka. Bada boom. (Soda’s been getting a bad rap of late which it totally deserves. Turns out soda is not good for us on a bunch of levels which is why I limit my diet soda drinks to once or twice a year.)

The Vodka Martini

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 oz vodka
• 1/2 oz dry vermouth
• 1 dash orange bitters
• Garnish: lemon twist
• For looks, add an olive-skewer

Directions:

Mix all of the liquids and add ice until chilled. Then garnish and voila.

Vodka, vermouth (105 calories for three ounces), and lemon peel.

Bottom Line (No Pun)

Anytime we substitute almond milk and “nice cream,” or reduce the amounts of high caloric liquor, we’re automatically bringing the drink recipe down to a reasonable amount of calories.

When you and I are losing and maintaining after age 50, we have to bring our strongest – out top-shelf – creativity to the party!

Thanks for reading! Please help Sixty and Me by filling out our short end-of-year survey!

Let’s Have a Conversation:

What’s your favorite holiday adult drink? Do you have special drink recipes you make for friends and family? How do you reduce the calories in your go-to drink?

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, STYLECASTER may receive an affiliate commission.

There’s one thing most people can’t live without because it makes them feel refreshed and wide awake. I’m talking about caffeine, which I myself love to sip on. But did you know caffeine can do more than just give you a jolt of energy? When packed into a skincare product, it can help reduce puffiness. The under-eye area is especially prone to this concern whenever fluid builds up beneath the skin. It could be due to allergies, genetics, a late night out on the town, binge-watching K-dramas until the early morning and the list goes on. Luckily, you’re not doomed to swollen under eyes thanks to The INKEY List’s Caffeine Eye Cream. 

This lightweight cream targets puffiness, dark circles and fine lines under your eyes. Caffeine assists in reducing fluid retention, while Matrixyl 3000 peptide promotes collagen production (translation: it smooths fine lines). Albizia Julibrissin Bark Extract (which comes from Persian silk tree bark) works to make your under eyes look extra refreshed. 

So if your under eyes could use a pick-me-up, don’t reach for anything but the Caffeine Eye Cream. One shopper wrote, “Really makes my eyes look like I’ve had a good night’s sleep!” 

Essentially, this depuffing product is like a cup of joe for your under eyes. Shop it for only $8 with StyleCasters exclusive sale code, STYLECASTER20. When you add it at checkout, you’ll be able to save 20 percent on the best-seller.

RELATED: Reviewers Are ‘Shocked’ By How Fast This Growth Oil Transformed Their ‘Short, Brittle Lashes’—& It’s Down to $13

Photo: The INKEY List.

You might be impatient to get rid of puffiness, dark circles and wrinkles around your eyes, which is why this cream is perfect for you. According to the brand, you could start to see visible results in as little as two weeks. Full results take six weeks, but it’s well worth the wait.

In fact, one shopper said they noticed results even quicker. They wrote, “Love this eye cream. Very good price. Visibly reduced dark circles in a week. Definitely recommend.”

Another reviewer wrote, “I have tried many eye creams and gels, but this is the best. I have dark circles and eye bags… this gets rid of both! Brilliant stuff which I buy on repeat (and now also for my daughter!).”

Apply the eye cream in both the morning and evening on a daily basis. This step should come after you’ve cleansed and applied serums. Be sure to use your ring finger and keep your movements nice and gentle, since this area is super delicate. 

The brand also has a pro tip that’ll enhance the product’s cooling effects. It’s simple: Toss the Caffeine Eye Cream into the fridge for 30 minutes prior to application. Who doesn’t want to feel like they’re at the spa when they’re applying this product?

Give your eyes the T.L.C. it deserves by adding The INKEY List’s Caffeine Eye Cream to your arsenal. Make sure you scoop it up before the sale code expires.