April 2020 Beauty Hacks

I hope you all enjoyed my blog regarding recommendations – as promised here are my tips and beauty hacks to follow!

Although promise me one thing – did you sign up to the websites before making your purchase? Make my day and tell me you got yourself a bargain!???

Just sharpening your pencils, organising your beauty products refreshes your memory of what you do have and can possibly revamp!

Make your own lip colour – Use a blusher or shadow in a color that you find flattering. Take a tweezer or bobby pin and scrape some of the powder out. On a clean surface, mix it with clear lip balm or some petroleum jelly. If it isn’t deep enough, add more pigment. If it’s too deep, add in more balm.

To save having too many foundations, in order to make a tinted moisturiser out of your foundation just add a dollop of your favourite moisturiser to it!

Doubling up your lipstick as a cream blusher, apply a pea size dot on the apples of the cheeks and blend in with your fingers or a brush!

Credit cards / business cards can double up as good make up tools. Place it at an angle up and out from the outer corner of your eye. You can now apply shadow and liner without worrying about going a millimeter too low and dragging your eye down.

Also employ this trick when you’re using a mascara with a messy wand or thick formula. Hold the card behind your lashes, against your eyelid, and apply without making a mess

Any lines, hollowness, or sagging around your mouth casts subtle shadows. Therefore, if you want to make the most of your lips, conceal the area around them to cancel out any discoloration. This makes your lips stand out a little more. It can also be done after applying lipstick to clean up any little mistakes and keep the lip line crisp and uniform

To remove every single trace of mascara and keep the lashes you do have conditioned. Make sure you have some baby oil on hand in addition to your regular remover.

It’s gentle enough for babies, true, but you still don’t want to get the oil directly in your eye. Drip a few drops on a cotton pad. With your eye closed, swipe the pad gently back and forth. Apply one more drop to the other side of the pad and repeat to clean up any smears. All clean!

A handy tool for applying glue to lashes is a bobby pin, if you take the bulbous end of a bobby pin and drop a dab of eyelash glue on it. Use the bobby pin to lightly coat the lash strip in glue. Wait for five seconds to become tacky. Then, use tweezers to carefully “drop” the lash strip directly on top of your lash line. Press it on gently as it dries.

If you have small eyes and you find eyeliner can make your eyes look even smaller, apply a pencil, dark eyeshadow or gel liner to the upper lashline, but from under the lashes, so you colour in the gaps between your lashes, adding definition but not taking up any space on the eyelid – Laura Merciers tight liner is designed specifically for this!

If you find that applying a pencil to your water line never lasts or doesn’t give enough definition, apply a dark eye shadow on top of the eye liner. Not only does this last longer but gives a stronger line and defines the eye better, think of it as setting the eyeliner like you would set a foundation with a powder!

Acrylic beauty boxes can go in the dishwasher, a quick way of cleaning them so they’re gleaming!

Apply mascara last when doing your make up, to save it getting dusty when using, powders, bronzers and blushers.

Mascara and liquid liner depending on how often you use it can dry out quickly so you may not want to buy ones that are more expensive!

Creme eyeshadows are a quick and easy way to bring out the pigment in eyeshadows and make a good smokey eye.

If you think of smoke rising from a chimney it gradually gets lighter you can mirror this technique on the eye which is a great way to achieve an eye look with any colour palette / light or dark.

Apply eye base all over the eye

Smudge creme eyeshadow or eye liner on the eye lid

Press colour on to the eye lid

Blend in to eye crease

Apply dark shadow to lash line top and bottom for definition and blend

Highlight brow bone

Your all done!

You can mix foundations and liquid highlighters for the perfect colour finish and consistency, this is called foundation wardrobing!

Bronzer and blusher double up as brilliant eye shadows especially in the crease!

Mineral foundation is great for problematic skins and bare minerals original loose powder gives a really lovely glow and is buildable, you can wear as natural or as full as you want.

For a really natural look you can always line the lips with a neutral liner and then just apply your lip balm or Vaseline on top.

Lipstick can double up as a good cream cheek colour and depending on consistency just add a little Vaseline.

For anyone that’s looking for a more youthful look the more hydrated the lips look with a gloss or lip balm the more youthful you’ll look, sometimes less is more!

Brush sets tend to be more cost effective than singular brushes

Also another useful tip to be mindful of the smaller the brush the more dense the product will be applied, less waste and you have more control over it. I’m not a huge fan of really large brushes!

Remember to tap off any excess products, use the back of your hand as a palette for your brushes.

Wash your brushes weekly with baby shampoo, if you have good quality brushes and you look after them they will last forever.

I’ve been using the same brushes on myself for 10 years, I bought a lovely Laura Mercier set and have looked after them ever since!

I don’t personally believe in buying crazy expensive brushes, £50 for a face brush is mental in my opinion there is so much choice and new brands around that you don’t need the £60 Chanel powder brush – Morphe and Crown brush do fab brushes!

Understand your brushes and the job they have, this is something I teach in my lessons, I don’t believe in having products or tools just for the sake of it!

Brow brushes are under estimated!

Literally a clean mascara wand to brush your brows with can really make all the difference, especially if you’ve pencilled in the brows but want to soften the pencil marks.

As a make up artist I have gone through so many make up cases I’ve bought all the pretty ones but they just simply do not hold the weight, I even remember my dad strapping some rope around one once as it fell apart on me mid working. I now use a samsonite suitcase, with my make up separated in to clear plastics pouches, I have done for the last 4-5 years and I’ve never looked back! It’s fantastic if I’m lugging it on the train or up a car park or hotel, being on 4 wheels means I can just push it along. I will also add I had an embarrassing moment recently where I accidentally ran my case over in a courtesy car I was driving, it pinged right back in to shape, didn’t damage anything inside and only left a few scratches!

I also buy them from the samsonite outlet in Freeport, I always get a brilliant deal in there and now they know me they’re used to me trying all my make up in various cases lol!

Vapor rub is great for discolouration on nails

Prolana is a brilliant nail strengthener

Coconut oil warmed up and poured on to the hair is a brilliant hair mask

Caster oil and Vaseline makes the lashes and brows grow

Cuticle oil makes all the difference to the way your hands look, no one wants flaky dry hands and nails

Opi have a brilliant hand and foot product range, soak your hands and feet in the product or even just a rich cream/ oil and put your socks on for it to truly absorb, this is best over night!

I recommend exfoliation 2/3 times a week I do mine in the shower or bath!

If you know your low maintenance or someone that’s low on time and needs ease and convenience, for example don’t pick a cleanser that will require using a 100 cotton pads! Pick one to clean your face with at the sink and dry with a towel!

Skincare for me is not necessarily about how expensive the product is, I personally have sensitive skin and I don’t benefit or like the feel of extremely concentrated, strong ingredients on my face. The important bit for me is committing to my routine day and night for maximum hydration and care.

My skin benefits from change, I really find when I stick to one product my skin becomes immune, so I usually have 2-3 on the go at once and I really notice a difference.

Nail varnish lasts so much longer in the fridge or a cool place!

If you haven’t ever done yourself a body scrub you really are missing out the feeling of having brand new skin all over is heaven.

If you struggle with a skin care routine, my recommendation is focus on it at bed time, night times are when the skin really gets to absorb the products, and just maybe use a simple moisturiser with an spf in the day.

As you can see the common thread through all this weeks recommendations, is that if you don’t need to pay big money for it then don’t!

Primary beauty are doing some brilliant bits,

Make Up Revolution is incredible the standard is amazing and the price is even better! The Ordinary and The Inkey do a fantastic skincare range at a super affordable price point! Calcot manor do gorgeous body products that they sell in Tesco, coconut oil is £2 a jar!

Mix luxury with high street!

I’ve also recently fell in love with having LVLs done (lash lift) I try not to have it done all the time as it does naturally dry the lashes out! But certainly for holiday and special occasions I love it! It’s natural looking and lasts for a good 5-6 weeks! I love lash extensions and they look gorgeous on people but for me I pick and get easily irritated plus, I can’t not get them wet or rub my eyes so LVLs work better for me! It’s so funny as LVLs and lash extensions are something I do on my clients but I try to be as natural as possible and do as much as I can myself but I do love that look of dark curled lashes – glamorous but natural!

If you suffer with dry lips, lip exfoliatiors are great, then moisturise after.

Try and get yourself in to a maintenance routine and set reminders on your phone – I promise you’ll thank me later!

Day and night skincare

1-2 times a week – wash hair

Every night – coat lashes in castor oil and cuticles in cuticle oil

Bi weekly – soak hands and feet in oil and gloves / socks

Weekly – body scrub

Weekly – fake tan

Weekly – bath with oils

Bi weekly – clean make up brushes

Bi weekly – nails and feet

Bi weekly – hair and face mask

Monthly – brows and lashes (thread/ tint/ extensions)

Monthly – massage – if you train there’s nothing better automatically gives you better posture!

Bi Monthly – facial

6-8 weeks – go for hair appointment

Every 3 months – stock up on beauty products / have sort out

It’s a lovely feeling being on top of your maintenance and feeling together rather than like you’ve let it all go! It means when you make time for regular maintenance, going out and looking your best isn’t half a time consuming or stressful! Get in to the flow of always feeling and looking on form and taking good care of yourself!

I promise to add to this if I think of more but I hope all my tips and tricks help! I’m all about being cost effective, looking after yourself, and fitting it in round your busy schedules! You’ll often see me with my hair and face mask on whilst cooking dinner lol or painting my toes before bed as this is when they dry the best! The power of looking after yourself is that you feel on point, fresh, maintained and mentally you’ve taken some time for yourself! A massage for me is my only luxury as I do most beauty treatments myself, I love the feeling of all the tension being released from my body and immediately my posture is better! All of this constitutes to having a more positive mindset towards yourself and life for me that is really important!

I love you all, thank you to everyone that reads my extra long blog posts and recommends me to others, I love what I do and helping others!

XOXO