We don’t all have the time or the money to make frequent trips to salons and invest in the latest must-have beauty gadgets. The good news is that you can still achieve a flawless look – thanks to cheap and effective beauty hacks from beauty bloggers and vloggers across the world.
Trade your expensive facial for a banana skin and your root touch-ups for a mascara wand. Here’s how the budget beauty queens get an A-List worthy look for a fraction of the price.
For your skin
The better care you take of your skin now the more grateful you’ll be in ten years’ time – trust us! However, all those skincare products and treatments can be costly. Here are a few hacks to help you save money while maintaining a glowing complexion.
Blemish prone skin can be so frustrating! Is it just us, or do they always crop up at exactly the wrong moment?! First day at a new job: blemish. Looking forward to a big event at the weekend: blemish.
According to blogger Hypnaughty.makeup, one great – and inexpensive – way to tackle pimples is to rub the spot with the inside of a banana peel. Leave the banana to work its magic for two hours and then remove with the outside of the peel. It’s got to be worth a try!
Sheet masks are all the rage right now, but blogger Natasha Kimora has gone a step further with her cut-price alternative. Lay a sheet of rice paper over your face for smooth and silky skin. Rice is also a natural lightening agent, so the mask will help to repair uneven pigmentation and discolouration too.
Chapped lips are never a good look, particularly when you want to wear lipstick. Before applying her make-up blogger Shewearsmakeup removes any dead skin from her lips using Vaseline and a clean mascara wand. Be gentle with this one though – too much exfoliation will leave your lips sore and irritated.
A lot of expensive skin care products contain aloe vera, so blogger Beautyhacks_argentina has cut out the middle man and gone straight to the source with her homemade face mask.
Simply slit open the leaves of an aloe vera plant and apply the gel straight to your face.
Hairdressers can be expensive! Especially if you have a colour treatment like highlights, or if you’re too nervous to let the junior stylist loose on your precious tresses. But there are some brilliant hacks that will keep you looking like you’ve just stepped out of the salon even if it’s months since you’ve been.
The contrast of grey hair against dark colours makes them more obvious on brunettes than blondes (sorry!). But if you do spot an unwelcome grey between colours, or while you’re on- the-go, a brilliant tip from blogger Oliveskinbeauty is to cover them up with mascara. It’s a super quick fix and works amazingly well.
If you have fine hair this is probably one of your pet beauty peeves. Static or flyaway hairs look unruly and undo all the good work you’ve done styling your hair. You can beat them with this ingenious tip from Styliste_samatha. Place a tumble dryer sheet over your hair brush and pierce the bristles through so it stays in place. Then brush your hair as normal and the sheet will remove the static – voila!
There’s no need for multiple styling tools with this trick. To create tight curls simply wrap your hair around a pencil and clamp your straightening iron over the top. If you’re not keen on the corkscrew look use a wide tooth comb to loosen the curls into waves when you’ve finished.
If we had a pound for every ‘miracle’ make-up product that’s turned out to be completely useless we’d be millionaires! Here are some tried and tested tips that’ll have you looking like you have a professional make-up artist.
Foundations are always promising to give you that supermodel ‘glow’, but the truth is some products leave your skin looking caked and blotchy. Make-up artist, Tom Pecheux recommends dipping your foundation brush in a few drops of facial oil and buffing it into the skin for a dewy complexion.
Mascara gone clumpy? Don’t worry, just add a few drops of contact lens solution and give it a good mix in to thin it back down.
Likewise, when you’re getting to the end of your concealer, but there’s a lot of product trapped in the corners or right at the bottom of the packaging, blogger Wheelsnoheels recommends standing the tube in boiling water for a minute to loosen the make-up still there.
If you struggle to get your lashes looking as long as you’d like them to, try dabbing baby powder on them before you apply mascara. The powder helps build-up the lash length.
Chipped nail varnish is a huge beauty no-no! If you’re out of nail varnish remover you can whip up a homemade alternative by mixing vinegar and lemon juice. The acidic solution removes polish.
Do you have any other beauty hacks we should know about? Share your secrets on our Facebook page!
