From Lips to Lashes: 20 Beauty Essentials Every Woman Needs to Know

Banish all those beauty blunders that are leaving your skin and hair looking sub-par as you head out the door.  Instead, build a better beauty foundation and learn to put your best face forward with the following tried and true beauty trips.

Beauty Tip # 1

Soft on the Eyes:

Hold you’re hard to apply eye pencil under a flame for 1 second, and let it cool for15 seconds.  This will easily transform any hard eye liner pencil into manageable gel pencil eyeliner.

Beauty Tip # 2

Make Your Eyeshadow Pop:

When applying sheer or low-pigmented eye shadow try using a white eyeliner pencil across the lids of both your eyes.  The opaque consistency will intensify any eye shadow color.

Beauty Tip # 4

How to Create The Perfect Cat Eye in 5 Easy Steps:

Draw your cat eye first and then follow by filling up the open space.  This will allow you to enjoy a perfect winged or cat eye liner every single time it is applied. 

Step 1: Using an eyeliner brush dipped in black gel eyeliner, create the tail of what will be the wing of your liner. Angle the brush towards your temple starting from the outer corner of your eye. 

Step 2: Run gel liner across the top of your lash line. Apply dashes starting 1/4 inch from the inner corner of your eye.  Finish by connecting the dots, creating a smooth, straight line. 

Step 3: Draw a triangle off the tail from step 1 and create a diagonal line coming off of the winged liner you applied in the first step, and then connect it to the liner you applied on your upper lash line. 

Step 4: Fill in the triangle connecting the winged liner to the upper lash line thicken the line above your lashes to create a smooth appearance. 

Step 5: Clean up any imperfections using a makeup remover pen or a Q-Tip dipped in makeup remover. 

Beauty Tip # 5

Spoons Arent Just For Eating Anymore:

To create the perfect winged eyeliner application is to hold the stem of a spoon to the outer corner of your eye and blend for a great smoky eye.     

You can use the spoon to avoid any unwanted mascara marks. Hold the spoon so it hugs your eyelid and then apply per usual. Sweep the wand across your lashes and back of the spoon. The residue will coat the back of the spoon and not your eyelid. 

Beauty Tip # 6

Revive Your Stale Mascara: 

It’s recommended that women change out your mascara once every three months.  Sometimes you can extend that time period with a little help from saline solution. Add a few drops into the tube the next time your mascara starts to feel dry and flaky.                 

Beauty Tip # 7

Create a Mini Curling Iron for Your Lashes: 

Heat up your lash curler with a blow dryer to amplify the lash curling. The hot air will help your lashes curl a little bit easier and stay curled a bit longer. How to: Blow dry the curler until hot and then let it cool to a warm temp and use. 

                         

Beauty Tip # 8

Plump up Your Lashes:

Use a translucent powder on your lashes between applications to plump them up. 

Beauty Tip # 9

Sticky Fingers?

Use the tip of a clean bobby pin to apply glue to false lashes. 

Beauty Tip # 10

No More Fading:

Apply lipstick, then lay a tissue over your mouth and dust it with translucent powder. This will turn any lipstick into long lasting color stay lipstick. 

Beauty Tip # 11

Get Glossy:

Mix loose pigments with a petroleum jelly or salve to create your own lip-gloss.  I love using this trick on eye shadows that I rarely use anymore. 

Beauty Tip # 12

Brighten Up:

To brighten up a dull face be sure to exfoliate.  Squeeze a dime sized amount of an exfoliating cleanser into your palm and apply to your face using your fingertips. Lightly massage into your skin using circular motions with the pads of your fingertips. Be careful to avoid sensitive areas like the upper eyelids, corners of the eyes, and creases im the nose to minimize irritation. 

The best exfoliators are natural ones like sugar, fine grains, shells, seeds, rice powder, marshmallow root, coffee grounds, and salt. Here is how they stack up:

Sugar: 

Because of its ability to dissolve quickly it is tolerated well by most skin types.  Sugar is also a humectant; this means it draws in moisture leaving your skin soft and hydrated. 

Fine Grains:

Oatmeal and almond scrubs made with finely ground natural fibers that decongest pores and oatmeal sooths inflammation, making it perfect for sensitive skin. 

Shells, Pits, & Seeds:

Walnut shells, apricot pits, and grape seeds all have angular edges which help to loosen rough patches on elbows, knees, and ankles.  Heed with caution if your skin is on the sensitive side as the gritty texture could inflame sensitive skin. 

Rice Powder:

Ground up uncooked rice is delicate buffer for both oily skin and easily irritated skin and can treat pesky rashes or inflammation such as eczema. 

Marshmallow Root:

Rub this against your skin like an eraser (little pieces will fall off). This root has anti-inflammatory properties, making it perfect for acne and sunburns.

Coffee Grounds with Olive Oil:

Mix a handful of grounds with olive oil and rub it all over your body in the direction of lymphatic flow, which is up from the feet towards your heart. Any areas that have accumulated fluid and puffed up will see a reduction in swelling Thanks to the added caffeine.

Beauty Tip # 13

X Marks the Spot:

Draw an X on your upper lip first when applying lipstick to help perfect your cupids bow. 

Beauty Tip # 14

Natural Face Lift?

Apply concealer in the shape of a triangle under the eyes to conceal dark circles. The base of the triangle should be directly under the lash line and the point towards the bottom of your cheek. The shape conceals redness at the bottom and the sides of your eye and it gives the illusion of a lifted face 'since the brightest point is the most intense under the eye. 

Beauty Tip # 15

Contour Your Face:

Map the contours of your face using a gel eyebrow pencil since it’s easier to blend in and to apply precisely. The areas of focus while mapping your face are the hollows under your cheekbones, your temple, hairline, jawline, sides and tip of nose, and the crease of the eyes.  Brow gel pencils are easily smudged making it easier to control the placement of the dark pigment, making them perfect for contouring. Next, apply an allover cream highlighter on the tops of your cheekbones, center of the forehead, bridge of the nose, center of the chin, and on your cupids bow.

Beauty Tip # 16

No Rice Paper?

Did you just realize you ran out of your rice paper facial blotters? Don’t worry because a toilet seat cover can blot excess oil off your face just as well as rice paper can. 

Beauty Tip # 17

Do the Dew:

Wake up a dull and tired skin by using a dewy foundation. Be sure your foundation isn’t matte and skip talc based powders. They tend to leave your skin looking chalky.  Blend all over with your fingertips, and don’t forget your eyelids, and just below the jawline. 

Beauty Tip # 18

Wear Layers:

Wake up tired eyes by applying two eyeliners. Apply black or brown pencil deep into the lash line, top or bottom, or both.  Be sure no skin is showing, and then draw on top, not above, with a slightly lighter color. Ex: Bronze with brown and dark grey with black. 

Beauty Tip # 19

Get up and glow:

Use a golden or yellow based concealer one shade brighter than your skin tone. 

This will counteract purple and brown under eye circles. How to apply: Gently fingertip it from the inner corner of your eyes outward in a semi-circle so you have consistent tone all around. 

Beauty Tip # 20

Wide eyed and Bushy Tailed:

A volumizing mascara in blackest black can be applied by pulling the wand from lash roots to the outside of the eyes, pull toward the inner corner of the eyes to achieve a wide-eyed effect.