All beauty junkies have been there when they’ve learned a new makeup trick or tip that made them think “I wish I’d known about this earlier!”.  Well, the goal of today’s post is to leave everyone with hopefully at least one tip or trick that will be new and very useful to them. I consider myself to be a beauty or makeup enthusiast – I am always looking for new products, tutorials, you name it. Over the years of buying way too much make up and spending hours in front of a mirror perfecting the perfect smokey eye, contour, etc. I’ve picked up a few tricks and have come up with some on my own. So today, I will be sharing those with you.

The great thing about most of these tricks is that they’re done with products that you most likely own already or ones that aren’t hard to find at your local drug store. I will be trying to arrange them in an order that makes the most sense whether that’s by area of the body or by product itself. I have ten tips to share today so let’s get started…

1. Prolonging a mascara’s life with either lubricant eye drops or contact solution: technically, mascara isn’t supposed to sit around in your make up drawer for more than 3 months. Let’s be real though, for how much money some mascara costs it’s really hard to throw it out after that short of a period of time. Some mascaras are still perfect after 3 months but others tend to dry out quicker. If you have Visine (or a lubricant eye drop, NOT a redness reliever) or contact solution laying around, you can instill a few drops into the mascara tube and get at least another month’s worth of use out of the mascara. You want to avoid any products with alcohol in it (since alcohol is drying) and since no drops meant to go in the eye will contain alcohol, they’re the perfect product to use in something that’s also going to be used in/around the eye.
2. Q-tips to clean up mascara marks: while we are on the topic of mascara, let’s talk about those annoying moments after you apply mascara when it decides to stamp itself or make a little mark against your eyeshadow and potentially ruin a perfect smokey eye or whatever shadow look was created by you. This is the easiest trick and I’m so thankful for whoever taught me this years ago since I have to do this almost daily. If you just take a dry Q-tip and dab it on the spot that the mascara left, it’s going to get the mascara mark right off without ruining your eyeshadow. So don’t rub it, use a wet Q-tip or make up remover.
   • If you want a product recommendation for quick fixes such as botched winged liner, the e.l.f. Make Up Remover Pen is a lifesaver. It’s only a few bucks and lasts for months. I use this probably at least once a week to fix my eyeliner.
3. Less painful tweezing: if you’re someone that either does their own brows at home or just plucks the strays without having to do anything else, this trick is for you. A lot of people complain about tweezing their eyebrows because of the pain. Well, one way to eliminate that pain is to tweeze right after a long hot shower. Your pores open up after a hot shower making tweezing a lot less painful.
   • A side tip for post hot shower is to cut your cuticles then as well. We’ve all seen what our fingers look like after a long shower and know that those cuticles are way easier to spot – well they’re also way easier to cut then and make for a better looking mani later. Always be careful when cutting cuticles though and don’t cut too much. The cuticles are there to prevent us from getting infections so over-cutting them is also a no-no. I also recommend not painting your nails before a hot shower because the heat and steam can break up the polish on your hands. If anything, take off your polish right before the shower so that the hot shower can also take care of some of the remaining polish and you’ll be starting out with cleaner looking nails right from the beginning.
4. Alcohol swabbing your nails: since we went into the nail category in the previous tip, let’s talk about them some more. Your nail polish often chips off your nails not because of the nail polish but because there was oil or dirt on your nails that was there when the nail polish was applied. A way to get rid of any of the oil or dirt that nail polish will cling to is to buy some alcohol swabs and swab your nails right before applying your base coat. Your mani will last way longer because your color won’t chip as quickly anymore.
   • A great base coat is also essential to a good manicure. Orly’s Bonder is my personal favorite. It keeps the nails from getting stained and significantly prolongs nail polish wear
5. Re-apply topcoat on day 2 or 3: this tip is really simple and will buy you a few extra days with your mani. I usually re-apply topcoat on day 3, unless I am already sick of whatever color I’m wearing and want something new. I paint my nails pretty often but sometimes I need a manicure to last me a little longer than usual (if I know I won’t have much free time in the upcoming few days) so I will use this trick to make the mani last longer.
6. Visine or eye redness reliever to reduce inflammation around a pimple or zit: I’m just using the brand name Visine (again) as it’s something a lot of people are familiar with but if you just go to your local pharmacy and look for eye redness relief, whatever they’re selling will work. Since these drops have a constricting agent, they will also work topically if you put it on a zit or pimple (especially one that was just popped) to help bring down the redness and inflammation around it. Just one drop will usually suffice.
7. Shiny hair: a trick I use to enhance the shine in my hair after blowing it out is using an oil spray such as Macadamia’s Healing Oil Spray and then switching my blow dryer into “cold” mode and letting it blow on my hair for a few minutes. It enhances the shine and the cold air seems to lock that oil spray in.
8. Liquid lipstick: A lot of people dislike wearing liquid lipsticks because of how much they dry out the lips. A trick to make that less of an issue is to use either a lip balm or a lip salve such as Glossier’s Balm dotcom before applying the liquid lipstick so that it has a barrier of moisture underneath. The lipstick may be slightly more transferable this way but if you’re okay with that, this is definitely a great tip to use.
9. Eye shadow fall out: this is one most beauty junkies already know but if you get a lot of fall out under your eyes from a particular eye shadow, there is a really easy way to get that off without smudging eye shadow under your eyes and creating a racoon look. If you set your concealer with powder before you apply your eye shadow, you can just take any brush and brush off all the eye shadow – it’ll come right off. A lot of people like to do their eyeshadow first before doing their foundation and concealer and then wipe the fall out off either with a makeup wipe or make up remover but I personally think this is easier to do.
10. Exfoliate before shaving: I was taught this at my nail salon when I showed up without shaving my legs and was trying to make up excuses to my nail tech who told me that it was a good thing because I was going to have an exfoliating scrub applied. He went on to explain that exfoliating will let the razor get a better exposure to the hair and will get closer to the hair root which will then cause the hair to grow back slower. I’ve been exfoliating before shaving my legs ever since and have definitely noticed a big difference. My legs feel way smoother after and I truly don’t have to shave them as often.

I hope I was able to teach you something new today with these tips and tricks. Let me know which tips were your favorite and whether you have some of your own worth sharing. As always, thanks for reading😊

Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram | Pinterest | Facebook