Makeup Hacks

  I was going over my last post on beauty, & I thought of a few other things that I would've liked to have fit into it. The thing is, these little tricks aren't budget savers per say. They're more along the lines of how to get the most out of your makeup. Other women chuckle at a couple of the things I do, they seem like little quirks, but my little quirks actually do make cosmetics go on better, & make them easier to work with.
 Quirk 1. For thicker concealers, thicker eyeshadow primers (think Urban Decay), & mascara; I like to keep the tubes somewhere at body temp. until I need to use them. The easiest place for me to do that is in my bra. I warm up my IT Cosmetics concealer while I'm applying foundation, use it, & then place the next item I want at body temperature in my bra, until I'm ready to use it. This is simple enough & this makes these products much more user friendly.
 Quirk 2. Always have a paper towel, napkin, or tissue on hand for blotting/wiping. This is ridiculously easy/obvious, but grabbing something to blot the end of your mascara wand, wipe your powder brushes off with, & wipe the concealer off of your hand with is also something that can be easily forgotten.
 Quirk 3. My makeup mirror. It's fancy looking, & it was under $20. I've discounted the necessity for magnification for a long time in my makeup routine, but really a two sided makeup mirror is necessary to get the level of polish I've come to expect from my cosmetics. This goes beyond plucking my brows. Being able to actually see the exact spot I'm placing an individual lash is a must!
Quirk 4. Disposable paint pallets. Love these for my loose powder, loose eye shadows (giving you the side eye, Nyx Ultra Pearl pigments), & various other uses.
Quirk 5. I like my brushes & sponges to be fresh & clean each time that I use them. The exceptions are my eyeshadow brushes. I will get lazy about cleaning those if I'm using the same eyeshadow quad for a couple days in a row. The BEST soap for cleaning my makeup tools, that I have found so far, is Dr. Bronner's tea tree oil liquid castille soap. I love Dr. Bronner's liquid soaps for cleaning my house, myself, & I've even used it for laundry when I ran out of detergent. Anyway, tea tree is oil is fantastic for killing off fungi & bacteria, so that's why I use this variety to wash my face tools with.
 Well, I hope there's some useful info to be had in this post,
Blessing, B

Budget Beauty Tricks

  I love reading makeup reviews. I have Makeup Alley bookmarked, & I will go there every day, just to see what's what in the cosmetics world at the moment. While I am not a professional makeup artist, I do have years of experience with using cosmetics. Which also means I have had lots of time to figure out what works & what doesn't. I felt inspired to post, after reading all the complaints of the Makeup Alley community about primers "pilling" or "balling." These are otherwise best selling products, that come from high quality brands.  I will tell you what the main culprit is, which will also segue me to talking about today's topic. The problem when you have a product; be it moisturizer, primer, toner, whatever...., that dries to a flaky, balled up, pilled up texture (mess), is that you've applied too much, or that certain ingredients don't play well with others. Example: aloe vera, glycerin, hyaluronic acid or kelp extracts. These ingredients tend to be more of a gel texture, & water based gel textures can leave a film when they dry. If you try to mix that texture with something that is oil or silicone based, the water based product will usually end up balling, & your foundation is not going to glide smoothly over that. Disaster usually happens when the clash of textures isn't apparent until after you've applied your makeup & you have a weird, filthy looking, streaky-clumpy mess on some part of your face. There's an easy fix for this, so you can save your time, money, & gas! Before you return that primer, try this trick. After you've done your morning routine, & waited about 5 minutes for your moisturizer to absorb; spritz your face with some drinking quality water (I drink R/O water, that I get from the Primo station at WalMart). Pat it in for about a minute, apply your primer & give that a minute to set before applying your makeup. I promise there will be no more pilled/balled up makeup messes on your face.
 An inexpensive spray bottle, filled with water, is really an easy beauty hack. Example: skin oils are really popular, but they can be greasy and/or expensive. If you spritz your face with water before applying them, you will avoid using too much, & also get the best benefit from them. Set aside all the miracle claims about rosehip seed oil, argan oil, etc., & the main benefit that can be proven is that oil helps seal water into your skin. The more water (i.e. moisture) that your skin can retain, the nicer it looks. The spray bottle is handy to remove wrinkles from clothing, without dragging out the iron. If you spritz your outfit & hang it in the bathroom before you shower, it's super easy to shake any wrinkles out of your clothes before you get dressed. There are a few other ways to use a spray bottle of water, but I have other tricks to discuss.
 Trick 1. If you have a hard time applying strip lashes, use a toothpick. Use on side to apply the glue to the eyelash strip, & use the other side to help hold the strip in place while the glue sets. Trick 2. If you dot mascara around your eye area while applying it, or end up with eyeshadow fall-out, or other pigment related mishaps; use a dot of primer on a q-tip to remove it. Trick 3. So you want to do your eye makeup really fancy? Last weekend I did a gold glitter smoky eye, without ending up with eye shadow fallout all over my foundation. Firstly, do your eye makeup before you apply the rest of your face, & second, use scotch tape to mark off your eye area. I learned this trick from a YouTuber & it works without fail. Trick 4. This one is aimed at people who have issues with fragrance disappearing or changing unpleasantly. Monistat Chafing Relief gel is an inexpensive multi-use product. Yes, it is marketed to help with issues of chafing, like from a bra or your thighs rubbing together, but it's also great for a LOT of other things. Also, it's SUPER cheap, like less than $6 (at WalMart) for almost 2 oz, cheap. The main ingredient is dimethicone, which is the main ingredient for a lot of smoothing type products, even hair care, & including $40 an ounce- Smashbox makeup primer. I use Monistat Chafing Relief gel to prevent the irritation I can get from wearing super strength spanx, I use it as a makeup primer, I've met an African-American woman that uses it to straighten her hair, & I also use it as a fragrance primer. If I have a problem with any of my oil-based perfumes changing or disappearing after a very short time of wearing them, I apply very small dabs of  Monistat Chafing Relief gel to my application points & rub it in like lotion.  I give it a minute for my skin to accept it, & then I apply my perfume. This can work with alcohol based, spray-type perfumes as well. The main idea is to block your actual skin from interacting with the perfume for as long as possible, & the dimethicone makes a great barrier. I'm sure there are a million other uses for Monistat Chafing Relief gel & if you know of any that I haven't listed, please tell me in the comments!
 Trick 5. Beauty Blogger & YouTube guru Kandee Johnson did a few YouTube tutorials on contouring. If you want an easy way to learn, check out her channel. If you already know what you're doing, but have trouble getting your artistry to last through blowing your nose, sweating, or makeup just tends to disappear on you, try this method. Use cream concealer to contour (L'Oreal's Tru Match concealer sticks are even easier), blend it out, powder to set, then go back over your contoured & highlighted areas with matte bronzer & matte white eyeshadow. You can use setting powder over this as well. Don't worry about looking cakey if you have dry skin, a light of spritz of water from your trusted spray bottle & letting it dry before you do the rest of your makeup, will solve this.
 Trick 6. I'm going to go old school here. I've known about this trick for years, but had also forgotten about it for years. Plastic wrap is your friend, people. Plastic wrap is an inexpensive, easy way to shed pounds in your problem areas. You can work out in it, but I'm going to caveat that you should let it get nice & stuck to the area you wrapped before you commence your routine. This wouldn't be an issue for people that drive to a gym, but for people like myself, that workout at home...this is good to know. I would say wrap your problem area, then vacuum or something until the plastic feels nice & stuck to your skin. Also, you don't need to use any fancy creams or anything to speed up the weight loss. Exercise is your friend here, & the weight you lose from exercising while wearing the cling wrap, is much more likely to stay off. You can use the shrink wrap style as an overnight body wrap, but I wouldn't exercise in it. Now, I have a few more hacks, but I'm going to wrap this post up with Trick 7. Lemon water. Skip using diuretics to lose water weight, a much healthier alternative is to keep cut lemons on hand & add them to your water until it tastes like unsweetened lemonade. I've always preferred lemons for my water at restaurants, but an OB/Gyn nurse told me that drinking lemon water would help me shed weight faster, after I had my youngest child. In the meantime, I've also learned that lemon water works like an internal deodorizer. If I'm on a lemon water kick, I won't need to use as much deodorant or feel the need to chew gum. It's also great as a low-cal, caffeine-free energy booster. Another pleasant side effect from drinking lemon water all day, is that the constant (low sugar) consumption of vitamin C & antioxidants from the lemons will keep your skin looking younger, longer.
 I've already asked you for any other uses you have for Monistat Chafing Relief gel, but if anyone has other low cost beauty tricks to contribute to my lexicon, please, please, please comment below or message me. If I do a part two, & use your tip, you will be credited :)