‘For firm facial muscles, chew a small carrot after your main meal until it liquefies in your mouth,' facialist Bharti Vyas once brilliantly advised us. 'It's a fantastic facial exercise and better at preventing sagging skin than any face cream.'
Stress showing on your face? We’ve two suggestions. First, place your elbows on your desk and put cupped hands over your eyes to block out the light. Breathe deeply as you slowly count to 10. Or try this, based on shiatsu massage: inhale and grasp earlobes with your thumbs and forefingers. Then gently pull down and in as you slowly exhale.
Suffering from post-workout breakouts? Chances are your make-up’s blocking your sweat glands, trapping the toxins you’re excreting. Remove foundation – but no need to take off eye make-up or lipstick – when you work out. After exercise, use a facial wipe to remove any perspiration, remoisturise and reapply your base.
Whenever you’re applying eyeshadow, tilt your head back slightly when looking in the mirror – it’ll make the crease of your eye more visible, so it’s easier to apply the contour shade to the socket.
Once a month, leave your nail polish off for a night and paint your nails and the surrounding skin lavishly with cuticle oil. It’s the manicure equivalent of using a hair mask. (Just be sure to remove every last trace of oil before varnishing them again.)
The late (great) Kevyn Aucoin didn’t restrict use of blush to cheeks only – he liked to add a touch of creamy blush to the bridge of the nose and temples, adding a dab or two on collarbone and either side of the neck, right below the ears, for a natural ‘glow’.
Plucking brows after a shower or bath is often less painful because the skin is softer – but alternatively, place a warm flannel over the skin for a minute or
It isn’t just your phone that needs regular cleaning, to ensure that bacteria aren’t transferred to your face. If you allow your keyboard to become grubby, every time you touch your face you’ll be transporting microbes, too. Keep a pack of anti-bacterial wipes in your desk drawer and clean your keyboard (and your phone) once a week.
A new use for bath (or baby) oil: if a child comes home with chewing gum in his or her hair, don’t reach for scissors straightaway. Instead, rub lashings of oil oil into the gum, and it should loosen it up enough to comb out.
Advice from Kate Winslet: ‘I tend to use two different shades of foundation, because your face is never all one colour…’
When shaving your legs, use long strokes from ankle to knee, knee to hip. The fewer the strokes, the smaller the risk of nicking yourself.
Warm a treatment oil or hair mask in the microwave for a few seconds before use, and it’ll penetrate more effectively. (Just a one-dose amount, though; you don’t want to microwave the tub or tube itself repeatedly.)
If a splinter is too tiny or too deep to remove with tweezers, avoid the agony of digging it out with a needle. Instead, cover the splinter with adhesive plaster. Leave for about three days, then remove the tape – and the splinter should come out painlessly.
If you’re still using cotton wool for cleansing, quit NOW: all it does is remove surface grime, advices superfacialist Sarah Chapman, who shares her absolute bottom-line advice on cleansing, here: ‘You need to massage an oil-based cleanser into the pores so it can mix with the natural sebum and grime and soften any blockages. Really use your fingertips and knuckles in brisk kneading and pinching motions. Once you’ve done that, splash with water, which liquefies the oil and lifts the excess out of the pores so it can be washed away.’
When blending cream shadows into the eyelid, use the third (ring) finger of the hand, which enables you to exert the least pressure without tugging on the skin of this very delicate zone.
If you’re unsteady of hand, don’t try using coloured polishes at home. You’re better off with clear or pale polish, where mistakes won’t be so obvious – brightly-coloured polish really needs to look even and perfect.
The type of mascara you choose really does make a difference to how lashes look. If you have short lashes, avoid thickening mascaras as they’ll make lashes appear stubby – and intead, choose a lengthening formula, which will add density and length.
Always give hair a deep treatment a couple of days before having your hair coloured; it evens out porosity, helps the colour to deposit evenly, and minimises potential damage.
Freshen up combs and hairbrushes by soaking them in a solution of 600 ml warm water and two teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda. Swirl them around in the water to loosen up all the debris caught between the teeth, then let them soak for about half an hour. Rinse well and dry flat on a towel before using.
The kindest thing you can do during an at-home manicure or pedicure is to apply cuticle cream to nails or feet first, then soak them in water for five minutes before pushing back cuticles with a rubber hoof stick. This creates the perfect ‘frame’ for your brushwork.