When it comes to making the most of what we have, we just need to go back a generation and two and hear how our grandparents got by with making their own products. When it comes to beauty, there are plenty of items and ingredients that you likely have at home that can help you in a pinch. In fact, many of these beauty tricks and treats are hacks that may become the norm for you once you try them.
15 Beauty Tricks and Treats Using Everyday Household Items
- Ear buds are excellent for many things including removing "oops" spots from a home manicure and blending eye shadow.
- Raw cucumber is great for keeping your eyes looking fresh. Just slice fresh, refrigerated cucumber and place them on your eyelids and relax.
- Want cute, bouncy curls? Go old school with rags! Cut old cotton clothing into 2" by 12" pieces. Wash and condition your hair, place small sections of hair to the center of the rag. Gently wrap hair around the center of the rag. Once it is wrapped around, tie the rag and let dry overnight.
- Lift your spirits with meditation or thoughtful prayer and your favorite scent. Have excess mint? Rub the mint between your fingers to get the oils out and then rub the oils into your temples.
- Keep your feet looking great even during flip flop season by moisturizing your feet overnight. First, wash your feet, then either use coconut oil or your favorite cream to rub it into your feet. Wear comfortable cotton socks overnight. In the morning, go about your day as normal or choose to rinse and exfoliate with a pumice stone, once a week.
- Add a drop of peppermint oil to your lip balm to plump your lips (and mask coffee breath until your can brush your teeth).
- Want perfect polka dots on your nails? Ensure your base coat is completely dry. Take a bandaid and cut the sticky side off. See those holes? Perfect polka dots! Stretch it onto your nail and paint the dots. Remove gently and your have awesome nails!
- Brush your lips! Really! Use quality ingredients like the ones in the Sugar Lip Scrub recipe we posted to help keep your smile at its best! Place a pea size amount onto your brush, and brush your lips to exfoliate your lips.
- Use a mixture of unbrewed coffee grounds, baking soda and a small splash of water to make a paste that will help get rid of unwanted hair. Try rolling it on the tiny chin hairs that seem to like to visit women after age 30!
- Do you shed a lot of hair when brushing out your hair? Keep your sink clean by putting saran wrap over the sink while you brush. (Hint, you can also do this before anyone shaves their face over the sink too!) Talk about easy clean up!
- We mentioned the use of a toothbrush to help give your lips a nice scrub, now grab another discount tooth brush and use it to help fill in your eye brows! Dab a little mascara on to one edge of the tooth brush and then use the tooth brush to help bring them into place. You don't want the tooth brush to be wet, just to give it a little fuller look and in the right direction.
- Castor oil can help with both dry eyes and boost your eyelashes. Dab a little bit on a cotton ball after removing your make up and leave on overnight (PS, the #2 ingredient in a top eyelash growing prescription drug is castor oil!)
- Have a blister that has ripped open? Brew some black tea and place the tea bag over the rip and you'll heal faster! This tip is known from weightlifters and gymnasts!
- Add dryer sheets to your shoes to keep them smelling fresh! Keep the box in your closet so the closet smells good and it makes it convenient to do as well. A bonus is that the smell will help repel mosquitos when you head out during the summer months too!
- Have static-y hair? Use another dry sheet over your brush to help cut out the static and get fewer fly away hairs!
