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My little beauty hacks

So I was commenting on someone’s request on Love Lula’s Facebook Group, where the person wanted to know what beauty hacks people use, and as my comment was getting rather long, I thought why I don’t blog about it on my own? Some of You might be doing a No Buy or Low Buy Month (or an entire year), so I am assuming you might want to know some of my little ways of saving money and making your products work further by doing double or triple duty – I lay all my cards on the table and am spilling all my (cheapskate) beans and I hope you will find it interesting and/or useful.

You guys know I am all about saving money where I can, DIY-ing what I can (only with simplest ingredients you already have, promise!) and generally speaking finding new uses for the products I already own gives me a buzz! And if that eliminates buying one or two products, then so much better! Or over 25 in my case (post here) – trust me to take “5 Products I can Live Without” tag and run with it ?

DIY Liquid Eyeliner

DIY Liquid Eyeliner

Did you know that you can create your own liquid liner from your black (or any other colour) eye shadow? I have a post on it here, but it is really simple – just wet the brush, dip it in the shadow and apply. Depending how long wearing and how pigmented your eye shadow is, you can totally get away not buying liquid liner at all! I love a cat eye, but I suck at it still, plus I don’t have time for it in the mornings, so I find my liquid eye liners dry up or go bad on me most of the time, way before I have a chance to finish them up. And as they are not the cheapest make products (seriously, if you happen to know good AND cheap liquid liner that wouldn’t crumble away after a few hours, do us all a favour and let us know in the comments below!), I don’t always have it, and when I don’t, I know I can rely on this trick. A single pot of black shadow shouldn’t break the bank, and mine has lasted three years with no end in sight. I got mine for 3€ in the bargain bin of TKMaxx beauty section (Bellapierre, if you want to know. It was opened and probably swatched, so therefore reduced to next to nothing, but I figured since it is loose mineral powder, not a lipstick or mascara, there was little risk of contamination, so I took a chance). Make sure to read my Green Beauty Finds in TKMaxx post, one of my worst kept secrets ya all! With 80+ photos to boot. Yep, I like working hard on my posts.

Oil/ balm highlight

Running out of cream highlight  or not big on them at all? No worries at all – all you need is a bit of coconut oil (or a balm) on top of your cheeks for the most beautiful and natural glow. I learned this trick from a magazines from a make up artist. This won’t work as your inner eye corner highlight, mind you.

Coconut oil scalp mask

In all honesty, I never buy scalp masks, it is all too easy to DIY with coconut oil. I usually add a few drops of rosemary essential oil, as it is amazing for the hair, and of course you can add any other ingredients that are good for the hair too, like honey, and raw egg, etc. I don’t, as I sometimes leave this scalp treatment overnight, as I can imagine egg or honey wouldn’t work too well in this case 🙂

Hair spray or leave in conditioner or balm as a brow tamer

Pretty much self explanatory.

Concealer as an eye shadow primer

As someone who wears make up so infrequently, I never buy eye shadow primers – that would be a waste of money and another product sitting and expiring slowly on me. From the blog review I gather not all of them are good or even decent, so I have zero desire to go on “the perfect eye primer” journey. I use concealer as an eye primer on the days I decide to go all out with an eye shadows, and I am happy with it.

Tea tree oil for spots

Specific acne products of any kind is something I give a miss for nearly ten years now, plain old tea tree oil is something that works like no other. For obvious reasons don’t use near eyes and mouth, and use it on the pimple ONLY and not the skin around it – tea tree oil burns are real, and I don’t want you to experience them!

Beetroot or raspberries stain/lip stain

If you are on a strict budget, a true minimalist or are simply running out of your blush or lip products, you can use simple plain beetroot or raspberry as a blush and lip stain. Trust, me, no one will ever know it is not a shop bought product. Simply slice a sliver of a beet and apply with your fingers in a tapping motion, blending quickly. Use the same one for a few days, no need for a fresh chunk every day. You probably will want to eat the raspberry after using it? Or maybe not. Well it is your raspberry, so do whatever you want with it – there are no rules!
(ps strawberries work too, but only if you have access to very ripe ones, no the “plasticky” kind ones we have in the supermarkets – these don’t have a colour, nor smell or taste to them like real thing should have.

Coconut oil as a eye make up remover

Let me tell you a little secret – I haven’t bought a single bottle of eye make up remover for years! I always use coconut oil for that, it removes even the most stubborn mascara as well as other make up, AND conditions my delicate under eye area, as well as lashes. Win win situation if you ask me. Reason #4658 to use coconut oil 🙂
(psst. the one and only eye make up remover product I have tried recently was the one I tested for The Beauty Shortlist Awards 2019 – and it burned my eyes! Surprisingly it is by a well know and respected brand, but it got me like – nope, the search for the best eye make up remover ends here and now, not worth it!)

Using facial oils or serums and creams as a hand and cuticle “cream” 

Can I tell you another secret? As much as I love hand creams, I don’t always have it, and nor I am stressed about it when I don’t. I simply use the surplus of facial oils/serums or face creams that didn’t work for me as my hand creams.

Using under eye oils instead of creams to prevent concealer creasing

I use and love under eye oils instead of creams for a couple of years now – for me, they work better. And they don’t give me millia like creams do. Another reason I love them, is that they never make my concealer crease, which is often the case with under eye creams.

Conditioner as a shaving cream

Gosh, let me spill the last of my cheapskate beans – I use conditioners as a shaving creams. Works great, my skin is never irritated, no razor burns and I am happy to eliminate the need to buy yet another product.

Your lipstick as a blush/multiple

Let me remind you one very simple and obvious thing that most people seem to forget or don’t know – you can use your lipstick as a multiple, depending on the colour, it works great as a blush too. And if you find yourself in a situation with no make up when you need it, you can use it on your eyes too – depending on the colour obviously. I wouldn’t rock purple or black all over, but here is a picture of me using Inika Naked Kiss as a multiple on the lips, eyes and cheeks. Not too bad, no? All I need is a bit of darker colour in the outer corner of my eye and I am good to go! That’s all your grandmother had, just think about it. Why we can’t use it too?

Inika Naked Kiss lipstick used as a multiple

Manuka Honey Masks

Another hack or DIY if you will, is manuka honey masks, and I have just the thing for you – a blog post where I provide you with 12+ of different variations of it. Find it here. If you are into green beauty, I am sure you are aware that masks tend to fall into two main different categories – clays and honey based. When you read the description of them they promise you all kind of wonderful things for your skin, brightening, plumping, nourishing, etc etc – and soon I started wondering, how much of these benefits are coming from the honey itself? Sure, many of those masks have wonderful ingredients added to them, but then there is me thinking maybe I don’t need to spend 35 to 90 (and upwards) dollars/euros a jar to get the benefits. So what I did was, I got a jar of manuka honey at a very good price (I always watch deals like a hawk, mind you!) and brainstormed many different kinds of masks, with simplest ingredients you already have in your kitchen – all to be found in my post here. I worked hard on it, and I liked it 🙂 Btw, some people have objections or doubts about manuka honey, or it’s price point, and I have to say, you don’t have to use manuka, local raw honey is your next bet. I explain my reasons for using manuka in that post, besides, when I see that the 250ml tub is lasting me well over a year, the 20+ euros I spent on it seems worth it, although I manage to source it for much less, so you can too. And let me remind you, you get 250ml, not measly 30 or 50 as it is the case with most shop bought masks!

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Lots of Love,

Renata.

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