Practical Beauty Tips

Hi everyone! Got plans for the weekend? If you don't, relax and treat yourself to a good massage or facial, or just catch up on sleep!

Here are some practical tips I hope you guys will find useful.

Make Up Tips
1. Less is more. Don’t conceal your natural beauty under miles of makeup piled up on your face. Make up is meant to enhance or accentuate your strong features, not to make you like you’re wearing a mask. Besides, your skin will thank you for letting it breathe.
2. Work with your skin and features, not against them. Choose makeup that suits your skin tone, and not something that would turn you into a laughing stock. Also, knowing your face and features well will help you identify the right products and techniques to use. For example, if your lips are already full on their own, you may want to go easy on glosses as such could make you look like a clown with oversized puckers.
3. Quality doesn’t always come with price. There are a lot of inexpensive brands that function just as good (some even better) than their expensive department store counterparts. Besides, with how the economy is going at present, you surely wouldn’t want to go beyond your CC limit and be in debt. If you’re not sure what to purchase, google reviews on the internet. It surely will help you save.
4. Experiment. Be adventurous. Go out of your comfort zone and learn new techniques of applying makeup and play with colors. You don’t have to be stuck with the same look you’ve worn in the last 10years.
5. Apply your make up after styling your hair especially if you use heat-generating products. The heat will make you perspire and will cause your make up to smudge.
6. If you’re a working girl like me, add a pop of color to your neutral eyes by using subtle shades of blue, purple, green, pink, etc. Also, if you have plans of going out after work, just darken the crease and outer V for some definition (and drama!) and add some shimmery eyeshadow in the center of your lid (right where your eyeball is).
7. Can’t afford an eye shadow primer? Use a cream concealer (that’s not too oily), dust it with a little bit of finishing powder and apply your eye makeup. This should make your eye shadow look more vibrant and somehow help keep your eye makeup stay a little bit longer. (if you’ve got extremely oily lids, stick to smudge-proof white eyeliners or cream eye shadows)
8. During the hot summer months, invest in a good foundation primer (monistat will do) to avoid makeup meltdown.
9. Apply concealer after you do your eye makeup. Doing so gets rid of fallouts and makes your eyes standout even more.
10. To achieve a fanned out look when applying mascaras: coat the outer lashes first and point them outward; coat the inner lashes and center them; lastly, coat the inner lashes (the itsy teeny weeny ones) and point them inward.

Skin Care Tips
1. Do the 3step skin care regimen: Cleanse, Tone, Moisturize. Nothing can ever beat this.
2. Drink lots of water. Water does not only help cleanse your system by flushing out toxins; it also hydrates your skin and makes it look healthier.
3. Moisturize! Even oily-skinned gals need moisturizer. (if you’ve got oily or combination skin, it would be better to use water based moisturizers)
4. Shield your skin from the harsh UVA and UVB rays by using sunscreen, hats and/or umbrellas. I’m sure nobody wants skin cancer or a face full of wrinkles and age spots.
5. Stick to products that work for your skin. I know how exciting it is to try new stuff and give our 2cents on our blogs for everyone to see; however, trying different products every so often can cause damage to your skin.
6. Never prick pimples no matter how tempting it is (unless you know the proper way to do it. But even then, I don’t encourage you do it on your own). Should there be a huge zit anywhere on your face, leave it for 2weeks. It will heal on its own. But if you need to zap that annoying zit, you can use products with tea tree oil, benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid to help speed up the healing process. If there’s pus, have your dermatologist pop it for you.
7. Exfoliate, but not too much. Too much scrubbing damages the top most layer of our skin. While exfoliating sloughs off dead skin cells that make our skin look dull and yellowish, too much scrubbing scratches of the skin’s surface and may cause some skin problems (this is based on experience, on research and on my dermatologist’s advice).
8. Treat your skin to a refreshing facial treatment every week, and you don’t have to go far to find products that don’t work as they promised. Your kitchen is the best source of these skin and budget-friendly recipes. The best part? They’re inexpensive, effective and they’re all natural!
9. Try not to sleep on one side of your face all the time. All the dust and dirt from our hair (and others) are passed on to our pillows and can cause breakouts.
10. Face a steamer for about 5-10minutes before cleansing or scrubbing. This will open your pores and will allow cleansing products to deeply penetrate and cleanse your skin.

Hair Care Tips
1. Minimize the use of styling products like hair sprays, mousses, etc. The chemicals contained in these bottles damage your hair.
2. Minimize the use of heated styling products like blow driers, curlers, flat irons, etc. Can’t leave the house with your hair wet? Stand in front of a fan or airconditioner and let your hair air dry. If you curl your hair every single day, alternate the use of flat or curling irons and the use of traditional rollers. Better yet, try the paper bag method (check out Michelle Phan’s video tutorial on this).
3. Do not brush your hair when it’s wet. Instead, use a wide tooth comb to untangle your hair. Your hair is at its weakest when it’s wet and brushing it makes it more prone to damage.
4. If it can be avoided, do not color your hair. Should you want to do so, make sure to use treatment products to keep your hair healthy and shiny
5. Try organic products for your hair. They, too, can do wonders. All the phthalates and sulphates in your favorite commercial hair products are hazardous to our health.
6. Trim the ends of your hair every month or every other month. This eliminates the appearance of split ends.
7. Massage your scalp with your fingers (not your nails!) while in the shower to improve blood circulation. Doing so not only relaxes you, it also makes your hair healthier.
8. Transform your dry, frizzy and limp hair to shiny, lustrous and bouncy healthy locks by using beer as your conditioner.

Nail Care Tips
1. Always use a base coat before applying nail polish. This protects your nails from the chemicals in the nail polishes.
2. File your nails in one direction. Filing your nails back and forth makes your nails brittle and more prone to breakage.
3. Give your nails a break every once in a while. Let them breathe for a week or so before you paint them again. Changing your nail polish every so often weakens and discolors your nails.
4. Buffing helps in blood circulation. So go ahead and buff! Just don’t overdo it.
5. Don’t trim your cuticles! Just push it. (FYI: our cuticles act as protection against bacteria, infection, etc.)
6. Do you love French manicure but can’t seem to do it nicely? Skip the nail polish and use a white color pencil instead and color the inside of your tips.

Beauty Tips (in general)
1. Smile. The most sparkling diamonds and gold in the world cannot make you look like a million dollars; but your smile can.
2. Confidence is the key to everything. Clothes worth thousands of dollars (or pesos or whatever your currency is) will look like rags if you don’t have the confidence to go with them.
3. Get enough rest and sleep. A face with full-on makeup will still look worn out without enough rest and sleep. So go ahead and get the beauty sleep you need and deserve!
4. Eat right. Not eating the right food affects your skin. Avoid fatty and salty foods and stick to vegetables and fruits. You know how these organic products make your skin glow with health.
5. Have a positive disposition in life. Where you are in your life reflects through you.
6. Love yourself. Be thankful for how you were created and your beauty will shine through. Remember that no amount of makeup can make you look or feel beautiful if you don't think you are and if you don't love yourself.

That's just about it. If you guys have any questions about any of these tips, feel free to drop me a line. I'll answer your queries as fast as I can.