Five Beauty Tips: Sparkling Teeth, Soft Lips, No-Sock Bun, Perfect Highlight & Thick Lashes

I love discovering and sharing beauty secrets – sometimes a simple change in routine can have a huge impact! Here are five of my current favorite tips:

1) Sparkling Teeth – Changing from manual toothbrushes to electric toothbrushes have made such a huge impact on my teeth. The year I first made the switch (2004) my dental hygienist was amazed at how little plaque built up versus previous visits. Electric toothbrushes (especially Sonic ones) are super efficient because they can thoroughly clean your teeth and gums in a way manual ones can’t. Teeth are definitely worth investing in – for health reasons and aesthetic ones – so I’d definitely prioritize buying a good toothbrush over purchasing a whitening kit. My favorite toothbrush is this one – I paid less than $70 for it (on sale) at Target.

2) Soft Lips – I’ve recently been putting on lipbalm with a q-tip before applying makeup – a trick I picked up from Lisa Eldridge’s videos. The q-tip gently exfoliates your lips so that they’re smooth and moisturized for any product you want to apply on them.  I tend to use use this technique with my potted lip balms – as I don’t really like dipping my finger in the pots anyway.

3) The No-Sock Bun – Anytime you’ve seen my hair in a bun recently – it’s been thanks to this EASY tool – Hot Buns. I’ve always struggled with sock buns and bun doughnuts because my hair is cut in layers, and it is hard to twist layers into a bun shaper. This product is a soft bendy stick with velcro strips that grip your hair in place. I put my hair in a ponytail, place the stick on top of my loose hair and roll down until I reach the base of my ponytail. Then I clip the 2 ends of the stick together to form a bun, and adjust my hair to hide the clip – SO simple! There’s a photo tutorial here (I personally don’t think step 5 is necessary). It takes me 3 minutes to do my hair in a bun (with the sock bun, I’d struggle for at least 10 minutes before giving up in frustration!)
 

4) The Perfect Highlight – I’ve found the perfect product and perfect technique to easily highlight my features on a daily basis. I was inspired by Youtuber sccastenada and use L’Oreal’s True Match Super Blendable Crayon Concealer in W1-2-3 as a natural looking highlight. This product is so creamy and easy to apply – pick a shade lighter than your skin tone and color in the areas you want to highlight. This blends like a dream – it just melts into your foundation, leaving you with a gorgeous glow. To see sccastenada’s highlighting technique, fast forward to 4.35 in this video. (My variation: I apply the crayon with a lighter hand and use my foundation brush to blend.)

5) Thick Lashes – After wearing waterproof mascara during our beach holiday, I noticed that my lashes became brittle and sparse. Even though I removed my eye makeup gently, some lashes would always fall out. So I started applying Castor Oil to condition my lashes every night (Castor oil is used safely in many cosmetic formulations – including drugstore lash-boosting serums.) While this doesn’t magically grow your lashes like Latisse, since adding this step to my nightime routine, my lashes are softer, healthier and thicker. My technique: I transfer this castor oil into a small sterilised bottle. Every night I dip a fresh q-tip in the oil and apply it at the base of my lashes. Then I sweep it on my lashes in the same motions I use when applying mascara. While this tip has really worked for me, please use it at your own discretion: buy a good quality castor oil, be careful not to get any IN your eye and don’t double dip your q-tip in the oil!

Hope you liked this post – do you already use any of these tips?

If you’re looking for a new crossbody bag, be sure to check out my latest post on Yummy Mummy Club over here:

Celine / Michael Kors / Forever21 / Coach / Aldo / Phillip Lim

DISCLAIMER: I purchased all the products mentioned above myself (except for the Hot Buns – those were a gift from my lovely sister!)

Linking up with More Pieces of Me and On the Daily Express.