Frugal Cookies 5 Top Beauty Hacks

Here are my top beauty hacks, some a great little money savers others may seem like common sense but I thought I would share them with you! These are beauty hacks that I have used myself over the years.

1.Wax strips – So, you can buy small and large wax strips and in general for the same price you get less strip for your money with the small ones. Using an old pair of scissors I simply cut the large ones into 4 or 5 strips, this is so easy and so effective. It’s great for tricky areas such as your knees and I also use this method for my bikini wax - I was previously getting this done professionally and I am now saving myself £25 per month doing it myself. I also have found my local pundland (dealz) sells the nair wax strips, I believe this is because of a change in branding/packaging so these are a bargain - a wax that used to cost me £25 or less than £1.20!

2. Nail polish – Run out of your favourite colour, perhaps you’re doing a French manicure and have realised that the white is very gloopy and unusable? Worry not, this is a great quick fix for these little emergencies, and I am sure you might of heard of this one. Add a couple of drops of nail polish remover to the gloopy nail polish and give it a good shake. The nail polish remover works as a thinner and therefore helps de-clump the nail polish. You will have to buy a replacement soon but this has bought you a little more time and stretched the product life slightly.

3. Mascara – You have used up your favourite mascara, it was really great and you think this may have had a lot to do with the lovely fine bristles in the brush. You have another mascara, something different and whilst it’s ok the brush just isn’t the same and perhaps is making the experience a little less than perfect? Simple, keep hold of both of these and use them together, use the old brush in the new mascara, then you get the best of both! Again, this isn’t a permanent fix but it will certainly tide you over until you get something better in place.

4. New products – Before you buy something new, check your stash and just maybe you might have something that could be used as an alternative? I wish I took my own advice sometimes, I have a massive hoard when it comes to skincare, makeup and bathroom products. Recently I decided to take control and I believe I have enough of a lot of essential products to last me at least a year – this means when I go to the shops I need to take this into consideration and only get what I actually need.

5. Foundation – Got to the end of your favourite foundation? If your like me you have an extensive collection of makeup, including several items that you don’t use because their not the right colour or they’re just not you? So why am I holding onto these? Well, one day they may come in handy..perhaps? It’s very rare that I use foundation, I believe in letting my skin, hair and nails breathe so I seldom overload of those products. However, when I do decide to wear foundation I struggle to get the perfect colour, I don’t like anything too dark and certainly don’t want to look orange. On the occasion that I have found a foundation to be too dark I have added a little moisturiser and this does the trick in lightening the product. If I was in the habit of wearing foundation on a regular basis I would probably pay more attention to getting the right colour, but as a quick fix this works for me.

I will be doing some research into other hacks out there, I'm sure there are many I have never heard of that might be ideal. Once I have done my research I will do some testing an I will share my thoughts with you so watch this space for more beauty hacks in the near future.

Please comment below, do you have any fool proof beauty hacks that you couldn't live without? I'd love to hear about them!

Cookie x

Nair Lavender Mist Wax Strips

This product was sent to me courtesy of Toluna.

I have used DIY wax products before, I currently use Veet easy wax roll on which I really like.

It's been a little while since I used wax strips and this is primarily because I thought they are quite messy and weren't as effective as some other methods.

Wax strips that I have used in the past have been backed on paper/fabric which is more pliable, these are on plastic which is somewhat stiffer however this didn't pose an issue.

They smell very pleasant

I used the following steps

1. Warm the strip between hands
2. Pull strip apart into 2 separate strips
3. Apply 1 strip to leg and smooth with hand put other down plastic side down

4. Pull skin taut and pull off strip back on itself

5. Repeat with the other side of the strip,
6. Repeat process until hair is all gone!
7. Use after wax oil wipe provided to moisturise legs and remove any wax residue

One thing that wasn't easy to do was my knees, the wax kept coming off the strip onto my knee and not removing any hair, it seems that the strips are too large for this area. It would be a great idea if this kit was designed with knees in mind and perhaps they threw some smaller strips into the mix. In order to make this a little easier for myself I used an old pair of scissors and cut one wax strip into 4 pieces which I used in the same way on my knees, the smaller strips worked much better to remove those pesky hard to get hairs!

This isn't the most painful waxing experience I've ever had but there are less painful hair removal methods - I wouldn't recommend using these anywhere other than legs!

After waxing my legs were quite red but this soon went away leaving me with very smooth soft legs.

I would probably use this product if I was travelling as it's portable unlike my roll on which is quite heavy.

Have you used these or something similar? Please comment, share your experiences.

Cookie x