10 Beauty Cheats Every Girl Should Know is one of the all-time most popular posts on my blog. I love that I’m not the only one who appreciates a good beauty hack!
It’s been four years since I wrote that post (!!) and I’ve learned a lot of good tricks since then. Here are 10 more of my favorite beauty cheats:
1. Tightline your eyes.
For subtle definition and fuller-looking lashes, run a waterproof black or dark brown eyeliner under your lashes on your upper waterline. I love this matte gel liner crayon for the job: it glides on easily without tugging at my eyes, lasts all day, and doesn’t smudge or transfer onto my lower waterline.
Check out this helpful how-to for details.
2. Match foundation to your body instead of your neck.
I’m diligent about exfoliating and SPF, so my face is always lighter than my body, especially in the spring and summer. My neck is even lighter than my face because it’s less exposed to the sun. If I matched my foundation to my neck, I’d look pale and washed out, so I match it to my chest and shoulders instead, and make sure to always blend the foundation down my jawline. Then I warm up my neck with a light bronzer to make it all seamless.
Here’s a super helpful video by Sona Gasparian about makeup mistakes to avoid that shows this foundation-matching rule in action.
3. Add a drop or two of your favorite beauty oil to your full-coverage liquid foundation.
I love this trick when I’m getting ready for an event. It gives your skin a luminous, airbrushed finish and adds boost of hydration for dry skin types.
Go for something like a light argan oil mixed with an oil-based, full-coverage foundation. (It won’t work with a water-based formula, because as we know, oil and water don’t mix.)
4. Short on time and need to look pulled-together in a pinch? Define your brows.
Shaping and filling in your eyebrows with a soft pencil and/or tinted brow gel goes a long way in defining your features and brightening up your face. I love this waterproof gel brow filler for everyday, one-step brow maintenance.
5. Customize your foundation coverage with moisturizer.
Turn any liquid foundation into a tinted moisturizer by mixing it with a moisturizer. This French pharmacy cream is a makeup artist favorite, and it’s the perfect blending medium for normal to dry skin types.
I squeeze a dollop of moisturizer onto the back of my hand, add 2-4 drops of foundation to it — the amount depends on how sheer I want the coverage to be — and mix it together before applying it to my face with a Beautyblender or brush.
6. Revive dried-out mascara with eye drops.
This tip is from thebeautydepartment.com. Although it’s ideal to toss your mascara after 3 months for sanitation purposes, some formulas seem to dry out after several weeks. (Lookin’ at you, Better Than Sex.) If you splurge on a mascara and find it’s dry and clumpy well before it’s time to throw it out: remove the wand, add about 10 drops of a lubricating contact lens re-wetting solution to the tube, shake, and replace the wand. You’re good to go! It re-hydrates the mascara and it’s safe for your eyes.
7. Stash an eye cream in the fridge for your AM skin care routine.
It’s the best way to refresh and de-puff tired eyes in the morning, especially in hot and humid summer months.
8. Nail polish lid stuck? Wrap a rubber band around it.
It will give you extra grip to twist it open.
9. Apply a thin layer of powder under your liquid foundation.
This sounds crazy, but it really works. It locks your foundation in place all day and keeps the finish luminous and dewy. Use a powder brush to dust a light layer of a translucent setting powder over the last step of your skin care routine — which should be moisturizer and/or SPF — and use a Beautyblender to apply foundation on top of it. This Wayne Goss video lays it out step-by-step.
I love this trick because I personally don’t like a matte or powdery finish on my skin.
10. Spray your bobby pins with hairspray.
It makes them sticky so they won’t slide out of your hair! Also, make sure you insert them with the wavy side against your scalp for the best hold (I had this one wrong for years).
