Your Top Beauty Secrets Revealed..Do you dare?

Whether it comes in a bottle from your favorite department store or is something your mother taught you from the early age 13 we all have them.

 You know what I'm talking about, the little "extras" women swear by to keep their skin looking radiant, their lips looking fuller, or their hair flawlessly curled while dancing the night away in a New York club.

Some of them may be home remedies passed down for generations by mothers to daughters in your family, others maybe a trick your best friend or sister taught you, and maybe even others you picked up online or read about in a book or magazine.

We all have our own little secrets to looking fabulously beautiful.

The question is do you dare to tell yours?

If your hair gets super oily, then that means that your scalp is too dry. The oils are suppose to moisterize and protect the delicate skin on your scalp. Instead of using soap on your hair everyday, try a cool water rinse off. It gets rid of the sweat , and its refreshing to the scalp!

Or you can use baby shampoo. Its really gentle on the scalp and it won't dry it out so much.

Walgreens brand AHA facial cream..... It has the recommended 8% AHA and costs only $5.99($4 on sale).... A miracle!

Ok, y'all.  Here I go...

I have about 4 different kinds of facial exfoliates I use.  I rotate.  I use a lot of Burts Bees products as well as Kiss My Face and Jason.  Occasionally I will follow up a less-moisturizing scrub with Cetaphil cleanser - the unscented stuff that's kinda translucent.  I use an Alba toner or witch hazel and a light moisturizer with MSM. 

I use a shower scrubbie-thingie with Dr. Bronner's castile soup - no sodium laurel sulphates or lye.  Very gentle.  Good for dry skin.  Sometimes I do a little sugar scrub with various oils but not too often and NEVER within 24 hours of shaving my legs lest I break out with these little red bumps.  ICK!  No lotion on the shaved skin for 24 hours either. 

Hair - mine is long and straight.  I usually just get outta the shower and wrap it up real sloppy-like in a bun with a scrunchie, right outta the towel.  I let it out when I go to bed but avoid combing or brushing it until the next day.  Sometimes I don't brush it at all until just before I get in the shower.  I like the messy sorta crooked side part.  I shampoo with Jason Biotin and sometimes use the conditioner.  Sometimes I will use Nature's Gate Tea Tree Oil shampoo if I have skipped a day of shampooing as my scalp gets itchy if I don't shampoo daily.  Sometimes I use Giovanni 50/50 Conditioner.  Its a little heavy but a comb goes right through all 2+ feet of my hair.  I also like Nature's Gate Herbal Conditioner.  Its brown and light but it smells kinda like chai spices & vanilla.  I really like it for a light conditioning.

I also henna from time to time, though its real messy and you can't really use any other conventional colors or perms on it once the stuff is in you.  Lately, since I let the henna grow out, I have been using a semi-perm color to bring out some deeper reds. 

Makeup - well I don't use it very often, but I have blue eyes and love my coppery colors.  They really bring out the blues.  When going out at night I use a black eyeliner & mascara and I will add a little mascara to my brows, let it dry and 'fluff' it up with my brow brush, then brush them into place.  It gives my brows just a little more darker definition and distinction without looking artificial.  I don't normally use a foundation but when I do its Max.  Everything else I get at a drugstore, though I am really tired of the new-fangled mascara brushes.  I like the big fat ones.  Neutrogena makes a good one. 

As for lips, well, I don;t own any lipstick.  I use Burts Bees balm.  Then I may use my coppery eyeliner to outline and fill in with my Max copper cream eyeshadow, blot mercilessly, until it looks just barely there.  Then I will apply more lip balm.  I despise lipstick.  I never run out of makeup.  It always dries out before I can finish it, except eyeliner. 

My hair has more dos than you can imagine.  I like a big sloppy bun up on top of my head with tendrils hanging down all around.  Sometimes I'll apply some gel and mousse and blowdry it upside-down, scrunching it up in my hands so its all messy - never combing or brushing it - and it looks pretty wild.  It looks great in my leather jacket and jeans.  Sometimes I do 2 low pony tails just behind my ears, sometimes I braid them.  One high ponytail gives me a headache after 30 mins.  Its just too heavy. 

I must be the queen of long posts.  Oh, and I don't pluck my eyebrows.  They are think and bushy and I like 'em like that.  I don't like to look like everyone else.  I just like the heavy metal meets yoga for 20 years look.  Its suits me since I do yoga listening to Tool. 

Original Post by mspw:

I use a shower scrubbie-thingie with Dr. Bronner's castile soup - no sodium laurel sulphates or lye. 

Bronner doesn't use lye?  They have to use some caustic agent in order to get the oils to saponify.  Do you know if they use potassium hydroxide instead of the sodium hydroxide?  Can't find the ingredients.  On their website it just says "Saponified" oil...blah blah blah.

My "secret" chapped lips solution: take a wet toothbrush, brush your lips, slather in lip balm/Vaseline.  They'll be supersoft in a few minutes.

I'm also really big on the moisturizer and cotton socks at night for dry feet, and cotton gloves for dry hands. 

I have sensitive skin and scrubs tend to redden my face so I scrub max 3 times a month (to ward off blackheads) and generally just wash my face with a gentle cleanser diluted with COLD water.

I have short hair and dye it some strange colors. After years of trying, I've finally figured out how to keep dye stains off my neck, forehead, and ears. About 15 minutes before you start, slather lotion on all areas. If it gets absorbed by your skin (just let it sit on there, it might soak in), do it again. Just before dyeing, put a thin coat of vaseline over the areas you lotioned.

It works much better than vaseline alone, even a thick coat.

this time of year, most of us have a hard time with dry skin, right?  it's party the cold, dry air, but also i'm convinced that wearing layers of clothes all the time leaches moisture from the skin.

anyway, once or twice a week i have a bath with about a tablespoon of olive oil in the water.  it keeps my skin soft and smooth ;)

Vicki8Seekers

You could use a dry shampoo in between washings.  You could try water only washing between washings.  Or you could try conditioner only washing.

They all clean the hair and scalp and are more gentle than washing with sulfates everyday.

Original Post by jewelsmcblah:

Original Post by mspw:

I use a shower scrubbie-thingie with Dr. Bronner's castile soup - no sodium laurel sulphates or lye. 

Bronner doesn't use lye?  They have to use some caustic agent in order to get the oils to saponify.  Do you know if they use potassium hydroxide instead of the sodium hydroxide?  Can't find the ingredients.  On their website it just says "Saponified" oil...blah blah blah.

Well, I may stand corrected but its a mystery.  There's a lotta crazy text on the bottle, but from what I gathered, its "vegan" and has "no foaming agents."  I can say this about the stuff; every other soap, be it bar or liquid, that foams causes me to get these patches of super dry, scaly skin in various spots, if used daily for a week.  Its been diagnosed as eczema.  I have been using Dr. Bronner's regulary for over a decade and have never broken-out with it.  Occasionally I will use something else, but its the only thing I use regularly.  Also, I love the eucalyptus and almond scents.  They also make tea tree oil soap and I use it my hand-soap dispensers, diluted by about 5-6X. 

Original Post by jewelsmcblah:

Vicki8Seekers

You could use a dry shampoo in between washings.  You could try water only washing between washings.  Or you could try conditioner only washing.

They all clean the hair and scalp and are more gentle than washing with sulfates everyday.

Jason makes a biotin shampoo & conditioner that is laurel sulfate-free. 

Thanks for the links and advice! I will try some of those!

Original Post by vicki8seekers:

Okies, I have a question for the hair posters:

You really only wash your hair every other day or whatever? Even if you work out?

I sweat a TON when working out, which I do every day. If I didn't wash my hair, it would stay all sweaty.......

....PLUS, my face is so oily all the time, that it seeps into the front part of my hair always making it oily anyway (I have tried hair spray and/or clear face powder to take out the oil, but it never works).

So I guess I jsut don't understand, though, how anyone could hold off on washing their hair if they sweat/workout every day?

 

Ok, my tip: Gold Bond Ultimate Healing Body lotion...not the green bottled medicated stuff, but the white bottle. BEST> LOTION. EVER.....but don't use on face, it's WAY too heavy for htat!

 I don't wash my hair every day. If I get really sweaty, I'll get it wet and massage the scalp, then rinse it through with water, which will get the sweat off but will leave the oils intact. When my hair was still long I would then run a smidge of conditioner through the ends to keep them from frizzing. I don't do that now. You said your face is oily-- is your hair? They often go hand in hand. Oilier hair might need more washing-- I run pretty dry. The only time I'll wash my hair with shampoo on an "off" day is if I've rubbed sunscreen into my part because I've been out kayaking or whatever, but if you're seeing lots of oil at the part, then you should probably wash with shampoo. Paradoxically, your shampoo could actually be DRYING your scalp, causing it to pump out more oil (ditto on the face), but if you're using salon-quality stuff and it is getting oily, just wash it.