During an emergency overnight trip I realized I didn’t have my usual overstuffed bag of makeup and beauty supplies. I was forced to look for other options for some makeup and skin care items. It gave me the idea to write to our readers about ways to use products you may have handy but in ways may not have thought of. For those on a very tight budget, or when you don’t have a lot of luggage space, or in case of emergency, these items can do double duty.
1. Lipstick- this one’s pretty obvious–lipstick can also work as blush. Be careful to put a small amount, blend, and add another small amount and blend again, building the color on your cheeks. If you put a lot on your face at once, you may end up looking like a clown
2. Eyeshadow – I actually love often using shadow as a liner. Using a wet liner brush dipped in eyeshadow works really well. I also learned that if you wet the brush with contact lens saline solution rather than plain water, the liner lasts longer and when dry, doesn’t smudge.
3. Lotion – body lotion obviously doubles as hand cream and face moisturizer. (Of course if your lotion is heavily-scented, you may want to avoid your face.) Better than lotion for your face, if you have it, moisturize with sunscreen.
4. Oil -if you have access to olive or coconut oil, they are great for eye makeup removal, hand and cuticle softener, or my favorite use for oil–post shower, apply to wet skin and air dry (if possible) and pat dry for baby soft skin. (of course baby oil works too, but the cooking oils actually work better.)
5. Body scrub- for healthy cuticles and soft hands rub a body scrub on dry hands and cuticles, using it to push down cuticles too. Rinse with warm water (briefly–as little water as necessary). Follow with hand cream and you won’t recognize your hands.
6. Sunscreen- body, face and hands all benefit from daily sunscreen so if you can’t locate your moisturizer, using this beauty necessity will be doubly beneficial. Areas often missed are neck and décolleté and hands (Driver’s hands are a thing.)
7.Toothpaste-I always have a small tube in my purse. It whitens teeth and freshens breath, yes–but it’s also great on burns, as a jewelry cleaner, and foot scrub
8. Lip balm- I have lip balms I purchased that I didn’t like, but I’ve kept them because they work so well for taming eyebrows (Sephora sells brow wax, but this works just as well.) And, a little lip balm rubbed in palms of your hands can be lightly applied to your hair will tame split ends and fly aways. Also, if my cuticles look dry, I apply lip balm and my cuticles look newly manicured.
In a pinch these have worked well for me time and again. Or, in some cases, you may find you even prefer using the “substitute” product in your daily
If have a question about this or another “Daily Blush”, or if you’d like to tell me about a product or New Jersey based beauty company, email LizDailyBlush@gmail.com
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