Eyebrow Threading

IMPORTANT: Don’t do this if you have any blood pressure or heart problems, or any other health problems for that matter.

The bandages use for salon bodywrapping are just elastic adhesive bandages. You can purchase them very cheaply at any local drugstore.

To flatten a bloated stomach start at your waist and wrap firmly BUT NOT TOO TIGHT down to your hips. To flatten your hips start wrapping at the top of one thigh, move up to your hips, then across and down to the other thigh. Leave for 1 hour and remove.

If you feel uncomfortable at any time just stop. You are just trying to eliminate a bit of water and push out a little poop, not crush your internal organs!

1. Ditch all your lip products, including lipsticks, lipbalms, lip liners and absolutely anything else you can think of. Replace with brand new ones (get good quality brands or natural products). (If the cold sore is currently active then let it heal first before replacing your lip products.)

2. Ensure the corners of your mouth are well moisturised if they are cracked. Use Aveeno, cocoa butter or shea butter to do this.

3. Get your lips in good condition by steaming them (put a towel over your face and place a bowl of very hot water underneath. Wait until you feel your face break out in a sweat before stopping). This encourages the oil glands just inside the edges of the lips to work hard (yes your lips do indeed have oil glands, they’re just not uniform all over the lips).

4. Once your lips are healed and moisturised make sure they stay that way. You should very rarely get cold sores afterwards.

Green tea is a surprisingly good treatment for acne, especially the very aggressive type that flares up painfully.

Every day make a small amount of green tea (break open a green teabag and spoon half a teaspoon of leaves into an eggcup, then pour a few spoonfuls of boiling water over it. Leave to stand for 5 minutes). Just before putting on your makeup (if you wear any) dip some cotton wool or tissue in the cooled tea and sweep it over your face (just wet the surface, don’t have it dripping off your face), then allow to dry WITHOUT WIPING IT OFF. Repeat just before bed and throw away any leftover tea.

Do this for 5 days and if you don’t see any improvement then you can stop. However you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised. Try it on back acne too.

This should be done just before bed, so that the residue on the skin has a chance to work.

Fill an old (and clean) sock with 2 handfuls of oats. Tie and then either attach it to the bath tap so that the water runs over it or tie it to the plug so that again the water hits it first. The resulting milky bath is very soothing to the skin and should not be rinsed off. Needless to say, don’t get your hair wet.

In the morning you can shower/wash you hair as usual. You skin repairs overnight which is why it’s best just before you go to sleep.

Disclaimer: If you have never attempted to wax or sugar your legs before and have no idea how to do it then don’t try this at home.

The mistake most people make when waxing or sugaring at home is trying to mimic the professional salon wax technique. Here is a straightforward way to sugar your legs without ending up in a mess (not too much anyway!)

You will need
Sugar paste (see below for recipe, or buy from a beauty supplier)
One strip of tough cotton, such as denim, roughly 15cm square
Talc
Large, old towel
Olive oil or shea butter

Sugar recipe: 1 cup of sugar to 1/3 cup of water, heat until a golden syrupy colour. Add a squirt of lemon just after taking off the heat and allow to cool. If you are in a cold country then increase the amount of water to 1/2 cup.

Preparation (IMPORTANT!!!!)
For dry areas of the legs such as the knees, ankles and toes, apply the olive oil or shea butter to ‘fill in’ any cracks in the skin. Wipe off the area with the towel so that there is no excess on the skin. Now sprinkle and smooth a layer of talc on your leg (do one area at a time, such as front of one leg, side of one let etc). Keep the talc nearby so that you can keep adding it as and when necessary. Take an eggsized amount of the sugar paste (it may be very hard, but squish it a couple of times to soften it. Don’t heat it up.). Spread the paste on the centre of the cotton square so that you have a flattened patch about 2cm thick.

How to remove hairs
Little by little is the key here! You’ll get done much faster than if you try and do massive amounts all at once. On the prepared area hold the skin taut and press the cotton patch down and IMPORTANT smooth with your flat fingers or heel of your palm in either a down or up direction (doesn’t matter which one). Do this at least 4 times so that the hairs are completely sunk into the paste. Now KEEPING THE SKIN TAUT rip off the cotton as you normally would (as parallel as possible to the skin in the opposite direction of growth). Voila, you should now have a small hairless patch of skin! If not then either smooth the paste a bit more or a bit harder. Carry on doing the same, making sure to keep adding more talc to ensure there’s a layer on the skin and no sugar paste gets stuck. You can actually rip off the cotton in the same direction of growth for some areas, which is useful for those awkward areas. To do the backs of your legs try kneeling and twisting around to see them. Keep reusing the same bit of sugar stuck to the cotton, as it’s a thick layer that can do both your entire legs.

After sugaring simply discard the used sugar paste (can be put on a compost heap if you used 100% cotton) and do not add any lotion or moisturiser to the treated area for the rest of the day. Stay out of direct sunlight for 48 hours and do not go swimming, to the gym or any activity that might infect the skin before it heals.

Disclaimer: This is my own personal recipe and if you wish to try it out then you are responsible for ensuring you patch test any ingredient you haven’t used before to avoid any potential problems. Your use is at your own risk. Sorry but sometimes you can have an allergy to the most basic things in life!

Be careful, you may think you have oily skin but you may actually just have shiny skin! Oily skin looks very greasy by the end of the day and makeup wears off very easily. Also, you may only have oily skin on parts of the face, in which case only use this mask on these areas.

You will need:
kaolin powder
calamine powder
milk (fat free if possible)
aspirin (optional for acne sufferers)

To make the mask simply mix 1 heaped teaspoon of kaolin powder, 1 heaped teaspoon of calamine powder, half an aspirin crushed and enough milk to make a paste. Spread evenly all over your face (avoiding the eye area and corners of the mouth). Leave for around 10 minutes then rinse off with warm water.

The milk has lactic acid which unblocks pores. The kaolin powder absorbs oil from the pores. The calamine soothes the skin and the aspirin, if you decide to use it, has a mild exfoliating action. NB less is more, so don’t use more than half an aspirin. Your skin is very gentle so treat it just as gently.

Can be used daily during summer without the aspirin, as when we sweat we generate more oil so you’ll be more greasy than usual.

Disclaimer: This is my own personal recipe and if you wish to try it out then you are responsible for ensuring you patch test any ingredient you haven’t used before to avoid any potential problems. Your use is at your own risk. Sorry for this disclaimer but sometimes you can have an allergy to the most basic things in life!

This moisturiser is especially good for dry patches of skin, or as a lipbalm.

You need:
Unrefined shea butter (acts as an emollient)
Olive oil or sunflower oil
Coconut oil (solid type with no fragrance)
A few rose petals (optional)
Bowl of hot water
Small jar such as an empty moisturiser pot, glass or plastic, with screwtop lid. Clean out with warm water and soap, then place in a cup and pour boiled water over it, then remove without touching the inside and leave to air dry.

To make the moisturiser

Place the empty jar in bowl of hot water, so that the level of water is just below the top of the jar. (If you’ve got a plastic jar then keep a small spoon in it to weigh it down) Scoop in the unrefined shea butter to roughly fill up the pot halfway. It should start to melt due to the hot water. Once it has become mostly liquid (stir if you need to) add the coconut oil (about half of the amount of shea butter) and 1 teaspoon of olive or sunflower oil. Stir again and add the rose petals. Stir so that the petals are submerged completely and leave for around 1 hour or 2 hours. Remove the petals, scraping and squeezing to get the rose oil out. You should now have a semi-solid moisturiser that you can use all over your body and face. Use sparingly on the face as it is very concentrated compared to usual facial moisturisers. In summer keep it in a dark area such as a drawer, as it will melt in direct sunlight! If you find it too intense then use it for your feet.

You can of course substitute the rose petals for a VERY SMALL drop of your favourite essential oil, but make sure you only use a small drop so that you don’t irritate your skin. Or you can leave the fragrance out entirely.