Wave World: tricks of the trade

Hone down your grooming routine with these savvy top ten top beauty hacks …

When it comes to hair and beauty problems, the list is never ending. Whether it’s wonky eyeliner, frizzy flyaways or dark circles, we all have certain beauty snags we just can’t conquer. 

Laura Meredith, of online hair and beauty retailer Hairtrade.com, says; “Sometimes instead of buying new products or altering techniques, we just need a few beauty secrets to help us out. There are so many quirky ways to prevent those make up annoyances that we encounter everyday.” And here they are:

1) Use sellotape for perfect winged eyeliner. Place the tape underneath your outside lashes and angle it towards your temples. Draw the liquid eyeliner across the eyelid as normal and then follow it across the tapeline.  

2) Wiggle the mascara brush! Instead of just applying mascara using a stroke motion as normal, wiggle the brush from left to right across your eyelashes. This way you’re pushing the lashes up and taking advantage of the length. 

3) Make lipstick last. A lipstick hack to make the colour last is to apply the lipstick and then gently put a tissue over the lips. Next lightly tap some translucent or pressed powder over the tissue, and this will set in place. 

4) Highlight eyeshadow colours. Base your eye with white eyeliner or eyeshadow before applying the colour. This will make the colour pop and appear more obvious and vibrant. 

5) Apply baby powder to eyelashes. Using a cotton bud, apply baby powder to your top and bottom set of eyelashes. Once this is done, recoat the eyes with mascara for fuller looking lashes. 

6) Double up your ponytail. One way to make your pony look longer and thicker is by splitting the hair in half. Tie half of your hair up in a normal half up, half down style. Tie the remainder of the hair in a low ponytail, then tie the two parts of the pony together and it will appear a lot longer.   

7) Avoid mascara smudges using a spoon. Nearly everyone suffers from the dreaded mascara marks on our eyelids whilst applying, but placing a spoon with the curve above or below your lash line will help avoid the mascara residue.

8) Brighten up the inner corners of your eyes. Applying a little bit of white eyeliner to the corners of your eyes will brighten up your other make up.

 9) Use red/orange lipstick to conceal bags. The bright shades neutralise the blue and purple tones that cause dark circles in the first place. Apply the lipstick using a brush around your eye area, then as normal reach for your concealer and apply over the top using a beauty blender.

10) Tame flyaways by using a toothbrush. Using a spare toothbrush to tame those stray hairs works! The thin frame helps us to get to all the niggly bits that a comb can’t.  
Put these beauty hacks into pracice and you’ll breeze your way through spring into summer, with your make up woes behind you.
www.hairtrade.com