Many beauty tips make sense because they follow some logical rationale, like exfoliating before you apply a bold lipstick or wearing a primer to make your makeup last longer. Then there are beauty tips that sound so weird that you wonder who was the brave guinea pig to try them in the first place. (I would like to meet the person who willingly tried pee as a toner). I want to thank these beauty experimentalists for risking breakouts and rashes to give us new, slightly weird tips to try. While there is some scientific explanation on why they work, all we care about is that they get the job done without us having to buy some random product we will never use again (see: root touch-up).
Here are beauty tips that sound a bit weird but actually do work:
1. Apply A Cold Spoon To Eyes To Reduce Puffiness
If you don’t have a cucumber in the fridge–or if you prefer to use it on a salad than your eyes–a cold spoon also reduces inflammation. Pop one in the fridge for a couple of minutes, or just put the spoon in some ice water. Then place the back of the spoon on your swollen eyelid. (Do not put the spoon in the freezer unless you want it to get stuck to your eyelid. Oww)
2. Use Baby Powder As Dry Shampoo
There are lots of shampoo alternatives, but you don’t have to raid your kitchen pantry for this one. Just sprinkle a bit into the roots, massage, and brush out.
3. Brush With Baking Soda For Whiter Teeth
If you don’t feel like shelling out hundreds of dollars on professional whitening or don’t want to gag on Crest White Strips, brush your teeth with a bit of baking soda for pearlier teeth. Finish with your regular toothpaste because baking soda isn’t the secret ingredient for making the cake taste good.
4. To Fake Fuller Lips Rub Them With A Hot Pepper
If you’ve ever eaten anything eye-wateringly spicy, you might have noticed that in addition to the burning sensation in your throat, your lips also tingle. That is the very same sensation that a $20 lip pumper gives when you’re lips are swelling. A spicy pepper is much more economical than said gloss, and you can put it in a curry after if you don’t fancy smelling like a jalapeño, peppermint, and cinnamon oil work too.
5. Use Eyeshadow To Mask Roots
If your color appointment is still a few weeks away and you’ve got some obvious regrowth, brush on a bit of matching eyeshadow on your tell-tale roots. Then lightly mist with hairspray to keep it in place. You can also use mascara if you have one that matches.
6. Put Toothpaste On Zits To Dry Them Out
There is some debate about this one, but toothpaste is effective at drying out spots. It may not prevent acne, but if it makes that massive pimple a bit less obvious before your date, it’s done its job. Just make sure you don’t use anything fancy like a gel or cavity-protection formula.
7. Get Shiny Hair By Rinsing With Cold Water
It feels nice to boil your bones for 10 minutes until the hot water runs out, but it doesn’t have the same soothing effect on your hair. It just makes it dry and frizzy, while cold water seals the cuticle and helps it lay flat. Hold your breath, and gradually turn the tap towards cold.
8. Rub a Dryer Sheet On Your Hair To Get Rid of Static
Applying shine serum to get rid of frizzy roots just makes your hair look greasy. You solved one problem but created another (story of life). Instead of adding unnecessary product, grab a dryer sheet and gently rub those frizzy spots into submission.
9. Use A Piece Of Paper To Get A Crisp Cat Eye
If your hand shakes more when you’re applying makeup than it did when you were writing a school exam, use a piece of paper as a guide. Line it up with the corner of your eye, and draw your flick. Just be careful about paper cuts. Ouch.
10. Fix Fallen Makeup With With Tape
Your smoky eye turned into a smoky face? There’s no need to get out the makeup remover. Take a piece of clear tape and lightly press it over the areas where the excess shadow has fallen. It will clean up the mess and save you from having to reapply your foundation from scratch.
11. Use A Toothbrush With Hairspray To Smooth Baby Hairs
Those pesky little hairs at your temples have a mind of their own. If no amount of hair gel will get them to lie flat, apply hairspray too, and an old toothbrush (you won’t want to put it in your mouth again), then brush it over the baby hairs.
12. Use Hole Reinforcements For French Manicures
French manicure stickers are things that sound like a good idea in theory but really don’t work that much better than something else. (I curse them for the number of times I’ve taken them off along with half my nail polish). Hole reinforcements (the round stickers you use to fix ripped three-hole binder pages) work just as well. I even find their size and curve to be better than the too-big manicure strips.
13. Use Q-Tips To Remove Mascara
When you wake up with raccoon eyes after you diligently removed your makeup last night, something isn’t right. Don’t throw away the makeup remover just yet. If you’re using cotton balls and pads, switch them for q-tips. That way, you can apply the product directly to your lashes. Wiggle it back and forth, and you’ll be surprised how much mascara is still on your lashes.
14. Draw Eyeliner With Your Eyes Open
When you apply liner with your eyes closed, sometimes you think you’re getting close to the lash line, but when you open your eyes, you notice a line of skin between your lashes and makeup–so annoying. Instead, apply liner with your eye open, so you can get right near your lashline, then close your eye to refine the line.
15. Use Lemon Juice To Get Rid of Yellow Nail Stains
You painted your nails black and couldn’t be bothered to use a base coat (whoever does?), and now they’re a weird maroon color. Soak your nails in some lemon juice to get rid of the tint, and bring them back to their natural shade–if you recognize what that is.
Photo: Shutterstock
