Beauty Tip Thursday | Current Favorite Beauty Hacks

The beauty world can be an amazing place, but it can also be time consuming and confusing and (of course) expensive! I formed this list of 5 of my favorite beauty hacks that I use on a regular basis to save myself some time and effort during my beauty routine. I rounded up these 5 because they are literally my most used, but I have many more little tips and tricks that I could share, just let me know in the comments if you would like to see more of these beauty hack posts for Beauty Tip Thursday!

1. Voluminous Ponytail - If you have problems with your ponytail maintaining volume throughout the day just use this trick. Tease and pull the top section of your hair into a half up style and secure with an elastic. Gather the remaining hair and incorporate it into the ponytail with a second elastic. BOOM! All day volume! 

2. Lipstick - Make lipstick last longer by dabbing lips with a tissue after applying your lip color, then dust a translucent powder over your lips. This trick will help your lip color last longer and can easily make any lip color matte. 

3. Dull/Dry Hair - Make your own leave in conditioner by simply mixing a touch of your regular conditioner with water in a spray bottle.

4. Clumpy Mascara - Add a touch of saline contact solution to your dry or clumpy mascara to revive it. *Note : mascara should be discarded every 3 months so this trick should only be applied to mascaras less than 3 months old. 

5. Perfume - If you find your favorite scent doesn't last as long as you would like, apply vaseline to your pulse points prior to your perfume. This makes the scent last longer by preventing the perfume from being absorbed as quickly as it normally would. 

There you have it! Five of my favorite beauty hacks that I use regularly! Let me know if you would like to see more posts like this. Also let me know if you have any cool beauty hacks in the comments! 

Beauty Tip Thursday - How I Wash My Makeup Brushes!

While looking back at my many posts I came to the realization I have somehow never blogged about how I go about washing my makeup brushes. This is a pretty important chore any makeup lover should have in their weekly regime so today is the day I tell you all how I get my brushes fresh and clean!

I try to do this process about once a week/week and a half (depending on how much I used my brushes), usually on the weekend I find the time to do this. 

Here you have the dreaded before shot, pretty gross. These are the brushes I use all the time which I keep in my bathroom where I do my makeup. They're a mix of Real Techniques, Urban Decay, Elf, Ecotools, Coastal Scents and Quo. 

I use olive oil and baby shampoo for my two step cleaning process. The only other thing you need is a small bowl to put the oil in and some luke warm water from your tap! 

I begin by dipping my brushes lightly into the oil and swishing them around slightly - you'll instantly see the color beginning to come out of the dirty brush. I then give it a light rinse under some running water, and gently squeeze the bristles to get the majority of the oil out. The oil is amazing in particular for brushes with white tips, and eyeliner brushes, especially those you use with a gel liner. 

Next, I take the baby shampoo (you can use any brand you like, this is just what I use on my daughters), place some in the palm of my hand and swish the brush around to remove any oil residue and left over makeup. If it's an especially dirt brush or I feel it still has oil remaining in it I will do a second round of shampoo before squeezing out the excess water. 

Finally I take the freshly washed brushes and place them on a folded hand towel, allowing the bristles to hang off the end so they can properly air dry. 

And there you have it, fresh and clean makeup brushes!

I hope this post was helpful to some of you!