This story category covers skincare, makeup, hair and nails—plus treatments, procedures, products and supplies.

The Leg Test

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What body lotion keeps your skin the softest and smoothest by far? We think we have the answer—but take this simple test to see if you agree.

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CHEAP + EFFECTIVE | Can you believe the lengths even celebrities go to when they want to convince the public of the superiority of an inexpensive beauty product? Case in point: the 2005 episode of the Tyra Banks Show where Tyra whipped herself and the members of her studio audience into a whirling-dervish-worthy frenzy before presenting each attendee with a bedazzled tub of her go-to body moisturizer.

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A Dry Idea

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Here is a shockingly simple way to ensure that your hair looks shiny and super smooth.

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THIS REALLY WORKS | Had you told me that it would be this easy to get shiny salon-smooth hair without a professional blow out, doubting Thomasina that I am, there’s no way I would have believed you. But that was before I tried this one simple trick. Read more

Kate Blanchett

Complexion Perfection: Make Superior Quality Vitamin C Serum At Home

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Vitamin C serum has proven benefits for the skin—and it’s dead simple to make fresh at home. (RECIPE)

Kate Blanchett

 

CHEAP + SUPERIOR | It’s not often that an inexpensive homemade skincare treatment is considered to be the gold standard and not a less-desirable less-effective alternative to commercial product lines. But make-it-yourself-in-a-minute vitamin C serum is equal if not superior to most moderately priced vitamin C serums, and no doubt outperforms plenty of the incredibly expensive ones, too. Read more

Jean Shrimpton Big Hair - David Bailey

The Next Best Thing To Having A Live-In Hair Stylist

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The BaByliss Big Hair Rotating Air Styler will give your hair Victoria Beckham-quality volume and shine in record time.


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MONEY WELL SPENT | I have a lot of hair. This is both a blessing and a curse. While I’m grateful that in all probability I’ll never go bald, my abundant mane is a royal pain when it comes to styling it myself. Not only does my mop take a discouragingly long time to blow dry, but the results never look polished because I can’t really work a round brush and dryer in tandem. Read more

color Wow

Is Color Wow The Best For Root Touch-Up?

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Believe the hype. This hair touch-up product does an exceptional job at getting to the root of regrowth. (VIDEO)

color Wow

MONEY WELL SPENT | If you colour your hair and occasionally need to camouflage your roots, there are plenty of inexpensive products that do a so-so job covering the regrowth (we have written about a few of them HERE). I say so-so because most of these cheapie crayons produce sticky (as in leaving hair strands clumped together), patchy (as in placing colour on the topmost layer of hair and not on the follicles underneath) results at best.

I was going on (and on) about this problem to my stylist, Heather Kopchia, when she jumped in to recommended Color Wow, a mineral powder she uses to touch up the regrowth of film actors she coifs. “You won’t believe how amazing this stuff is. You really can’t tell it’s in your hair.” Read more

Sunburn back

No Really, Vinegar Is Great For Sunburn

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Who would have thought that plain old vinegar would be the best thing to take the sting and colour out of sunburn?

Sunburn back

THIS STUFF WORKS | If I were forced to go back to grade school in the coming days and then asked to write an essay about the coolest thing I learned on my time away from the classroom, I would definitely wax lyrical about how I discovered that common household vinegar is a rock solid remedy for sunburn. Read more

Self Tanned Legs

The Right Way To Apply Self Tanner

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Keeping that summer glow year round is easy once you get the hang of applying self-tanner. (VIDEO)

Self Tanned Legs

SLAM DUNK | Although I do not agree with Coco Chanel’s 1929 pronouncement that “a girl simply has to be tanned,” I do think women look better in dresses and skirts when they have some colour on their legs.

But what’s a girl to do, then, to get that colour when she stays away from direct sunlight and sun beds, and avoids sunless products—spray tanning booths and self-tanning potions—as if they were the plague? “Seriously, you need to revisit the fake world,” my friend Jess informed me when I complained about the prospect of wearing a short skirt to a stylish event last month. “Gradual self-tanners give good, natural looking colour now, and while I find all tanning products impossible to apply on my entire body, doing cream or lotion on my legs is a piece of cake.” Read more

I-Love-Chanel Nails

The Best Way to Apply Nail Polish At Home

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10 things you probably didn’t know about applying nail polish at home. (VIDEO)

I-Love-Chanel Nails

EXPERT ADVICE | “Shellac is whack,” says my friend Joanna, channeling Whitney Huston. Joanna has the most beautifully groomed fingernails of any woman I know, so I pay attention when she tells me that shellac nail polish manicures, with their impossibly glossy chip-free allure, are a money pit because you need to have the polish professionally reapplied every two or three weeks. “The acetone used to soak off the polish is a problem, too,” she says, “When you use it regularly, even the strongest nails are going to rip or peel.” Read more

Microdermabrasion

Beyond The Mask: Try Microdermabrasion

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The skinny on the most effective light-cosmetic way to improve your complexion.

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MONEY BETTER SPENT | As someone who subjected her face to a variety of professional spa treatments over the past six months in a one-time push to see if I could significantly improve my complexion, I can now report that of all the treatments I tried—steam, exfoliation, extraction, masks, scrubs and massage—not one of them brightened my skin tone the way microdermabrasion does. Read more

Face Washing

Skincare 101: How To Super Clean Your Face

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The easiest way to remove eye makeup; when not to wash your face; and how to apply toner cost effectively.

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SATURATE — When removing eye makeup or waterproof mascara, start with a good-quality makeup remover. Soak a cotton pad with the makeup remover and gently press and hold it against your eye for about 15 seconds—don’t rub right away! Read more