Budget Beauty Tips - by Jaywalk

The brands are limitless. From Clarins to Clinique to Prescriptives to SK-II to Nivea to Kiehl's to Body Shop to Shu Uemura. The multi-billion dollar industry looks like a bottomless pit gnarling at the women's (and men's) wallets to no end. All because we are fighting every way and every day (even if it is a losing battle) to look and stay young.

Does it really have to cost an arm and a leg (and some say kidney) to do so? Here's the good news. Not necessarily. Below are some of the budget beauty tips that work just as effectively, although some may appear a tad obscure.

1) The Toilet Seat Cover.

This is my all-time favourite tip in terms of bizarre-ness. For those who have a oily face problem that requires you to carry blotting paper wherever you go, what would you do if you run out? Guys (yes, I know of guys who carries blotting paper) would simply say, use tissue paper to do a hard wipe. Perhaps not as simple a solution for the ladies especially when they have make up on. (And yes, some guys do use make up but let keep this entry simple, ok?) Allow me to present to you the toilet seat cover that can be found in the toilets of better establishments. These babies absorbs oil just as effectively as your blotting paper. I won't be surprised if they are of the same material sans the presentation. So, if it comes to the blotting paper emergency, you may want to give that ring of paper a shot.Unused ones, please.

2) Baking Soda.

I think we all know that the earlier tooth cleaning agents comprised of baking soda. The bicarbonate in itself is a little abrasive which makes it an excellent agent when it comes to remove dirt particles from your teeth. Also, baking soda has teeth whitening properties.Problem is that baking soda has got a salty taste that few people would take to it and also it may leave an odour in the breath thereafter. Solution? Get some strawberries. Mashed the strawberries up with the baking soda and you have a organic strawberry flavour toothpaste. The strawberry seeds also act as an abrasion agent to work in tandem with the baking soda scrubbing the teeth clean. The malic acid in the strawberries also helps to protect the skin surface and in this context, it is supposedly beneficial to the gums too.Most importantly, it is definitely easier to kiss a strawberry breath.

3) More Baking Soda!

This humble white powder is actually more useful that we thought! Again, utilising the mild abrasiveness of the powder, baking soda makes excellent facial scrub as the little coarse particles helps to exfoliate the skin, removing dead cells and hence gives you a vitalised complexion. However to everything, too much of it is bad and as such, moderation is key. 2 to 3 times per week max for facial exfoliation, regardless of brands.

4) Nude Pencil.

Well, not exactly a pencil with a naked lady where she would shed her clothes when you turn the pencil upside-down. We are talking about a skin coloured eye pencil. Usually as far as eye pencils are concerned, dark colours are usually more popular to create that smoky eyes effect or the make the eyes look kawaii-ly bigger. So why the need to have a colour at the opposite end of the spectrum? Easy. Dark circles, when overboard, will make you look like a panda and worse, if it is naturally occurring like a late party the previous night i.e. it is already dark before you do anything to your eyes. Application of the nude pencil along the inner eye should brighten them up and hopefully get away from your boss detecting that you come into his/her office less then 100%. Concealer also works in the inner corners of the eyes when it comes to brightening them up too.

5) Mint Tea Kosong.

I am sure everyone is familiar with the Evian Atomizer which in reality is a SGD 20.00 compressed can of mineral water that you spray on your face.
To suggest that one should just get a plastic spray bottle at those 1.99 shops and fill it up with tap water would have been too easy to make this list.
Instead, try putting mint tea (PLEASE, no sugar!) and sticking the bottle into the refrigerator. This is a tip adopted by both Jessica Alba and Hilary Duff as the mint tea not only hydrates the surface of the skin, but the mint tea also helps to cool the skin down and promotes better blood circulation on the skin surface.

6) Red Red Wine.

CelebrityBeautySecrets reported that Teri Hatcher pours her leftover red wines in the the bath tub. The key ingredient here is resveratrol which is a naturally occurring anti-biotic protecting the vines from fungus. Now, before anyone starts jumping into the bath tub to rid of her er.... fungal infection er.... downstairs, resveratrol for human use is more for the improvement of skin elasticity and cell regeneration.So for those, with er... certain fungal problem... er.... downstairs, please go see a doctor. Now, as far as this tip working in Singapore, I doubt if it would even work because of two very critical deal breakers. A show of hands:

• Who still uses a bathtub at home for baths? Bathing the dog/cat/baby not counted. Wait, do you even have a bathtub at home?
• Who actually has left-over wine?

JayWalk's tips above are adapted from beauty articles gathered from McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. JayWalk is proud to declare that he does not have fungal problems.... er... downstairs and as such allows him to drink up all the red wine without the need to save some for the bathtub which he hasn't anyway. As a result, JayWalk has a very elastic stomach that looked a tad big (it's the angle of the lighting!) due to excessive cell regeneration. Damn you, resveratrol! Damn you!


Image Credits: http://www.chiphi-pi.org; http://greenoptions.com; http://www2.dpi.qld.gov.au; http://www.beautybloggingjunkie.com; http://shopuncleharrys.dukestores.duke.edu; http://sa.rochester.edu