Beauty Tips - Fantastic Four

1.) Keep a clean dry mascara wand in your make-up bag and use it to comb though and separate stuck-together eyelashes after applying mascara. It also makes an effective eyebrow comb. And while we're happily on the subject of eyelashes, feel free and easy to use the following tip, courtesy of my mother, who swears this nightly ritual restored her weak and broken lashes to their original long and lush glory: Lightly coat your lashes with a dab of Vaseline every night before bed. It nourishes and conditions them overnight, providing endless amounts of rapture.


2.) A truly "grape" facial! One might think you should be dropped off at the corner of Weird Avenue and Strange Street using this beauty tip, but grapes contain natural fruit acids that tone, silken, and brighten your skin until it achieves a glowing, gleaming, illuminated "light bulb" status. Cut a single grape in half and rub the cut sides over your cleansed face in circular motions for one minute, squeezing them gently to release all of that grape-y goodness to your skin, and then leave the mixture on for ten minutes or until it's completely dry. Then take a wet washcloth and gently massage it in circular motions over your face for thirty seconds. Splash with cool water, apply a moisturizer, and admire the glistening incandescence that is your complexion!


3.) For people with normal to oily skin, Milk of Magnesia, which you find at the drug store for upset stomachs, makes a wondrous facial mask. Milk of Magnesia is just liquid magnesium, which is an earth mineral, and has disinfecting and anti-inflammatory properties. It helps absorb excess oil, yet it's gentle, calming and brightening. After cleansing, smooth the liquid on your face with a cotton ball. Leave the mixture on for ten minutes, and then rinse off with a wash cloth and cool water.


4.) Dash to your local drug store and buy one of those wooden long-handled bristled body brushes and do the following several times a week: When your skin is still dry, just before bathing, briskly and deeply brush your whole body, starting with your feet all the way up to your neck in circular motions for a good five minutes. Finish by brushing up toward your heart. Dry brushing kind of tickles at first, but it's rejuvenating and energizing! This not only improves blood circulation, but it exfoliates and sloughs off chunks of visible and invisible dead and ashy skin flakes better than any body scrub, making it so your body achieves a bright rosy glow that actually reflects light! Afterward, jump in the shower to rinse off. You'll notice, too, that you achieve a much closer shave! Towel off, apply a rich body cream, and relish the buffed-up, satiny softness and visible flush and flair!