Looking for quick/easy beauty tips that make a HUGE difference. Bang for your buck kind of stuff. Here are my tips:

• Love your eyebrows once a week. Keeping your brows clean & shaped makes a HUGE difference in the whole look of your face. It really is one of those minute makeover things you can do. SO much difference, and SO many women don't even think about it.

• Do keep nails clean. I mean - eww. And if your nails have a tendency to discolor of go transparent, invest two bucks in a nail whitening pencil. I can't stand acrylic nails, only do my natural ones, and this is one of the best alternative ways to get anything resembling a frenchie.

• If you have oily skin (me me!), apply a small amount of an acne product all over your face, very lightly, almost like a day foundation. If it overdries you can cut it with a non-oily facial lotion. It has tnothing to do with having acne or not -- they're designed to soak up oil, and will let you have a matte complexion for several hours without any powder.

One of the first little NSV's I noticed after surgery was that my nails stronger and didn't peel back any more!! My hair is also much thicker than it has been in several years. I give all the credit to protein.....I get 80/100 grams a day every day for the past 14 months now.

The latest fad (although it's a very old art in some parts of the world) is eyebrow threading. A piece of cotton thread is used to remove one hair at a time. It sounds like it would take forever, but it doesn't - maybe 5 or 10 minutes per brow.

Carlene, tell more, because as-is I'm picturing someone taking the time to tie a very thin piece of thread around an eyebrow hair, and then yank it out (kind of like old school tooth removal).

In high school I took prenatal vitamins because they helped with my hair and nails. Not sure why I stopped, actually.

Carlene, tell more, because as-is I'm picturing someone taking the time to tie a very thin piece of thread around an eyebrow hair, and then yank it out (kind of like old school tooth removal).

Almost....they hold one end in their teeth and twirl the other around the hair, then pull it out.

Eyebrow Threading...the video

[ame=http://youtube.com/watch?v=NK-QzPLgUTo]YouTube - Philadelphia Eyebrow Threading Ardmore Shanti Medspa[/ame]

Hey, Thanks Wheetsin for the tips. Tea tree oil is magical! It can cure so many ailments.

Carlene, my Indian friend Sanunda has done my brows before with a thread. They come out looking amazing.

Any tips on make up? I am allergic to most products it seems and break out in a rash easily.

Susannah

lisa - eyebrow waxing hurts. I can't say it doesn't without being a big fat liar. To me it feels like they're pulling off the top layers of skin. But I have VERY sensitive skin. Everyone always told me, "It hurts less as you go" and I call BS. What I finally ended up doing was having them done professionally to get the right shape (that was always the hard part to me - getting the natural arch), and then I just maintain it and "trim the weeds" manually.

OK, I made an impulse decision and stopped on my way home last night. Kinda glad I did before reading more here :heh:

It really wasn't bad at all. Stung for a minute or two, then fine. They did my chin too, and that was OK. A little red for a couple of hours, but by the time I went to bed it was all find. She did a really good job, they still look natural just neater, exactly what I wanted.

I'm getting to be such a diva! First pedicures, now this. Hum, manicures might be next.

Eyebrow waxing for Lisah...

I've had my eyebrows waxed since I was 14.. I had a caterpillar on my forehead! I had it done by different salons/stylists for years, and it was decent.. and then one day I met Pattie LOL. She is this woman who owns a salon next to my work, and she does immaculate eyebrows. It's not about the pain/wax/etc. for her.. she sculpts them! She makes my arch perfect, when I normally don't have an arch, they're thin and taper just right.. so the key IMO is to find someone who is artistic and can really get them sexy. Waxing is so fast, the pain is really nothing. By time you feel the OU--you're done. The next day I am normally a little puffy and red around my eyebrows, but it's worth it to me. When I can't get off work early to go see her, one thing she does when she's done shaping, I do at home to touch up..

She uses a comb and brushes my eyebrows up, so all the long scraggly hairs are sticking out all over.. then she takes small scissors and cuts along the top, gets rid of all those weird hairs that are prone to pop out.

So in between waxing, I will use a comb and scissors and trim the hairs down.. makes a huge difference.

And one more thing, if you hate the idea of waxing or tweezing, they do make eyebrow razors. I tried these once, but I was too lazy to do it regularly-and you do have to do it regularly. It's a tiny comb-looking razor that you just brush around your eyebrows to shape them.

It really wasn't bad at all. Stung for a minute or two, then fine. They did my chin too, and that was OK. A little red for a couple of hours, but by the time I went to bed it was all find. She did a really good job, they still look natural just neater, exactly what I wanted.

This is probably where my super sensitive skin kicks in. It hurts me. And it makes me eyes Water, a LOT. Not crying, but watery eyes. But enough that there area tears running down my cheeck like I am crying.

I'm an eye waterer though. I can't have anyone do eye makeup for me because I jsut tear it all away.

I had never even heard of eyebrow waxing, tweezing, threading, or anything until I met a group of girls six years ago who I am very good friends with now. They literally insisted I "do" my eyebrows. Honestly I didn't even know what they were talking about because I never even knew eyebrows were something people "did". No one had ever mentioned it to me before, and I never noticed anyone else's eyebrows, good or bad. So it literally wasn't even in my consciousness! Now I look sooooo much better when they've been waxed or threaded. Indian threading is the absolute best. I have a co-worker who can tell if I've had my eyebrows done by the threading lady or by the waxing lady! My co-worker says the threading looks much better.

As for my feet, I get regular pedicures and love how my feet look afterwards. I only go to salons where they will use the foot shaver though, because I get so much built up calloused skin on my feet that regular pumice scrubbing and moisturizing doesn't cut it. "Upscale" salons won't use it but the Asian ones usually will. One problem with the Asian salons though, is that lately, they keep doing my eyebrows too thin! I keep saying "cleanup only" and they keep taking more and more off. So now I'm being defiant and am growing them back out totally full (which looks horrible) and am going to take my Indian girlfriend back to the threading lady and translate what I want.

I also go tanning and I love how I look with a tan. I'm 90 pounds down now and have 60 to go, and am loving wearing little summer dresses in size 14!!! With strappy sandals that I can actually walk in now without feeling crippled.

I find I take much better care of my appearance now that I've lost weight than I did before.

Ok how is it done EXACTLY - meaning what position am I in, what am I wearing (I'm guessing NOTHING) and how long does it take, etc.

You can pretty much count on being nude from the waist down. As for position - probably varies by who you go to. I've been put in raised chairs and stirrups, I've been asked to lay on a flat table with my leg held up by the waxer's body, I've been asked to sit on the very edge of a regular seat, with the back of my butt just barely on the very edge, etc.

Ok how is it done EXACTLY - meaning what position am I in, what am I wearing (I'm guessing NOTHING) and how long does it take, etc.

When I have a Brazilian done, I'm on the table on my back with one leg relaxed and the other bent at the knee and out to the side. I wear a thong and pull it to the center, so the technician can work on one side at a time. I help the technician by holding my underwear in place with one hand and stretching my skin (either upper pubic area or inner thigh) with the other hand. It usually takes about 30 minutes to do a Brazilian wax. And, yes, it is excruciating.

Being of Italian descent, I have much more body and facial hair than I want. A couple of years ago, I went to get my mustache waxed before going to a friend's wedding. A young Vietnamese lady, who had very little body/facial hair of her own, did my mustache and then looks at the rest of my face and says in a heavy accent, "We need to do your eyebrows. We need to do your cheeks. We need to do your chin and your neck. You so hairy!!" The part about my eyebrows pissed me off because I pluck them EVERY SINGLE DAY without fail and they look pretty damn good. And I have electrolysis done on my mustache and chin, so give me a break. I'm trying to get rid of it. "You so hairy!" Gee, thanks.

As soon as I get down to 150, I'm going to start going for Brazilians again. It's gives you such better results than shaving does. I want to have laser hair removal on my legs but am afraid it won't work. I tried it on my mustache and it did not lessen the amount or thickness of the hair at all.

Wheetsin, I'm going to try those nail scissors. Thanks for the suggestion.

oh gosh - thanks (I think) lol. I'm actually too modest and too fat to be able to stand that but it's good to know how it works. I'm also Italian and hairy as can be.