Kitchen Cupboard Beauty

 

We all know the beauty trick of placing cucumbers on our eyes to reduce puffiness. And you’ve probably heard about applying whisked eggs to your hair to make it shine. The list goes on and gets more bizarre. To what extreme will you go to pursue beauty?

Haemorrhoid cream for eye bags, hairspray to fix our make-up and whitening toothpaste smeared on our bodies to remove fake tan… These are just a handful of the wacky tips women confess to using in the pursuit of beauty.

Other tricks of the trade that emerged in a study of 2 000 women’s top beauty habits included placing cold teaspoons on puffy eyes to soothe swelling and sleeping on the back to prevent wrinkles forming. Researchers who carried out the detailed study into women’s rituals found four out of ten women utilise goods found in kitchen cupboards to look good.

Topping the list came cooling cucumber, said to be effective at calming the complexion, and lemon for whitening nails and lightening hair. Strawberries are also said to brighten teeth, while cooled tea bags placed on the skin can have a soothing effect.

The research, carried out by Modern Milk, revealed that despite the glut of expensive beauty treatments on offer at salons, the majority of women stick to tried-and-tested beauty rituals passed down through the family or gleaned from female friends and colleagues.

A spokeswoman said: ‘Some of the beauty treatments in this list are more extreme than others and it’s clear the lengths some women will go to to look beautiful.’

Having some little hints and tricks up your sleeve is one thing, but trying to constantly sleep on your back to avoid wrinkles or spraying your face with hairspray are quite severe.

‘We wanted to poll women to find out what alternative beauty treatments they use and whether people make use of ingredients from kitchen cupboards.

‘The age-old trick of putting cold teabags or cucumber on the eyes to reduce puffiness is clearly still used today.’

Many of the tips have been handed down through generations. Brushing hair with talcum powder to freshen up greasy roots and using lipstick on the cheeks when blusher runs out were common tricks used by our grandmothers.

But alongside these traditional tips came a plethora of more modern unconventional habits undertaken by women in the privacy of their bathroom.

The study found many shave their legs with hair conditioner to soften the stubble. Others admitted to splashing lemon juice on their hair in the hope it will develop a lighter tint when exposed to the sunlight. Smearing toothpaste on spots and blemishes and sleeping in socks full of moisturiser are also common. Vaseline is regularly used to smooth out frizzy hair and many women also use toothpaste to soothe insect bites.

Using tea tree oil on in-growing hairs and steaming the face in herb water also made the list. But most strange of all has to be the use of haemorrhoid cream to decrease under-eye bags. Women who have experimented with the theory say the cream shrinks enlarged capillaries on the face, thus reducing the appearance of dark circles. We’ll have to take their word on that one.

Here are some kitchen cupboard beauty tips:

• Talcum powder brushed through hair to remove oil
• Pinching cheeks to give a natural blush
• Nail polish in the fridge to keep it fresh
• Lipstick on the cheeks for when you run out of blusher
• Toothpaste on insect bites
• Use lemon juice to lighten hair
• Spray your hairbrush with perfume
• Heat up eye lash curlers before using them
• Cold teaspoons applied to eyes to reduce puffiness
• Mix a drop of serum with foundation to make skin look glowing
• Drink Milk everyday
• Drink two litres of bottled water everyday

So next time you’ve run out of your usual beauty products and are in need of a quick fix, you don’t have to look much further than your kitchen cupboard.

This article originally appeared in The Daily Mail