When working to reveal your inner beauty, it often helps to refine your outer beauty as well. In this article, we will outline our tips for keeping yourself looking great and feeling sexy.
- Dry brush your skin
- Shave your legs
- Wash your hair with a cleansing shampoo and condition separately
- Use witch hazel on areas where you sweat, piercings
- Moisturize (don’t be chalky) after bathing
- Clean your ears
- Cover eye circles and get good sleep
- Brush and Floss (use whitening toothpaste)
- Shape and trim your eyebrows
- Keep nails neat, easy on the color
- Mascara
- Easy on lipstick
- Cool it on eyeshadow
- Perfume lightly
Dry brush your skin
Use a natural fiber dry body brush (with horsehair fibers) to exfoliate your skin before you shave or bathe. Exfoliating this way feels great on your skin (most body brushes have nylon nubs to prevent you from bearing down too hard) and boosts your circulation.
Doing this before you shave will make the razor glide over your legs more smoothly and will stimulate your skin so that hairs will tend to be more erect. All in all, that makes your shaving experience easier and you can use these brushes all over your body: legs, arms, tummy, back, and shoulders).
Besides dry brushing your skin, you can also do something similar to your lips by using a tongue brush, a tongue cleaner (like the one on the backside of most toothbrushes), sugar scrubs, or by wiping with a warm washcloth while in the shower.
Shave your legs
To keep your legs smooth, you can shave them in a warm shower. Lather up with soap or body wash and use a fresh multi-blade razor or one that has only been used one or two other times and shave in the opposite direction of hair growth.
Alternatively, you can use spray-on or wipe-on depilatory creams and lotions, or do a hot wax on your legs.
Wash your hair with a cleansing shampoo and condition separately
Regular washing of your hair with shampoo does not always get it as clean as you would think. Residues from hair care products, mineral deposits, and body oils can build up on your hair and leave it looking greasy or stringy despite a good wash.
Use cleansing shampoos, which can remove build-up from the hair shaft, to get your hair really clean. Then, apply a leave-in conditioner while the hair is wet to restore some of the suppleness.
Read Related Article: Best Hair Removal Sprays and Lotions
Use witch hazel on areas where you sweat, piercings
Witch hazel is a fabulous astringent for cleaning the skin of leftover loose dead skin cells and soap residue from the shower. You can even use it on your legs before shaving to reduce the chance of scalping (razor bumps).
This extract is also very useful for thoroughly cleaning and sterilizing areas where you sweat a lot, like skin folds and under your breasts. If you have any piercings, use witch hazel on the piercing holes to kill bacteria and prevent infections.
Moisturize (don’t be chalky) after bathing
When you bathe or wash your skin, the acid mantle (a combo of sweat and oils) of your skin is removed. Sure, it is good to exfoliate and clean yourself, but without the acid mantle, your skin can become dry and scaly.
It is always best after showering to replenish your skin with a water-based moisturizing lotion that is pH balanced for your skin. That means one with an acid pH of anywhere between 4.5 and about 6.0.
Most moisturizing lotions will state their pH clearly on the packaging or bottle. Don’t be shy about lathering it on, since in this case more is better.
Clean your ears
If you did not already wash behind your ears in the shower, a wipe down with witch hazel is a great way to touch up. Also, you can use a wet washcloth to clean your ear canal or make use of an ear douche or Q-tip (we know they tell you not to use these in your ear, but everybody does it).
Cover eye circles and get good sleep
Since people will spend most of their personal contact time with you looking at your face, taking care of those dark circles under your eyes is a must. Just apply some appropriate foundation under your eyes that matches your skin color.
Also, get some sleep, like 8-9 hours’ worth. Seriously, if you want to really look good, regular and consistent sleep does wonders.
Shoot for 9 hours since you will not fall asleep right away and may awaken briefly in the night. That way, you guarantee two full sleep cycles (which run about 3.5-4 hours each).
Hint: If it’s been a long time since you can remember having a dream, you’re not getting enough sleep.
Brush and Floss (use whitening toothpaste)
Brush your teeth at least twice a day with whitening toothpaste using a soft toothbrush. Don’t be tempted to get a medium or hard toothbrush; those will do nothing but scuff up your gums and wear down your tooth enamel.
Brush in gentle, circular motions and up and down on your front teeth. Be sure to floss afterward.
Flossing not only cleans between your teeth but helps to define them so that your smile actually looks whiter.
Shape and trim your eyebrows
Tame those things! Properly sculpted eyebrows help to define your eyes and present an overall impression of cleanliness and good grooming.
For removing excess eyebrow hair, try tweezing or threading. Use a razor with caution and if you do, only use a single blade razor.
To define the areas that need to be removed, use a white makeup pencil and mark the inner (line up with your outer nostril) and outer (angle the pencil from your nostril to the edge of your eye) edges.
Keep nails neat, easy on the color
Give yourself a manicure regularly to shape your nails and be certain to clean regularly (daily) under them. This can be done most easily in the shower with a soft nail brush.
Moisturize your cuticles with a skin lotion or a cuticle conditioner and push them back so that the lunula of your nail can be seen (basically, push them back to the skin). If you intend to use nail polish, go easy on the color, or use a neutral color.
Mascara
Use mascara to make your eyes pop!
Easy on lipstick
No glaring colors here, just basic tones.
Cool it on eyeshadow
Hey, Missing Persons, it ain’t the 1980s. No electric blue or green eyeshadow.
Use natural, warm tones.
Perfume lightly
No need to gas out your friends and colleagues here. Pick a pleasant scent that you like, that makes you feel pretty, and apply sparingly.
Remember, this is only meant to be smelled by someone who comes in very close, not from across the room!
