Oooh, we love a beauty tip. They’re a sort of currency shared between women, we always feel: invaluable snippets which can make us look and feel that bit better about ourselves (if not life in general). We share a beauty tip every day of the week on www.beautybible.com (there are probably thousands archived there in all!), but here are some recent gleanings on our travels – one for every day of November!

Do share YOUR beauty tips with us – via Twitter (we’re @Beauty_Bible) or Facebook?

• Sun damage can cause brittle nails. If yours seem weaker or more prone to snapping than usual, up the TLC factor: apply an oil or cream every single night before bedtime. Try to go ‘naked’ with nails for at least half a day between polishes, and during those few hours apply oil every single day until white, dry patches disappear.

• Give your legs a light loofah-ing before you shave them. This will get rid of all the dead skin cells that may otherwise clog up your razor.

• Don’t drink your calories. Learn to like low-calorie drinks for painless calorie-cutting. (Sugary drinks are just ‘dead’ calories.)

• Turn to rosemary oil for headaches and stress: rubbed into the temples, it relieves constricted muscles.

• If you absolutely hate having your picture taken (most of us do!), one way to ensure that a photograph can be used for some years to come is to ensure that you avoid jewellery (especially earrings) that could possibly date the photo.

• For a clean, classic, no-fuss look, simply smooth lids with foundation one shade more golden than your usual face shade, and finish with black mascara.

• Natural bristle brushes are the gentlest choice for brushing hair last thing at night or first thing in the morning. They glide through the hair without pulling and causing breakage, and because they’re porous, they’re also best for picking up and distributing the scalp’s natural oils through the hair.

• If you suffer from long-term under-eye puffiness, it may be worth getting your sinuses checked out. Congested sinuses mean you may end up with a back-up fluid below the eye, which then looks darker and puffier.

• Bobbi Brown likes to apply a soft lip pencil AFTER you’ve applied lipstick. ‘It’s easier to define lips this way. The liner and the lipstick wear off together, so you’re not left with a line around your mouth when you lipstick wears off.’

• Once you’ve finished your make-up, give it a last check: walk into another room with different lighting and take another look. It should look good in all light.

• Love this tip from Susan Sarandon: ‘Laughing does a lot for the face. Do the things you enjoy. Surround yourself with people you enjoy. Denying yourself is not good for the face. You can’t be a bitter, angry person; hatred is unsexy and not great for the skin.’

• Only use as much facial oil as your skin needs – usually three or four small drops is enough. It should sink in quickly, so if skin looks greasy 10 minutes later, you’ve used too much.

• If you’ve been seduced by an eyeshadow colour you realise you’d never wear, when you get it home – maybe a deep blue, purple, dark green – use it as an eyeliner. Wet a flat-tipped eyeliner brush and work it into the powder, to create a liquid that can be worked into the lash-line.

• Vent brushes help to speed up hair-drying, as they allow more air to access the hair while it’s being lifted.

• If your make-up brushes have started to moult, invest in a new set of quality brushes. If you can’t afford a new set, at least replace any moulting brushes which you use every day – because there’s no fix for that problem…

• If you have lank hair, avoid ‘flicking’ it from side to side, fiddling with it or running your hands through it. You may create some temporary lift and movement but in the end, your hair will become even more limp.

• The late Kevyn Aucoin once shared with us this nugget of wisdom: ‘If you’re 40 and stuck in a make-up rut, your rut is probably deeper than just your make-up. Look at what else in your life you might need to change.’

• Zinc, sulphur and silica are important minerals known to fortify nails. Include broccoli, onions, garlic, spirulina, wheatgrass, nuts, wholegrains and apples in your daily diet. To ensure you’re getting enough.

• From our Aromatherapy Associates founder friend Geraldine Howard: ‘Think of facial oils as “food” for the skin, and moisturisers as water. Skin needs both to keep it soft and supple.’

• Suffering from dry, finely-lined skin? Try a ‘honey tap’ facial. Moisten the skin and then apply a very thin layer of honey onto your face and neck (be sure to put your hair up first or things could get sticky) by tapping your honey-laden fingertips over your skin. The tapping revs up circulation, whlle the honey acts as a humectant to draw moisture to your skin. Lie down for about 15 minutes, then rinse with warm water. Your skin should be rosy, warm, moist and glowing.

• If you use a volumising product, make sure it’s spritzed onto towel-dried/damp (not sopping) hair: excess water dilutes the product.

• To use blusher on oily skin, start with powder blusher (your natural oils will allow the pigments to stick), then layer cream blusher over it. For dry skin, apply the cream blush first: skin absorbs the emollients, and you should then dust powder blusher over it – the powder pigments adhere to the cream and stay put, advises make-up artist Laura Geller.

• It’s not unusual to see models teasing their hair backstage with toothbrushes at a catwalk show. It’s well-known among session stylists that by using tiny bristles, you get right into the roots and give your hair ‘lift’ without making it look too big. (This technique’s especially good for giving volume to floppy fringes.)

• Been too busy to work out? Get back on track – but go slowly. If you begin where you left off, you’ll end up tired and sore; instead, start with a workout that’s half as hard and work up to your original programme – it should only take a week or so.

• For instantly fresher breath and cleaner teeth, grab an apple. As you chew, you’ll chew away any leftover particles of food caught between your teeth.

• Why does your hair invariably look shinier after a trip to the hairdresser? Partly it’s the shampooing technique: more time is generally taken to rinse the hair. Dull hair’s often the result of insufficient rinsing: always use fresh water and keep going until it runs totally clear.

• Instead of reaching for another caffeine jolt, revive tired muscles and stimulate blood during that mid-afternoon slump by placing a plastic water bottle on the floor; take of your shoes and gently roll your foot over it from your heel to your toes for a minute or two. Repeat with the other foot. Miraculous!

• Always ‘buffer’ the effect of a pumice stone on areas of hard skin by using it with soap.

• International trichologist Philip Kingsley recommends saw palmetto as a supplement for oily hair. ‘Take 160mg of the extract twice a day: it’s been shown to inhibit an enzyme that stimulates sebum secretion…’

• If you have digestive problems, avoid sugar, which has been found to have a profoundly adverse effect on the gut. Adds nutritionist Christine Bailey, ‘Sugar feeds harmful bacteria which then cause bloating and all manner of damage to the gut lining. And it’s not only the sugar found in sweets and chocolate: be wary of concentrated doses in energy drinks, fruit juices and many low-fat foods.’

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