DIY beauty hacks you have been missing

We’ve all got some sneaky beauty tricks we rely on regularly. A well-mastered hack can save you time, effort and money. Here are some of our favourites

Use teabags to de-puff your eyes: This is an old beauty hack, but it’s still one of our favourites. The caffeine in black or green tea is excellent at constricting blood vessels and reducing swelling. Soak two teabags in hot water for three to five minutes. Allow them to cool until they’re warm to the touch, place them over your eyes and let them work their magic for 10 minutes.

Your conditioner can double up as shaving cream: Yep, conditioners work by softening the hair. They also provide you with a smooth shave, so you’re less likely to nick yourself.

Dry nail polish quickly: You might assume that nail polish dries quicker when it’s warm outside. In fact, cold temperatures make it set far more rapidly. By plunging your nails into a bowl of ice water, you’ll cut your polish’s drying time in half.

Fix your broken make-up: How often have you dropped and shattered your favourite powder blush, eyeshadow or bronzer? Instead of throwing the broken compact away, add a few drops of rubbing alcohol (available at pharmacies) to the powder and mix it into a smooth paste. Using the back of a spoon, gently pat the powder down and allow it to set overnight. The alcohol will evaporate overnight.

Make your own lip scrub: Suffering from dry, chapped lips? A little lip scrub is just the thing to keep them smooth and supple. Mix two teaspoons of brown sugar with a teaspoon of olive oil. To that, add half a teaspoon of honey and a quarter of a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Mix together to form a paste. Store in a small jar and use within two weeks.

Soften hard skin on your feet: Wearing sandals on a daily basis dehydrates the skin on the feet. If you don’t moisturise them often, this can lead to hard, cracked heels. Try this hack before you get into bed: apply a layer of petroleum jelly to both feet, concentrating on the heels. Then cover your feet with cling-film and put socks on over it. The next morning, your feet should look remarkably better and the skin will be a lot softer and smoother.

Save your dried out mascara: We don’t advocate using mascara for more than three months, but if yours has dried out, simply place it in a glass of hot water for a few minutes. The heat will soften it and the formula will be smooth and clump-free.

Create the perfect tinted moisturiser: Mix a few drops of your favourite foundation with your day cream and apply it to your face. A tinted moisturiser gives the skin a gorgeous glow, while evening the skin tone.

Transform a hard eye pencil into a soft gel line: Hold the (sharpened) tip of your eye pencil under the flame of a cigarette-lighter for about five seconds. Allow it to cool for about 15 seconds. It will be a lot softer, won’t pull the skin around the eyes and can be applied just like a gel liner, giving you a sexy, smudged effect.

Achieve perfectly applied mascara: Using an old credit card or business card behind your top and bottom lashes when applying mascara is great for preventing smudges. It also enables you to apply the mascara all the way down to the roots of the eyelashes, giving you a more professional look.

Keep lipstick off your teeth: This trick is well known to makeup artists and models. There’s nothing worse than flashing a gorgeous smile – only to realise your teeth are flecked with bright red lipstick! Avoid this by putting your finger into your mouth, wrapping your lips around it and pulling it out. The excess lipstick will be on your finger.

Make your scent last longer: Before spritzing, apply petroleum jelly to points like wrists and behind the ears. Since petroleum jelly is occlusive, it acts like a primer, retaining fragrance on the skin for the whole day.

Make your lipstick last: Unless they’re long-wearing formulas, most lipsticks smudge or rub off within an hour of application. Make yours last by placing a tissue over your newly applied lipstick. Then lightly dust the tissue with translucent powder. This old hack is used daily by make-up artists because it never fails.

Mattify skin with Phillips’ Milk of Magnesia: In the morning, after you’ve cleansed your skin and applied moisturiser, dab some Milk of Magnesia onto a piece of cotton wool and apply it to areas of the face that tend to get oily, like the T-zone, the chin and around the nose. Allow the liquid to dry and then apply make-up as usual.

Remove yellow stains from nails: Dark and highly pigmented nail polish can leave ugly yellow stains on the nails. To remove them, scrub your nails with a little whitening toothpaste, mixed with two drops of lemon juice. Your nails will be transformed immediately.