How to Pluck Your Eyebrows

Once you have your pair of tweezers, plucking a naturally-shaped brow is simple. You should take into consideration the type of hair that makes up your brow: it is coarse or fine, light or dark? Do you plan to use eye pencil to enhance your brows, or do you prefer a natural solution? Fine, light eyebrows may need to be slightly thicker in order to establish them in the overall look of your face: light brows that are too thin will disappear, giving your face a rabbity look. Eye pencil is a great way to slightly darken super-blonde brows: choose a shade just slightly darker than your natural shade for a subtle enhancement. Thick, dark brows can be either professionally lightened at a salon or plucked slightly thinner to minimize their impact.

1. Start by patting your eyebrow with warm water to open the pores and make plucking less painful.
   
   
2. Getting eyebrows too thin is an even bigger mistake than leaving them too heavy, so start by plucking only the hairs that definitely don't belong. Pluck in the direction of the hair's growth to avoid irritating the skin.
   
   
3. Remove hairs between the brows, and then begin to clean up the area under the brow line by plucking the hairs that fall outside the main brow.
   
   
4. You may want to shorten your eyebrows if the hair continues past the outer corner of your eye.
   
   
5. Never pull out several hairs at once: that's a great way to get a "bald" look! Take out one at a time.
   
   
6. Once you have created a clean brow area, you can further define brows by adding or increasing a slight natural arch that rises just above the middle of your iris. Go carefully here and keep the arch very slight, or you will wear a look of perpetual surprise!
   
   
7. If your eyebrows are very thick, you may want to remove a few hairs growing in the middle of the brow. This should be undertaken carefully, since removing a defining hair can leave an empty patch in your eyebrows. Brush your eyebrow up with a small brush and see which hairs are too thickly grouped. Grasping a single hair with your tweezers, but without pulling it out, move the hair away from the rest of the brow to see the potential effect of permanently removing it. Does it leave a "hole"? If so, don't pluck it, but try another hair. When you can pull out a hair without leaving an empty space (the rest of the brow should brush back and neatly cover the tweezed area), remove the hair.
   
   
8. After plucking your eyebrows, dab them with witch hazel or tea tree oil to soothe the skin and prevent breakouts.
   
   
9. Pluck eyebrows (as the hairs regrow) from underneath to maintain a neat look.

Must Haves in Your Beauty Care Kit

Other additions to your beauty kit should include an eyelash curler and nail care tools. Curling your eyelashes only takes a minute and adds to the sparkle in your eyes. Just press the lashes into the eyelash curler, hold for a few seconds, and release. Your eyes will look brighter because the upwards-curling lashes will display your upper, inner eyelid rim. The whiteness of the rim combined with the white of your eye makes your iris appear brighter in contrast as well as giving your eyes a wide-awake look that's also appealing. And when it comes to dealing with fingernails and toenails, your beauty supply should definitely include a set of files, buffers, orange sticks and creams for at home manicures and pedicures.

At Home Pedicure and Manicures

There are few body parts that serve us as well as the foot. Our feet take us through the world, let us dance and explore, and wander around in shoes ranging from ratty sneakers to upscale heels and leather boots. Don't they deserve some special treatment from time to time? Here's how to keep your feet happy and healthy:

A foot bath. Now, you can certainly arrange a footbath during your regular bath, or you can fill a plastic tub with very warm water, essential oils or bath salts and lower your aching tootsies in. (If you have polish on your toes, remove it before starting to soak your feet). Soak for at least five minutes, and using a nail brush, give your toenails a good scrub, getting out lint, grime and whatever else accumulates under nails. Use a pumice stone to rub away calluses—but don't try to remove them in one sitting! Calluses take time to create and they take time to remove; often several months of pedicures will be needed before a callous is gone.

Clip your nails with a good pair of nail clippers, being careful not to cut any living skin. (Little tags of dead cuticle can be trimmed off, but if it hurts it's not dead, so don't cut it.) Round the nails slightly with a file so that sharp edges don't cut into the delicate skin of your toes. On the tops of toenails, smooth the nail with a file into a pretty, slightly curved shape.

Once you have finished clipping and filing your nails, you may want to give your feet another quick soak and scrub. Next, dry your feet and between your toes with a soft towel, and rub in a good cream. If you aren't planning to polish your toenails, rub them with essential oil or coconut oil to replenish the oils and restore shine lost during your pedicure, and your pedicure is done.

If you do plan to add polish, don't put cream or oils on your toenails or the polish won't adhere properly. Dry your feet, add cream to the foot but not the toenails, and follow with polish. You may want to put cotton puffs between your toes to prevent the polish from smudging before it dries. After a coat of polish, you may want to add a top coat in order to keep your polish from chipping.