Beauty Product Double Agents:

We all like to look nice, as well as healthy and clean but sometimes lack of time and money requires us to cheat a bit. Many beauty products can double or even triple in use. There are many multi-task uses for many beauty and personal care products. Having been a full-time student and now a wife, job-seeker, and writer with very little time for hair styling and make-up application- there more important things in today's world. After, basic personal care (showering, dressing, etc) I'm out of the bathroom in fifteen minutes to half an hour-I love it.

The important things are to be clean and neat. Always being made up with highly styled hair and a heavily painted face isn't that important anymore. I don't often wear makeup, because I've found it can worsen skin problems. When I do however it is all made with non pore clogging ingredients and there are rarely more then four cosmetic products on my face at once. I feel it is more important to be clean, neat, and healthy. Spending hours in the bathroom deciding which eye shadow to use gets boring. This is not to say I don't like to feel pretty, like every other woman.

Time and money constraints sometimes can limit the amount of beauty products we can buy. It is often unnecessary to buy product after product as many products have double uses which makes it a lot easier to organize and use our products. There are a few basic products that every woman should use when or if they like. They are relatively inexpensive and easy to use as a base for the use of some of the double tasking products that will be mentioned later.

Every good beauty routine starts with good hygiene and skin and hair care. Many inexpensive products are available that work just as well if not better than pricey department store cosmetics. A good facial cleanser is invaluable as it refreshes the skin and can help provide a good canvas for makeup artistry. A good foundation, mascara, blush, one neutral lipstick, and a clear lip balm or gloss is all anyone really needs to get a multitude of looks. Even though less is truly more, adding slightly more color cosmetic can move a makeup look from everyday to an evening look.

Many products among those just mentioned have many uses. For example, blush can be used as an eye shadow in a pinch. Lip balm can not only moisturize lips, but it can be used as cuticle cream. A bit of it when rubbed vigorously between hands can be used as a hair pomade to help achieve a quick style or control flyways and frizzy hair. I suggest buying two separate balm tubes one for lips and one for miscellaneous uses like these described.

Other products also have hidden uses that both help save time and money. They also work in little "emergencies" when you need to do something and don't have time or money to run out and buy a product specifically for one function. Although I don't recommend using these products near areas that may get easily irritated, try them on small areas first then feel free to use them as you please or not. Try them at your own will and risk. Everything may not work for everyone, but give them a try if you like.

The following products all have more than one use. I have used them myself not only for their advertised function but those which I mention below.

Body Wash can be used as shampoo and vice versa. Moisturizing body washes can often be used as a two-in- one shampoo and conditioner. If you just have no time to wash your hair a ponytail and/or a half teaspoon of baby or talcum in your hairbrush or comb can help hide or absorb excess oil or sweat.

Conditioner can be used in place of shaving cream to shave legs or underarms. Body lotion or cream can be used for the same purposes as well as taming frizzy hair and as a facial moisturizer if it contains few perfumes or dyes.

Lipsticks can be used like a cream blush product, although I recommend using two separate tubes for lips and face. Lip balm is also great for keeping eyebrows in place-a tiny bit will keep both from getting too unruly.

Toothpaste can be used in place of pimple cream. A tiny dab of the actual paste variety actually contains silica, a common ingredient found in many over the counter spot creams and is less harsh on the skin. Just apply to a clean face at night and wash away in the morning. The spot should be considerably drier in the morning, if not gone altogether.

These are just a few examples of ways to make your life easier. I've tried all of the tips I have suggested and they have all worked for me in some degree. Few women today have a lot of time to devote to cosmetics in any regard, much less the space to store all of them. Less is more is the best rule or tip to follow. Too much is exactly that too much.

Overdoing cosmetics and the like makes people appear too be trying way too hard to impress others and eventually backfires. I understand how easy it is to want to try a style of some sort, but in the fun of trying them we can get caught up and don't realize that it is not needed to try them all at once.

Spending hours a day focused on our physical beauty and robs us of time with our friends and family and being who we really want to be in life. Beauty and all the superficial eventually changes. I don't know about you but I certainly don't want to be remembered for how long I spent in the bathroom applying makeup, flipping through magazines, and buying things I don't need.

The desire to fit into some magazine and self built ideal has got to stop. Most magazine photos are airbrushed and the models in them have a number of people working to fix the slightest flaw. How many real people have that? None. Relax, be healthy, happy and enjoy life. Not make up and what someone else says you must look like.