I look horrific. please share easy cheats and sneaky corner-cutting to looking nice

[thatswhatimtalkingbout]

I need to lose about 3 stone. I also need to exercise, get more sleep, eat better, drink less, and get a decent hair cut, sort out some niggling long term health things, etc.

While I work on all this (or the bits I can do - I kind of can't see how to be much less knackered in the short / medium term) what can I do to fake it till I make it?

I have fair skin which looks grey at the moment; ginger hair; stocky / curvy size 14 (need to be a lot slimmer at my height and build); basically look baggy and grey and worn out. I don't know anything about make up but wear foundation, blusher and mascara at least every day. My glasses are old and probably don't suit me; I don't have time for a contact lens fitting. I am 42.

Please share your great cheats.

I really like the hair style! I have that kind of wavy hair and tend to look windswept a lot.

OP, I've only skimmed through the replies, but second the eyebrow thing. I wouldn't worry about tinting/pencils though, get yourself an eyeshadow in as near to your eyebrow colour as you can, and an angled brush. This looks much, much softer than pencilling them in and you can have it as light or strong as you want. I use a HD brows palette and do mine myself. mine are v dark and I use 'Vamp' but I'm sure they do a lighter version as well.

From reading your original post, three things jump out at me and in order of priority (if you were me of course!) I would:

a) get new specs. I wear glasses and change them every two years if possible. instead of seeing them as something you need to wear, look at them as an accessory. There are some v nice frames out there at the minute and styles change all the time. I prefer myself with glasses to without, and find that they frame my face and make it look 'finished' if that makes sense? (I'm sniggering to myself here at the amount of unintentional puns i've made!)

b) Eyebrows

c) Lose weight, ONLY because you say it will make you feel better though. Slimming World is great, I lost 2 stone last year in not very long at all.

And of course all the usual things - good fitting clothes, more sleep if poss, lots of water.

My advice would be
Exercise,I love 30 day shred.
Just 20 mins a day and you see results.
My fitness pal app,log your calories.ive lost 4kg since Xmas With these.

Drink more water and less alcohol.
I substituted peppermint tea for my 6pm glass of wine.
Still have small one at 9 though!

Def get more sleep whenever you can.

For brows,I like Benefits Brow zings,a wax and powder duo.
Good foundation,blusher and a 'my lips but better' lipstick.
I've just started using Maybelline's 24 hour gel eyeliner in brown which is great.

If you can get outside for a walk in this lovely spring weather you will feel much better too!

Please fdo the eyebrows. Pale skinned redhead here too and getting a subtle tint takes years off my 47 year old face. Ask for light brown.

Also double cleanse properly every night with a hot flannel. Takes 5 mins. I just started doing this three weeks ago and it had such a dramatic effect that my stepmother asked if I had had Botox.

I also recommend Clarins creme blusher in the pink shade. It looks violently hot pink in the pot, but looks so refreshing on if used sparingly.

www.frenchconnection.com/product/Woman+Collections+Sale+Coats+And+Jackets/70YB6/Nuovo+Drop+Waist+Coat.htm

The type of coat I mentioned earlier. Guaranteed compliments. They are all good colours, the blue is lovely, but I guess it depends on what suits you? (I have really dark hair so can't really help you with that)

What length / style is your hair? Do you like your colour? (apologies if you've mentioned that and I've missed it). Nothing like a colour change to make you feel that little bit more interesting / special?

In terms of eyebrows - definitely go for a tint / experiment with a pencil. I only recently started (subtly) pencilling my eyebrows just to get an even shape / better definition and now wonder how I ever lived without it. With the HD eyebrow trend at the moment you are pretty much guaranteed not to look 'too' dark.

Hi Mardy, thanks for the coat suggestion, great idea.

Hair - it's growing out a short crop / bob. It needs layers as I don't want to go that short again but it's grown into a not-attractive wedge shape. My face is quite square. The hair itself is as if highlighted, mixed up reds and blondes. I don't want to dye it right now, I might be grey soon - I want to grow it a bit, get a pretty cut and wear it as it is while I have it. It is not quite long enough right now to cut into the style I linked to, I was thinking of asking the hairdresser to put the long swept-sideways fringe in and the layers around the face

Sorry to go into so much detail about my hair but my default for a while has been to panic and go short again and again, so I am not used to having any length and I don't know what to ask for or how likely it will be to work with a wash-n-wear lifestyle

Looking at that pic the standout things apart from hair are blusher and eyebrows so you lot are clearly on the right track!

Thanks everyone for all the advice, great stuff on this thread
Lots of positive and uplifting ideas

As a redhead you may want to steer clear of clothes in stark colours that drain you e.g black, charcoal and white and stick to warm colours.

Colours to try would include teal, french navy, coral, poppy red and turquoise.

Agree with advice re decent haircut, eyebrows and nail polish/make up.

Google images of 'red lipstick on a redhead' to see how a bright red lipstick can work for you. Done well, bright red lips are so gorgeous. I'm a lipstick freak, I have millions of lipstick / gloss etc, cheap and expensive ones. Makeup is fun, experiment with it. Take some tissues with you to the shops and go mad with the testers, take a girlie mate if you're not confident about what suits you. Get in the habit of wearing something on your lips all day every day (when I'm in work I keep mine in my pocket so I can refresh at every opportunity to keep it looking nice and fresh). When you clean your teeth at night, scrub your lips then put balm / Vaseline on before bed so they're nice and soft and smooth for morning.

God I love lipstick.

Thanks mardy. I loved red lipstick when I was younger but I think it shows up my yellow teeth too much now. I should try different tones and see if I can get one that doesn't.
Hair cut booked for today.
Brows threaded yesterday and patch test for tint working out fine. Tint booked for tomorrow but still scared, so I might cancel and go and look at makeup instead.
Obsessed with eyebrows. Everyone on this train has eyebrows! Omg, who knew.

Missscatterbrain. Thanks for the advice on colours. I think olivey green is my best friend. Will have a look at your suggestions IRL.

blusher, mascara, lip gloss every day. takes a minute.

Thatswhat - red lipstick will make anybody's teeth look yellow if you pick the wrong shade - that's why you need to test them first (or get your teeth whitened - have never done mine but my dad did his once (!) and it looked really good)

Where do you live? Am secretly ITCHING to take you shopping!

and you've made me want a new lipstick now (no I didn't just already get one on Monday that I've used once so far)

Try a dark coral lipstick.

I LOVE MY HAIR

I am this close > < to posting a pic but I am not going to because I post all kinds of awful personal shit under this nick name.

I did take that photo in, feeling like a massive dork like the scene in Educating Rita where the woman with a face like a bag of spanners brings in a photo of Lady Di (as she was then). But they did not laugh me out of the salon and cut in wavy layers and a long sideswept fringe and I look a million times better.

It really makes me want new lipstick!

On the downside, the blonde receptionist had eyebrows as if two orangey-brown caterpillars had crawled onto her face and died and it is making me even more nervous about a tint.

Hm coral lipstick? Really?
I fancy a badass scarlet more, except for the yellow teeth issue

Hey that's fab news well done!!!

I was gonna comment on the hair as I too have wavy tousled hair - have had it long in layers down my back but cut it myself recently as just too much hair to manage. My hints on this haircut tho are - get a serum, stick in on when wet. Then on top of that, a product for tousled hair from the supermarket. Then leave to dry for half an hour so a curl sets in, then dry the rest with a diffuser. Then a product like wax at the end. Its all about the product to stop it going fluffy or the curl falling. I find that I don't have to wash mine often, and if I put enough product on when its been washed, the shape lasts and I don't need product every day. If I don't put enough on, it doesn't look as sleek and the curls aren't defined. Everyone comments on my hair - am very lucky, so these are my tips there.

I also recommend eyeliner. Try it all along the top (maybe brown if you are fair?) or all underneath and only at the corners on top.

If you can, cut out sugar where poss and go for whole grains over the usual - this means no white bread, no white rice, no white pasta. Buy brown everything - you eat what you eat and the energy you get from that food lasts longer. So you don't get a huge insulin rush - energy - which is either used on running etc or stored as fat. So the food you eat goes further.

Will be interested in what you decide to do re teeth whitening as I could use that myself...

Congrats on the hair tho!

oh go for the lipstick too.

And paint your nails black? Get the Maybelline colours, they last?

I noticed that a little bit of lippy on the finger / on the cheeks works....and matches....just smear it around to make a subtle circle....instant brightener....

Red lipstick rocks. Do that and the brows and you will look the biz.

Or so I assure myself

Red lipstick rocks. Do that and the brows and you will look the biz.

Or so I assure myself

Red lipstick rocks. Do that and the brows and you will look the biz.

Or so I assure myself

marking my place i'm in the same situation and will be 40 this year feed up being frumpy

Hi somethingtosay. thanks for the tips on the hair. any brands you recommend in particular for hair stuff?

motherinferior - how do you test lipstick? You can't put it on your mouth. I suppose you could put a stripe of the tester on your hand and hold it up to your face with a toothy grin...?

[http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pearl-Drops-Instant-White-Veneer/dp/B002G92I08/ref=pd_bxgy_k_h_b_cs_text_y]

ever tried this type of thing? not bad but a bit of a faff

www.amazon.co.uk/Pearl-Drops-Instant-White-Veneer/dp/B002G92I08/ref=pd_bxgy_k_h_b_cs_text_y