What are your NO-NONSENSE style and grooming tips? With products, if poss...

[HildegardVonBingham]

I'll start:

• If you have fine hair it is often best to get it cut shorter. If it's long it can look straggly and wispy. I have accepted my fate, and my hair looks much fuller and healthier now it's all cut to one blunt length.
• The idea that you have to have your nails 'done' all the time is insane and costly. Just keep them clean, filed, and use cuticle oil. In my view a grown-out manicure or acrylics looks bad.
• This is the most hydrating and natural-looking lip tint on the market. It's sooooo good - you can apply it without looking: https://www.clinique.co.uk/product/1605/4772/makeup/lipsticks/almost-lipstick-in-black-honey-pink-honey-and-nude-honey
• If you use a retinol (and you should), use it in conjunction with a serum and moisturiser so that the skin barrier repairs, and you avoid flakey bits of skin round your nose. Naturally wear SPF!!!
• Better to get clothes a size up and have them tailored and taken in. Even a woman with an amazing body looks like a sausage bursting its casing in too-small clothes.
• Colour theory is real. If you have 'high contrast' you can get away with wearing a lot of make-up. I think that a 'full glam' looks amazing on women with darker skin tones, but as I'm pale and blonde I can't really carry a lot of make-up. The 'bold lip' is a massive scam!
• Gradual tan on the body and tanning drops in your moisturiser can make you look slimmer and better-rested with minimal effort if you are pale.
• Your trousers should be almost too long - this makes your legs look longer.

Would be interested to hear any other NO NONSENSE advice you may have.... for instance I would love to know the best exfoliant to use on the body, and how I can avoid getting disgusting calloused hobbit feet from exercise 🤓

Buy the best quality you can afford of everything. I use Philip Kingsley shampoo and conditioner. £74 for a one litre bottle of either, but a litre lasts more than a year.

Do not skip things if you're tired. In particular do not skip removing every scrap of makeup, moisturising, using interdental brushes on your teeth, putting hand cream on, sorting out what you're going to wear the next day.

Do not wash your hair at night and then sleep on it damp.

Iron anything you're going to wear the next day. Lay it out with your jewellery. Polish your shoes, sort out your bag the night before, sort out lunch if you're taking it to work, have a look in your diary at what is happening for the next couple of days. You have time to do it all this evening and it means you can keep that morning routine timed to the last minute.

I use their handcream and ditto - nothing else had any effect on my eczema.

But you don't have to wear 'your' colour day in day out. Red also suits me, but i only wear it now and then. It is an energizing colour, and, like you, can wear me out. I also like browns, beiges, etc (I'm a bright Spring), because they're restful. Generally, I add a soft red lipstick, or red earrings. Just a touch of red suits is enough energy wise.

no nonsense tip: be slim. It's amazing how much easier it is to look elegant and put together. Speaking from experience.

Clean & tidy
Clean hair -products as required - mine naturally curly so I use a lots of products if blow drying straight or leaving curly
Discreet jewellery - well ok killer diamond is permitted
Spend money on shoes / bags eBay vinted charity shops as required
Mosturise everything
Toe nails always painted DIY manicurists over rated
Always buff dry skin and heels
Groom eyebrows chins and tasches
Sublte fake tan helps everyone feel and look better - but subltle glow not mahogany staining
Base brows blush & lips that’s enough make up for everyday if done well ( and lashes tinted!)
Signature smell - check out Zara if on budget

If you’re overweight (I am), draping clothes will not camouflage you, it makes you look bigger. Emphasise your waist, wear tailored clothes in good fabrics, don’t try to hide inder loads of tent like material, it doesn’t work.

If you want smooth, clean skin, get any cheap, non-silicone, hair conditioner - and add table salt to it. Use on wet skin in the bath. Or you can add table salt to any cheapo body scrubs you have with those crappy bits of shell that don't do anything

@Fluffywithteeth the pillowcase is from John Lewis

https://www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-organic-mulberry-silk-standard-pillowcase/bright-white/p6131622?tmad=c&tmcampid=7&s_share=jlappios_Y29tLmFwcGxlLlVJS2l0LmFjdGl2aXR5LkNvcHlUb1Bhc3RlYm9hcmQ=

No it is definitely drying. Makes my lips flake!

I recommend Clinique Chubbybstick in Bountiful Blush. I'm a soft summer with very pale lips and just wanted something that gives my 50yo lips a bit of colour and definition - this is perfect.
It also lasts ages as I only need a couple of dabs day to day.

I don't want to spend any time at all ever in a nail bar and nail 'art' is not for me, but I like to have pretty hands. So I've discovered Barry M Sheer Strength range which dry beautifully sheer, but build up to a fake 'gel' look quite easily and last for ages. The pale pink sheer grace colour is my chicest natural

^ that sums up my approach too.

Plus Vitamin C + SPF on my face in the morning and tretinoin at night.
And a big focus on dental hygiene.

Black Honey looks absolutely awful on me. It goes berry pink, which clashes with my warm olive colouring.

Get HRT if there's a possibility it could help, and it helps so many ills: I started oestrogen gel early autumn and not only is my mental health enormously improved, but I've also lost the 2 stone that crept on over ten years, without even thinking about it, simply since my hormones were whacked back into shape. I'm angry I didn't get put on it 6 years ago when they took my uterus out, but no, they only treat menopause symptomatically... And being insanely depressed didn't count...

@Fluffywithteeththe primers are Benefit Porefessional worn alone as it minimises pores and blurs, so it’s my skin but better
Mac Prep & Prime natural radiance primer in Radiant Yellow to wear under the Eborian Cream, gives a lovely glow, hydrates and makes my make up last longer. Really gives a natural flattering glow.

If you have a soft summer colour palette, choose one of your purply pinks that is a bit deeper than your lips. Find a lipstick to match. If you happen to like shimmer effect in lipstick, like old fashioned Rimmel 'heather shimmer', I think softs can wear it best.

Try Lavera liquid eyeliner.

Nuxe oils! I use them every day, and change to the shimmery ones in summer.
Shampoos and conditioners..I rotate them over every three washes to give my hair a surprise.
Body brushing and Korean cloths are fabulous for exfoliating
Always carry one of these in my handbag, saved me many a time!

I can vouch for the Sassy Saints brown lamination kit for home. I used to spend £40 on getting brows done, but this kit works, and then you just put a bit of dye on to darken them.

Appreciate not everyone wants the fluffy brow look, but if you've got overplucked 90s brows like me, you can achieve more volume if they are laminated. You just brush them up and out and fill in with pencil.

For hair smoothness overnight definitely try the Elvive Midnight Serum, it transforms your hair overnight, it’s like witch craft and about a tenner!

Seconding Margaret dab foot cream , it’s amazing

Davines is great isn’t it. Their purifying shampoo has changed my life, or at least my scalp.

Agree wholeheartedly. And I say it with all kindness and sympathy for those who are overweight. I’ve been both, overweight and now slim.

My life is just easier being slim. I spent so much time and money on products and skincare to make myself feel better in my skin. Buying clothes and getting dressed in the morning and liking what I see in the mirror everyday is game changer when you lose some weight.

@Gggh I have the same colouring and I find this lipstick in Blush 258 is really easy to wear. It looks a bit darker in the photos than in real life. It also doesn’t dry my lips.
https://amzn.eu/d/aFFUY41

Also I love the colour of Mac Maxcimal Silky Matte Lipstick - You Wouldn't Get it, but I can’t wear it too much as it’s a bit too drying on my very dry lips.

I am a big fan of O’Keefe’s lip balm. I didn’t know they did the tinted cherry version mentioned upthread. I’m ordering immediately!

For tough or dry feet, get a foot cream with urea in it.

This is interesting! I was blonde as a child, then my hair turned brown. I’ve now gone blonde again - it also works better when the grey starts as it blends in more