5 Beauty Hacks You've Definitely Never Heard of Before

Peanut butter...as shaving cream?

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(Image credit: archives)

In an ideal world, we'd wake up every day refreshed, with plenty of time to do our hair and makeup, and not a spill or scratch throughout the day. We'd get home, splash water on our face to remove our makeup, and head straight to bed.

Yeah well...this is the real world. Oily faces, chipped manis, and waking up hungover with five minutes to get to work is a real thing, as we all know. So we caught up with Brooke Van Poppelen, co-host of truTV's Hack My Life, to help us with some *particularly* inventive beauty hacks to help us cope.

1) Use cucumbers and vegetable shortening to remove makeup

"What's inexpensive, fries chicken, and can be used as make-up remover? Vegetable shortening! How do I know? Because I was forced to try it out and it worked! Now, I'm no expert, but something tells me if you do this regularly, you'll be on the fast track to some sweet, sweet acne, so maybe try it once and then stick to cooking with it. Cucumber slices are the more natural make-up removing hack and have a lovely soothing effect on the skin as well. It's no wonder you see cucumber listed as an ingredient in so many beauty products!"

2) Use toilet seat covers to blot oil

"You just got off of a six hour flight, you catch a glimpse of yourself in the airport bathroom mirror, and you are refreshed and glowing. Just kidding. You're bedraggled and greasy. If you're desperate you can use toilet seat covers like blotting papers since they are thin and absorb oil. Just make sure if you do this, you pull one out from the back—it is a public bathroom after all."

3) Polish your leather purse with milk

"First of all, have you ever polished a purse? I definitely haven't. (Clearly, I am terrible at being a lady.) Okay, while I doubt many of you have either, there is a hack for polishing purses that might motivate you to give your designer bag a nice little buff. All you need is a household product that most people have in their fridge: milk! Pour just enough onto a rag to get it damp and polish away. Milk enzymes, protein and fat restore the shine and wow, that is so weird to use a cow by-product to polish a different cow by-product. I'm going vegan tomorrow."

4) Set your nail polish with ice water

"I am so impatient when it comes to letting a manicure dry that I gladly tried out a hack that can get your nail polish rock hard in a matter of three minutes. All you need is a small bowl of ice water and a strong constitution because you're going to submerge your fingertips in there for 180 seconds! Move over Polar Bear Plunge and Ice Bucket Challenge— this is the new method to freeze your ass off! Your fingertips will be as red as your polish but the mani will be good to go."

5) Use peanut butter as a shaving cream alternative

"This definitely sounds out there, but some people claim that peanut butter is a delicious alternative to shaving cream if you've run out and want a buffer between your blade and skin. I would have to say proceed with caution with this one. On the one hand, when diluted with water, the creamy peanut butter moisturizes your skin because of the natural nut oils and vitamin E. But if your leg hair (or wherever else hair) has grown really long, I wouldn't recommend this since the peanut butter clogs the blade a little bit. Also, it may have been because you bought chunky."

You should also check out:

10 Hair Styles You Can Do in Literally 10 Seconds

17 Life-Changing Beauty Hacks Every Lazy Girl Must Know

21 Genius Lipstick Hacks You've Never Tried Before

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