With so many haircare products that you use daily, it certainly won’t hurt to be more aware of the ingredients that you’re putting on your body. Whether they’re causing hair breakage or is threatening to compromise your health, these five ingredients will give a good start in your ‘must-avoid-haircare-ingredients’ list.

1. Silicone. Silicone – often listed as cyclomethicone and dimethicone – isn’t quite an enemy of a healthy hair, but the problem is that silicone doesn’t offer any long-term benefit at all. Sure, it coats the strands to make them appear shinier and smoother, but over time they build up on the hair’s shaft, resulting to greasy and weighed-down roots. This is why it’s better to avoid products with silicone altogether.

2. Proteins. Unlike the other ingredients on the list, protein itself isn’t bad for your hair, but having too much of a good thing can still result to something awful. Protein helps in strengthening the cuticles of your hair, but using too much of it can throw of your strand’s natural moisture balance, resulting to breakage and damage. To avoid this, alternate between your protein strengthening and moisturizing products. This will help in maintaining your hair’s balance, while avoiding over-moisturizing as well.

3. Synthetic Fragrance. Avoiding synthetic fragrance doesn’t mean that you’ll be restricted to fragrance-free hair products. However, it does mean that you should look for and use products that are scented naturally with extracts and essential oils. This is especially important if you have sensitive skin, since certain fragrances can be wildly irritating to the skin and an itchy scalp has never look appealing to anyone ever.

4. Isopropyl Alcohol. Seeing some form of alcohol in a beauty product’s ingredient list isn’t surprising, but isopropyl alcohol is definitely one of the alcohol types that you should make conscious effort to avoid. Because not only is it highly inflammable and toxic when inhaled, it also zaps the moisture out of your strands, causing a major drying effect on your hair. Definitely something that you wouldn’t want to put on your hair.

5. Sodium Lauryl Sulphate. Laureth sulphates and sodium lauryl are two of the nastiest and most irritating compounds that you could apply to your skin. Not only are they believed to be extremely drying for the skin, they’re also proven carcinogens that can penetrate the skin and get absorbed into the bloodstream. So do take a hard pass on this ingredient.

With the access to the Internet nowadays, knowing the beauty product ingredients that you should avoid has become easier. So do take a good look on your favourite product’s ingredients list and when you see any of the aforementioned chemicals in them, don’t hesitate to ditch the product and look for a safer alternative.

Getting a good beauty bargain that can glam you up like your high-end makeup products, without costing too much is every woman’s dream – and the good thing is, it’s no longer just a dream.  We’ve consulted the top makeup artists and scoured over various drugstore counters for the ultimate list of alternatives for your favourite makeup products.

1. Mascara

High-End: MAC False Lashes; Bargain: Boots No. 7 Extreme Length Mascara

Although it’s the bargain product, Boots No. 7 Lengthen Lash Mascara can give you the same sky-high and luscious fringe that its high-end counterpart offers. Other than that, the formula is also soft and clump-free, resulting to gorgeous lashes.

2. Liquid Eyeliner

High-End: Lancôme Artliner; Bargain: Wet n’ Wild MegaLiner Liquid Eyeliner

With Wet n’ Wild’s simple brush applicator and highly pigmented formula, creating a precise line is just as effortless and easy as using Lancôme’s classic liner. To create a richer look on your eyes, go for the teal and royal blue shades.

3. Eyebrow Pencil

High-End: Lancôme Le Crayon Poudre for Brows; Bargain: Sonia Kashuk Brow Definer

You’ll definitely find Kashuk’s brow pencil quite easy to love because of its perfect texture that’s not too soft or hard. For a more natural look, create some pencil-like strokes in the area that needs some filling and scatter some of the strokes throughout your brows to blend the colour. Go for a shade that’s lighter than the actual colour of your brows to get the most natural effect.

4. Bronzer

High-End: Becca Bronzing Skin Perfector; Bargain: Sonia Kashuk Undetectable Cream Bronzer

While Becca’s bronzer is perfect for priming the skin and giving it a subtle golden glow, Kashuk’s cream bronzer will already do. Similar with Becca’s, this cream bronzer is also great for low-lighting and contouring the lids and cheeks, and in giving your skin a beautiful natural glow.

5. Blush

High-End: Rouge Bunny Rouge Blush Wand; Bargain: Revlon Photoready Cream Blush

From bright tawny reds to peachy corals, the highly pigmented cream blushes of Revlon will be able to give you the hue of a naturally pinched cheeks. Also, this product can serve as a lip colour and eye shadow if you’re going for a monochromatic makeup look.

6. Foundation

High-End: NARS Radiant Cream Compact Foundation Refill; Bargain: L’Oreal True Match Super-Blendable Compact Makeup SPF 17

Compact foundations have always been known as one of the budget-friendly makeup buys because you’re able to control the amount of foundation you’ll use. To further extend the use of your foundation, focusing applying it on the centre of your face in a dabbing motion to avoid applying too much. Blend it using your fingers through tapping to get a more natural look.

7. Lipstick

High-End: NARS Pure Matte Lipstick; Bargain: NYX Matte Lipstick

Just like with NARS’, the shade range and velvet finish offered by NYX is also worthy of a higher price point. If you’re planning to wear a full-bodied red lips, opt for NYX’s Perfect Red to give you that crimson pout that could rival even the sultry Vesuvio of NARS.

Beautifying yourself doesn’t mean spending a lot of bucks on your makeup arsenal. By simply knowing the inexpensive alternatives that can give similar results as your favourite makeup brands, you’ll still be able to look good without emptying your purse.

5 Night Time Beauty Tricks to Get a Glowing Skin in the Morning
Our morning skin care routine is often too difficult to follow due to our busy schedules. Good thing is it’s quite easy to come up with a night beauty routine that can help us avoid that hangover zombie look in the morning. Just follow these five simple steps to get that Sleeping Beauty look every morning.

1. Opt for One-Step Makeup Remover

Sleeping with your makeup on is a sure-fire way to speed up your skin’s aging process. To get that clean, glowing skin every morning, use a two-in-one makeup remover product. Go for cleansers that removes the makeup and cleanses the skin at the same time to cut down the time consumed by your beauty regimen every morning.

2. Exfoliate Using Glycolic Acid

One good way to make your skin extra radiant is to slough off all the dead skin cells. However, daily exfoliation using the grainy exfoliators can be harsh on the skin and can lead to an oilier face. Instead of conventional exfoliators, dermatologists recommend using glycolic acid, a gentler exfoliator, to plump up your fine lines, and some radiance to your face.

3. Perform a Night Oil

Give your skin an extra boost of radiance in the morning with just a drop of night oil. These oils can penetrate deeply into the skin compared with other beauty products. Use your night oil few times a week to give an extra boost to your complexion.

4. Put on a Multitasking Face Cream

Using a multitasking face cream is great not just for hydrating the skin but for exfoliating it as well. Experts recommend using products that contain lactobionic and gluconolactone acids to get better results. Apply a thick layer of the cream overnight and wash it off the following day for a more radiant finish.

5. Use a Sleep Mask

Putting on overnight masks is another great way to treat your skin and give it some extra attention. Experts explained that our skin undergo cellular repair as we sleep and is more receptive to the products applied to it during night time. So, rather than sticking to your usual night time regimen, use an overnight mask few times a week instead to effectively boost the antioxidants and hydrate your skin.

Waking up with a beautiful skin is not as difficult as you think. Performing the aforementioned night time beauty tips and getting enough sleep is all that’s needed to get that flawless look every morning.