Life Hack #1

Hello ladies and gentlemen!  Happy Tuesday!

Have you ever gone through life thinking the world works a certain way, only to find out you were W-R-O-N-G?

I'm sure you have.  Childhood is full of these little discoveries.  You mean not everyone watches Survivor with their extended family and draws names to see which character you'll be that season?  You're kidding me.  I had a friend once who didn't know you were supposed to wash your bras.  She's a really smart, normal person -- it just never dawned on her to wash her bras.  (This was in high school, so luckily, this was remedied rather quickly in the grand scheme of things.)  It's little things like this that seem trivial, but can make a person question what else in life they've missed if this isn't what they thought it to be. You know?



I listened to a podcast not too long ago from This American Life, and while I don't remember the premise of the entire podcast, one act was about this young woman's experience going to college, and specifically her thoughts on college food.  I didn't particularly love college cafeteria food, but mine had a soup and salad bar, and a soft serve machine, so I was okay.  I think the general impression of cafeteria food is not a favorable one.  However, this one woman's experience was completely different from that general opinion because her family grew up eating the same meal every night.  THE SAME MEAL EVERY NIGHT.  She recounted sitting around listening to her friends complain about the cafeteria food, and being certain they were joking -- the bevy of entree options alone blew her mind!  She couldn't get over it. With a little prying she soon discovered that this type of varied diet is normal in mainstream America, and her home, with it's baked chicken and carrots, was definitely the anomaly.  She mustered up the courage on one of her visits home to ask her parents what, exactly, was the deal with the same meal every night.  Did they not know there were lots and lots and LOTS of other options they could explore?  Yes, the answered, they just enjoyed that meal, and why mess with something they enjoyed?

Imagine that kind of shock.  When something like that happens it kind of shakes the foundation of how you think life is versus how it actually is.  Are any of us experiencing things exactly the same way?  Who knows.  All I know is that there are little things in life that we all have to deal with, housekeeping, bill paying, dog de-fleaing, bad selfie-taking, etc, that just aren't fun.  So isn't it grand when we can use our collective brain trust and find ways to hack through these little things together?  I have a few game changers that I'm going to share with you over the next few months, and I'm hoping you'll be generous enough to share your brilliant life hacks with me and the rest of my loyal minions I mean loyal readers, either here in the comments section or on Facebook.

My first hack may seem a bit petty, a little vain (do you know me at all?) but it rocked my world when I discovered the difference of where I started to where I am now.

So let's start with a game of would you rather.

Would you rather look like Lord Voldemort or Elizabeth Taylor?

Duh. Liz Taylor. Duh duh duh. 

Then why are so many of us running around like he who shall not be named?  Feast your eyes on the ridiculousness below:

No make-up, 7 months pregnant, frizzy hair, winning at croquet -- these things alone make it a bad photo.  I can't believe I'm even sharing it with the internets. But seriously, compare my face to Voldemort and note the similarities.  Just. Look.

Life Hack #1.  EYEBROWS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT.  I lived almost 30 years of my life not knowing this.  Or at least not caring much about it. BIG MISTAKE.  See what a little eyebrow definition can do for a gal?!

I would never in a million years compare myself to queen Liz, fyi.

 No eyebrows is a little scary, right?  Need more evidence?  Unfortunately, I've got some...

I promise you, this is not photoshopped. Sorry Anna.

See what I mean?!

Now the thing about eyebrows is that you can usually see them in person, so the day in and out doesn't matter as much as a photograph.  But since those old photographs haunt me, I make it a daily point to keep my brows on fleek.  Luckily, there are some easy, low maintenance ways to make this happen, and I'm going to share them with you.

First, put down your tweezers, Voldemort.  Check out the super babe below.  A famously beautiful face in no small part because of her big, dark eyebrows. Stop tweezing your brows to look like hyphens - seriously stop it.  Find your natural brow shape.  Look at a picture from your childhood and see what your brows looked like before you got your hands on a Seventeen magazine and seized ALL THE POWER OF THE TWEEZERS.  Grow those babies back out.  Maybe talk to a professional (yes they exist, for good reason, look at my pictures above. ) about your best natural shape.  Or consult this website from the good people at Benefit -- http://www.benefitbrowgenie.com. There are about a million other beauty bloggers and vloggers who would love to teach you more about this-- take advantage of them.  Find your natural shape and then on occasion, you or your brow professional can clean up the stray hairs as needed.  You still with me?

Next, if you're fair like me, you might need to boost the color of your brows.  Your new bff (the brow expert) can help you with this.  You can actually dye your eyebrows with a semi-permanent dye to give you a long lasting color with very little additional thought needed...I love this option, but I love dark brows and not having to fill them in on the daily.  I love my brow-lady, and I try to see her every few months, but in between, I hit my brows with the product below.  Except I use the brown formula, not the black.  If you're brave and have a little experience with beauty products, you can totally do this.  Just READ ALL THE INSTRUCTIONS AND READ THEM AGAIN before you touch your eyebrows with semi-permanent dye. You can also dilute the formula with a little water in order for a less intense effect. AGAIN JUST PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF EYEBROWS READ THE INSTRUCTIONS.

This is big.  This requires work.  I know.  I'm into this kind of thing, but if you're not, that's perfectly acceptable.  Just tell your brow lady to do it for you.  And in the interim, do a little work with some specially formulated eyebrow products.  

This one is from Benefit, and it's great.  Just trade up those dumb tiny brushes for a more substantial one.  First coat the brows with the darker color, which is a thin wax, and then hit them with the lighter color which clings to the wax for a nice, natural filled-in effect.  Easy peasy. You can layer on the colors to really make your brows bold, too.

Last, you can pick up a brow pencil at any drug store, and with a little practice and a lot of blending, you'll get the same effect as any of the above suggestions. This requires a bit of practice, as you don't want to look like you actually drew tiny little lines on your eyebrows. The key is to blend the pencil into your brows so you don't actually see the pencil marks, just the overall addition of color. Get a pencil that has a little brush or spool on the end of it to make sure you can comb through your brows to both reshape and blend the color.  This is a really inexpensive way to test the waters of darker, fuller brows with no long time commitment, either.  Give 'er a try.

Did you stick with me?  All the way to the end?  Good work.  I know eyebrows might be low low low on your list of priorities.  I hear ya. But if you're like me, and you don't want to look like Voldemort, this is a tiny little life hack that has a big payoff (see photos above).  Remember, I don't like to do hard things.  This isn't that hard, and you won't regret it.

Next up in the life hack series? Housekeeping and cleaning products.  Specifically, Norwex.  Heard of it?  It's good stuff.  A friend of mine wanted to put some products in my hands so I can tell you about my real experience with it...and best of all, she's might even let you purchase products from her at a discount if you read my blog.  Win win, no?!  It's just my little gift to you, not-hard things that make hard things easy.  You know what I'm saying?  Now, go forth and fill in your brows, super babe.