beauty

The 'embarrassing' beauty practice that's 100 per cent OK (and safe) to do to your face.

This wonderful nugget of beauty wisdom comes courtesy of Mamamia’s shiny new beauty podcast, You BeautyTo ensure you never miss an episode, subscribe to You Beauty here. It’s a blast.

Did you know us humans have around 100,000 hairs on our bodies?

Well, around 90,000 if you’re a red head, 100,000 for those with brown or black hair, and 150,000 for blondes.

Some of those hairs might live on your face.

Above your lip, on your chin, under your neck, over your cheeks, or all over your face. Mostly in places they’re really not welcome and they can even stand out under a full face of foundation.

So how do you get rid of unwanted facial hair, or as it’s affectionately known as, peach fuzz?

There are a couple ways you can do it, but Mamamia’s executive editor and beauty editor of 15 years Leigh Campbell wanted to talk about one particular facial hair removal method that gets a bad rap on the You Beauty podcast.

“I have lots of peach fuzz and you can see it under makeup in light. Where I do my makeup, there’s not much light… when I get in the car I’m like woah,” she told her podcast co-host Kelly McCarren.

Leigh said she used to shave her face (a beauty practice that’s actually called dermaplaning). She can’t be bothered now because it’s a high maintenance endeavour, but it’s 100 per cent normal, fine and safe to do so if your peach fuzz gets to you.

“Dermaplaning is either an in-salon treatment or you can do it at home, it’s essentially shaving your face. There’s a special razor you buy, a Tinkle Razor, it’s meant to exfoliate your skin, but the peach fuzz comes off as well. It looks like a blade you’d use in art class.”

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Get Leigh’s full face shaving chat in your ears below, post continues after audio.

“Don’t be afraid of shaving your face, it sounds quite unusual, but it’s not going to grow back like a beard, or thicker and darker. You don’t need shaving cream and it’s quick.”

Other options for facial hair removal include shaving with an ordinary razor (use a clean one and go slow), waxing (this is especially great for upper lip hair that bothers you) and the icon laser, a laser originally created to treat acne that removes light facial hair depending on how coarse your hair is.

Another trick Leigh uses is applying a lighter foundation to her peach fuzz areas that won’t accentuate the hairs.

“I often wear my full coverage matte foundation down the centre of my face because that’s where I’m oily and I need the coverage, but the sides of my face don’t normally need full coverage, I might use a dewy formula there or a lighter coverage one.”

Finally, the other option is to just embrace your peach fuzz. It really comes down to your personal preferences, but we were all born with hair, right?

Preach.

You Beauty Cheat Sheet

Other questions Leigh and Kelly answered, as well as their ‘spendys’ and ‘saveys’ (and where you can buy them).

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“Help! Do eyelash serums really work and if so, which one’s do you recommend?”

  • Lash serums were discovered because an ingredient in glaucoma medication came with the side effect of long lashes.
  • They do work, but can be a bit controversial.
  • It’s like using a clear liquid eyeliner, can use morning and/or night, expect to see results after three to four weeks.
  • Leigh has used LiLash – it’s recently been banned because the ingredients are quite hardcore, though.
  • Other lash serum recommendations include:
  • If you’ve got sensitive eyes, be careful.
  • Don’t use continually forever, no longer than three months otherwise your lashes can go a bit wonky.
  • Bonus – you can use it in your brows where you hair is sparse.

Leigh’s Spendy: The Dyson Airwrap, $699.

Dyson Airwrap Styler
Image: Supplied.

Why she loves it:

  • Leigh wants to preface this by saying $700 is an extremely large amount of money and this product is crazy expensive.
  • It's a wand with seven different attachments for curling, smoothing and blow drying.
  • Uses air and a small amount of heat to style from damp hair (80 per cent dry).
  • There are four wave attachments - Leigh's not using it for those as she's faster at curling with other tools.
  • She loves it for the blow dry attachment, there's a round brush that turns it into a brush/blow dryer all in one, can replace in-salon blow dries.
  • If you're interested, Leigh suggested trying to split it with friends, siblings etc. (Or asking for Christmas money!)
  • You can read Leigh's full Dyson Airwrap review here.

Kelly's Spendy: Tatcha The Silk Canvas Protective Primer, $76.

tatcha-primer
Image: Mecca.
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Why she loves it:

  • This primer is all over YouTube.
  • It's a putty/wax rather than a liquid and comes with a spatula to scoop out the product.
  • You only need the tiniest amount for your whole face.
  • Kelly describes it as being silky and blurring, without mattifying your skin completely.

Leigh's Savey: Makeup Revolution products.

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Why she loves it:

Kelly's Savey: ModelCo Makeup Brush Cleaning Tool, $8.

modelco-brush-cleaner
Image: ModelCo.

Why she loves it:

  • Kelly uses it several times per week to keep her brushes clean.
  • It's a rubber device with rivets and bumps.
  • Under running water, rub your brush over the top of the rivets with a bit of baby shampoo or whatever you use to clean your brushes.
  • Kelly loves how it gets product out of the hairs in the middle of brushes.

Until next week, stay lovely.

Love all things beauty? Come join our You Beauty Facebook group for more chit chat about things to put on your face. And body. And hair.

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