Going to the salon every other week gets expensive, but there are useful, free, and creative ways to get the perfect manicure without making that bank account-draining bi-weekly appointment. Check out these hacks for a great manicure.

Nail Care Hacks

1. Prevent Split Nails by Wearing Gloves in Water

If you’ve ever had the displeasure of a split fingernail, you understand why it’s important to protect your hands. Wear rubber or latex gloves while washing dishes or hand washing clothes to keep your manicure in tip top shape and prevent cracked nails.

2. Restore Cuticles Overnight

Instead of using chemicals on your cuticles, try this overnight remedy for unruly cuticles. As you sleep, your cuticles will become soft and moisturized.

3. Remove Nail Polish Stains with Tooth Whitener

After taking off red nail polish, have you noticed a pink or orange tinge to your nails? There’s an easy way to get rid of it: tooth whitener.

4. Go Natural with Hand Lotion

Not all hand lotions are created equal, so when you want a hand lotion you can trust to contain natural ingredients, you may need to make it yourself. One recipe incorporates aloe vera, essential oils, beeswax, and Vitamin E oil for a naturally moisturizing hand lotion.

5. Create Your Own Hand Scrub

If your hands have a lot of dead skin, lotion alone won’t be able to soothe it. Consider creating hand scrub at home that has the same beneficial effects as the expensive stuff sold in stores. The Beauty Department’s blend of lemon, sugar, coconut oil, and Argan oil is instantly enriching while exfoliating skin.

6. Correct Nail Polish Mistakes Quickly

Having globs of nail polish on the sides of each finger isn’t an attractive look, and announces to the world, “I DIY-ed my mani.” Instead, use a brush and some nail polish remover to create a clean line around the nail and successfully trick your friends into thinking a professional did your nails.

7. Mend a Broken Nail without Pain

Have you ever had a broken nail that threatened to break down to the quick? If you have, you understand how painful that can be. Instead of biting or ripping off a piece of broken nail, use a piece of a tea bag and some nail glue to make a quick (and painless) repair.

8. Prevent Over-Polishing with Vaseline

Protect the skin around your nails, whether working on your toes or fingernails, by applying petroleum jelly to the edges. Once you’re finished polishing, there will be no extra swipes of nail polish to clean up.

9. Use a Glass Nail File for the Best Manicure

Part of the reason nails peel in layers at the tip is the way in which they are filed. Using a glass nail file prevents keratin separation at the nail bed, resulting in a long-lasting, healthy manicure and reduced risk of breakage.

10. Whiten Yellow Nails Naturally

Consistently polishing your nails can result in gradual staining and a yellowish appearance. Easily remove staining by mixing 1 tablespoon of hydrogen peroxide with 2 ½ tablespoons of baking soda.

11. Clever Nail Polish Storage

Use shoe boxes or old picture boxes to sort and organize your nail polish bottles. Add a drop of color to a sticker and place it on the top of the bottle to easily identify the color you want.

12. Remove Nail Oil with Vinegar

Nail polish stays on longer when applied to a clean, dry nail. Unfortunately, invisible oils can sabotage your new manicure. Before applying nail polish, swipe each fingernail with white vinegar to cut through any oils on the nail.

13. Help Your Nail Polish Dry Fast

Want your nail polish to dry quickly (and avoid unsightly accidents)? Dip your manicured nails into a bowl of ice water for approximately 3 seconds to expedite the drying process.

14. Create Matte Nail Polish at Home

Can’t part with your favorite shade, but wish it was less shiny? Add a matte top coat to any nail polish by mixing clear polish and corn starch.

15. Use Cooking or Hair Spray to Dry Nails

A fast, cheap way to dry your nail polish is to apply cooking spray or hair spray over the top coat. While this won’t prevent major damage from occurring, it strengthens the top layer and is more resistant to smudges.

16. Quickly Repair Chipped Nail Polish

Quickly cover up chips in nail polish with a coat of glitter. Choose a uniform pattern or apply glitter polish in varying strengths to achieve a faded effect.

17. Fix a Nail Polish Blunder

Were you going for a top coat but missed the mark? Instead of starting fresh, improvise by lightly rubbing nail polish remover on the smudge. Then, simply add the original color over it and you’re finished!

18. Eliminate Nail Polish Bubbles

Avoid having bubbles surface atop your perfectly painted nails by first rolling the bottle in between your hands as opposed to shaking it. Normally, it’s shaking up the contents of the bottle that results in air bubbles.

19. Restore Old Nail Polish

Do you have old bottles of nail polish that look as though they’re destined for the garbage bin? Before tossing them, apply nail lacquer thinner to the bottle to restore the polish’s viscosity to normal.

20. New Uses for Watery Polish

On the other hand, some nail polishes are designed to be thin. Instead of finding a new favorite brand, use thin nail polish for designs or watercolor effects.

Nail Art Hacks

21. Spotted Eggshell Effect with Plastic Bag

Achieve a designer look with this spotted eggshell hack. Crumple up a plastic bag and dip in nail polish before using it to create a sponge paint effect on your nails. For best results, use a color that contrasts with the base coat.

22. Nail Tape for Perfectly Straight Lines

Nail tape is a great tool to keep around, whether you want to apply it directly to your nails or use it as a stencil for designs. To achieve perfectly straight lines, add it to your nail tips before applying the tip color.

23. Painted Nails in the Sky

Mimic peaceful, fluffy clouds colorfully using this nail art technique. By layering contrasting colors over one another strategically, you can accomplish this dreamy look.

24. Nails D’Amour

With Valentine’s Day approaching, you may want to celebrate in style with a heart-themed manicure. Create hearts easily and symmetrically using a toothpick.

25. Create Gradients of Color

An interesting optical illusion is using gradients of color on your nails. Also called Ombre nails, this design is achieved by slightly blending two polish colors side by side, then using a sponge to apply the color to the nail.

26. Easy Cutout Nails

Achieve a futuristic look with these easy cutout nails. Apply stripes of nail tape to the nail before polishing, then use varying colors on each triangle before peeling tape off. You’re left with a modern manicure everyone will be asking about.

27. Flaming Hot Nail Art

Do you want your nails to reflect your personality? This fire-inspired nail design takes a little time, but is absolutely worth it. Try using different colors as a base coat for varying effects.

28. Easy Flower Design

Get in the mood for springtime with these easy floral nails. Simply make dots using a bobby pin or toothpick, then layer colors over the dots to create depth and the appearance of a flower. Add green accents to mimic leaves.

29. Simple French Tips

Get beautiful, classic french tips the easy way. Ditch the templates, stickers, and decorative tools and replace them with either a rubber band or nail tape to ensure a clean line.

30. Marble Nails

To create easy marble nails without spending hours on details, use a nail polish template to create the marbled effect, then peel off each template and place on your nails. Trim the edges and add a top coat, and you’re finished!

What are your nail care hacks? Share them with us!

Featured photo credit: Empty Space Orchestra via emptyspaceorchestra.com

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Buying stuff second-hand is an excellent way of maintaining the health of your wallet; our culture is obsessed with the idea of ‘newness’, and things lose half of their price the moment they leave the shop – you can get them for a fraction of their real price when buying used.

But buying second-hand is always accompanied with risks. Caveat venditor goes down the drain, it is caveat emptor all over again – so let’s see how you can protect yourself.

1. Cars

So you’ve found what looks like an excellent deal – a car that is considerably cheaper than its market price. But, as we all know, there is no such thing as a free lunch, and if this ‘considerably’ turns into ‘suspiciously’, there is a good chance the car in question is a salvage vehicle. It is wise to check it for yourself by buying a vehicle history report for a humble sum of $10.00 – or by getting it for free from a website like VinFreeCheck.

2. Furniture

Remember: furniture you buy is going to be a part of your household for years to come. You will shortly forget that it was such a bargain; yet you will have to bear it for God knows how long. Thus, you should carefully examine everything.

Firstly, was the piece damaged and fixed? If so, was it fixed properly? Try it out, don’t be shy – sit in chairs, check if bureau drawers go back and forth smoothly, if tables are rickety. If something is damaged, it doesn’t necessarily mean the deal is off – just estimate if it can be used, if you can repair it, how costly will it be, and if the seller didn’t mention it previously, ask for a lower the price according to the item’s condition.

3. Flats

Second-hand flat sounds weird, but it’s always what you buy unless you buy off-plan. Depending on the purpose for which you buy, you’ll have to pay attention to different things. However, the tricks used by unscrupulous agents always the same. Be on your guard if the agent says he already has a better offer, and if you want to buy it you have to pay more, or aggressively persuades you to seal the deal right now and offers a discount or other bonuses. Make sure you get a detailed report on the flat’s condition – thus you will be able to initiate proceedings against the agent if you later find out that some flaws were concealed (e.g., if cracks in walls were papered over).

4. Clothing

Second-hand clothing has no seller’s or manufacturer’s guarantees, so you should be really careful when checking them for damage. Although prices are usually more than affordable, it is still annoying to bring home a pair of jeans only to discover that they have a broken zipper. And, although it is not deception per se, some thrift shops don’t have dressing rooms to encourage you to buy without trying things on – so wear something thin when going there.

5. Cellphones

Cellphones and other gadgets may turn out to be a real bargain when bought second-hand – or a real disaster. It is all about knowing what to look at.

Ask for a receipt to make sure you don’t buy stolen goods. Research the device thoroughly before buying so that you know all its functions and can check if they work properly before money changes hands. Never buy an item without personally inspecting it first, checking if the touchscreen, sliding panels, keypad, whatever, are in working order.

A savvy buyer can save a ton of money by buying second-hand; you should simply relearn the skills of a cautious buyer that were replaced by guarantees and return policies in most people.

Featured photo credit: for second hand rose/Jason Brackins via flickr.com

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Ah, camping. The great outdoors, the campfires, the food you’d never eat in civilised society: it’s a wonderful experience. That said, things can get a little bit tricky when we are left to the mercy of Mother Nature. Here are 30 fantastic camping hacks you can use to make your camping experience as wonderful as possible!

 1. Use sage to repel mosquitoes.

Place some sage in your campfire and the smell is sure to ward off any pesky mosquitos.

2. Liquid soap + cotton balls = no ticks.

If you or one of your fellow campers is having trouble with a tick, place the soap-soaked cotton on the tick for 20 seconds. The tick will eventually stop chewing and will come away with the cotton ball. If the tick was attached for a lengthy amount of time you may want to consider keeping it in a container so that you can test it for Lyme disease later.

3. Use an acorn cap as a whistle if you get lost.

It’s remarkably easy to get lost whilst camping. Here’s a full tutorial on how you can transform an acorn into a whistle!

4. Corn chips for kindling!

Doritos are a great way to start a fire, just be careful!

5. Use the rest of the chips for nachos.

Nachos are easy to pack, light and simple to make. Plus they’re incredibly tasty.

6. Use compact, microfibre towels!

These towels are incredibly easy to store and dry within an hour of use. Buy them here.

7. Wrap duct-tape around your water bottle for emergencies.

You never know when you might need some.

8. Make lamps out of jars and solar disks.

Get all the info you need here.

9. Sangria!

We know what’s really important. How to here!

10. One water bottle will hold eight eggs.

By keeping all your eggs in a bottle you save time and hassle. Plus, no need to carry extra bowls or a whisk!

11. Johnson’s Baby Creamy Oil is a surprisingly good mosquito repellent.

Keep the bugs and the bug repellent smell at bay.

12. DIY shower.

All you need is a watering can and a large jug. Here’s the full instructions.

13. Keep sandpaper handy to light matches.

Glueing some sandpaper to the lid of a tupperware box where you can also store matches is a foolproof plan.

14. S’moreos.

15. MarshJell-o shots.

Learn how to make these delicious things here!

16. Or dip those marshmallows in Bailey’s. 

Toast the marshmallow first and then dip it in Bailey’s.

17. Turn a bottle into a spoon.

It’s that easy!

18. Grits repel ants.

Just sprinkle grits wherever you see ants.

19. Deodorant can be used to combat itchiness.

20. Wrap your meat in cabbage to stop it from burning.

That’s not an innuendo, it really will! The moistness in the cabbage creates the perfect barrier.

21. Foam noodles will stop any injuries.

For any fellow clumsy people, you know how possible it is to smack your head and cause serious injury. Placing a foam noodle on the awning strut narrows down at least one accident waiting to happen.

22. Carry some essentials in a small tin with you at all times.

You never know what you’ll need and when.

23. Take toothpaste dots instead of a whole tube.

Let the drops dry out over 3 days, add a little baking soda and put them in a resealable bag.

24. Use a stick to secure your tent.

By placing a stick in the main centre line you ensure the pressure is even throughout, which will stop the grommets being pulled out.

25. Vacuum seal your food before you leave.

26. Popcorn on the campfire.

Popcorn that you can place on the stove at home can also be popped over a campfire. You can also make your own using this tutorial.

27. You can even make bacon and eggs over it.

That’s right! Full instructions here.

28. Keep your toiletries handy.

Buy this magnificent contraption here.

29. Compact, unbreakable cups!

Get them while you can!

30. Tic-Tac boxes are great for storing ingredients.

With these 30 tips and tricks, you can work DIY magic into nearly every aspect of camping, and make your next camping trip a comfortable, easy blast. Good luck!

Featured photo credit: rmalouf via flickr.com

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