How to Get the Smoothest Shave

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armpits, bacteria, bath, bikini, blades, blunt, bumps, cool, decleor, direction, dull, exfoliate, exfoliating, hair, hair growth, infection, ingrown hairs, legs, moisture, moisturized, moisturizing, prep, prepare, razor, razor burn, shave, Shaving, shower, skin, smooth, smoother, smoothing, steamy

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Whether it’s your legs, your armpits or any other part of your body, shaving is still the most popular hair removal method the world over. It’s cheap, convenient and you can do it wherever you want, whenever you want, without the need to visit a specialist. Having said that, shaving still has it’s pitfalls, so we thought we’d give you some tips to help you to get your smoothest shave yet.

Steam Your Skin

Skin which is warm is much easier to shave, yet people tend to do their hair removal before they get into the bath or shower, while their skin is still cool. Have your shower first and make sure you get it nice and steamy to open the pores and give you a closer shave.

Get Rid of Dead Skin

The next step should be exfoliation, for a number of reasons. Firstly, exfoliating will get rid of dead skin which will allow your razor to get closer to the roots of the hairs, giving you a smoother finish. Exfoliating will also help to lift any hairs and release any which may be starting to grow inward, reducing your chances of developing ingrown hairs when they start to grow back. This will also make your legs look less ashy in the long run!

Stay Fresh

You should be using a fresh razor (or razor head) every single time you shave. Every time you use a razor, the blades will dull as you move them over the skin, and by the time they’ve defuzzed all the areas you use them on, they’re really too blunt to be useful again. Not to mention the fact that razor blades will harbour bacteria which could cause nasty infections if you reuse them. If you aren’t keen on the idea of using single-use pastic razors, invest in a traditional safety razor which has a metal handle and casing but blades which you replace without the need for plastics.

Go WITH the Grain

Every razor advert on telly shows you images of women starting at their ankle and shaving up, but every barber worth their salt will tell you that shaving WITH the direction of hair growth is not only the best way to get a smooth finish, but it will also help you to avoid both nicks in your skin and ingrown hairs. It often feels like learning to shave is a right of passage for boys, but girls aren’t given the same guidance and we’ve all ended up doing it wrong!

Replenish Moisture

When you exfoliate your legs, then shave them, there’s a good chance that they’re left pretty dry afterwards, even if they don’t look like they are. Slathering your legs with a rich moisturiser like Decleor Nourishing Body Balm will ensure your skin feels nourished and hydrated.

Five Self-Tanning Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

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Photo by Garett Mizunaka on Unsplash

Applying self tan can be a veritable minefield of potential mistakes, and anyone who has had a self tan disaster will know that they can be tricky to rectify. To help you to avoid self-tanning mistakes before they even happen, we’ve put together a crib sheet of no-nos in self tanning, so you’ll get the perfect, even glow you deserve.

Time Your Hair Removal

All too often, people wax or shave and then apply fake tan almost immediately, but this is one of the easiest ways to end up with patches. Your skin needs time to settle down after hair removal so make sure you leave at least 24 hours after shaving and a minimum of 48 hours if you’re waxing. Applying Decleor Soothing Aftershave Fluid will also help your skin to recover.

Uneven Application

Seasoned self tanners will know that you have to get into every nook and cranny to make your tan look even, and the most common places to miss are your inner elbow and the backs of your knees. A lot of people apply fake tan while sitting down and you end up with white circles in these areas, so make sure you stand up and get all of the areas evenly!

There’s No Such Thing As Too Much Hydration

Almost everyone on the planet has drier skin on their knees, elbows, hands and feet and there’s no shame in admitting that, but it can play havoc with self tan. Exfoliation is really important, but layering PLENTY of moisturiser in these areas will help you to avoid the orange patches that often appear on these areas when the tanner clings to dead skin cells. Moisturise and then when you think you’ve done enough, moisturise some more!

Out With the Old

If you still have traces of old self tan on your body which are less then even, you need to get rid of this before layering over the top. Gradual tanner is designed to be layered to build a level of coverage that you’re aiming for, but make sure it’s even otherwise you’ll end up way too patchy.

Don’t Soak Yourself

If you want your self tan to look its best for as long as possible, bathing is another big no-no. Obviously we aren’t telling you not to wash, but baths will make your tan disappear much quicker than showers. Try to use a moisturising body wash to give your skin plenty of moisture as dry skin will slough off much easier, taking your tan with it.

Make Your Shave Last Longer

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armpits, bikini line, blade, body scrub, Decleor Post-Wax Double Action Gel, friction, glide, hair, ingrown hairs, knees, legs, razor, reduce, regrowth, scrub, shave, Shaving, waxing

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Now that we’re well and truly enjoying the warmer weather here in the UK, barely a day goes by that we don’t have to shave our armpits, legs or anywhere else for that matter! Wearing smaller clothes in the heat means hair removal is more important than ever, so we thought we’d give you five tops tips for making your shave last longer so you don’t have to deal with hair removal every day.

Shower or Bathe FIRST

Most of us go for the ‘shave first, shower second’ ritual, which makes sense in terms of washing away stubble and shaving foam. However, showering or bathing first will soften the hair and remove oil from the skin, which will give you an overall closer shave and will make the hair easier to cut through.

Scrub-a-Dub-Dub

Using a body scrub before shaving will help you in a number of ways; as well as getting rid of any dirt and oil, you’ll lift the hairs and get rid of dead skin cells, making it easier to shave and allowing you to get closer to the root of the hair. It will also help to prevent ingrown hairs which can be painful and unsightly.

Use Decent Protection

Using a decent foam or shave oil will help in a number of ways. Failing to use a decent layer between skin and razor will help the blade to glide across your skin with less friction with means the blade will catch and cut more hairs, rather than just flattening them down and gliding over the top. It will also protect you from nicks and cuts which will leave you in a bloody mess!

A Light Touch

When shaving, it’s tempting to press the razor against the skin, but in fact this will make it harder for the blade to do it’s job. When shaving, especially over tricky areas like knees and bikini lines, you should let the weight of the razor be the only pressure that’s applied to the skin, and this will allow you to catch more hairs along the way, making it necessary to shave less often.

Finish The Job…

Technically speaking, Decleor Post-Wax Double Action Gel is for use after waxing, but we find that it’s great for using after shaving too, purely because it reduces the amount of hair growth once you’ve removed unwanted hair. It will also soothe and reduce redness and help to reduce the chance of ingrown hairs, too.

5 Ridiculous Beauty Trends

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armpits, beauty, bum, contouring, dye, extensions, hair, Kardashian, manicure, nails, plucking, pointy, rainbow, ridiculous, threading, trends, waxing

There’s no denying that beauty is BIG at the moment – when we were kids, hair straighteners weren’t a thing (unless you count literally ironing your hair with your Mum’s steam iron) and no-one had even heard of contouring, let alone tried it at home. Today, we’re taking a look at some of the more ridiculous (and stupidly high-maintenance) beauty trends which are doing the rounds and asking “Is it really worth it?”.

Contouring

Okay, so using a couple of colours of foundation on your face is one thing, and although it’s not for us (we prefer a more natural tint), we can see how it would be useful in a professional photo-shoot setting. However, thanks to Kim Kardashian, normal, regular women are now contouring their faces, their BUMS, even their feet and hands, in a effort to make their body parts look a different shape. If you’re the sort of person to have your bottom on display all day long then more power to you, but we think contouring is beauty gone mad!

Eyebrow Extensions

We can get on board with waxing, plucking, threading and even electrolysis to whip our eyebrows into shape, which is why the thought of using fake eyebrow extensions just seems contrary to everything we’ve been doing to our brows for all these years. Okay, so not everyone is blessed with gap less, perfect eyebrows but we sure as heck aren’t going to start sticking them on with glue!

Pointy Nails

Instagram and Pinterest seem to be awash with images of artfully shaped and painted nails which come to a rather dangerous looking point, which leaves us asking…what’s the, err, POINT?! It’s hard enough to type and do every day things with nail extensions without shaping them into something with which we could potentially poke our eyes out and for us, it does looks a little ‘out there’.

Rainbow Hair

Okay, so we’ve all admired the rainbow/pastel/mermaid locks which have been on display in every magazine and in every drama department of every college in the land, but is having brightly coloured hair really that practical? Sure, it looks cute but the maintenance level required to keep it looking that way is HUGE and we can’t help but think that it’s something which should be reserved purely for anyone under the age of 21. After that, it just looks wrong.

Dyed Armpits

Growing your armpit hair is not everyone’s cup of tea but plenty of people do it, especially over the winter when they aren’t going to be on show, to give your pits a break from the razor. However, some people are embracing their pit-hair in a nod to feminism and actually dying it all kinds of bright colours. The thought of sitting with your arms in the air while we wait for the dye to take effect is too much to bear and this is one beauty trend which will definitely be confined to the ‘NOT FOR US!’ pile!