Handy Hydrating Hacks

Recently, the weather's been all kinds of crazy. 'The Beast From The East' well and truly hit, there was a tonne of snow here, there and everywhere and as a result - things have been pretty chilly. Hopefully, now it all seems to be over and done with (at last) and we're now firmly into March, the weather should *hopefully* start gradually warming up and getting back on track but, as of last week - it was seriously cold. And in terms of beauty, that meant really concentrating on hydrating and moisturising my skin, body, hair - everything - and I actually found some pretty good 'hacks' and just general tips I guess. I mean, maybe a spell of bad weather isn't so bad after all...

DRINK, DRINK, DRINK! - Water, obvs. But seriously, I know even bleats on about this 'tip' all the time, but it really is correct. As much as products work and help, drinking enough water throughout the day is a key step in ensuring your skin's hydrated. Cause highlighters are awesome and all of that, but if you want truly glowy skin from within, getting your H20 in is essential.

FOOT CREAM AS HAND CREAM?! - Now, this one really has surprised me lately. My hands have been in pretty dire straits recently and no matter how much and how often I was applying hand cream (always good ol' Soap and Glory's Hand Food, FYI) things weren't improving - until I tried out this little hack. I simply apply some foot cream (also by Soap and Glory - their 'Heel Genius' Foot Cream' is super awesome) as I normally would with my hand cream and in short, it works so, so well. I guess, thinking about it now, it kinda makes a lot of sense as I guess foot creams have to be quite intense to get to work on the tougher skin around your feet and it's completely transformed the state of my hands. If you haven't given it a go and your hands are just as dry, crusty and generally disgusting as mine were - I'm sure you won't be disappointed...

MOISTURISER AS PRIMER - Primer is awesome and all that, but if your skin is rather dry, I'd recommend just moisturising your skin and then going straight in with your makeup routine. Sometimes, if my skin is feeling (and perhaps also looking) a tad parched, I'll skip on the primer and I find not only does my skin seem to reap the benefits of my day cream more come the end of the day when I take all of my makeup off, my makeup in general looks and feels a lot more 'properly' dewy, as in, not just due to makeup.

SCRUB-A-DUB-DUB - You really cannot go wrong with a good scrub. Whether on the face or body - it eliminates all those nasty dead skin cells, makes your skin feel all nice and baby-smooth and also, it really helps in the hydration department too. Giving your skin a nice, gentle scrub occasionally (I tend to stick to once a week so I don't overdo it and actually cause more harm than good) breaks down dead skin cells and in turn, makes any moisturiser you apply afterwards much easier to penetrate and actually do some good. I always stick to this routine both face and body-wise and really find it makes a difference so if you don't do it already, try it out!

A CHEATS DEEP CONDITIONER - Finally, we come to Hair. If you want to deep condition your tresses, but don't have a designated 'deep conditioning' treatment or mask - just use your normal conditioner. Sounds pretty easy, but I used to always buy and use proper treatments for when I wanted to really indulge and nourish my hair, but nowadays, I simply go in with my everyday conditioner no matter how long I want to leave it on for and it works a treat every single time. Especially when the weather has been as cold and harsh as it has been lately...