Beauty Tips

Change one thing at a time and give it twelve weeks. Skin cell turnover and hair growth are slow, and almost nothing shows a real result in a fortnight.

A good handle with cheap replacement blades, hot water and time, and shave with the grain first. Blade cost per shave matters far more than the number of blades.

Petroleum jelly, plain sunscreen, a simple pharmacy moisturiser, a wide-tooth comb and a silk pillowcase. All cheap, all with real evidence or real mechanism.

Use less than you think, store things away from heat and light, and cut open tubes when they stop dispensing. There is typically a fortnight's worth left in a "finished" tube.

Tools rather than products. Good hair scissors, a decent hairdryer, real brushes and a proper razor all outperform their cheap versions. Creams mostly do not.