24/Savvy Beauty and Health

When we set out to do this 3-Uses-in-1 regular feature, little did we know that many of the products we wanted to feature pre-date World War I and in this case, the Civil War.  Guess that should teach us something about simplicity and using what you have, no?

For our savvy history buffs: Vaseline's life began in 1859, when an amateur chemist discovered that the same substance that loosened up oil rigs also worked wonders on workers' cuts and burns (so savvy!).  Vaseline Petroleum Jelly was born and within 10 years, found its way into nearly every American medicine chest from Chattanooga to the Mississippi Delta.  There are no shortages of things you can do with VPJ, but we found its myriad uses more powerful when combined with something else, Wonder-Twin Power-Style.

We here at Savvy Central have hair that's about as thick as a llama's.  While that can be a good thing, such as the unlikelihood of premature female pattern balding, much of our 100-200 llama-like strands lost on a daily basis ends up going down the bathroom sink drain.   Which causes toothpaste/soapscum/face wash style backup of the nastiest order.

You with me so far?

This happens about once every other month, so we’ve developed a fool-proof, no-plumbers-necessary approach to keeping our pipes properly plumbed.   It costs about 25 cents, takes about 15 minutes, and it won’t destroy your pipes or poison the water supply.

3 Step Solution for Clearing a Clogged Sink

Step 1: Most of the gunk that is stuck in your clogged sink is trapped by the stopper and/or the mechanism that holds your stopper in place.  Get under the sink and unscrew the mechanism attached to the stopper so you can pull it out.  Clean that baby off, there’ll be a nice amount of scuzz on it, so that’s a fun job.

Step 2: If you’ve got a free dry-cleaner slacks-hanger lying around (the one made of wire, but with a cardboard tube stretched across to hold the pants without creasing), pull the cardboard tube off and you’ve got a neat little snake-like hook left from the wire.  Gently insert this down the drain and try to pull up any additional hair clogs that didn’t come up with the stopper. 

Step 3: With the stopper still removed, screw the mechanism plug back in place so you can run the water without it draining out on the bottom of your vanity cabinet. Throw a cup of baking soda in the drain and follow up with a kettle of hot water, pouring slowly down the drain.  If your drain isn’t running smoothly, by this time, alternate between plunging and the baking/soda rinse until you’re sailing smooth again.  It’s a great solution that won’t damage your pipes or add toxins to the water supply.

Photo: David Blackwell via Flickr

Whether it's your first time out together or you're looking to infuse your long term relationship with a little spontaneity, these fun and funky date ideas will ensure that you'll have a great time creating unique memories together tonight or any 'ol night of the week.  Never fear if you're SOI (Significant Other-Impaired) these ideas will work equally well with your pals.

All our spring strolling has made us less flabby, but our shoes?  Not so lucky.  We've got shoe flab and we've got it bad.  If your shoes get so flabby and worn that your heels are slipping out the backside, you can still eke out several more months of wear before you have to replace them. 

(Photo: Yosi Samra Flats which actually, aren't flabby at all.)

Some of us struggle with humidity-related summer hair frizzies, some of us from moisture-starved winter frizzies, but no matter from where or whence your frizzies came, chances are, the day arrives when you want them to go away, without having to buy a slew of expensive, new products.

The first step in ridding yourself of hair frizzies is to know why they are hassling your otherwise manageable hair in the first place.  Frizzies = lack of moisture.  Period.  Wasn't that easy?   Knowing that, here's how to tame them.

After an uber-bundled, multi-layered, full-on-bodily-concealed winter, spring will be a minimalist's paradise with clothing and makeup trends tending more toward au natural than oh-la-la.  It's a fast, easy and budget friendly beauty look to achieve, flattering on everyone, and relies solely on a good complexion and these three beauty essentials:

Keeping your eye on bathroom product spending, like dieting, is all about portion control.  Take, for example, application instructions for shampoos, conditioners and face lotions and potions.  While some products (Herbal Essences for example) have taken poetic license with portion usage lingo, such as "lather me in and soak all you like," more straightforward guidelines include wee portion vocab words like "pea" "nickel" "dime" and "quarter" as squirt-size recommendations.

What's not to love about products that do double-duty?  Dual-purpose beauty goodies like tinted moisturizers not only help save money and packaging waste, they're also one of the best solutions for ageing gracefully.

While filming Gossip Girl in Paris recently (don't judge, we're fans!) La Gossip Girl herself was seen sporting this sweet, savvy ensemble around the rues of the City of Lights.  Little did she know how she perked our peepers and savv-o-meter by the way she (or her costumers, more likely) used a simple, chunky turquoise necklace to render completely average separates (we're talking unflattering, pleated peach pants, friends!) into a runway-worthy ensemble.  Everyone, yes, everyone has limp-hued, underused basic separates that could use a pick me up and everyone, yes, everyone has a yard sale/hippie mom/Navajo-souvenier chunky-styled necklace.  So put them to work, savvies! It's the cheapest, fastest and easiest way to breathe life into underused items.  

The last few months of winter, I just let it all hang out.  Let it let it grow--grow in, grow crazy and in doing so, I get right in touch with my inner cave girl.  And then spring hits.  And I feel like a monster.

But friends, as I keep repeating, I am a cheap frugal Savvy Girl and there is no salon service I can maintain on even a semi-regular basis, so fiercely do I like to guard my disposable income.  So when a Savvy Friend said, "have you tried Veet recently?  It's come a looooooooong way since high school," I took that as a personal challenge.