<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" You don&amp;#039;t always need a fancy product to fix your hair or nails. Some of the best solutions are already in your home. 1. Use coconut oil to create a conditioning hair mask before you wash it or to soften the look of split ends when it&amp;#039;s dry.  Pure coconut oil is rich in fatty acids and proteins, so you can expect your hair to look healthy, shiny, and hydrated. A little goes a long way, so whether you&amp;#039;re using coconut oil as a hair mask or to keep your ends healthy and split end-free, use it sparingly. If you use the oil as a mask, a good deep cleansing shampoo with an astringent like tea tree will help clear away any excess coconut oil, so your hair doesn&amp;#039;t feel filmy afterward. Try Paul Mitchell Tea Tree Shampoo. 2. Make your own salt spray with seltzer and a teaspoon of rock salt.  You might have a salt spray you love, but if you don&amp;#039;t or you want to create some texture in a pinch, mix together 20 ounces of seltzer and a teaspoon of sea salt in a spray bottle to make your own ocean spritz at home. (Tip via celebrity stylist Ryan Trygstad.) 3. Spray starch can double as dry shampoo.  A lot of dry shampoos contain starch, so if you run out of your favorite formula, use a can of starch from your laundry room to get the same effect. Hold the can six to eight inches away and spray the oilier areas to make your hair look fresh again. 4. Use a dryer sheet to eliminate staticky hair.  Anytime your hair is staticky, grab a dryer sheet and gently run it along the top of your hair to eliminate static electricity. 5. If you get a surface burn on your skin from your curling iron, use plain yogurt to cool and soothe your skin.  Immediately after you&amp;#039;ve burned yourself, pat some plain yogurt over the scorched spot and leave it on for 10 minutes. Since yogurt contains a lot of probiotics, it will help restore the skin&amp;#039;s natural barrier. 6. Use apple cider vinegar as toner.  Since apple cider vinegar is a purifying agent and acts as an astringent, you can use it as a toner for your skin and, if you&amp;#039;re prone to breakouts, along your T-zone to prevent blemishes. 7. Wash your face with olive oil.  Like attracts like, so the olive oil you wash your face with will act as a magnet to the oil that&amp;#039;s on your skin and in your pores, drawing it out, and leaving you with a gorgeous glow and super clean skin. 8. Blot your face with a coffee filter.   They&amp;#039;re made out of similar ingredients as blotting papers, so stash a few in your purse if it&amp;#039;s hot out and pat yourself down when you need to reduce shine. 9. Use cold green tea bags to decrease puffiness under your eyes.   The quickest way to de-puffing and tightening your under-eye skin is to apply a cold, caffeine-based product, like two cold green-tea bags, under your eyes for five or six minutes. 10. Use transparent tape as a guideline for the tail of your cat-eye.  If you don&amp;#039;t have a steady hand and wish they made stencils for cat-eyes, consider today your lucky day. Using a two-inch piece of transparent tape, such as Scotch tape, create a straight-as-an-arrow cat-eye by placing tape in line with the end of your brow. Then trace your upper lash line along the tape for perfect application. 11. If you have any fallout from applying glitter shadow, pick it up easily with transparent tape.   If you&amp;#039;ve ever applied glitter to your eyes, you know it&amp;#039;s a pain in the ass to fully remove any fallout from your face. To the rescue: transparent tape! This type of tape isn&amp;#039;t sticky enough to pull your skin, but it&amp;#039;s just sticky enough to lift glitter off your cheekbones. 12. Sprinkle baking soda on top of your whitening toothpaste to help remove surface stains.  Baking soda can be effective when it comes to polishing your pearly whites because it&amp;#039;s a mild abrasive, meaning it won&amp;#039;t hurt the enamel on your teeth (as long as it&amp;#039;s rinsed away), but it will get into the harder-to-reach grooves, removing surface stains from coffee, wine, etc. 13. Draw a warm bath and sprinkle in one or two cups of oatmeal to calm dry, itchy skin.  If your skin is really dry or if you get a sunburn and want to soothe the redness, take an oatmeal bath. Oats not only contain fats that act as lubricants, which moisturize dry skin, they are made up of complex sugars (polysaccharides), which leave a gelatinous film in bathwater and on your skin, helping to deal with dryness and itchiness.  14. Lather your legs in conditioner if you run out of shaving cream.  The purpose of shaving cream is to give you a hydrating cushion between the razor and your skin. So if you ever run out of shaving cream and are in a pinch (or just want to save a few bucks), use your hair conditioner to lather up your legs pre-shave. 15. Make your own body scrub with body wash and raw brown sugar.  Brown sugar isn&amp;#039;t just good for baking. You can also use it as a body exfoliator. Just take your favorite body wash and pour some brown sugar into the bottle, and then scrub away. If it&amp;#039;s too harsh of an abrasive for you (you&amp;#039;ll be able to tell if it&amp;#039;s making your skin itch slightly), mix in some honey or coconut oil. (Tip via Dr. Doris Day, M.D., a cosmetic dermatologist in NYC). 16. Tame flyaways with hand lotion.  We all have to deal with flyaways at one time or another, but an easy way to tame them is by putting a pea-size amount of hand lotion on your fingertips and gently raking them over your hair, brushing any unruly strands into place. 17. Moisturize with coconut oil.  An easy and organic way to hydrate your skin is by using coconut oil. Thanks to the fatty acids it contains, your skin will feel instantly smoother after you slather it on! 18. Apply Vaseline on your pulse points before spraying on your perfume to make the scent last longer.  Since the ointment is occlusive, it will hold the fragrance on your skin longer than if you were to spray the perfume just onto your skin. 19. Use whitening toothpaste to lift any yellow stains off your nails.  Use that clean, extra toothbrush you have stashed away and a whitening toothpaste that contains hydrogen peroxide to help remove the stains from too-dark nail polish from your nails. 20. Prevent rust rings by painting a topcoat over the bottom of your shaving cream.  Much like how topcoats keep inexpensive jewelry from tarnishing, painting the bottom metal part of your shaving cream bottle will prevent unsightly rust rings from messing up your shower ledge. 21. Use toothpaste to polish silver jewelry.  Tartar-control toothpastes work the best since they contain the most hydrated silica, which is the ingredient that helps polish your teeth. To make your tarnished ring look new again, brush the toothpaste over your jewelry a few times, buff the ring with a paper towel, and then rinse off any remaining toothpaste on the ring with warm water. 22. After you&amp;#039;re done flatironing your hair, use the iron to knock any wrinkles out of your clothing.  If you don&amp;#039;t feel like plugging in your regular iron to straighten out a collar, sleeve, or hemline, use your flatiron. It will give you the same results! Just be careful, as you normally would with an iron, not to use it on certain fabrics that need to be steamed or dry-cleaned, like wool or silk, since irons can scorch them. And avoid using the flatiron on synthetics because they may melt. Stick to cotton fabrics and turn your flatiron on the lowest setting to be safe. Because the last thing you want to do is quickly iron your clothing with a flatiron and start a fire. 23. Tighten your skin temporarily with this coffee grind wrap.  Mix one-fourth of a cup of warm coffee grounds and drizzle one tablespoon of olive oil over the grinds. Next, sitting down on the edge of your tub or in the shower, put the grinds directly on your skin in the spots you want to treat, and then wrap the areas in plastic wrap. Keep the concoction on for about 12 minutes, and then remove the wrap and shower off using warm water. The caffeine in the grinds will help to tighten the area, but only for a couple of hours. For other ways to lessen the look of cellulite, read this. This story originally appeared on Cosmopolitan.com. Related:26 Mind-Blowing Hacks to Get Flawless Eyelashes Every Time17 Life-Changing Makeup Hacks Every Woman Should Know24 Life-Changing Ways to Store Your Beauty Products Photo Credit: Kathleen Kamphausen "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/beauty/news/a17953/unconventional-household-beauty-products-cosmopolitan/>