Did you know lavender (or Lavandula) comes from the mint family? Or that there are 47 different varieties of the flowering plant? We love it for its distinct herbaceous-floral fragrance and beautiful light purple color. Lavender is very soothing, especially as an essential oil. It's often found in spas — from the fragrance in the air to the smell of the products used. Lavender is also used as a natural treatment for anxiety, insomnia, depression and stress-relief. The plant itself has anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial properties and produces a natural insect repellent.
Like a killer scarf or a one-of-a-kind necklace, your nail color can be a key accessory. Whether you get your nails done at a beauty salon or use a drugstore nail polish, the secret to the ideal mani-pedi is great nail polish. Because there's really nothing like the feeling of freshly lacquered nails.
There are four things you should look for in a curling iron: One, does it get hot enough to adequately curl your hair? Two, is it the right size barrel for the curls you want to create (smaller barrels mean tighter curls, looser barrels mean bigger curls)? Three, is it easy to hold and use? And four, is it a high enough quality iron to last you a long time?
Even for women who approach their beauty routine au naturel, a swipe of mascara is a necessity before leaving their home. When our eyelashes are long and wispy, our eyes automatically appear larger and clearer, making us look more awake and vibrant. Unfortunately, this trusty makeup bag essential is a double-edged sword: it gives the impression our lashes are fuller but can also make them shorter and more brittle if we aren't caring for them properly. There are ways to naturally improve the health — and length! — of your lashes though, without trying an invasive treatment like Latisse. As New York City dermatologist Dr. Hadley King explains, while these products do work very well to elongate, darken and thicken our eyes' protectors, many people prefer to avoid chemicals that could have side effects.
Not even beauty girls in the know had any idea about how big eyebrows were going to be. If we told you a few years ago that makeup lovers would be as excited for eyebrow gel and pencil launches as they were for new lipsticks and eyeshadow palettes, you wouldn't have believed us. Now, we're obsessing over microblading, threading, brow stamps, Instagram eyebrows — and colored eyebrows. While the fishtail brow, garden brow, brow carving, halo brow and wavy brow (remember those?) have all had their 15 minutes of viral fame, the rainbow eyebrow is the one trend that just won't quit.
