Bad Beauty Habits: Spill Em'

The title says it all- we all have them, just look at Sex and the City's famous "Secret Single Behavior" episode.

So, what are my bad beauty habits? Where to start?

1. I totally pick at my cuticles.
Likeallthetime. I have done this since I was young. When I'm stressed or anxious (or bored) I pick at my cuticles. It makes them look awful, it's painful and overall it just looks bad. I try not to do it, but sometimes when I'm super anxious, I get carried away and before I know it, my fingers look like they've been mangled by a baby wildebeast.

2. I peel my split ends.
When I find one (and there are oh-so-many) I joyously split them apart. It's quite addictive. My hairdresser told me to stop...but I just can't resist.

3. Crazy out of control nail painting.
Perfect mani/pedi? Forget it. I try my best, get it all over the place and then spend 15 minutes in the shower peeling off the nail polish that's all over the skin surrounding my nails. Not neccessarily a "bad" habit, but an annoying and time consuming one.

4. Not fully washing off my mascara at night.
I wash my face in the morning before I put my makeup on, and at night before bed. Sometimes, I don't get all of my waterproof mascara off. I just go to sleep, wake up and get the rest off in the morning.

5. Not using night cream or eye cream.
I went through an eye cream phase, but it slowly faded into not using any at all. I know I should use it...but I just don't because I'm lazy. Not too lazy for zit cream though, I'd never skip that!

6. Never moisturizing my body.
The only moisture my body encounters is sweat and body wash. I just hate the feeling of lotion. Hate. I hate touching it, I hate how it feels, I hate applying it. There is nothing appealing about it to me. It's probably not so great for my skin, but I somehow manage not to be alligator-esque (they didn't have moisturizer in the cave man days, and they turned out just fine, right!?)

7. Picking at blemishes.
Granted, I only get one of those huge can't-keep-your-hands-off-of-it blemishes once in awhile, but when I do...well, I just can't keep my hands off of it. I will squeeze the living daylights out of it until it feels like there's not much left. Then I will saturate the area with 3 different pimple treatments.

8. Not exfoliating enough.
This isn't a beauty sin or anything, but I always forget to do it. Ideally, I should do it once a week, and I forget. It makes skin look glowy and improves the texture...so I don't know why I'm not totally partaking in a weekly skin scrub session.

9. Blowdrying my hair until it's completely dry
I only do thise twice per week (after washing my hair) but it's still not great for your hair. Airy drying doesn't work for me, so I hit the heat to get the volume I want in my hair.

10. Avoiding regular trims (like the plague.)
Have you ever seen the movie "Confessions of a Shopaholic" with the gorgeous Isla Fisher? Remember the scene where Alette visits Rebecca's parent's home to offer her a job at the magazine, and Becky's mom tries to serve her some coffee cake and Alette makes this horrified expression as she slices into it and says "tiny" until the slice of coffee cake becomes as thin as a piece of paper? That is how I am with my hairdresser. Even though I've told him 125 times, I still remind him before every single trim to take the teeniest, tiniest amount off possible.

and for my final bad beauty habit, I'll post one I've recovered from- I used to use a magnifying mirror and just sit in front of it for like an hour squeeze at every pore and blemish (this was when I had bad skin). I would come out looking like a splotchy, red mess, but there was something deeply therapuetic and stress relieving about it. I don't do it anymore, and my skin has never been better.

So, spill it- what are your bad beauty habits?

xoxo,

Veronika.