These two products have been around forever. I remember my grandmother putting them to full use when I was a little girl and they are still popular today.

Vaseline (or “petroleum jelly”) is a substance with magical powers. I don’t use the messy goo regularly, but know several stylish and well groomed people who swear by the product. I liked the Budget Fashionista’s wonderful account of its uses. I won’t list them all, but here are the ones I’ve tried myself:

• As a quick facial moisturizer
• As a last minute shoe polish
• As a lip-gloss (I’ve also known ladies who use Vicks, which apparently makes for an effective peppermint gloss)
• As a gel to keep eye-brow hairs in place
• As a remedy to sooth sunburn, windburn minor scrapes, burns and cuts

While it doesn’t have nearly as many uses as versatile Vaseline, my favorite classic remedy is Nivea. I use Nivea hand cream and moisturizing body cream daily to treat sensitive skin that’s prone to eczema. I keep a tiny travel size tin in my handbag at all times. After 30 years, Nivea is still my number one choice for moisturizing hand and body. No need to fix a formula that isn’t broken.

As a side note: I’ve tried most of the facial oils that were recommended after my post on olive oil. Jojoba oil has yielded the best results by far. It’s like liquid gold. I like the scent, texture and absorption qualities. I feel like I’ve hit the beauty jackpot.

You’ve got to love cheap beauty products (about $8 apiece) that keep on doing the trick.

Our downtown Macy’s store has a new “Brow Bar” that’s run by Benefit Cosmetics. A friend who was impressed with their service in California mentioned that her eyebrows had never looked better. I believe that eyebrow maintenance is important so I promptly went down to check it out.

You can drop by without an appointment and have your brows gorgeously groomed for $20 (either tweezed or waxed). The painless process took 15 minutes. The cosmetics consultant did a super job with the actual tweezing and shaping of my brows. At her encouragement I purchased the two Benefit products that she had demonstrated:

1. Brow Shaping Kit – a sweet little box that comes with eyebrow wax to keep your brow hairs in place,  brow shadow to fill in the sparse areas, and the tiniest tweezers for plucking.
2. Brow Lifting Pencil – a whitish pencil that resembles eye-shadow. The idea is to apply the pencil under the arch of your brow and blend. This gives the illusion that the brow has been physically “lifted” (the assumption being that lifted brows equal younger looking eyes).

I was in a rush and the light at Macy’s wasn’t perfect, so it was hard to see the full effect of the brow shadow, wax and lifting pencil until I got home. After having a closer look at the results I think that the products are good, but not my cup of tea.

• The brow lifting pencil is very effective. Too effective actually. I have naturally arched brows at the moment so I looked like Doctor Spock after the shadow enhancement. I won’t be using this product for now, but I’ll know what to do if I need to “lift” my brows.
• The brow wax and powder offers a perfect brow finish for an evening event, but it’s too much for daytime. I’m sticking to my Anastasia eye brow pencil for daily use because the finish is more natural (your brow hairs are still visible after application which is not the case with powder).

Even though I won’t be using these products regularly, the Benefit Bar is a worthwhile stop the next time you are in Macy’s. It’s quick, clean and convenient.

I suffer from tight, dry facial skin that often flakes around my nose and cheek area. Indoor heating and the dry Seattle air don’t help, which is why a recent trip to humid Hong Kong did wonders for my skin. It looked and felt great.

Now that I’m back, the change of weather has made my skin flake more than ever. The eight hour a day cream that I usually use to combat this problem has not helped, and neither has a facial, regular exfoliation, an alpha hydroxyl peel and super rich hydrating moisturizers.

Having reached the height of desperation, I’ve taken to using pure, extra-virgin olive oil on my nose and cheek area twice a day for the last week. I may smell like a Greek buffet, but it has worked beautifully. My skin finally feels hydrated and adequately moisturized (no more flaking). Am I crazy to apply the same olive oil that I use for cooking to my face? Is this risk-free? I’d love your input.

I have a good chuckle on Nordstrom.com when their models sport a “bird’s nest” up-do. These hairstyles crack me up. If it were stylish sporting our hair this way, we’d never have a bad hair day again. Bad hair would be fab hair.

Bird’s nest hairstyles for dramatic catwalk appeal and costume parties? Absolutely. Other than that, I don’t think so. My head would feel itchy all the time. Not to mention how dreadfully unpolished I’d feel and look.

If you are in the USA, we at YLF wish you a happy Labor Day. Enjoy the long weekend and good luck getting the kids off to a great start back at school.

These hairstyles often accompany the creative and edgy Marc Jacobs prêt-a-porter collection.

Say goodbye to excessive underarm perspiration with Certain Dri Anti-Perspirant. It’s an underarm formula that is applied at night and is supposed to last for 72 hours. I haven’t tested its ability to work this long (I’m paranoid about underarm odor), but I’ve been using it for the past week and it works brilliantly over a single day. No armpit perspiration and no need for deodorant. The effectiveness of the product blows me away.

I don’t know whether it is harmful to stop underarm perspiration completely. But you might like to use Certain Dri on days when you’re wearing a top or dress that is prone to showing underarm perspiration, or on days when you expect to get a little more anxious but would like to look cool, calm and collected.

It really works Betsy. Thank you for the recommendation!

Don’t let perspiration puddles put a damper on your day. Get Certain Dri for $5.95 at any drug store

I suffer from dry skin, especially around my nose, chin and cheek area. Winter’s harsh dry air and central heating left me feeling under-hydrated, no matter what I applied. I tried everything my esthetician suggested. I even tried good old Vaseline. I was this close to bathing in olive oil.

Then it dawned on me that my late Mum had the same problem and she used “Eight Hour Cream” from Australian cosmetic house Elizabeth Arden. I bought some and started applying it liberally to my nose, chin and cheeks twice a day with my moisturizer. Voila! The positive effect was noticeable almost immediately. I also apply the cream to my chapped lips because nothing else works.

Eight Hour Cream seems to sooth minor skin irritations and any part of your skin that is peeling and flaking. I have very sensitive skin and normally can’t put anything on my face, so I’m relieved to have found a gentle, effective and affordable solution. A tube costs $17 and lasts forever because a little goes along way. I can’t wait to tell my esthetician how clever my Mother was.

Dry cuticles, ashy elbows and knees, dry heels and scraped knuckles are all in a day’s work for Arden’s Eight Hour Cream. It’s fabulous.

Your eyebrows frame your face and it’s imperative that taking care of them is part of your daily grooming regime. Some women need to shape, dye and fill their brows, while others require brow waxing and trimming. And there are also women, like actresses Kiera Knightly and Jennifer Connelly, who get away with dark bushy brows. Much like some hairstyles, this look is not for everyone.

If you have naturally thick brows and you’d like to sport an alternative full brow look, here’s what you do:

1. Grow them out for two to four weeks. It can be just as frustrating as growing out a hairstyle, so hang in there.
2. Pluck away the strays. You’ll want to encourage the natural shape of your brow to grow back, but you’ll want to eliminate the hairs that fall outside your natural shape.
3. Create an arch. The full brow look is still shaped. You need to create an arch to frame your face.
4. Trim if necessary. If the length of your eyebrow hair gets too long and heavy, trim them with brow scissors.
5. Finish with gel. Applying eyebrow gel once in the morning keeps the hairs straight and in one direction.

I love full brows on the right face. It’s an instantly eye catching, strong feature. Experiment with the look if you feel like it might work for you.

The 60’s fringe (or “bangs”) is back with a vengeance. This hairstyle trend started coming through last year and who better to sport it so perfectly than Reese Witherspoon at last year’s Golden Globes. Katie Holmes created her fringe a few months ago and celebrities like Heidi Klum, Liv Tyler, Agnes Deyn and Kate Moss have followed suit.

I love this look. I think it’s a refreshing change from the bouncy longer layers we’ve been seeing for years. It’s modern, practical and pretty. I think straightish hair works well with this style, but I’m unsure which face shape is best. I’ve always thought that my forehead was too small and my head the wrong shape for bangs, but I recently added a fringe to my short crop and it seems to work for me.

I say give bangs a bash if you dare. You might be surprised with how nice they look. In the worst case scenario you grow out your fringe. It’s a painful thought, I know, but perhaps worth the risk.

Heidi, Reese and Katie from the celebrity pages. Follow the thumbnails to fullsize images.

My feet feel dry and rough a lot of the time. I don’t like to have pedicures, which makes keeping them soft and pretty a tall order. So after years of trying foot product after foot product, I’ve finally stumbled across a brand that works well for me. It’s Nexcare’s “advanced foot cream” and it starts to work its magic after about one week of use. I apply it once a day (twice if I can remember) and it has softened the heels and soles of my feet beautifully. It’s fast absorbing, non-greasy, ultra moisturizing and dirt cheap at $11.

You’ll find Nexcare’s advanced foot cream at most drugstores.

Katie Holmes is not a celebrity whose sense of style catches my eye, but her new hairdo grabbed my attention. Over the past 3 years, she’s gone from here, to here and now to here. A retro 70’s bob with thick fringe (bangs) looks chic, new and fairly easy to maintain with the help of a flat iron. The most recent chop might set a new trend, much like Jennifer Aniston’s “Rachel” did in the ’90’s.  I think that the new do is fab. What do you think?

Katie’s evolution (click on the thumbnails to see larger images on E! Online and MSN Entertainment)