ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

How to be well groomed (Advanced Level)

Updated on January 22, 2013

How to be well groomed (Advanced Level)

The aim of good grooming is to be clean, neat and presentable rather than trying to create a perfect you. This is my second article on grooming, the first covered the basics of good grooming. This article provides more advanced grooming ideas, which you may like to use if you have a special event to go to, such as a job interview, a party or wedding or any other occassion when you wish to make an extra effort. This article is suitable for both men and women who wish to be well groomed and a summary of my advanced tips are:

  • Upgrade your soaps and shower gels.
  • Smell well groomed with perfumes, aftershaves and bodysprays.
  • How to create a natural and sophisticated make-up look.
  • Advanced hair removal techniques.
  • Advanced haircare and hair styles

Upgrade your soap and shower gel

In my previous article on basic grooming, I recommended having a shower every day to keep you clean and fresh. In order to take your grooming and daily shower up a level, I highly recommend buying a more expensive and better quality soap or shower gel. They are likely to be less drying on your skin and help you to smell beautiful. There are various options you can choose from, such as soaps and gels that contain:

  • Natural aromatherapy oils - they smell lovely as you use them.
  • Moisturising creams - to help moisturise your face and body.
  • Exfoliating beads - to exfoliate and remove dead skin cells.
  • If you wear an everyday perfume, you may find that there is a matching soap or shower gel.

By using a good quality soap or shower gel, you may find that your morning shower is transformed into a pleasurable daily ritual, where you enjoy pampering yourself.

Whilst I recommend taking a shower on a daily basis, because it is quick, occassionally, it is nice to take a bath. During a bath, your skin soaks, dead skin cells are removed and any ingrained dirt is drawn out. You emerge from a bath ultra clean. A bath is also a great place to relax and unwind. Mental tensions and physical aches and pains melt away. Some people use aromatherapy oils in their baths to aid healing and relaxation.

Smell well groomed - Perfumes, body sprays and aftershaves

The next level up in smelling well groomed is to wear a fragrance. For men this comes in the form of an aftershave and for women a body spray or perfume / Eau de toilette.

For daytime, choose a daytime fragrance that is:

  • Subtle
  • Smells expensive and classy
  • Smells natural rather than of synthetic chemicals
  • Is based on the following fragrance groups:
  • Women - Floral, Fruity/Floral, Green, Green/Floral.
  • (Don't choose anything that is too sweet or fruity.
  • Men - Green, Woody, Spicy, Earthy

For evening, choose a fragrance that is:

  • Subtle, expensive and classy
  • Based on Musk or wood fragrance groups

Body sprays - These are a cheaper alternative to perfumes and aftershaves that you may like to experiment with, but make sure that they are subtle and don't smell cheap. For ideas on what to look for, follow my perfume guideline.

Perfumes and Aftershaves- Whilst wearing these is not essential to being well-groomed, when a well groomed man or woman chooses to wear a fragrance that smells beautiful on them, it is like the icing on the cake and sets everything else off.

If you wish to wear fragrance as part of your goal of being well groomed, choose it with care. It is better to wear no fragrance at all rather than one that smells cheap, over powering or doesn't suit you.

Choosing and wearing fragrance

Perfumes can be made up of a single fragrance such as Rose, or be more complex and contain several fragrances. More complex perfumes are made up of layers or notes, the top layer / note is what you smell when you first spray the perfume onto your self. This disappears after about an hour and you have a middle layer / note or the heart of the perfume, which lasts a few hours and is what other people smell on you. Then there is the bottom layer / note, which is softer and usually contains musk or woody fragrances.

A perfume can be worn on the pulse points, such as on the wrist or behind the ear, or sprayed into the air and then walked through.

Take your time in discovering a perfume that suits you - your signature perfume. It is better to wear no perfume at all rather than one that doesn't suit you.

Nails - Manicures and Pedicures

In my first article, the basics of how to be well groomed, I covered how to give yourself a basic manicure or pedicure, which you may like to read about here.

For special occassions, you may like to upgrade your nailcare. This can be carried out by yourself at home or if you can afford it, you may like to visit a beauty salon and have the following types of manicures and pedicures:

  • The classic French Manicure - this is very chic, elegant and natural looking. The tips of your nails are painted white and the main part of your nails are painted in a natural colour such as soft pink. This is perfect for interviews.
  • Choose a colour that goes with your outfit. If you are going to a special event such as a wedding, you may like to choose a colour that matches your outfit.
  • Have gel or acrylic nails - here your nails receive a coat of gel or acrylic on top which creates a beautiful nail shape. You can choose any colour and finish and it is ideal if you bite your nails or simply want them to look beautiful for a special event.
  • Pedicures - for summer, a natural colour polish is nice, but many women like bold summery colours such as red, coral and bright pink.

If you choose to wear nailvarnish as part of your advanced grooming, it is important that you pay attention to your nails as other people quickly notice if you have chipped nail varnish. It is better to remove chipped nail varnish and wear nothing at all.

Advanced Hair removal

In my article on basic grooming, I covered basic hair removal on the face and legs. However, there are other areas that people wish to remove hair from, such as the bikini area, and more advanced techniques for hair removal. Here is a list of these advanced hair removal tequniques and the types of areas they can be used on.

  • Waxing - Waxing is suitable for all parts of the body, including more sensitive areas such as the face and bikini area.
  • Hair removal creams. There are creams for the body to be used on areas such as the legs, and more gentler creams suitable for sensitive areas such as the face and bikini area.
  • Laser hair removal. For this to work, you usually have a course of treatment. The laser burns the hair away at the root. There is a small amount of pain, like someone pinging an elastic band against your skin, but it is not too uncomfortable. Unfortunately, the hair removal isn't permanent, although for a while the regrowth is reduced.
  • Threading and Sugaring- These are Indian techniques for removing hair from areas such as the upper lip, chin and eyebrows.

Advanced Haircare and Hairstyles

Hair plays an important role in determinimg whether you look well groomed or not. In my first article, which covers the basics of good grooming, I cover basic haircare and hairstyles. You may like to read this article first.

Advanced haircare and hair styles:

For women, the best way to look sohisticated and well groomed is to regularly carry out the following:

  • Keep your hair in tip-top condition - by investing in good quality haircare products, in particular a good conditioner and use it regularly. Every once in a while have a deep conditioning treatment. Most chemists stock small sachets of these products and you can carry this out at home.
  • Use natural products - Some people swear by natural products such as olive oil or egg yolks to condition their hair. Shampoo your hair as normal, then rub these into your hair, then rinse. Others add shine with a final rinse of vinegar or softness with a final rinse with rainwater. Rinsing your hair with beer is a great way to achieve shine, but be sure to rinse it off with water afterwards, otherwise you will smell of beer.
  • Regularly visit a hairdressers for a trim - every 6-8 weeks or so. This removes split ends and keep your hairstyle in good shape.
  • Choose an easy to style hairstyle - this ensures your hairstyle always looks good.
  • Choose a chic and sophisticated hairstyle - For women a shoulder length bob is a great hairstyle. It is easy to look after and style, can be worn down or in a ponytail for every day, or for an elegant look, worn in an updo or chignon.


Make-up

In my first article on basic grooming, I showed how to create a simple and natural make-up look. For special occassions, you may like to create a more sophisticated natural make-up look.

You need to have a few practice attempts before you get it right - don't worry, with practise you can achieve this look within 5-10 minutes.

You need to start by ensuring you have make-up in the right colours for you, it should harmonise with your natural colouring - the colour of your skin, hair and eyes. Your colouring is either cool or warm. A Sales Lady on a make-up counter should be able to help you, or look up companies such as Color Me Beautiful online, their websites help you discover your colours.

So, lets start.

Have your morning shower first, and as previously recommended, apply a light day cream afterwards. Give it a few minutes to settle into your skin.

Apply your make-up with a light touch and in the following order:

  • A concealer stick to cover up spots and dark circles under the eyes - use sparingly.
  • A light cover of foundation - make sure it matches your skin tone. Let it settle for a few minutes.
  • A light dusting of translucent face powder, apply with a large brush or powder puff.
  • Lipstick in a natural shade and matt finish - not glossy. (Some people like to first appy lipliner around and on their lips). Choose a colour similar to the colour of your lips.
  • Neutral coloured eye shadows. A light colour on your brow bone, a dark colour in the outer socket area and a medium colour on the lid. A good way to buy eye shadow is to buy the small boxes of shadow which have three to four shadows in complimentary shades.
  • Neutral coloured eye liner - applied to the outer third of both top and bottom lid. Then smudge the line with your fingers or a cotton bud to soften it.
  • Neutral coloured mascara -use the colour of your lashes as a guide - are they black or brown? Use a mascara in the same colour.
  • Natural coloured blusher - aim to match your natural cheek colour.

When you have finished applying your make-up, stand back and have a look at yourself in the mirror. Is your look natural? Does anything look too harsh and obvious? If so, soften it.

  • Is the line you drew with your eyeliner or lip liner too hard or obvious? Soften it with the tip of your finger or a cotton bud.
  • Do you have too much lipstick on? If so, blot it with a piece of tissue paper, until there is only a stain of colour.
  • Is your mascara too cloggy, remove some by wiping it off between your thumb and index finger.
  • If you have too much blusher on, remove with a tissue.
  • If you have too much eye shadow, remove some carefully with a tissue or cotton wool bud.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)