The scenario: Despite your liberal deodorant application, the hot weather (or nerves) is making you sweat right through your shirt.
What to do: A little prep work can prevent this from happening, or at least lessen the damage. First, apply deodorant the night before -- this will give it time to soak into your skin (even if you shower the next morning). And when you shower, use an anti-bacterial body wash like Dial Body Wash, $7.89 with a gentle body scrub such as Origins Modern Friction for the Body Nature's Gentle Dermabrasion, $34 to get rid of dead skin cells -- it's these two factors that contribute to smelly pits.
Apply deodorant again in the morning when your skin is completely dry so it can absorb fully. If you know you're going to get sweaty, try wearing light, breathable fabrics in colors that won't show as much of a change when they're wet (like black or navy). If you're still showing pit stains, head to the bathroom to dry your shirt off with the hand dryers or paper towels and reapply deodorant if you can. If all else fails, try not to do much waving or hugging.
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The Disaster: Static-y Hair
The scenario: Your hair looked polished in the bathroom this morning, but now that you're outside you look like someone rubbed a balloon on your head.
What to do: You have a few options here. If you get static a lot, then you'll want to start carrying a dryer sheet in your purse. Sounds weird, but it works wonders at smoothing out your hair without killing volume. If you're sans a dryer sheet you can rub a tiny amount of lotion on your hands and smooth it over your hair. Or if you're completely without product, then embrace the static. Tousle your hair a bit and call it a "look."
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The Disaster: Bleeding Lipstick
The scenario: You went with a red lip for your dinner date, but as you're eating you get paranoid that it's bleeding and creeping into the fine lines around your mouth.
What to do: A little prep work can minimize the damage. When you line your lips, make sure to fill in your entire lips with pencil too. This will help your color last longer and will also prevent the "outline only" look. But if you're still worried that your lipstick is bleeding, one is to excuse yourself and head to the bathroom to reapply. But if you feel that would be rude, you could opt to wipe off what's left with your napkin (subtly, of course) so you're left with a bare lip. Hey, it's better than bleeding lip color, right? Plus, you can just reapply after dinner.
With all the devastating natural disasters, oil spills, terrorist attacks, financial meltdowns and wars happening globally, it seems a bit hyperbolic to call something as trite as a chipped nail or a scissor-happy bang trim a disaster, right? Nonetheless, everything's relative and we don't want you to never be the victim of any type of beauty disaster (or whatever you want to call it).
In the realm of beauty, Murphy's Law definitely applies ("anything that can go wrong, will go wrong" and probably has gone wrong), but we just happen to have remedies for you courtesy of makeup artists Kimberley Bosso and Riku Campo, expert hairstylists Anthony Cristiano and Larry Sims and pro manicurist Beth Fricke. They'll help you plan ahead to prevent beauty blunders from happening as well as show you how to improvise in the moment when one does hit. Just stock your purse with the few essential survival beauty products they suggest and you'll look put-together (or put back together) in a snap -- think of these items as your beauty spare tire -- you'll need them in case you get a flat.
And to help you feel like you're not the only woman with pit stains, static-y hair and bleeding lipstick we thought we'd share photos of celebrity makeup mishaps and celebrity hairstyles gone wrong from stars that are otherwise fairly composed like Cameron Diaz, Christina Aguilera, Drew Barrymore, Eva Mendes, Hilary Duff, Jessica and Ashlee Simpson, Kate Hudson, Rosario Dawson, Lindsay Lohan, Courtney Love and Amy Winehouse (well, maybe the last three are an exception).
