15 Beauty & Hygiene Hacks Every Mum Needs to Know

Shower, shave, scrub. Pull, pluck, polish. Rinse, rub, repeat. Does this sound like your basic hygiene and beauty routine? If you even have a routine, that is!

In between cleaning up from meals, convincing your kids to take a bath and the hundreds of other household chores, there isn’t much time for you, is there?

Never fear! Our go-to guide for helpful hygiene hacks and quick beauty tips offers a sure-fire way to scrub up nice with minimal time and effort involved.

Keep smells, greys and chub rub away and boost your confidence with these 15 hygiene hacks and beauty tips all mums need to know.

1. Go commando

Let’s start with a hygiene hack to help keep your lady bits fresh. It’s an easy one – skip the undies when heading to bed. It gives your lady bits a chance to breathe and can reduce the yeast and bacteria breeding in your skivvies. What’s more, there are said to be a whole bunch of benefits to sleeping naked!

2. Greys be gone!

Most of us mums have the odd grey hair cropping up here or there. You can reach for the dye bottle, accept them as they are or, as a quick fix, grab your mascara. If you happen to have dark hair, simply use the mascara wand to ‘brush’ the greys away and conceal growth. Genius!

3. Quick-dry nails

Have you ever thought it would be a good idea to quickly paint your nails while the baby naps? Only to hear bub’s cry the SECOND you finish? Yep. Me too. Pretty much every time I try and paint my nails, in fact.

Do you let the baby whinge while your nails dry or pick her up and ruin your DIY mani/pedi? There is another option! Simply throw some ice cubes into a bowl of cool water and soak your nails in them. They will harden in just ONE minute!

4. Down with dark circles

New mums take note! This is such a good little trick to remember when you’ve had next-to-no sleep and still have to look half decent the next day. Fake a fresh face and avoid dark circles under your eyes with red (or orange) lipstick. Simply smear a bit on your concealer sponge, dab it around your eyes and underneath and then use concealer over the top. Voila!

5. Post-birth padsicles!

Another great new mum hygiene hack are padsicles – maternity pads, but with the extra aloe vera power to alleviate the burning, throbbing and the tender sensation of down below that’s common after giving birth. Here’s how to make them:

Open the pad and save the wrapper
Mix two tablespoons of witch hazel, one tablespoon of Aloe Vera gel and a couple of drops of oil
Place the mixture onto a pad, fold it in half and wrap it back into the wrapper
Store the ‘padsicle’ in a sandwich bag and place it in the freezer
Unwrap and reap the benefits of an icy cold treat for your aching perineum.

6. Shave smoothly

Reduce redness and rashes by skipping the shaving cream or soap. Instead, use conditioner when shaving your delicate areas. It’s less drying than soap and it allows a super smooth glide.

7. Tea for toes

Notice your feet are a bit on the smelly side? Soak them in black tea! This helps to kill bacteria and closes your pores to prevent your feet from sweating. Plus, it’s great for getting rid of foot odour. Who knew?

8. Hand sanitiser for armpits

Sweatin’ up a storm and forgot to put deodorant on? We’ve all done it, especially when trying to get a tribe of children out the door on time. Heck, if I manage to make it out the door with all kids wearing SHOES it’s a plus for me, never mind the sweat stains under my arms.

Keep a little bottle of hand sanitiser in your car and you can dab in under your arms when you’re out. The alcohol kills the odour-causing bacteria and dries your armpits without leaving stains.

9. Tongue and cheek

Brushing our teeth is a must when it comes to oral hygiene but you should also invest in a tongue scraper as there is a LOT of smelly bacteria living on your tongue. Scrape your tongue as well as your cheeks for a whole mouth clean. Add a dab of toothpaste to the scraper and get rid of those nasties.

Speaking of toothpaste, did you know it can be used as a pregnancy test?

10. Remove blood stains

Periods happen. And sometimes they happen through our underwear. Head to the pantry and grab the salt. Simply mix a bit of salt and water and rub it onto the stain to remove it quickly. Or, if you happen to wear contact lenses, saline solutions works a treat too.

11. Goodbye chub rub

There are heaps of products that promise to reduce the risk of thigh chaffing, but you can’t go wrong with good ol’ baby powder or talcum powder to help protect against the chub rub.

12. Shower-free shampoo

Didn’t have a chance to shower? Hair looking a bit lacklustre? Dry shampoo to the rescue! Except, you’re all out. Then baby powder to the rescue! Apply a few shakes of baby powder to the roots of your hair, rub thoroughly and blend with a brush. Best of all, it smells nice too! Like a clean baby’s bum.

13. Two words: baby wipes

For what? For basically EVERY SINGLE BODY PART. If you’re feeling a little less-than-fresh, a baby wipe or two can make a massive difference, especially when you’re out and without your usual deodorant/feminine spray/bag of hygiene tricks.

14. DIY face masks using… uh… semen

Yes you guys, sperm face masks are an actual thing and apparently they do wonders for your skin. So the next time you run out of your face wash… #thanksbutnothanks.

15. Pads for play

Okay, this isn’t exactly a hygiene hack but I HAD to share it anyway. Recently my daughter found a box of massive pads (we’re talking the leftover maternity ones) and proceeded to unwrap them and use them as “Barbie sleeping bags for when they go camping”.

Hey, if it keeps her quiet and happy, then I’m ALL for it!

Got any more hygiene hacks to add to the list? We’d love to hear them!