by M C Kiggins

Created on: April 28, 2010

Raising children places extra demands and time constraints on moms. Most people will understand if you look frazzled, in fact they almost expect it. However, the six tips below will help you bust out of that stereotype, and to everyone's dismay, look perfectly groomed while perfectly raising your kids.

1. Hair: Make time to wash and condition your hair routinely. Get regular haircuts or at the very least, keep ends trimmed and conditioned. If you don't have time to style your hair in the morning; pull it back in a classic ponytail or brush it and wear a stylish headband or barrette.

2. Face: Wash and moisturize your face every night before you go to bed. Rinse your face in the morning before you put on your make-up. Your make-up doesn't have to be construction project, just a little will do. If you have blemishes, use a tinted blemish cream and apply pressed powder to your face to even out your complexion. Add some blush. If you want to wear eyeshadow, pick a nice neutral medium shade for the lid, blend into a lighter color on the brow bone, and a deeper color for the crease and outside corner. Apply mascara and lipgloss. Voilà!

3. Clothing: Make sure your clothes are pressed. If you don't want to bother, buy wrinkle-free blouses at least. Nothing says, “I don't give a crap” like wrinkled clothes. If you have a baby, wear patterned blouses so that food and spit-up stains aren't immediately evident. Avoid wearing sweats or gym clothes unless you are exercising.

4. Hands and feet: Manicures and pedicures, whether you have them done at a salon or you do them yourself, are essential. If you don't have time to maintain color nail polish on your fingernails, use clear. Feet look so much better with painted toes and the polish stays on quite a bit longer since they don't have to do chores like washing dishes.

5. Jewelry: Wear jewelry whenever you can. It need not be big, in fact, small elegant pieces like a lovely necklace, a pair of earrings, a watch and ring are all you need. Don't wear long necklaces or beads if you have little ones, because they could pull on them and break them. Earrings should be studs or small hoops so that they don't get tugged on either.

6. Scent: Don't forget to smell pretty! Choose a lovely scent that you adore and dab it on all the places you would like to be kissed.

It can take as little as fifteen minutes to tidy up your appearance, or it could take an hour; but it is worth the extra effort. There still may be times when you feel frazzled, but on the outside, you will look perfectly polished and like you have everything under control.

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