Short of time but still want to look picture-perfect? I am listing some well-tried, home grown tips for all you women on the run along with a few tips from your kitchen shelf. Do try them and watch the difference in your appearance.

Face: It’s better to look neat than made-up when in a hurry. If you don’t have time to repair makeup, let your eyeliner and mascara be, but pat your face with a tissue to take out the grime, wipe out your lipstick and re-apply. You may not look straight from the saloon, but you will look groomed.

When at work, you need to look smart, not cute. For a fast blemish-free look, try this: apply sheer foundation all over your skin, then cover spots with lip brush dipped in a corrective concealer cream.

And now a few tips from your kitchen shelf — after boiling milk, scrape cream from pan and apply on your face. Leave it on till you finish with your kitchen work.

Honey is great as moisturising mask in winters. Apply gently and leave for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, exfoliate hands and apply lots of moisturiser. Soak feet in cool mint tea.

Hair: If you want instant lustre, beat an egg without the yolk, squeeze half-a-lemon into it and apply to hair, less on the scalp. Rinse and wash in another half-an-hour. Henna soaked in tea-water and coffee powder doesn’t go bad if left in the fridge. On bad hair days, use clips in bronze and black to give a slightly different style to your hair as accessories should be used more on bad hair days.

Rest of you: For a quick pedicure that you can do while watching TV, add salt and a bit of lime to the water to make dry skin exfoliate faster. Keep water a little warmer than usual so that before you soak your feet you can also soak hands for just a few minutes and massage them with cream while you dip your feet.

Apply one coat of nail paint, and after 15-20 minutes apply another coat. The time in-between will make your nail polish a lot smoother and less smudged, than when you paint one coat on top of another.