With a newfangled beauty product popping up pretty much every day, it's hard to keep track of what you should be using and how.But let's take things back to basics for a second, because there's actually loads of products you've probably been using yourwhole life, but which you 'might' not actually be using the way they wereintended.

From bobby pins to beauty blenders and bronzer, try using them like this and we guarantee it'll make your beauty routine about a million times more easier.

1. Beauty blender

A common mistake with these guys is to drag them across the skin to blend foundation, concealer and contouring products. Instead, what you actuallywant to do is to dip it in water and squeeze it out until it'sdamp, then use it in a dabbing motion to blend your makeup into place.

This will give you a much more natural blend, whereasdragging it across your face will end up just moving themakeup around the face and away from the area you applied it to.

2. Bobby pins

Most of us have been using bobby pins our entire lives but it turns out that the side with ridges is actually meant to face down and into the hair and NOTupwards as many of us assume.

The ridges are actually what creates the grip, so it makes sense to point them down if you want whatever bits of hair you're trying to secure to stay put.

3. Perfume

Spritzing smellies on yourself might seem pretty self-explanatory thing to do, but there's actually a few waysto optimise how long your scentlasts.

As a general rule, you want to apply your perfume just after you've moisturised as this helps lock in the fragrance. Apply on your pulse points - that's behind your ears, the side of the wrists and the back of the neck. Always spritz from a distance and don't spraystraight into your hair as it dries it out.

4. Hair oil

Oils and elixirs are a total godsend for anyone with dry or damaged hair that needs a little extra moisture boost. That said, you need to apply them properly to maximise your results.

If you're applying your oil to damp hair, you need to let it dry naturally and not blast it with a heat tool straight after. If you apply then use straighteners or a hair dryer, you're essentially frying your hair and undoing all the good work. Think about chips in oil; the oil andheat is essentially cooking whatever you putin it and hair oil will do exactly the same thing to your hair if you apply heat to it.

5. Bronzer

With contouring being all the rage right now, there seems to be a bit of confusion about the purpose of bronzer.While yes, it's a darker colour than foundation, you don't actually want to be using your bronzer to contour at all.

The point of bronzer is to give you a warmer, more tanned and glowy look, while contouring is the idea of using a dark colour to mimic the natural shadows of the face to enhance the sculpt of your bone structure. Bronzer won't properly do that, so what you really need is a specialist contouring product with a more matte brown tone that sits on the grey spectrum or a concealer or foundation one or two shades darker than your usual.

6. Eyelash curler

It may be tempting to use an eyelash curler once your mascara is on for a final bit of curve, but don't do it. We repeat: DO NOT DO IT.

If you are going to becurling, do it before applying any mascara to avoid clumping or pulling out eyelash hairs. To nail a good curl, you want a good pair of eyelash curlers as they will naturally fit to the eye and sit in the right place without getting too close to the lid. When you've got the eyelash curler clamped, hold it firmly but not too tightly and curl the whole curlerupwards and hold there to give extra lift.

7. Brow pencil

Strong brows are seriously on trend, so it's no surprise that a lot of us are going heavy with the eyebrow products. However, if you want a strong but natural looking brow, the secret is not to get too carried away when filling them in.

Instead of using a brow pencil to shade the whole brow, you want to use it to create small strokes that imitate the natural look of hair fibres. Don't do this through the full brow and instead only do it in areas where the hair is more sparse to top up the look, thus keeping it full but natural looking.

Mind blown? Yep, ours too.