“Are there any shortcuts
on how to be beautiful?”

Question submitted by Meredith, 22, London England

There are all kinds of things you can do if you’re interested in how to be beautiful, especially if you’re looking to bag yourself a boyfriend. However, instead of looking for shortcuts, think of it more as an ongoing process.

As the saying goes, "your body is a temple." The way you treat it and upkeep it will dictate what kinds of men will find it interesting. If you want the kind of men who will appreciate you and enjoy all the little things you do to keep yourself looking great, then you must do what you can to make your temple be beautiful. If you don’t need a guy that passionate about you, then don’t worry about it. There are tons of guys like this in the world. You won’t have too much problem finding one near.

Effort = Interest

The fact remains that first impressions are almost always the only chance you get. The more effort you put into your outward appearance and how to be beautiful dictates whether or not you’ll even get a chance to say hello. If he doesn't think you are available, he'll never ever notice you.

Do a little experiment. Go to any public place and watch which women guys will go out of their way to talk to. You’ll notice that some guys will talk to anyone, but most guys will talk to the girl who looks like she’s put the most effort into the way she looks. These women have nicer clothes on, more stylish hair, and at least some makeup on.

They might not be the best looking girls in the area, but they are sending out a very powerful message: they are available! Even if they’re not available, the simple act of going through the effort to be beautiful makes them approachable. Why does this work? In a guy’s mind, anything a woman does to make herself more attractive is an indication of interest. She is showing the world that she’s approachable whether it’s actually true or not.

Anything you do to make yourself look better sends out a signal to the fellas that you are open to his interest. Not only that, on your quest for how to be beautiful, you’ll also discover how to be charismatic, how to be feminine, how to be classy and most importantly, how to be more confident.

Looking good makes you feel good. When you have that great unstoppable feeling of cute confidence, it echoes down into all aspects of your life.

So let’s start with some tips and great places that will help you on your quest on how to be gorgeous!

The Beautiful Marketplace

Love your skin

The very first place you should start with how to be beautiful is your skin. It’s the first thing everyone sees so it should be radiant. You should be using some kind of natural skin conditioning product every day. This one is MANDATORY. You might be the hottest thing right now, but without properly pampered skin, you won't be a hottie forever...

Let's talk about that hair you have all over your body! More and more these days, men prefer a woman who isn't covered in fur like he is. It's cute. It's feminine and up until now it's been a royal pain in the butt. How many painful waxings or toxic creams do you need to endure to get that smooth look? Exactly none! Now you can do laser hair removal at home with the TRIA Beauty personal home laser hair removal system. No longer do you have to pay an average of $350 per session when you can own the whole laser unit for only $595! That's right. For less than the cost of one treatment for leg hair removal, you can own it and treat yourself as much as you need ANYWHERE you want to.

Got wrinkles? Even if you don't now, sorry sister, but eventually we all get 'em. The best kept secret to holding back the wrinkles is to start using wrinkle treatments now. Right now! If you're already going down to wrinkle town, Chamonix Beauty Secret has a system that really works. Not only does it firm up sagging skin, it also keeps young skin looking younger for a very long time. This is a fabulous way to be beautiful!

Another great place to be beautiful is Murad Skin Care. There is some serious science that goes into his products that will make your skin look gorgeous. We especially love the Perfecting Night Cream. Just apply it to your face before you go to bed and you wake up with soft, velvety skin that is a perfect start to your day. Try their Acne Skin Cleanser, guaranteed to clear acne skin. It is amazing and at $29.95, it’s a steal!

For great skin products in general, we also love The Organic Skin Care Shop: The Web's Top Rated Organic Skin Care Products.

If you really want a treat, check out Natural Home Spa! Make your own beauty and spa products at home using natural organic products. Great home spa ideas, organic skin care, natural hair shampoos and conditioners, herbal remedies, herbal bath recipes, facial and body scrubs, aromatherapy and lots more!

Don't forget about the makeup! Guys prefer that their women always wear at least a little bit of makeup. The fact that you are doing something about your appearance reassures him you love to be beautiful for him. Check out Buy Me Beauty! This great website sells name-brand makeup at discount prices. If you have some makeup that you absolutely love, do yourself a favor and see if you can get it here before you blow all your money by paying full price. You don't have to be poor to be beautiful.

Acne care

If you have acne, don’t just stop with the skin care systems. Read this great guide on how to clear up acne safely and permanently. There are things you can do right away to clear up your skin.

For the most effective one-two punch on making your skin look radiant, check out this amazing article on Home remedies for acne That will have your skin back to gorgeous in no time at all!

Have beautiful hair

What about your hair? A great hairstyle makes you look and feel fabulous. Do yourself a favor and go to a professional stylist and get yourself a fresh new look. After the new “do,” it’s imperative that you use high quality shampoo and especially conditioner. Frizzy, spazzy, or limp hair makes you look older, unhealthy, or even crazy so take great care of your hair—people notice.

One of our favorite hair care products is Viviscal Vitamin Supplement. Are you dealing with female hair loss? Find the best treatment for you at OnlyHairLoss.com. Choose from 100's of hair loss products! They have a great hair systems for men and women that helps re-grow thinning hair. The vitamins really make your hair feel thick and luxurious. You'll see a difference in three days! Don’t have thinning hair? Who cares? It takes a healthy head of hair and makes it even thicker! Talk about how to be beautiful! If you really want to build some volume into your hair, these vitamins are a marvel. Also try the Revita Hair Growth Shampoo. Cutting edge research means powerful results in a shorter period of time and it really makes your hair feel great!

Since we're all about empowering you to learn your own ways of how to be beautiful, there is a great book we love for hair care. The Herbal Hair Solution. No one really wants you to know how to make your hair healthy and stop hair loss and breakage because they hope you'll spend the $50 a month just to maintain your hair. Learn super secret ways to make your hair healthy and amazing!

Smell pretty

Also, we absolutely love getting our shipments from LUSH. You open that box full of bath bombs and yummy shampoo and the whole house is filled with the most delicious scents. This store is more like a “beauty deli” to be beautiful. All the items are handmade and come wrapped like specialty foods. If you’ve never tried lush before, you are going to freak out when you finally do. Right now, you can get a with every order. Not sure what that means? We’ll just leave you with a wink and a smile…

If you're really into Lush's soap, have you ever though of making it yourself? That's right! Learn how to make your own healthy, luscious soap today. Soap Making Fun has an in-depth, everything-you-need-to-know video that takes you through all the steps you need to know to make soap. If you care about your skin, then making your own soap will help you create cleansing products tailor made for your skin type and scent pallet. It's really fun to be beautiful.

Your clothes define you

And now for your clothes. What’s going on in your closet? Does your wardrobe say “meow” or does it say “meh?” New clothes always make you feel good, but instead of just looking through the sales racks, you should consider getting a few pieces that showcase your sensuality. It’s time to update that closet and get clothing that fits perfectly and tells the men that you care about how you look and you might let him say “hi.”

Before we tell you about expensive clothes, you need to consider a well-known secret on how to be beautiful: thrift stores! If you’re willing to drop a few hundred bucks on a few cute pieces, consider you can drop fifty bucks on a whole bunch of great clothes at a thrift or consignment store. It is hit or miss, but when you find something great at a cheap price, oooh there’s nothing better!

And now for our recommendation on our fave place to shop online: Couture Candy! They have all the greatest styles all in one place. Trust us, once you see how much fun it is to shop with them, you’ll probably never go anywhere else. They have free shipping in the US and a price match guarantee so you won’t be paying too much to look so good. Use this link to on something that will make you look so hot! Work it, girlfriend!

Get some hot jeans! Every wardrobe should have a couple pairs of really outstanding looking jeans. Let me rephrase that: these jeans should not only look good, they should make you look outstanding when you put them on! Stop buying clothes that look cute and start looking for clothes that make YOU look cute. The best thing is, you can order supper hot jeans online right now! The secret to buying jeans online is to get the designers you can't get at home. Definitely go for the jeans that make you look the hottest, but try to find jeans that no one else has. You'll be the envy of all the girls...

What about that endless search for super cute shoes? Shoe Buy has tons of super cute shoes including all the super sexy ones that catch his eye. The best part is that they ship worldwide and they always have some fabulous shoes on sale!

What's holding you back?

There could be a million reasons why you don't think you're ready for dating or why you don't think you can get back into the dating scene. Whatever those reasons are, take care of them! Whether it's your health or your weight or maybe you have a Sexually Transmitted Disease, take care of the things you consider your "issues" so you can be a diva on the dating scene.

Keep coming back to find out more products that will help you on how to be beautiful. And don't forget, beauty is also about self-confidence so when you're feeling it, strut it!