1. Thou shalt not shampoo every day. You can rinse or condition daily, but shampooing every single day robs your tresses of moisture and shine.

2. Thou shalt not bake your hair. Constant blow-drying, straightening or curling your hair damages your locks. Try a more natural style, like a whimsical ponytail this season. When you do use heat products, make sure to use some sort of protective hair product beforehand.

3. Thou shalt not color too often. Great advancements have been made in the world of hair color. However, coloring too frequently can lead to damage. Drying out and altering the natural color and texture of hair causes a need for lots of hair treatments— and extra spending— in the future.

4. Thou shalt not sleep with makeup on. Sleeping with foundation (powder, creme or liquid) clogs your pores and spurs acne breakouts. Eye products such as mascara or eyeliner leaves unattractive marks and potentially causes infections. Acne and infections are definitely two things no one needs!

5. Thou shalt not cake on foundation. Nor should you cake on any form of makeup. Pores clog easily, and caked on cosmetics find a way to accentuate any wrinkle or crease. Accent your features with makeup; don’t cover them with any product.

6. Thou shalt not exfoliate too often. It’s a common misconception that exfoliating only does good. The removal of dead skin cells should only be done once or twice a week with strong products to avoid excessive scraping and damage to lower levels of your skin. In fact, exfoliating too frequently tends to speed the aging process, making you look older faster.

7. Thou shalt not wear excessive liner— either for lips or eyes. Lip liner should match your natural lip color and create a border for applying gloss or lipstick. Liner should not be a dark and independent entity on your face— unless you opt to look like a raccoon.

8. Thou shalt not have six-inch nails. Avoid the dragon-lady look when it comes to your finger nails. If scratching your face or any other body part makes you bleed, then your nails are too long.

9. Thou shalt not bite your cuticles. Keep your cuticles moisturized to avoid splits that can get caught or tempt you to pick at them. Picking or biting at cuticles yields painful hangnails or infections that are also unattractive.

10. Thou shall moisturize every day. Keeping your skin moisturized keeps it looking young and soft. It’s especially important during the hot summer months, with the damaging sun, and in the winter, with the frigid winds.

Samantha Chan is an assistant editor.

• sources:
  www.about.com
  www.msn.com
  www.focusonstyle.com