6 beauty lessons our editors wish they had known years ago, from fixing dodgy brows to a lip-lift trick

Who doesn't love a life hack? Between the woman&home beauty team, we have a lifetime of insider beauty knowledge. We get to speak to all types of industry insiders, learn more about ingredients and products and get all their insider tricks.

After decades of beauty education, we've decided to collate some of the fascinating things we've learnt and pass on some of the pearls of beauty wisdom we've discovered. In our confessional, we cover everything from the curly hair method, to why it's really worth getting to know the best setting sprays and convincing you why the stripped-back skincare routine is the way forward.

Basically, you can learn from our mistakes: we are here to make beauty feel less confusing and share with you everything we've learnt along the way. Prepare to take notes...

1. Beauty Director, Sarah: Stop overloading your skin

I have been a beauty editor for 20-plus years, but the one thing I wish I'd realised sooner is that less is more. Obviously, testing beauty products is part of my job, and I love it, but now instead of layering on multiple serums, exfoliators and moisturisers, I'm a lot more considered with what I put on my face.

Gone are the days when I'd double cleanse, then use an acid toner, then an actives-loaded serum before my night cream. Now I use a very gentle cleanser that takes all my make-up off in one go - double cleansing just makes my skin feel a bit dry and too squeaky clean.

I favour peptides over retinoids and vitamin C as they tend to be more calming on my redness-prone skin, and then I follow that with a simple moisturiser that's loaded with hyaluronic acid and more peptides. It works for me, and my skin looks calmer, smoother and fresher.

2. Beauty Editor, Fiona: Setting sprays aren't silly

I grew up in the era of setting sprays being either made of water, therefore pointless (sorry, Evian!) or frightening hairspray-for-your-face concoctions. Neither appealed, so I ignored the category for the best part of my beauty career. Of course, times change, and one must change with them, so when brands founded by makeup artists I very much respect started launching mists with words like ‘airbrush’ and ‘soft focus’ in them, I was drawn back in for another go.

Obviously, I'm extremely glad I did. Modern setting sprays are not just about glueing your makeup to your face; they melt all the layers together for a noticeably nicer, softer finish, hydrate to stop everything creeping into lines (increasingly, a top priority of mine), and yes, they do make everything stick around, but without any actual stickiness.

3. Senior Beauty Editor, Rhiannon: Leave your eyebrows alone

Like everyone who grew up in the 90s, I had a long phase of having terrible eyebrows. Luckily, I was relatively young when the tweezers tantalised me, and I have quite good brow genes, so I managed to claw them back to a decent thickness. Over the last few years, I've taken things one step further and stopped tweezing altogether. Instead, I get my eyebrows threaded every few months, and I really wish I'd thought to do this sooner.

The brows are the scaffolding to the face. The difference a properly shaped, tidy arch can have on your appearance is quite amazing. I'm a loyal Blink Brow Bar customer, but most high street threading appointments usually cost around £10, and I think that's an astoundingly good price for such a positive, long-lasting change. If you want to save money down the line, you can visit a pro once to find your ideal shape and do your tidying at home.

I wish I'd left my brows alone decades ago - since leaving it to the professionals, my eyebrows - and my face - have never looked better.

4. Beauty Editor, Jess: Step away from sheet-staining tan

I’ve been obsessed with fake tan since I was a teenager, but up until my late 20s I would marinate in it overnight, waking up to stained orange sheets and occasionally a husband with one tanned arm too.

Discovering the best express tan completely changed the game – now I can have white bedding again without the need for quite so much Vanish, and I’m no longer playing roulette with the colour I’ll be before morning. 45 minutes gives me the perfect golden tan to take the edge off of my pasty skin. No tangoed orange in sight.

5. Beauty Editor, Stephanie: Learn the 'lip lift' trick

I don't have thin lips, but since I heard about Mario Dedivanovic's 'lip lift' trick, which is a genius over-lining lip liner technique, it's been a game-changer in my make-up routine.

Instead of faithfully tracing the edge of the mouth, or worse, over-lining the whole lip in a way that makes things look cartoonish, Mario only overlines in two specific areas - the Cupid's bow and the centre of the bottom lip - everywhere else, the liner traces the border precisely. It makes lips look fuller and lifted in a very natural way. It's one of Sofia Vergara's beauty trick for fuller-looking lips, too.

6. Beauty Writer, Annie: Wet skin supercharges serums

My best-ever skincare tip is applying your best hyaluronic acid serum to damp/ wet skin to amplify its benefits. Hyaluronic acid binds to water molecules, and applying it to damp skin can help further nourish your skin.

Since learning this a few years ago, I have religiously been applying my HA serums like this and can definitely feel the benefits immediately. So, if you think you've been applying hyaluronic acid wrong, here's your wake-up call to try something new! It's also incredibly refreshing and plumping.