We all love shopping for makeup tools and brushes and trinkets and gadgets that help us keep our makeup game strong. Thats why we read (and write) beauty blogs, we’re into this sh*t, ya know? As much as I love buying fancy things, sometimes its stuff you wouldn’t expect that can really help you do your makeup, and be super poppin’.

That’s why today I wanted to show you three unconventional beauty tools that you should totally keep at your vanity, and what you can use them for.

This ones and oldie but a goodie. A lot of makeup artists, and makeup enthusiasts use tape to get a nice sharp line when they’re applying eye makeup with a winged shape. It’s super effective. Most folks seem to use regular old scotch tape, but I specifically like to use washi tape. Not because I need to be a special snowflake, but because its a little easier to manipulate the shape of it, and it’s not super sticky on the skin. Scotch tape can be a little harsh on my delicate flower of an eye area.

“WTF do you use paper towels for when you’re doing makeup?” you ask. Ummm what don’t you use it for? Well, ok there’s a lot of stuff you don’t use it for but here is a list of things that it will come in handy with.

• Spot cleaning a brush
• Dabbing away watery eyes when you poke yourself with the mascara brush…you know you do this all the time
• Dabbing away excess lip balm that you used to prep your lips
• Cleaning up any number of things that you’ve spilled
• Wiping excess product off a brush
• Cleaning off a mixing palette when you’ve run out of room
• A million other things I didn’t think of

It will come in handy. Trust.

A face shaver/ eyebrow razor….OK this ones a little controversial, but let me stop you right there before you leave a comment about your friend’s cousin who grew a santa clause beard. NO it will not make your hair grow back thicker. I have been using these to remove stray eyebrow hairs and peach fuzz from various areas of my face for years. You guys literally see macro shots of my face several times a week, do I have a five o’clock shadow? Nope.

Biologically that is just not how hair works, look it up. You done googling? Thank you, now let’s move on to the meat and potatoes of this tip.

I like to keep one of these in my vanity with my brushes because sometimes you sit down and you realize things aren’t quite as tidy as you thought they were before you get up close and personal. Like sometimes those fuzzy hairs in between your brows just pop up out of nowhere, and if you pluck them right before you do makeup you may well have a bit of redness to content with. I like to use a brow shaper to clean up between my brows and on top of them between tweezing, let me tell you it will make things look sharp and clean in seconds. So. Much. Easier.

Please don’t try to use a regular razor though, they’re too big and you could shave off things that are meant to stay on your face, mmkay?

I also use this to remove some of the peach fuzz from my cheeks, they have always been super fuzzy and makeup lays so much more nicely without it there. Again, like I said before I’ve been doing it for years and I haven’t grown a beard. It’s also a great way to exfoliate. It’s technically called derma-planing and you can actually go get it done at a lot of spas, maybe I’ll try that one day and report back to you. I like spas.

So those are the weird things I like to keep in my vanity, and what I use them for. Do you have any unconventional beauty tools that I should know about? Tell me! I don’t like to be left out!