Five Beauty Time-Stealers

Who has a spare second for a complicated beauty routine? No one we know! Here, five tasks you can skip without sacrificing your good looks:

Time Stealer #1: High maintenance blow-outs. Whether you do them yourself or go to the salon, blowing textured hair straight sucks up a lot of valuable time. If you must blow out, do it once a week. If hair starts to get greasy, sprinkle hair powder or baby powder onto roots and rub to soak up oil. Another idea: Embrace your hair's natural texture for every day, and save the blow-out for special occasion.

Time Stealer #2: Applying foundation. Fold your skincare and makeup routine into one by applying tinted moisturizer with sunscreen instead of separate SPF lotion and foundation. Tinted moisturizer blends much better than foundation, cutting valuable minutes of rubbing and sponging off your a.m. routine.

Time Stealer #3: Weekly manicures. Sure, you want your nails to look great, but you don't have to sit in the nail salon every week to achieve this. Instead, apply a topcoat to manicured nails every other day. This protects against premature chipping and can make your manicure last quite a bit longer.

Time Stealer #4: Daily shaving. Dare we say it? Shaving legs every day, especially when you wear pants or skirts with tights, is an unnecessary time gobbler. Cut down to shaving legs once a week during winter -- more, of course, if you're wearing lots of bare-legged evening outfits.

Time Stealer #5: Complicated skincare routines. Try this for the next month: Shelve all the anti-aging, anti-wrinkle, anti-blemish, anti-fill-in-the-blank creams and lotions you use every day, and stick to a mild cleanser, lotion with SPF for day, and moisture cream for night. This streamlined approach will save time and most likely, leave you with clearer, smoother skin than did your old routine. In a month from now, if you're not happy, break out the old potions again.