Looking and feeling like a celebrity doesn’t have to mean expensive salon treatments and overpriced designer beauty products. Sometimes the best beauty buys cost practically nothing and can be found in your kitchen cupboard or even your local beach. Take some home-beauty advice from these celebs and you’ll be ready to walk the red carpet in no time.

Lemon lightener
With such flawless porcelain-looking skin, it’s no wonder Anne Hathaway landed the role of the White Queen in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Her radiance is a result of healthy eating and an age-old skin-lightening remedy: lemon juice. Lemon juice contains acids that have exfoliating, anti-bacterial and skin-lightening properties, making it also great for treating pimples. Squeeze the juice of half a lemon, apply with a cotton bud and leave overnight. Repeat every other day and always apply sunscreen when in the sun.

Olive oil manicure
Get gorgeous fingernails just as Julia Roberts has by soaking your fingertips in olive oil for a few minutes every week. This mini-manicure is a favourite of pretty woman Roberts, helping to keep her fingernails both moisturised and strong and cuticles soft. Olive oil is rich in antioxidants and vitamin E, which are ideal for nourishing your nails.

Bi-carb whitening
The secret to Elle Macpherson’s perfect smile can be found in your kitchen pantry. The Australian supermodel and lingerie entrepreneur brushes her teeth with bicarbonate of soda once a week to get her pearlies so white. Mix half a teaspoon of this natural cleaning agent with a drop of water to form a paste; dip your tooth brush in and start brushing!

Strawberry smile
Actress Catherine Zeta-Jones brushes her teeth with mashed up strawberries once a week to achieve her gleaming grin. Strawberries contain malic acid, which acts as a mild astringent to remove surface discolouration from the teeth. Mix a strawberry or two with a dash of bicarbonate of soda for an extra teeth-whitening kick.

Castor oil combing
Zeta-Jones is also said to brush castor oil through her hair once or twice a week to make it silky soft. Castor oil was used as an ancient Egyptian treatment for hair loss and has been known throughout history as a natural way to seal moisture in hair. Add a few drops of essential oils to make your hair smell scrumptious.

Blemish blast
Jennifer Love Hewitt may have a perfect complexion on screen, but she’s not immune to blemishes. The star of Ghost Whisperer zaps her zits away with a dab of toothpaste. Toothpaste usually contains menthol or alcohol, both of which dry the skin. A touch of toothpaste on the affected area, if left overnight, should dry up the pimple by morning. Note: this is not a long-term solution for acne.

Soothing skin & eyes
On her website Goop.com, Gwyneth Paltrow sings the praises of home-beauty treatments recommended by her hair and makeup stylist, Patti Dubroff: “I love Epsom salt baths to detox, revive muscles and de-puff skin,” says Dubroff. “While in the bath, I use an exfoliating mitt … The exfoliation stimulates skin and leaves it soft and bump-free. After the bath, I slather my skin with extra virgin organic coconut oil. It is sold in jars at health food stores and literally melts on your skin.” To reduce the puffiness of eyes, Dubroff also suggests placing chilled spoons (kept in the freezer) on the eye area, or resting cotton wool pads soaked in milk on the eye area.

Sugar scrub
Jessica Biel, sexy star of the 2010 romantic comedy Valentine’s Day, smooths her skin by adding a sprinkle of sugar to her favourite cleanser and using it as a scrub. You can also add salt or oatmeal to your cleanser. These mild granules gently exfoliate without irritating the skin. Try mixing them with bicarbonate of soda to create your own cleansing paste.

Apple cider cleanse
Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie told Glamour magazine that she maintains her ultra-trim physique by swallowing 30ml of organic apple cider vinegar after lunch and dinner. The ‘wonder vinegar’ contains a host of vitamins and minerals, and is said by Fergie’s trainer, Natasha Kufa, to flush out fat in the colon which helps the body to digest food and eliminates cravings. If you can’t stomach the flavour, try mixing the vinegar with water and honey.

Sun & Surf
On-screen siren of Jennifer’s Body, Megan Fox is reported to have sung the praises of the sun and sea as the secret behind her glowing skin. “I find that being out in the sun is better for you than people think,” she says. “Like, when I started going back to the beach and being in the saltwater and the sun, my skin improved a lot. So I benefit from sunshine.” Sunlight is an important source of vitamin D, which helps the body absorb calcium, but too much sunlight can damage the skin. The Australian recommendation for sunlight exposure is 10–15 minutes per day, most days of the week. Other than that, the usual rules of Slip, Slop, Slap (and now ‘Seek’ shade, and ‘Slide’ on some sunglasses) apply. As for the benefits of sea water, it’s packed with minerals that help clear up oily skin and leave you feeling refreshed. What better excuse to go to the beach?