Beauty Advice for my Teenage Self

While I was in work the other day a bunch of girls came into the shop and started swatching the lipsticks and the palettes and seemed to know exactly what they were doing. They all had on eyeliner flicks on fleek, perfect contours and some Kylie Jenner-esque liplining going on (MAC Diva was a definite favourite). 

When I got chatting to them I found out that they were thirteen. THIRTEEN!!! And had only just been their birthday. 

I nearly died. I suddenly felt ancient, like the fucking crypt keeper. And just a little bit ugly... I was most definitely not looking like that at 13 (or now, just saying).

Then I got thinking about how none of the girls in this generation seem to go through that ugly, awkward phase. You know, with the pictures they’ll look back on in 20 years and cringe SO MUCH. Mine are currently lost in the Bebo abyss and can bloody well stay there thank you very much.


Beauty advice is so accessible these days in a way that it wasn’t when I was a wee tween, so if I could go back and give myself a couple of snippets of beauty advice I definitely would. Here are some of the things I wish I had someone to tell me...

 

Get a damn skin care routine, girl! Simple face wipes that I often RE-USED (the thrifty little bugger that I was) followed by a slathering of moisturiser is not, I REPEAT, is not adequate skin care. I suppose I was lucky that despite this, I generally had fairly good skin. But I cringe at how long I walked down this dark path…

Step away from the eyeliner. Ok, you may not know this but I was a little on the gothic side in my teenage days. I.e. I was an “emo kid” (nonconforming as can be... fellow emos can I get a hell yea??) CRINGE CRINGE CRINGE AF. So, obviously, I couldn’t get enough of the black eyeliner. Gigantic flicks, panda eyes, eyeliner “art work”, you name it. Of course I’m still more than a little partial to a slick of eyeliner and a pretty flick, but 15 year old Teri – know your limits!

While you’re at it, put down the tweezers, too. I’ve got my dads brows. Thanks genetics. They are dark, coarse and there are a lot of them. Now I’m somewhat thankful as it allows me to pull of the strong brow look with ease, but when I was younger… Let’s just say I wasn’t a fan. All teenagers have some brow horror story (my sister shaved a large proportion of hers off and it took about 10 years for them to look okay again), mine aren’t as bad as others, but I would definitely tell me to embrace the bold brows and not worry about them as much. If only Cara had been around during these eyebrow meltdowns.

Never buy Dream Matte Mousse. It’s just not okay, it’s really not. Anyone who didn’t go through a phase of having a 3-shades-too-dark, cakey face, I truly applaud you. And slightly hate you. This period of my life didn’t last long thank god, but now I would urge young Teri to never let it happen in the first place. Period.

DON’T CUT YOUR OWN FRINGE. Do I even need to say more? Due to hair dresser trauma I never let a hair dresser near my hair for very long time, so I trimmed my own fringe and did a bloody awful job of it. Hair dressers aren’t evil, back away from the scissors.

Don’t try to trim a false lash strip while on your eye. Surely this is self-explanatory, I hear you cry. WHAT IDIOT WOULD DO THIS? *This girl* At the tender age of 15 I thought lining up the strip on my lash line and trimming was a fine idea. It’s not, FYI. And I cut my inner corner lashes in the process. Which took forever to grow back.

You look okay really. Do most girls look back at their teenage years and remember not feeling as pretty or cool as everyone else? Well wearing loads of (utterly shit) make up won’t change that, and really, you look completely fine without it because that’s yourself and I wish I’d had a bit more confidence in that.

PLEASE tell me what you would tell your teenage self. Share your horror stories...

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