What beauty advice would you give your younger self? Share!
Ditch the bangs, they were not helping the acne situation! Start a skincare regimen earlier (particularly SPF!!!!). Wear sunglasses sooner. Talk to primary care doctor sooner about skincare concerns.
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Don’t worry about what society wants out of you. Wear that blue or green or whatever lipstick, whatever makeup colour you want.
BLEND YOUR EYESHADOW GIRL !! YOU ARE NOT A MAGICIAN A GO GET MATCH FOR YOUR FOUNDATION AND PS YOU LIVE IN SUNNY SUNNY SUNNY PLACE WEAR SOME GOD DAMN SUNSCREEN… i would use those words and basically yell at myself lol
Ah yes, SPF every day! Waterproof liner is your friend. No one wants racoon face. Wash your face before you sleep and when you wake up. Use Benzoyl peroxide on spots to calm them down. There’s so much to say! Great question! 🙂
Regardless of how other people do their make-up, you don’t have to follow it. This means there’s no need to go for foundations a shade lighter, nor to go for high-coverage foundation+powder, nor to cake my face with a lot of said products.
Secondly, I’d introduce my younger self to Paula’s Choice products or at least introduce myself earlier to the (very harsh) dermatologist product that helped my acne. Also educate myself better on sunscreens — Don’t trust the SPF ratings.
Don’t be lazy and wash your face every morning and night! Even if you don’t wear makeup that day you still need to cleanse and moisturize! Makeup wipes don’t cut it and I’ve noticed a dramatic difference in my skin when I stopped being lazy and cleansed and moisturized twice daily. Also don’t be afraid to return something if you absolutely hated it even if you used it, that’s what return policies are for 🙂
I would personally give my younger self the advice of using natural products to take care of my skin rather than many of the synthetic products on the market.
Me too. Natural products are the most effective.
That’s great advice!
1. Do not rely on diy remedies for acne.
2. Do not buy random stuff for curing acne.
3. Ask a doctor for persistant acne – it will actually cost cheaper.
4. Do not pluck your eyebrows.
5. Do your online research for makeup and beauty products, there are sales advisors who will down right lie to you in order to sell their stuff, even at the Sisley counter.
6. Plan ahead and don’t over-spend.
7. Again, not everyone giving you beauty advice is honest or knowledgeable. Research!
8. Have REAL FUN with makeup now because later life will show her professional, no-makeup-makeup face and glitter will become a thing for the holiday season only.
Stop going to the dermatologist. Those creams are causing irritant dermatitis. Wash your cosmetics sponges and get some brushes. Moisturise. Stop the tanning bed, it is making it worse. Don’t be afraid of red lipstick. Experiment.
AMEN sista! to all of the above!
I really need to be more on top of sunglasses. My cranky wrinkles are going to get worse if not!
Madeleine, The Daily Mark
DON’T TAN YOUR FACE! I used to work at a tanning salon when I was about 19-20, so I tanned a lot. Never used eye protection, always tanned my face. I always heard about how tanning caused premature wrinkles but I was always thought it wouldn’t be until I was at least like 35 or 40. Yeah I was definitely wrong…. Try 26…. Oh and it’s not just the wrinkles that showed up, saggy eyelids came too.
Now I kick myself everyday when I look in the mirror for being a stupid kid!
“Back away from the eyebrows, Lynda!”
Don’t be afraid of colour, and stay away from the benzoyl peroxide products.
as someone with brows that were never that much to begin with: walk away from the tweezers
Don’t pluck your eyebrows, watch your weight a bit, purple eyeshadow is not your friend.
Don’t use Biore strips! (that’s what gave me 2 noticeable broken capillaries on my nose!)
Actually BLEND the eyeshadow (not to mention just throw away those gross little sponge applicators and get a brush) and don’t be afraid to use more than just one or two colors. Also, to blend the eyeliner.
I think I would try to teach my younger self to have a healthy relationship with cosmetics. Don’t hide your face, express yourself with the art ON your face.
Great question!
Ditch the black lip liner…its not as cute as I thought it was in the 1990’s.
Great question!
1. Start a skincare regimen earlier – and ALWAYS wash your face before you go to bed
2. Be mindful of the foods you eat and your stress levels – they most certainly affect your skin!
3. Don’t worry about what people think. If you want to wear that bold lipstick, wear that bold lipstick. People who tease or judge you for your makeup choices are people you don’t need in your life!
4. Using Visine for mild acne (i.e. the occasional blemish here and there) is a GODSEND. Use a QTip, douse it with Original Visine, and rub onto the blemish. Repeat this frequently throughout the day… it will start to go away and you can avoid picking at them because blemishes are more manageable.
5. Drink more water
I would tell myself to lay off the black eyeliner a bit. All through high school I piled the stuff on, constant raccoon eyes! 🙂
Start an exercise routine an stick to it.
Dye your hair whatever color you want. It’s your head.
Have fun with your makeup. It’s really not that serious.
I would commend my younger self for making skincare a priority in her 20’s. She is reaping all the rewards and looked great on her 51st birthday July 6! No wrinkles, no fine lines and smooth skin. I would also tell her to cut back on the sugar and drink more water.
I wish someone would have helped me keep my Brooke Shields eyebrows instead I over tweeted as was the style in my younger days. I didn’t realize that my brows would get thinner once I got into my late 40’s
For me: wearing SPF and sunglasses
As somebody who didn’t have a proper skincare routine until her early 20s, I’d definitely recommend my younger self to take care of her skin earlier. Wear SPF everyday. And see a dermatologist for Retin-A to control her acne so she wouldn’t end up with irreparable acne scars and hyperpigmentations that will never go away.
Girl, do something with those eyebrows…yeah, that’s what I would tell my younger self LOL
FILL IN YOUR EYEBROWS!!!!! There is more to the makeup world than just neutrals – try some fun colors! But mainly my eyebrows. It hurts to look at those pictures.
I would tell my younger self to go easy on the tweezers! Unfortunately I got too tweezer-happy when I was young and now I’m paying for it as my eyebrows are very sparse and thin. I’d also tell myself to stop picking at zits as they leave marks that don’t easily fade (I still have marks from acne that I had as a pre-teen)!
I would tell my younger self to ditch those little sponge applicators that come with eyeshadow, get a brush and BLEND that eyeshadow. I also wish I would learned to read labels and care about ingredients sooner (I hate you bismuth oxychloride). I would have saved myself tons of skin issues.
blend, bitch, BLEND
Learn how to apply makeup properly. Learn what colors work for me and what colors to avoid. Never go to bed without washing my face and applying a moisturizer. Sunscreen sunscreen sunscreen. I learned all of these things just a little too late.
1. DO. NOT. PERM. YOUR. HAIR. When you blossom into a 20-year-old fox with a pixie cut, you will look back and cringe. It just wasn’t you.
2. You don’t need foundation in 7th grade.
3. Start filling in your brows ASAP!
DONT wear super thick eyeliner
honey.. you don’t need foundation either especially in middle school
Lay off the brows!! And don’t feel you need to buy all the seasonal colors because they’re not all right for you. I still cringe when I read “there’s an orange for every skintone!”
Embrace your curly hair.
Don’t obsessively hate your bags/dark circles, and DONT waste your parents money on eye creams: they wont get rid of them.
Go easy on the concealer. Much easier.
Don’t avoid looking at your reflection because you think you hate your face. Get accustomed to it.
Younger self had issues.
Be more religious about wearing sunscreen in your teens, and especially don’t listen to your sister when she says it’ll be fine to go to a water park for an entire day without it because they left the bottle at home. (And don’t refuse to buy it when you get because it’s ridiculously overpriced because you’ll spend just as much aloe in the days afterward! :P)
Eat better. Get more sleep. Invest a little concealer when you don’t – those dark circles are making you look tired!
Spend less time in the sun. Yes, you love the beach but you’re a redhead, it doesn’t love you. Also, start wearing Frownies (little stick triangles you put between your eyes when you sleep) before the wrinkles form. They really do work, I just wish I’d started earlier.
I really wish I’d learned to apply make up earlier but I don’t know if it would’ve been possible for a young me. No youtube tutorials and books just weren’t the same. Plus the quality and variety of make up and tools availabler just wasn’t there. So I’d advise a young me living in the now to watch tutorials and try a lot of different things.
I would say: don’t mess with your eyebrows!! I have full eyebrows and plucked like crazy in high school… It totally didn’t suit my round face. I nearly plucked into non-existence! Thankfully as I got older they grew back in… They’re kind of wonky (the regrowth made some change direction I guess?) so stuff like Marc Jacobs brow gel helps. But if I have a daughter I will beg her to leave her eyebrows stay natural for as long as possible!
I would also say never use a tanning bed! Not that I ever did a lot, but I have gone tanning.
Start a skincare regimen, and don’t pick your face. I have some scarring, and I’m kicking myself for it.
I would also say congrats for being adventurous with your hair (I need to say something positive)! It wasn’t always great, but it always grows back 😀
Go see a derm!!!
Sunscreen and eye cream. Luckily, I followed my own advice.
Stay totally out of the sun, face, body etc. It comes back and bites you when you get older as well as weaken your collagen and elasticity, besides the skin discoloration that will miraculously appear.
I’d lecture my younger self on wearing sunscreen daily!
In a word: BROWS! I am happy to see photos of my youthful smiling face (LOL), but sometimes the brow situation makes me cringe a little. I would tell myself to seek out the best “browfessional” around and make an appointment, no matter the cost. Good brows are worth every cent!!
Always use sunscreen and protective sunglasses. Also, get into the habit of using the appropriate skincare. Finally, wash all that makeup off before going to sleep. Smile!
I would stay out of the sun and use sunscreen at an earlier age. I would be more diligent about face washing but more gentle when washing it. I used to scrub it but would occasionally sleep in makeup. I would burn my skin from the soap.
Stop focusing on the negatives…you’re beautiful!
Sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen! Or, better yet, a hat, especially pregnant or on birth control pills. Melasma sucks. Also, you can never start prevention too early. Moisturizer and under eye cream. Experiment and have fun!
Less is more 😉
Have as much fun you can with colorful, cat-eye liner! Before you know it you’ll get a job where it won’t be considered “professional” : (
Stop drinking with college kids and ditch the cigarettes. It ages you, dries out your skin, puffy face, makes you extremely FAT, and makes you smell like a bar full of old men.
Start a skincare routine: cleanse and moisturize. Use a gentle scrub weekly. Get a foundation that suits your complexion and skin type. Don’t forget to add lipstick in a shade that suits you. Ditch the nude lips.
Seek out a doctor to help you clear up skin problems.
Oh and by the way – don’t sunbake – embrace the colour skin you were born with. Wear a hat, sunscreen and sunglasses. Sunbaking leads to skin looking leathery and fake as you age.
I would tell myself to STOP STRAIGHTENING MY HAIR! I have cut it several times because of having dry, split ends. Now that I no longer straighten it, I don’t have to worry about that! My hair could be down to my waist by now!
Begin using a mild facial scrub as soon as you can. Your pores will stay more refined, your skin more glowing and blackhead problems won’t be the problem they will be when you get older/1
Don’t worry, lipstick formulations will get better, especially for the drugstore brands! 😀
Also: eyelash curlers are totally worth having!
Stop picking at your face, you will get acne scars.
Don’t use harsh drugstore brand acne products because they will ruin your skin.
Don’t tweeze your long eyebrow hair, use beauty scissors and trim them.
don’t use harsh treatments for acne! it is basically an irritation form a harsh drying treatments, the gentle the better, moisturize, eye cream is a must! do not squeeze your pimples! dutch the dermatologist-fully agree on what’s stated above, research the spf cream it is blocking your pores, it should be gentle and non film forming. do not go to sun beds never ever do this stupid thing! take vitamins! 8 hour sleep is a must! do not sun tan! and experiment with eyeliner, the shape I used to do daily wasn’t the one that suited me the most:)
Do not use chemicals on your hair & limit heat styling! And NO FROSTY MAKEUP!
Great skin care is important. Proper cleansing and moisturizing are a must. I rely on african black soap and shea butter
Stop tanning, use sunblock and don’t touch those breakouts!
Don’t over-exfoliate, don’t skip moisturizer, stop touching your face throughout the day, and pin your bangs up when you sleep! Can you tell acne was (heck, still is) a huge problem in my life? Yikes
I had a weird look in my late teens early 20s (late 90s early 00s). Short pink (etc) hair that I’d wear unstyled, casual masculine clothes like tee shirts and baggy jeans. I sort of toyed with a punk aesthetic but felt like I couldn’t do it authentically. So I’d say to myself, put some gel in that hair, slap on too much black eyeliner, consider mineral makeup for skin tone correction, and wear sexier clothes and lip color if you want to get picked up. Own your look and you know what, no one is going to confront you about not being punk enough. Life is too short to feel ugly or inadequate, and P.S. your body rocks.
Hmm…my younger self is a bit stubborn–hearing me go on would be like being nagged by my parents. Anyway, here goes…SLEEP is super important–get those eight hours. Get a hat, gloves and sunglasses and keep them with you at all times. Go crazy with color or glitter or style or whatever–especially in hair before all that college prep stuff. Dress up as a punk or goth if you want–just have fun with it. Be more careful with your skin–DON’T use harsh skincare. Understand exactly what harsh skincare is by researching. Include fitness/athletics into your lifestyle–you will have more energy and more time. And learn to meditate earlier–amazing what that does for your focus.
Always wear sunscreen and sunglasses. Use makeup brushes instead of the little sponges applicators that come in eyeshadow palettes.
I would tell my younger self to put sunscreen on! I have a genetic disposition for freckles and lesions (plus I am fair-skinned and live in Australia; not a good combination) – not the dainty cute little freckles some people have, but large freckles. My arms and face are now covered in them, thanks to 5 year old me frolicking outside in the pool sans sunscreen all summer long!
Being pale is okay – just coz everyone else is tanned does not mean I am weird and need to sunbake or use fake tan!
Get your hair thinned out. For years I hated my thick plentiful hair and wore a ponytail nearly 24/7. Looked so much better when I finally got it thinned out, and again when I got a pixie cut years later.
Ignore sales assistants that tell me a foundation is a ‘perfect match for my skin tone’. 95% of the time it is too dark but it’s the palest shade they offer so they’ll insist it is my shade anyway.
Buy a white foundation for mixing. It’ll save you a lot of hassle with getting too-dark foundations!
Acne isn’t the end of the world. And get foundation that matches your skintone! I cringe thinking of the shades of orange I must have looked when I first started wearing make up.
Find out what cool colors are and stick to them. Don’t even try super warm colors because you’ll just get discouraged about looking awful when it’s a coloring thing, not that you’re unattractive. Don’t be envious of gals with darker coloring, beautiful eyes & lashes. Make eyeliner and mascara your friend. Accept the fact that you’ll never tan, and embrace any freckling. Make use of a subtle bronzer. Wear your waist-length hair like an accessory, don’t always pull it back. Don’t be afraid to put some layering into it. Be thankful for having a beautiful complexion.
Start a skin care regiment and eat better! Maybe I wouldn’t be struggling with acne like I am now.
Do not pluck your brows – you can just fill them and they will look okay.
Don’t be afraid of wearing lipstick. You can wear bold lip colors if you want to – it doesn’t matter that your lips aren’t as big as Angelina Jolie’s. And go for neutral to cool, medium toned lipcolor – leave those warm, pale, corpse-like nudes.
Be more picky when you choose your skin care products. And be happy with how your skin looks at the moment – when you’ll be older you’ll have not only wrinkles, but acne as well, lol.
I never would have put chemicals in my hair to achieve styles that weren’t meant for my hair type. Fortunately, I woke up when I was 22 – 30 years ago and haven’t looked back. My hair and I are on very good terms.
You don’t need to be tan. You know you don’t tan but still try. You’ll regret that. Warm muddy colors look bad on you stop wearing them. Accutane will destroy your intestines, don’t take it. Stop taking antibiotics for acne. The don’t work and they will hurt you over time! You have food allergies and a Thyroid problem, not actual acne.
Don’t pick, don’t touch your eyebrows, and most important don’t forget your neck! Any skincare you put on your face make sure to put it on your neck & chest!
Please remove your eye make up gently with an eye make up remover. When I was young I scrubbed my thick eyeliner off so roughly with a washcloth everynight before bed. As a result, I have a lot of eye wrinkles. Also always wear moisturiser with spf.
SUNSCREEN, SUNSCREEN, SUNSCREEN!!! Altho I’m def making up 4 it now–won’t leave the house w/out it!!