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What piece of makeup advice would you give to your teenage self?
What piece of makeup advice would you give to your teenage self? Share!
Wear sunscreen, cleanse your skin! I didn’t wear makeup until I went to college, so pretty much around 18, and before then, I hardly had a beauty routine! Oh, and you’re not ugly, because I couldn’t think of myself as anything but until my early 20s.
Thanks to Amy for today’s question! Do you have a question idea? Submit yours here.
Buy more makeup especially the discontinued items.
Hahaha! Good one 🙂
Dear 90s me, I know you’re trying to be grunge as f*** and all, but stop using red lipstick as eye shadow and painting your nails with permanent marker.
That sounds so badass, though!!
Lol! I have a similar message to myself… Only I used a brown kohl pe ci l to do my whole make up. Lips included.
One of my great high school buddies also had an affinity for this look! And very pink foundation under it.. A darker lip though.. Sometimes I would watch her transform once we got to English, and it was fascinating to see HER disappear and than the HER I know come back.. We had tons of fun together! 😀 Early-mid 90s.. GREAT time!
Me too, I was grunge city! Dark Michael on the lids, deep raisin on the lips, worn out plaid, and Doc Martins! I was literally Angela from My So Called Life!
*Deep Mocha on the lids!
Haha!! Right on! I was the punky 18 eyelet cargo boot wearing Sid Vicious graffiti spraying thespian in plaid, little skirts, fishnets.. I looked older then than I do now! LOL!
Hahaha, I was thinking, “How did I miss a shade called ‘Dark Michael?’ Sounds sexy!”
Rachel, LOL! Hahaha!!! 😀
1) out the tweezers down 🙂
2) do whatever makeup looks you want!
Put***
Wow, I can’t believe you didn’t start wearing make up until college!! I guess you are making up for lost time and then some 😉 What I would tell my younger self – always wear sunscreen, less is more, and you are beautiful (the teenage years can be rough!)
Beauty standards and beauty rules exist solely as a tool of oppression. It’s not your job to satisfy other people’s idea of beauty. You’re worth so much more than how attractive men think you are — Especially since you’re not really attracted to them (or anyone really) to begin with.
Wear sunscreen everyday. That thing you thought was sunscreen really isn’t, so research the ingredients.
Expensive skincare is a waste of money and wouldn’t do anything to your acne. Ask a pharmacist at dermatology clinic for a routine, but lay off the harsh acne products, they don’t do good in the long run.
No eyeliner on your bottom lashes/waterline.
Me, too! It was such a revelation when I realized I could just stop putting color below my eyes.
Go easy on the black eye liner/shadow.
Eye primer is a thing! Find some!
Please; TOSS those frosty blue eyeshadows out a 5th story window! Stop picking your zits! Don’t worry, eventually, they WILL have foundation that won’t be so pink or orange or limited! Do NOT go to bed with your makeup on! And even though you don’t believe it yet, you are NOT ugly or weird looking! Smile more!
Start doing your eyebrows so by the time you approach your mid-20s you will have perfected them. lol
DO NOT, for the love of all things holy, wear eyeliner pencil and think that it will last in humid weather. It won’t, and you will spend nights partying with your eyes tearing and rubbing eyeliner everywhere.
I didn’t wear much makeup in high school and thankfully I lived somewhere where tanning wasn’t a big thing, but I would tell myself: “take better care of your skin!”
Well, I’m still a teenager but let’s say 13-year old self. I’d tell myself to wash and moisturize my face! And don’t let your glasses an acne discourage you… There’s nothing that makes you feel more beautiful and better, mentaly and physicaly, than self love!
1) Even tho everybody else is wearing bright blue eyeshadow, don’t do it! It doesn’t suit you!
2) Get a proper skin cleansing/moisturising routine.
3) Less is more, you don’t need to cake your foundation on to cover your (tiny) flaws, nobody notices that little bit of hyper pigmentation/tiny little spot except you!
Go easy on the black liner, girl!! 🙂
BLEND BLEND BLEND BLEND BLEND
Use more sunscreen, more consistently, and bypass the visible lipliner trend!
BHA is your BEST FRIEND!!! I spent pretty much all of high school fighting a losing battle with acne, and although it cleared up a bit during my final year thanks to sulphur soap, I didn’t see miraculous results until I started using BHA products with the correct pH level to properly exfoliate. My HG is still Olay Age Defying Daily Renewal Cream.
None. Teenage me is a disaster beyond help when it comes to makeup, and she’s as awkward looking as a wet animal. She’s just awkward in general. My only piece of advice would be: honey, you don’t have to be pretty, you have to be cool. Embrace your weirdness and ugliness, flaunt it.
Don’t be in a huge rush to wear make-up, less is more, wear sunscreen, wash your face nightly, and moisturize.
Skincare and sunscreens were practically non-existent in the 70’s! Cleansers and exfoliators were harsh, moisturizers were very simplistic. The SPF ratings were just getting started and not very effective either, SPF 15 being the highest, using old and long disproven ingredients. The formulas were terrible for the face, very heavy or oily. Makeup was pretty standard too, not much to choose from, mostly a few drugstore brands and not many more brands in department stores. Blue, green, pink, violet and brown eyeshadow basically. We’ve come a LONG way!
I guess I would have advised myself to wear a hat in the daytime.
My teenage self didn’t wear makeup and I’m still cool with that.
Me neither. I started in my early twenties.
Wear sunscreen and reapply often. Wear driving gloves and sunscreen often on hands! Be colored match for foundation and use eye cream. 🙂
Like you Christine it would have to be sunscreen. If the bb cream was around I would have worn this instead of thick foundation.
Absolutely none! I’m jealous of my teenage self! I’d ask her what’s up!
It’s ok to use make up for fun, but don’t use it to camouflage. Get a good skincare routine and dermatologist instead. Clean your face every night, it only takes two minutes. And yes to suncreen, every day!
Blow dry your hair! It will be so much easier to manage if you just use a blow drier. (Later) Use heat protector before you flat iron and hair spray after.
For makeup? Don’t do anything different. Your experimentation in high school gives you a liquid liner skill level of Epic and eye shadow looks to die for.
Wear sunscreen on your face, neck, hands, and arms ALWAYS, not just when you’re hiking or biking all day or sunbathing.
Take better care of your teeth. They don’t grow back!
White eyeshadow shouldn’t go over your whole eyelid.
All excellent advice, Christine. The negative dialogue (and dismophic image) we women engage in during our early years is such a waste of energy (in the long run!).
The only added advice i would give myself is not to be so heavy handed and ‘just BLEND!”
If only it didn’t take SO LONG AND SO MANY LIFE EXPERIENCES to turn it all around. So many wasted years and energy indeed!
I think unfortunately it’s such a common message that we women internalize, it’s so hard to change that mentality.
Especially if we were one of those kids who got teased and even bullied because we didn’t fit the popular “standard” of beauty or even pretty that those around us held to. Hellish!!!
Agreed and unfortunately, the negative comments we bash ourselves with continues throughout the generations. Why can we not find a solution to empower instead of encourage the bad (constant) inner dialogue??? I wish i had the answer and save a bunch of young girls (present and future) the agony.
Agreed! I wasted my whole life, as long as I can remember, putting myself down and causing myself more pain than anyone else ever could. And even though I have a much better self image nowadays, it’s still hard not to internalize things that people say.
Sunscreen and good skin care. You are beautiful inside and out no matter what anyone else thinks, whether you wear makeup or not.
– The reason your skin is flaking off when you use Duac is that you’re not using any moisturizer. Use moisturizer.
– Stop poking/prodding/picking that.
– Go to a makeup counter and get swatched for concealer instead of fumbling with drug store products that don’t match your skin tone.
Ease up on the pink toned foundation, lol.
Back away from the clearasil!
Wear sunscreen for sure! I’m 21 and I already have some pigmentation marks on my cheek, even though I never used to tan.
Oh and also the fact that I do have yellow, not pink undertones.
Ah the undertones. I wanted so badly to be warm because I thought it was the only way to wear the golden lip and cheek colors I loved so much. Tooootally didn’t realize it was still OK to wear them knowing I’m cool. lol. Kid logic sometimes, man. lol
Do not shape you own eyebrows! Just because you have acne, does not mean you should scrub your face..it’s part of growing up. Wear sunblock and do not lay in the sun for hours all day all summer! Just put the eyeliner and hairspray down already! Don’t hate your body or face! Stop dieting.Just eat healthy and exercise and mother nature will handle it. Enjoy your youth. Don’t stress so much. That comes later. 🙂
Pretty easy:
a) Wear sunscreen
b) Keep using the prescription acne meds your derm gives you and DON’T use pore strips or abuse your skin
c) Eat healthy and drink lots and lots of water
d) Wait a few more years before you start wearing make up
I have to say that my makeup wasn’t too bad as a teenager. My mother allowed me to wear makeup but was very vocal about when it didn’t look right. I still wear the same mauve pink and brown tones I was wearing in HS. The only thing I wish my mom would have done for me is take me some where that really knew how to do eye brows, I was blessed with my dad’s full brows and my mom has to pencil hers in so she’s didn’t know any better, but crisis handled in my early 20s lol
Pair a fuller brow with very short, especially buzzed, hair. The pencil thin arches you currently favor are indeed cute and trendy, but more heft on them will help your face look more defined and less overplucked.
Lay off the MAC foundations, they are breaking out your skin. Without them, you are not particularly prone to acne. Truly!
Appreciate wearing your crazy red glittery smoky eyes and grey lipgloss! There will come a time when you are too busy or you have to look professional on most days. Milk your teen years for all they’re worth in terms of over the top fashion statements.
You should not aspire to look like Angelina Jolie, nor should you spend so much time fixating on pictures of her trying to figure out just what it is that you need to emulate to become mystically imbued with her appeal and have strangers at the bus stop and cute english class boys in emo pants go, “You know who you remind me of is Tomb Raider Lara Croft.” NO MAKEUP TRICKERY WILL EVER MAKE YOU LOOK LIKE HER BECAUSE YOU DO NOT LOOK LIKE HER, AND YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GET LIP INJECTIONS ANY TIME IN THE FORSEEABLE FUTURE SO WHY WASTE ANY MENTAL SPACE THINKING ABOUT IT. Furthermore, you don’t need to look like her to be attractive; she is not the only or even the best kind of beauty. The media is lying to you, and you and the other livejournal girls are dealing with a very skewed perspective on beauty and self-image. Try to let go of that line of thinking rather than reinforcing it. Use your eyes and look at all the beautiful women whose attractiveness is not a refelction of their similarity to Angelina Jolie.
This isn’t makeup but wear clothes that fit, dude. Squeezing into a size down doesn’t make people think you look a size smaller, you just look sloppy and it makes you seem bigger to have things digging into you.
I would tell my teenage self to wear mineral sunscreen every day. No, chemical sunscreen will not cut it as it is really bad for you and the environment. Skincare is important! Use masks, gentle exfoliants, cleansers, and moisturizers. It will make a remarkable difference to your dry, flaky skin. I would also tell myself to find a (light coverage) foundation that matches my fair, fair skin. Luckily, I had implemented most of these steps by the time I was 16 or 17. Still, I had years of dry skin that were unnecessary.
I’d tell myself that to fight acne you don’t have to blast the heck out of your skin. When I was a teen I used a Clearisol Benzoyl Peroxide wash, 10% Benzoyl Peroxide cream, and harsh apricot scrubs. My skin was soooooo dry and flakey. My acne got much better when I switched to Cetaphil and a 2.5% BO.
Also, not to be afraid to play with make-up. I wore some but I was always so afraid of looking foolish that I never experimented much and got stuck in this rut of eye liner, mascara, and lip gloss. It wasn’t until I started taking chances that I figured out what looked good on me.
Ouch! I did the same thing skincare-wise in high school. I have sensitive/dry acne-prone skin, and everyone always assumed acne=oily so I was always told to go to town with drying products and avoid moisturizer! Worst advice ever. My face was bright red and inflamed all the time, and I flaked dry skin off my face like dandruff. And the acne didn’t get any better! I blame a lot of magazines for that “advice.”
Girl, stop with the superthick black line underneath your eyes and move it to your upper eyelid. Oh and pay some attention to your brows while you’re at it. *Sigh* past-me had a lot to learn.
Lay off the bronzer! and put concealer under your eyes. Also, brown looks a lot better than black on my eyes 🙂 love this!
classicallycontemporary.com
Get your eyebrows done professionally and you don’t need to put eyeliner on so thick.
I used Clinique’s Continuous Coverage makeup when I was a teen and it was as thick as toothpaste so that semi-worked as a sunscreen. But I would say to myself to wash that thick makeup off every night, no matter what, love the texture of hair you were born with and wear it with pride, and a warm smile is better than any cream, powder or lipcolor you could possibly ever buy.
Be sure to wash your face or at least use makeup remover every night! Also-start getting your brow game on early-I can’t believe it took me 26 years to figure that out.
Do what ever you want with makeup and don’t lat anyone define how you feel about yourself.
White foundation looks good on no one.
“Have fun with makeup!”
“That blue eyeshadow really doesn’t suit you”
I’m so proud of my teenage self’s beauty routine. There is only one thing I would change. But, let me tell you what I did right and why I think it was so important. I grew up at the beach so that’s part of why my routine was to simple. My Aunt introduced me to proper skin care at the age of 13. From that time on, I cleansed, exfoliated, used masks, moisturized and never went to bed at night without cleaning my face. I wore very little makeup as a teen and felt very pretty all the time. Most of the time I didn’t wear makeup, but after 16 I started to wear a little more. My makeup bag included a very soft light pink blush by Clinique, an Almost Lipstick in Black Honey by Clinique and Great Lash mascara by Maybelline. That’s it! On days when I didn’t wear makeup at all, I put vaseline on my eyelashes and a Strawberry or Root Beer Lip Smacker. I also usually wore flowers in my hair and had a big smile on my face and a suntan.
That suntanning is where my one change would come in. We didn’t really wear much sunscreen back in the day. We used Suntan Oil or Suntan Lotion. If they had an SPF it was very minimal. I would never buy anything over an 8. My favorites were Bain de Soleil Gelee, Hawaiian Tropic Dark Tanning Oil and Monoi Tiare Tahiti. All three of them smelled so good and can evoke different memories to this day. But, I would certainly be diligent about good sun protection if I could go back and change one thing for teenage me. I love her so much. She did a great job at being a naturally pretty teenager inside and out!
Hi Shelley,
this was so beautifully written, and I share so many of your sentiments it’s weird. I also lived for 3 years by the beach, and although unfortunately I had no access to the wonderful sun tanning lotions you mentioned, I always smell it on the beach – other people used them. To this day, I love perfumes that evoke of coconuts, tiare flower, and salty skin.
Be more gentle with my skin. I had blackheads and acne. Thought if I usedvvrlerybhot water’and harsh soap would clear it up. Actually made it worse. Looking back at pictures., it wasn’t as bad as I thought.
I also tanned in my teen years without sunscreen. I would not tan anymore and use tons of sunscreen.
I only got really into makeup the second half of senior year high school!
1. I’d let her in on my skincare routine – she desperately needs some guidance!
2. When it comes to brows, there’s a happy medium between Sasquatch and Greta Garbo
3. Foundation matching is an art, not a science! And on a related note…
4. Sales associates’ word is not gospel, ESPECIALLY when foundation matching. Don’t be afraid to say you think it looks off! You’re probably right
5. You can’t just wear foundation and nothing else. Just no
Most of my woes were foundation related…
don’t worry about makeup because you don’t need it! but definitely take care of your skin, don’t be lazy about it!! Sunscreen although feels gross, just use it please or cover up. Long sleeves & hats are your sun friend. Find a good skin routine for night & day – research that kind of stuff instead of makeup. a good base will lead to amazing makeup application later on. Yes you were bullied & its hard to feel beautiful & confident but this is just a moment in your life & what you think is important now will not be 5 years from now. there is so much more good coming your way, dont listen to the negative & focus on the positive.
OMG…where do I start?? Take care of my skin, wear sunscreen, YOU’RE NOT UGLY (because I, like you…thought of myself as a duckling until I was about 18-19y/o). Also, do something with those AWFUL eyebrows, I had no clue. And the DARK DARK chola lipstick had to GOOOOO! Even thought it’s back now. Ooh, I was a SIGHT!! ha ha And not a pretty one…LOL. One last thing….blanking out your face w/ foundation and NO BLUSH…is NOT CUTE!! You look like a GHOST w/ stark white face, jet black hair and DARK burgundy lipstick. Oh, the pics are just SCARY!! ha ha ha This is a good one!!! 😉
I wish someone had told me that foundation was to unify YOUR own skin tone not 4 tones darker…and that you could obtain a healthy sun kissed look with a subtle BRONZER.
Sunscreen (with UVA protection) of course and primer. I do not believe primer existed when I was a teenager but it protects the skin. I also believe as a teenager, less can be more. I really like the advice Lisa Eldridge gave about pinpoint concealer and how to apply that. I was fortunate as a teenager and did not have acne but the pinpoint concealer is a great way for applying concealer if you have acne.
start with taking care of your skin ! ( wish i would have known the proper way of cleansing & stuck with it too when i was a teenager so this helps my daughter 🙂 ) …remember makeup is fun, not a necessity ! beauty is only skin deep, and please don’t wear bright blue shadow with bright red lips ( not for me anyways lol )
PLEASE stop using those blue shadows all over your eyes!!!!
Put down the teal eyeshadow and no one will get hurt! 😉
If you want to be beautiful, smile. It’s really that simple. And it’s really that difficult. Happiness is not a destination or a reward. It’s a habit. It’s hard work. But it’s work we can do, and the payoff is better foundation than you can find at any makeup counter.
Stop stripping your skin, oil is not the cause of your acne. Also you aren’t a warm toned person, put down the terracotta blush.
I was a teen in the 80s, so no sunscreens (just zinc oxide, which no self-respecting teen would be caught dead wearing on her nose). Not a lot of makeup options in 1980s Eugene, OR, either, but I had fun. There were some cool drugstore brands that had some alternative colors at good prices. I really don’t think I made any big mistakes for that era.
I’d tell myself: 1) Don’t constantly battle your oily skin; you’re only making it worse. And when you’re older, your skin will look younger than most of your contemporaries. 2) Give up your city-wide search for a blue-based purple lipstick. It won’t happen for a few decades. You’ll save yourself time, frustration and weird looks from makeup counter staff. (I was ahead of my time, I tell you!!! 😀 )
I didn’t wear too much make-up in my teens, only concealer and chapstick. So, my tips:
-get a mirror when you apply tinted chapstick, because it can run outside the lines
-don’t wear cherry-stained chapstick when you have a sunburn on your cheeks, it is going to look worse (clown-like)
-get a separate concealer for your undereye circles and your skin blemishes, because your undereyes are so dark you need a darker shade for them, but that is going to look to dark on your cheeks… (it did look too dark on my cheeks)… also, stay away from cheap stick concealers which are dry…
And my late teen self who discovered mascara:
-if you feel as if you need to put on 5 coats of mascara, just get another, better mascara, because 5 layers are going to feel heavy and smear
I would say to get into the routine of cleansing your skin and using a moisturizer that suits your skin. If you have pimples or acne – get it treated by a professional dermatologist. Wear sunscreen and don’t sunbake. Avoid getting sunburnt. Drink plenty of water, eat healthily and keep up with your sports. Get plenty of sleep.
I started wearing makeup when I was 12 – much to my parents dismay. Always loved it. Get some advice on how to apply properly.
I also meant to say that when I was in Year 9 we had a “free dress” day – in Australia all children wear uniforms to school. The principal of our school. Sister Helen (I went to a Catholic Girls School) was so appalled by our makeup skills (or lack of) that she organised for us to have makeup lessons. I can tell you no matter how sick you were, you never missed Wednesday afternoons. Our year level was the envy of all the others. It was great. Yep, we were told to leave our eye brows alone and we were given great advice. Very forward thinking was Sister Helen.
I’ve read a lot of these & even Christine’s.. So many so worried about how they looked it thought they weren’t beautiful.. That’s what I fear social media is doing to women! For me, I just NEVER CARED what anyone thought and, because of always performing, my life was so focused on working out, staying flexible, making it to lessons, making it to rehearsals & performances, finding those shades two darker and two lighter, concealer for severe allergy eyes, and pulling it together very young w/o worrying HOW I looked. When I rebelled, my creative side struck & rode me until I chose to leave most of the industry. During THAT time, I became fully engaged to observing & modifying, but in my own way.. The places I felt insecure were the ones where I had to accept compliments. I felt it selfish to accept anything kind. I was very hard on myself. So in reading all of these, I feel like telling everyone that they are beautiful & please take compliments! I never expected a sudden illness or anything years after I left.. I’m still involved by teaching but my body & skin were affected in ways that I never understood what that was like until early 30’s, like acne, etc. I thought we were all the same & only hung out with guys so I never knew women were covering it up! And I never also realized what I had when I had it. Humility is great, but I think we all should have done pride in ourselves and filter the sources that can make us and future generations think so negatively about themselves! Thank you, if you read this.
– Stop letting people’s criticism get to you (easier said than done for a teen, I know). They don’t know what they’re even talking about
– BLEND the eyeshadow!
– Check and reapply lipstick after kissing. Don’t just leave it all half gone 😛
– Calm down with the lower lash line eyeliner. It just smears all over the place
You don’t have to wear black eyeliner on your waterline everyday. Other than that, I just tried to pay attention to what looked good for me.
I would tell my younger self ,stop sleeping face down. Wear sunscreen, caps and hats especially on the hot summers of south Texas. And stick to your good eating habits regardless of your husband bad eating habits…lol
Wear sunscreen and consider wearing a hat when you go outside for long periods. I still don’t follow the latter advice as often as I should. Sunscreen alone doesn’t always cut it to keep my skin from freckling.
Also, for some odd reason MAC has never re promoted Pearl Sunshine BP from Barbie loves MAC, so I’d tell younger me that one compact won’t be enough!
My teenage self? Hmm…swatch makeup for a match in indirect sunlight (not the golden yellow light). Use color whenever and wherever you feel like (you’re not working yet after all and your school doesn’t care). I’d teach her how to conceal and correct as well. Lay off the physical exfoliants–it will make your sensitive skin WORSE and more sensitive–use gentle products for cleansing and test only 1 product at a time on each square inch of skin. Go all out with coloring your hair–just get it out of your system. Buy more hats with wide brims and wear sunscreen on hands and decolletage.
-BLEND YOUR EYESHADOW, JEEZ.
-Use proper makeup removers, intended for use around your eyes. Lotion hurts A LOT if it gets in your eye.
-Learn how to use foundation/concealer so you don’t have to awkwardly learn when you’re older.
-Even out those wings.
-Did I mention blending?
-There’s nothing wrong with neutral eyeshadow… please don’t waste money on all those bright colors… (though I did get a significant amount of use out of them, just wish I had been using neutrals earlier. I guess I did things backwards.)
-Sunscreen! Protect that skin before it’s too late.
I was going to say skincare but looking back, I regularly went to a dermatologist to treat acne and followed a better routine than I do now. Other than that, it was all learning. If only youtube tutorials were around when I was in high school lol
Dear 1989 self,
Try not to spray so much Aquamet or Rave on your forehead . I think that may be why you have the teenage forehead pimples or maybe it’s just hormones but either way it’s no good for your skin. You also need to dump the blood red lipstick in the trash, even though your kids will love those photos. Lin 20 years. Start using lotion on your face daily to prevent yourself from looking like a wrinkled mess at 50. Lastly do NOT buy those plastic mane hair clips or scrunchies for the half ponytail.
Start wearing sunscreen year round, not just in summer where you’re out all day. You are way too fair to be out and about without it.
You are NOT unattractive and f*ck anybody who says otherwise.
You may want to look into concealer for those dark circles, but really, you should keep it up with the no makeup look. Once you get into the makeup, it’ll make for a very expensive life.
id tell my younger me..
1) i know you have acne. i know you do competitive sports, ballet, acting, and all sorts of fashiony fun stuff every day all day. please, please find a skincare regime suited to dealing with your skin (oily and acne prone). competent at completely removing makeup (contact lenses have makeup, and the hard lenses i wore were like playing with fire. getting makeup off hard lenses is a SCIENCE!) – one that wont create more of the problem, but one that needs to erase all traces of your day – makeup, sweat, dance class sweat, performance sweat, performance quality makeup….
then instead of waking up in the morning not wanting to face the world with a facefull of bad skin, you can wake up and be HAPPY to apply your makeup creatively- rather than using it to hide your bad skin under the heaviest possible concealers, foundations, studiofix and studiotech, powders etc. if you start with good skin, you dont need a full MASK of face makeup just to convince yourself to leave the house today.
ok skin problem solved. onto the next.
makeup is joy, makeup means you can be whoever you want to be that day i like themes or a starting point. you can do “40’s glamor” you can do “70s disco diva” .. you can create a look based on the sunrise. or sunset. you can create a look based off the oil spill on the pavement all marbled shimmering colors – perfect for a smokey eye with a little uumph!
learn to hone your skills and you can then make makeup happen for any occassion. prom? got it. xmas party? yesss bust out that MUFE 12 color flash case and DO IT! are you a cat in cats? art, art on my face!
but not all life is that exciting. know when it is apporpriate to look like david bowie himself blessed your rendition of ziggy stardust, and know when you need to do something a bit more “conforming”.
presenting your final projects? NEUTRALS are your friend.
daytime classes? dont get too excited youre barely awake (and so is everyone else). Minimal makeup with one signature component, is what i did.
a night out to a nice restaurant? maybe a colorful eye, a bit of shimmer or glitter, a very well done liquid lined cat eye, perhaps a jewel or rhinestone here of there with a downplayed mouth.
a night out at the drag bar with my theater besties? ALL BETS ARE OFF we battle with our makeup to see who used their imagination! paint your whole forehead pink, do bauhaus eyes, airbrush small stars on with a stencil – sky is the limit. just be you, represent your mood , your soul, your energy on your face – because at the drag show ? no one’s going to judge you for going too far. just side eye you if you’ve a) done if better or b) fucked it up so bad …. but then you get the lessons – the lessons from the drag queens, INVALUEABLE PRICELESS, learn from the best.
and now? i am a bartender in nyc. i can literally do anything i want for makeup. and i run with it!! 🙂
Once you were diagnosed with PCOS. Dont then ignore all advice and stuff your face with sugar. You should of taken it on the advice, your spots, hair growth and weigh would of been so much better. Then shouldnt of picked your spots and distroyed your skin. But hindsight is a good thing but i wouldbt have the makeup obsession i have today if it wasnt for all that 🙂
Take better care of your skin! And stop trying to copy the pretty-pretty “It Girls” all the time. You have an unusual face, and what’s “in style” is often not going to work for you. Start learning to love the face you were born with now, instead of waiting until you’re over 30.
I would tell my teen self to stick with the colors that work the best on you. No more deep black burgundy and puce lipsticks. Also, no more frosty brown eye shadow, lipsticks, and lip glosses.
That is great advice, Christine, to tell girls they aren’t ugly!! Feelings like that last so long if you take them to heart and many women (people, really) are still struggling with accepting themselves for who they are. Life is too short to feel ugly and hide!
My advice to myself:
1) Stop tweezing your eyebrows!
2) Don’t get a perm, don’t do it! *facepalm*
Take the time and effort to take care of your skin! Cleansing, moisturizing and using the right products for that awful acne… AND, seriously, stop over-tweezing! lol
My advice to 90’s me , would be a gap between your teeth is beautiful and unique your not weird and there are plenty of fashion models to prove it beginning with Lauren Hutton and present day fashion models like Lara stone and Georgia May Jagger I was always teased and made fun of bcuz of my gap tooth when I was younger so my advised is to embrace your uniqueness don’t try to blend with everyone else stay weird.
Wear sunscreen and don’t sleep with makeup on!!!
“Chill. Out. With. The. Eyeliner.”
My advice to myself would be to use a brush, not a cheapy sponge, to apply my foundation. Also, to just skip the liquid foundation that looked like and oil spill on my grease-face, as well as worn off, and to have invested in the best concealer I could afford, which I actually think I did, but to only use that, once again applied with a brush instead of just fingers or cheapy sponge, in my areas of redness blending well, instead of the foundation and concealer layers piled onto my skin. I should have cleaned my powder puff compact thing even more than I actually really used to or replaced it more often, but cutting out a circle of that plastic part of the packaging that came with the Cover Girl powder I used to use to use the plastic circle to prevent the dirty puff from touching and making the compact powder gross and dirty was a good thing to keep doing. Once again, use a decent powder brush when getting ready and as often as possible instead of the puff that came with the compact… Basically to get a decent, if still small, useful brush collection!
Use more real oil-blotting papers… although toilet or tissue paper was still put to good use. I had, and still have, such a shiny, oily looking, gross feeling, and embarrassing looking complexion. I pretty had zero dollars as a teen for cosmetics and had to beg my Mom for anything I was wanting or felt I needed so maybe I’d advise myself to “Just beg HARDER!” since having decent brushes would have really helped me out!
I did VERY well when it came to SPF, cleansing, exfoliating, treating acne, masks, etc. though, ONLY BECAUSE my Mom WOULD buy those things for me. BUT, if what they say about Biore strips actually making pores worse, I’d tell myself to lay off them and just use the great, yet still cheap, Queen Helene Mint Julep clay mask. I’d probably tell myself to start a bit earlier using an eye cream, for prevention, even though I started using one around the age of 20, which many may consider “too early,” but I’M ALL ABOUT PREVENTION!! 🙂
BLEND!