17 truly unforgivable beauty mistakes you've definitely made in your teens

11 June 2021, 17:12

Selena Gomez does a makeup tutorial

By Jazmin Duribe

We've done them ALL.

We've all been there. You've just reached your golden teenage years and you're ready to play dress up. After all, being an adult is just sooo cool, right? From clumpy mascara to glittery lip gloss and definitely way too much eyeliner, our beauty game as a teenager was never going to be perfect.

Oh well, at least it's hilarious to look back on our past (unforgivable) mistakes. We're older and wiser now, and thanks to TikTok we're never too far from discovering the latest beauty tips, trends and hacks. It's only right that in the name of all things beauty that we look back at our crimes and swear to never repeat them. Here's a list of every catastrophic beauty mistakes you've made probably made in your life so far. But be warned, you will cringe.

READ MORE: TikTok users are drawing dark circles under their eyes in a new beauty trend

1) Over plucking your eyebrows.

Remember when you first discovered the magic of the tweezer and got so hyped about getting rid of that unibrow that you plucked and plucked and plucked and plucked? Yep, we all learned the hard way. 

2) Overfilling your eyebrows.

"Oooh, what's that? An eyebrow kit? BETTER PUT THAT TO GOOD USE!" The only thing worse than over-plucking your brows is over-estimating your personal ability to pull off the Cara. Truly tragic.

3) Wearing foundation that is five shades too light or dark for your actual tone.

Listen, when you're a poor teenager, you're just happy with whatever damn shade and brand of foundation you can get your hands on. And besides, it takes at least three years before the average person finds their perfect foundation shade anyway so... let us live! (Lol, that's not true, I totally just made that up.)

4) Attempting to contour but forgetting to blend.

The only person to blame here is the host of that YouTube tutorial that catfished us into thinking we could pull off a Kim K level contour with the basic contents of our budget make up bag.

5) Doing your make up in the dark.

It's 6am, you're getting ready for school and you're avoiding turning your lights on 'cause the brightness will literally burn your corneas. So you decide it's a good idea to put on your face in the dark. And then you step out into the daylight... Big mistake. HUGE.

6) Overloading on the waterproof mascara.

*does first coat* "Ooh, I love it. I need more!" *does second coat* "Yaaaaas! Lashes for days!" *does third, fourth and fifth coat* "Serving you spider realness all day, every day!" *tries to wipe it off* ".........F*ck."

7) Fake eyelashes

If ever there was a time to be subtle with your make up, it was when selecting your fake eye lashes for the school disco. Did any of us listen to that advice? Of course we didn't. The bigger the better, right?

8) Layering up on the sticky glittery lipgloss.

You always bought the cheapest one. You always felt the need to re-apply every five minutes. You always ended up with it stuck in your hair. 

9) Discovering bright blue eyeshadow and insisting on wearing it to every party you ever went to.

The first thing any teenage beauty addict did when their pocket money came in was head straight to the shop and drop some cash on the biggest, boldest, brightest eyeshadow palette in the world – if it didn't include blue then you didn't buy it. (If you didn't have an awkward bright blue eyeshadow phase then log off and stop judging the rest of us.)

10) Going far too overboard on the eyeliner.

Before we mastered the art of the 'Zero Effort Smokey Eye', there was the 'Teenage Emo Smudge'. You applied your eyeliner so close to your waterline, that half of it was actually on your eyeball. Who cares tho? It was a look. And an iconic one at that. 

11) The fatal streaky fake tan disaster.

If you never dabbled in fake tan then you haven't lived. It was like cheating death every day. One streak and you're out. 

12) Too much bronzer.

Bronzer was the cheapest way to get that sun-kissed look without actually needing to cheat certain death by putting fake tan on your face. It was WAY better than blusher, but overdo it and you ended up looking like you've just spent a few minutes laying inside a toaster.

13) Really long fake ass nails.

The ultimate symbol of being a grown up was sticking on some acrylic nails and going about your day like a boss-ass bitch. You felt fly AF until it suddenly dawned on you that you couldn't actually pick anything up and texting started taking twice as long as normal. An unmitigated disaster!

14) Using Tip-Ex as nail varnish

GURL! Finding a cheap white nail varnish as a poor teenager was the most stressful thing you ever had to go through. Even if your nails looked like they'd just been dipped into a big pot of paint, at least you can seek solace in the fact that you're a resourceful Queen.

15) TOO. MUCH. GLITTER.

Please don't remind me. Thanks a lot, Claire's Accessories. 

16) Using foundation as lipstick

Honestly… what was the point of this? Why would we want our entire face – including our lips – to be one colour. Foundation is not lipstick, I repeat, foundation is NOT lipstick.

17) Applying shimmer eyeshadow up to your brows

Ok, this could make sense in theory. Putting shimmery eyeshadow right up until your brows would make your eyes look bigger and brighter, right? Well, no. In reality my eyes just look like huge disco balls. Whoever started this trend, come outside, we just wanna talk…