I wanted to write this post to share my top five beauty mistakes with you that I’ve made myself over the years and that I really regret. Inspiration suddenly hit for this post while I was stood in the shower thinking of all the beauty things that I used to do that I wouldn’t dream of doing now! So, here we go with my biggest beauty mistakes!
1. Not protecting my skin against the sun
When you’re young and enjoying life, it’s easy to forget about applying an SPF. During college and uni, I used to love having tanned skin. Granted, it used to mostly come from a bottle, but I’d also sit out in the sun for hours to ‘top up my tan’ and even went through a short phase of using sunbeds despite knowing the risk. I did worry a little, but I was under the misconception of ‘I’m young so I’ll be fine and worry about it later.’ How foolish of me! Thankfully, I soon came to my senses and started to really understand and care about the importance of wearing an SPF and protecting my skin against premature ageing and most worryingly, cancer. It absolutely pains me to see so many young girls tanning their skin to oblivion in the sun. You might not care about your skin right now, but by the time you reach your 40’s and 50’s, you may well feel very differently.
2. Wearing too much makeup to try to feel more confident
During my school years, college years and even some university years, I felt so out of place and like the fat ugly one at the side of my circle of friends. To try and make myself feel more confident, I piled on the makeup. And let me tell you, that makeup didn’t always suit my skin. From unfortunate shades of tangerine to eyes as black as Katie Hopkins’ soul, I was wearing makeup looks that didn’t complement my skin or bring out my best features. Instead, it hid away my fair, freckled skin, made my larger eyes look tiny and squinted and made me look like I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. Which to be fair, I really didn’t. Over time I started to enjoy wearing more natural makeup and investing in more expensive brands that suited my skin better. Today, after learning how to apply makeup properly and what suits my face shape, I can opt for a natural or glamorous look without completely masking the real me. Confidence doesn’t come from what’s above skin, it comes from deep within. Although working on the outside can help a lot, it’s important to feel happy and proud of yourself deep down inside first.
3. Straightening and dyeing the hell out of my hair
My naturally curly ginger hair was always a point of conversation when I was younger. From crude comments to downright horrible remarks, I soon learned that being classed as ‘different’ wasn’t a good thing. For years I fought against the natural wave of my hair, and when my parents wouldn’t let me have any GHD’s, I took to using a curling iron to straighten out my hair (don’t even ask, it was hard work) or begging my friends to use their straighteners on me every time I visited. As soon as I was old enough to dye my hair myself, I did. From dark red, plum, burgundy and almost black at one point, I put my hair through the ringer. Some days, I even wore wigs because I was so desperately unhappy with my natural hair. One day I realised something…there’s nothing wrong with being classed as different and what’s different is pretty unique. So what if I have curly ginger hair? I’m going to embrace it. And so eventually, I did. My hair has been untouched by any sort of dye for around three years now, and although I don’t always wear it super curly as it would like to be, I do make sure to keep some sort of body and wave to it. I invested in good quality hair oils, spent time applying hair masks and treated my hair with the respect that it deserved. Funnily enough, I now get the most positive comments on my hair.
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My hair was always a point of conversation…
4. Not adopting and sticking to a skincare routine
I remember the days where I’d stagger in from a night out, collapse into bed and not move until the morning. I’d wake up with my makeup on my face feeling absolutely disgusting with my false lashes sticking my eyes together in a hangover haze. Gross, right? Long gone are those days and I actually find it horrifying to even contemplate going to sleep in my makeup. My mum used to always follow a strict skincare routine of cleansing, toning and moisturising and tried so many times to teach me the importance of finding a great skincare routine and sticking to it. Her efforts were dismissed until I started to realise something terrible, my mum was (as she usually is) right! Oh no! There’s nothing a teenager dislikes more than admitting that their parents were right about something. Since that terrible realisation, I have made special effort each morning and evening to thoroughly cleanse my skin, tone it and moisturise it and my skin and wellbeing has never felt better. There’s something so refreshing about a good, deep clean for your skin. Trust me, setting aside those extra 15 minutes is well worth it when your skin starts to reap the awards.
5. Not being as healthy and fit as I should be
This was and still is an ongoing regret for me, but the best thing about it is that I’m actively working on it. A healthy body equals a healthy mind and there’s nothing more beautiful than being happy, healthy and completely at ease in your own skin. What we eat has an impact on our skin and of course, on the rest of our bodies, and exercising really helps to give our skin an extra healthy glow. Nourish your body from the inside and enjoy the benefits on the outside too. Eat your fruit and veg, do some exercise and for goodness sake, stop putting so much rubbish into your mouth. I like to balance my healthy lifestyle out with a treat day once in a while where I allow myself to eat something or drink something that I normally wouldn’t during the week. Be it popcorn at the cinema or dessert after dinner – it’s important not to deprive yourself completely.
So there you have it, my top five beauty regrets. I hope you enjoyed reading these and hope that you could maybe identify with a point or two. The most important thing to remember is this: A part of life is making mistakes. The most important thing is to learn from them and make sure that you don’t end up repeating the same mistakes over and over.
© This post is copyright of Rachael Divers 2015.
