3 lifelong lessons we learned from our teenage beauty mistakes

Being a teenager is tough, we all know that. But one of the upsides is that you get to experiment with you look as much as you like. Especially when it comes to hair and makeup.

Of course, looking back now, there are a lot of "what was I thinking?!" moments (more on that later). All I can say is thank God Youtube, Instagram and Twitter weren't around then. Let alone Snapchat.

In a way, I'm quite glad I got to have (thankfully undocumented) mishaps/mistakes/experiments with my makeup and hair, as it means I can think fondly back about them, without the evidence following me all over social media. It's win, win! So let's take a little trip down memory lane and remember all those things we thought were cool and stylish and remind ourselves of a few lessons we learned along the way.

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  • Skinny brows

Yep, everyone had them, even celebrities like Drew Barrymore and Angelina Jolie. Mine were as pencil thin as Craig David's beard, but some of my friends sported the ol' upside-down-Nike-tick look or a little tadpole shape.

What we learned: DON'T overpluck your brows, or worse, shave them. It is very difficult and costly (if you go to a brow specialist) to grow back and shape overly pruned eyebrows. Sigh. If only we'd known...

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  • Chunky highlights and blonde fringes

Think Geri Halliwell in Spice Girls. Now you know that I mean, right? Well, believe it or not, big, thick highlights, and especially the blonde front parting was ridiculously cool at the time. Add in some layering, courtesy of "the Rachel" hair cut inspiration? Now you're cooking!

What we learned: To keep things simple. All that layering and highlighting ends up being pretty expensive. And for some reason, it just makes your hair look greasy all the time. Oh, and you need a whole team of hair dressers to make your hair look even remotely similar to "The Rachel".

Flights of angels sing thee to thy rest Pammie!

  • Brown Lipstick

Specifically Heather Shimmer from Rimmel, or if you wanted to be different, Coffee Shimmer. Again, Drew Barrymore was a fan of this particular look as was '90s pin up Pamela Anderson. If you really wanted to make your lips stand out, the coolest thing to do was add a dark brown lip liner, unblended (that was important!) around the outer lip line.

What we learned: Brown lipstick is ok, but the liner - not so much.

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What other lessons did you learn during your teens?

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