by BR Kellie
I've made my fair share of beauty booboos... I've worn foundation like it was a mask, gone out in the sun without sunscreen, depilatory creamed my underarms without patch testing first (officially my BIGGEST beauty mistake - the pain was real), but there are some beauty trends and treatments that you could not pay me to try, beauty trends that have come and gone, beauty trends that I hope never see the light of day ever, ever again. So what are these beauty no-no's? These ultimate beauty fails? These beauty abominations? Read on...
Sunbeds
Fun fact: I was once a dedicated sun bunny. I grew up being told to get out in the sun, to get a tan, that tans made you look healthy. I took those words on board and embraced them. The moment the temperature hit eighteen, my body would be oiled up and ingesting all those UV rays. And yet, despite my ignorance, which became a willing blindness to ignore the facts up until I hit my 30s, I never touched a sunbed. They just seemed wrong. Dangerous. Deadly, even. And yet they became the thing to do, with beauty businesses adding sunbeds into their salons, and people buying sunbeds for their home. Eventually, we were educated on the health risks of the sun and sunbeds, and the season of sunbeds - on the whole - has set. Hopefully forever.
Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge
Want bigger lips? Please don't pop them into a shot glass, then suck out the air. You could cause bruising, break capillaries, bring on long term nerve damage, or you could even break the shot glass and cut yourself. This is one trend that should never have seen the light of day. Frankly, if you want lips like Kylie Jenner's, do what she did, and pay for them.
Deodorant as Primer
I'm all for a beauty hack, but using deodorant as primer is not one that needs to be entertained. Not only do you run the risk of irritating your skin, it can also block your pores, which will send your oil production into overdrive, resulting in blemishes. For the love of all things good, stick to putting anti-perspirant on your pits, please.
Waist Training
We put our bodies through a heck of a lot in the name of beauty - waxing, plucking, electrolysis. So it's not really surprising that at one point people were shelling out the big bucks for waist trainers in the hopes of creating a slimmer, more hourglass-like figure. However, waist training has the potential to damage organs, interrupt digestion, and even cause light-headedness and fainting. Frankly, I'd rather have a bit of a belly than be passing out.
Eyeball Tattoos
Usually we're all about the "you do you" here at Beauty Review, but when it comes to eyeball tattoos - a procedure that, unlike skin-based tattoos, can't be reversed - it's a case of no. It's safer, easier and less-regretful to invest in coloured contacts.
Using Salon-grade Tools at Home
The internet can be the Wild West of the beauty world, giving us the ability to buy salon-grade skin care tools to use at home. But should we? These tools in trained hands can make a world of difference to our skin, however in the paws of an amateur they can cause damage. That's not to say we shouldn't use at-home skin care tools full stop. Those - such as derma-rollers, LED masks and electrolysis machines - that you can buy from reputable businesses like Farmers, Briscoes and the Chemist Warehouse are designed for regular folk, like you or me, to use, and can be valuable assets to your beauty routine. Just always read the instructions, use as directed, and stop if irritation occurs.
Sunburn Art
Much like sunbeds, this trend horrified the heck out of me. Avoiding sunscreening certain areas of your bod in order to create a pretty design once the spot's touched by the sun? No thank you. I don't need a dose of skin cancer with my body decoration.
So, my beauties... What beauty trends do you want to never see again? Did you try any mentioned above... and was it a fab or fail for you? Get chatting below!
Eek, some of these are just horrifying! I'd add one less extreme one... Over-plucking of eyebrows. I always hated the look anyway, but it also obviously wrecked some people's eyebrows permanently. I'm just relieved I was always too chicken to try anything too far out!