© Mart1n
Sigh … beauty regrets. I sure have them. You know all those little secret behaviours we engage in, the things we shouldn’t do but still did anyway? Or perhaps it’s something we don’t even know is bad for us yet still indulge in?
For example, let’s talk about bright blue matte eyeshadow. I didn’t know I couldn’t pull it off until I saw myself in pictures much later. Or that I should have left my eyebrows to the experts instead of trying to tweeze them myself and ending up with a big hole in the middle of an eyebrow? Now you know what I mean by beauty mistakes and regrets?
I’ve made a lot of beauty mistakes in the past. Some I didn’t even know were wrong, some I knew were so wrong but I still did them anyway. Here are 3 of my biggest beauty regrets.
Rubbing my eyes so much, I developed premature fine lines
I grew up listening to my mum nagging me about not rubbing my eyes. “Girl, stop rubbing your eyes! You’ll get fine lines!” and she’ll smack my hand away. Try telling that to a 10 year old girl about fine lines and she’ll think, “what are fine lines? I’m not like you. You’re old and I’m still so young!” Yeah, well, that girl is regretting it big time now because 20 years on, hello fine lines below the eyes!
Me in my favourite monkey PJs 😛
Like any other woman in her 20s trying to discover herself, I had my high and low periods in life. During the low times, I remembered crying so much that my eyes would be horribly swollen the next morning. With all the crying and rubbing of eyes, the premature fine lines started to grow. By the time I was 26, I had already developed the severity of fine lines as shown in the picture below.
It’s scary and a very bad habit I’m still struggling to get rid of. She’s still smacking my hand away any chance she gets when my hand even dares to go near my eyes.
Not starting on sunscreen early
Even though I banged on a lot about wearing sunscreen religiously, I didn’t actually start using them regularly till I was about 23. I’ve just started working then. I didn’t wear any makeup to work, not even tinted moisturiser (an ex-colleague, who’s a dude, once commented “Why don’t you wear makeup to work? Your face looks dull“. If I hadn’t just started my job back then and wanted to make a good impression, honest to God, I’d have socked him a good one. :P)
Anyway, back to the sunscreen story. Before I started using foundation to work, my mum gave me her tube of Clinique City Block and told me I should start wearing that. It was a tinted sunscreen and even though I hadn’t used foundation yet, it worked in not only protecting my skin from harmful UV rays, it also evened out my skin tone. Still, by then I’ve already unsightly developed sun spots on my face and body. My arms have slightly dark patches on them, especially near my shoulders. If I had worn sunscreen in school (I engaged in a lot of outdoor activities), I may have been able to prevent them.
We had awfully thick and smelly Coppertones back in the day, which is why I’m very glad sunscreens nowadays have evolved to much lighter formulae that suits even toddlers. It’s a very good thing to start on sunscreen early in age. When it becomes part of your beauty routine, you’d wonder why you didn’t use sunscreen earlier.
Eyebrow embroidery: the 2 words that leave a nasty taste in my mouth
I highly regretted the day I stepped into a beauty salon in Penang that was advertising eyebrow embroidery. For those who aren’t familiar with eyebrow embroidery, it’s like tattooing your brows but with a semi-permanent effect. Eyebrow embroideries are meant to fade over time and are meant for those with very thin, barely noticeable eyebrows who do not want to have to constantly fill in their brows with an eyebrow pencil.
Please excuse the unkempt eyebrows. For the sake of the topic, I decided not to groom them first.
I can’t even remember why I went for it in the first place. My eyebrows are already naturally thick yet I had them shaved to thin lines on my face and had the beautician “embroider” over them. The first time it was done, it didn’t look half bad, which was why I went there again after a year to get it “touched up”. This was when the beautician extended the length of my brows and made them look unnatural.
It’s been almost 4 years since I had the second eyebrow embroidery done and as you can see in the pictures, the damn lines are still there. My eyebrows have since grown in and retained their natural shape. Unfortunately, the lines extended out of my eyebrows and whilst you cannot see them clearly from far, you’ll be able to see odd brown lines sticking out of the outer corner of my brows.
I cannot believe I used to recommend eyebrow embroidery. What an idiot I was. The thing is, if you fill in your brows with eyebrow pencil/powder and make a mistake, you can always remove the makeup and start again. When the shape of the eyebrows are embroidered wrongly, you’re pretty much stuck with it for years. I’ve discussed this issue with eyebrow experts and even they can’t tell me if this is going to fully fade. I’m going to have to deal with the blasted lines for a long time.
That’s 3 of my biggest beauty regrets, the things I wished I didn’t do or did sooner. I have a lot more but I’ll save them for another day. Ahh how the beauty blogger has fallen, eh? 🙂
Do you have any beauty regrets? Anything beauty-related that you wished you did or didn’t do?
Other than the eyebrow embroidery, I’m quite guilt of the other two. I wear contact lenses for long hours, and my eyes get itchy. I know I shouldn’t rub them, but I can’t help it. And talking about sunscreens. If I have kids, I’m going to get baby formula sunscreens and have them wear it starting young. For all those years of me going under the sun without proper protection, I totally regret it.
I’m so glad there are heaps of baby formula sunscreens now. They’re so gentle and great on adult’s skin too! 🙂
Your 1st and 2nd mistakes are my biggest regrets as well — especially #2. Growing up, I was a notorious tomboy who believed herself “better” than other girls, and “proved” it by going out of her way to not take care of her appearance. My mom would always remind me to wear a hat when going out, to sit in the shades, etc., but I always ignored her.
I’ve only started using sunscreen two years ago, and the damage is already done: my face is 2 shades darker than my neck and there are spots of dark pigments all over my cheeks, both sunspots and acne scars that never went away due to excessive sun exposure.
Though overall, I’d have to say I regret just not taking care of my skin in general. Up until 2 years ago, the only thing I ever did for my face each day was washing it with water (and I’m in my mid-20s now). Looking at friends with flawless skin, I’m always wondering if I could have that, too, if only I had started earlier.
Better late than never, Emy. You mentioned being in your mid-20s, which means you’re still young! I kid you not, skin does start to look better lates 20s to your 30s. At least that’s what I see in a majority of my friends who only started their skincare regime in their mid 20s.
You’ll be all right! 🙂
Ouch, you have the same mistakes as I have by not applying sunscreen early enough and rubbing my eyes a lot. I have fine lines and freckles! Oh so sad:(:(:(
My biggest mistake is squeezing my pimples and it creates scars. I regret it. I hope other girls avoiding it. Btw, thanks for sharing your beauty regrets:):)
My pleasure Damaris. Yeeouuchh I know about squeezing of pimples. The area around my nose is an example of it too 🙁
I regret sunning my face in my teens and early 20s, now I have pigmentation, also smoking in my teens/early 20s, worst beauty regret everrrrr!
Thanks for sharing your beauty regrets, Jade. 🙂
Oh wow such a honest post! And I would have wanted to sock that ex colleague too, hahahaha! Before I even read what you wrote I though ‘argh! Punch him!’.
On a side story, I once decided to be fresh faced because I actually prefer the no makeup look. Sadly I was told by so many people, ‘are you ok? You look sick/tired/unhappy’. Geeze people. Thanks. Lol!
I regress… Im so sorry about your brows! 🙁 I can only imagine how frustrating that must be. Someone once recommended it to me because it was so ‘awesome!’, and learning from your story I’m glad I never went through it with. On the plus side, I’ve never noticed the lines till now!
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I KNOW, RIGHT?! That guy didn’t know me well, I barely even talk to him at the office yet he had the audacity to say that. I’m quite embarrassed to say that a year after that, we went on a couple of dates. 😛 😛
Lol Tine! Ah the things we do for love 😀
I can relate to the sunscreen one! Due to my skin type (Nth Euro) I have a lot of freckles and moles around the place. I do usually wear an SPF day cream but if my skin is playing up I have to go SPF free as it can aggravate my skin more.
The worst thing I ever did was not speak up until it was too late as a teen at a very pricey ADL hairdresser. I wanted white blonde hair and a hair cut like Delores from the Cranberries ~ they put bleach direct onto my scalp and under heat. NEVER let a hairdresser put hair treated in that way under heat. Long story short, my scalp peeled off and I’ve had psoriasis ever since. 🙁 I’m lucky in that my hair can tolerate colour now but always no heat!
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Bleach and heat?! OMG! I’m so so sorry to hear that, Sarah 🙁 Your hair looks great now but I’m sorry you had to deal to psoriasis. The hairdresser should have known better >.<
Tine, I was actually doing the first two mistakes that you mentioned even though I know it’s bad for me. Unfortunately when I realized about the seriousness of not putting the sunscreen, my dark spots start to develop as well. That’s why now I’m trying to find anti dark spot serum for it. But I guess it’s a bit too late. So prevention is always better than cure.
Nah it’s never too late, Michelle. You’re still young! Worst case, just laser the dark spots off 😛
I was also one of those eye-rubbers! I had this bad habit of rubbing eyes whenever they go itchy and I rubbed hard. I only came to my senses when I had these realllly deep lines when I was 19. (mortified me till no end) Since then, I had this mantra whenever I need to rub, ‘Don’t rub, don’t rub, don’t rub’. And my second beauty related regret (more like lifetime regret) is that I did not look after my weight and ballooned up. I have great difficulty to shed those pounds and when I do, stretch marks made their way into my life. 🙁
I feel so sorry for you about the whole brow embroidery episode. I remember when everyone used to rave about them and told me to get it as well ( i have a set of sparse brows that everyone feels sorry for, don’t quite understand why…). I was contemplating in getting them done but then, I saw my aunt who had it done and it just looked beautifully fake. I didn’t want to get that and left my brows be. Few months later, her brows sorta faded and left this really brownish-purplish stain. :s
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Yikes! Yeah I wouldn’t recommend eyebrow embroidery now either. I can’t believe I used to tell my friends and family to go for it. If it’s done nicely, sure that’s all right but if it’s not, then you’re stuck with it for YEARS. If I were to continue to keep my eyebrows according to the embroidered shape, I would have quite a perpetually surprised look. Ugh. Don’t do it.
Hear hear.
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I can relate to the sunscreen one too,I started it very late I am in my early twenties and I have a few dark spots on my cheeks 🙁 I have tried so many things but they are still there I wish I had started using sunscreen earlier.
My another regret is not using a scrub earlier I started it almost 2 years back I exfoliate my skin once a week and my skin has improved a lot I wish I started that earlier too
You can actually exfoliate your skin up to twice a week if you use a gentle scrub. Hello smooth skin! 🙂
I used Clinique City Block as my starter sunscreen & tinted base makeup too!!! Not far behind you though.. i started at 19.
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Hahaha great minds think alike! Or you and my mum think alike 😛
I have quite thick eyebrows, but I’m super wary of letting anyone mess with them, just in case. >_>;; The day I go into a salon and see someone working there with nice (as opposed to invisible) eyebrows, I’ll get mine fixed up.
I’m definitely guilty of rubbing my eyes. ;_; Must try not to. Bah.
… I hope I’m not guilty of the blue eye shadow faux-pas. I thought I could pull it off too. 😛
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Thick eyebrows are beautiful. Don’t mess with them! 😛
I started sunscreen MUCH MUCH later than you, my dear! But thanks for sharing! I contemplated eyebrow embroidery, but thankfully didn’t succumb.
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Don’t go near eyebrow embroidery with a ten foot pole!
Before i did the 6D eyebrow embroidery I asked them whether the color will change to red, green after sometimes. They say it won’t only color will fade off to lighter color and look empty… So i did it. They are liars!!!!! But now after 1.5yrs I regret my decision !!! The color turn red!!! That’s real ugly!!! 😪😢😩 Now i have to spend more time to draw my brows to cover tbe ugly color before i go out😩
I also seek advice from other brows consultants, they recommend that I do the embroidery /touch up but I am very skeptical of going for the touch up/embriodery, i am worry it will leave a even deeper or ugly scar mark on my brow… I’m not considering laser to get of it as well as I am afraid of scar marks, pain, etc….
So now I am praying the red color to fade off quickly in times to come…..
Thanks for this honest post. Now I understand why a brown line appears at the top of your eyebrow whenever you do FOTD posts. I actually thought it was due to not drawing your eyebrows properly. Lol.
My biggest regret was using sunscreen only in my early thirties. When I started working after college, I relied on moisturisers with a SPF of 20-30 because I thought that was sufficient. I only realised later after going for facial how wrong that was. The cause of not wearing sunscreen earlier is that my face is one shade darker than my neck. Sigh. Wearing foundations becomes so tricky due to this factor.
I am wearing sunscreen with higher SPF nowdays and I do notice that I am getting fairer. Hopefully my face and neck would eventually be the same shade.
OMG how embarrassing. I actually wish I can say I drew my eyebrows wrongly because then someone can teach me to do it better. I’ll be able to remove it and fill it in properly. Now I’m bloody stuck with those godawful lines 🙁
A suggestion for brighter skin: use products with Vitamin C. They’re not bleach or anything so they don’t lighten your skin that way but it does brighten your skin, giving it a much healthier glow. Try Kiehl’s Clearly Corrective Dark Spot Solution serum or any other Vitamin C serums (preferably over 10% of Vit C). Good luck!
hey Tine….my worst ones are rubbing eyes and not using sunscreen for sure!! i started on it just 2 years religiously and imagine i was given sunscreen when i was like 13 or 14!!! but, then, they were gooey and who really cares for all that! oh yes, i pick on my skin which is another hugeeeeeeeeee sin!!!
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Hahaha back then, sunscreens were AWFUL. Thick, greasy and very smelly. No wonder we didn’t want to use them back then 😛
Thank you so much for your honesty.
I’ve been seriously thinking about eyebrow embroidery for my virtually non-existent brows (my biggest beauty regret – over-plucking), but I wanted to be sure of all the pros and cons of doing this before I made an appointment.
Reading your post has finally convinced me not to pursue eyebrow embroidery. It would be absolutely wonderful to have full and natural looking brows all the time, and I’m waiting for the day when a method comes to light that achieves this without the unfortunate brown-fade marks.
Actually, what I’m really, REALLY waiting for is the day when I’ve accepted myself enough to not even be interested in ‘beauty’ remedies like eyebrow embroidery.
Here’s to investing in building strength of character and confidence.
I understand the temptation to do it. Heck, I even told my mum to do it and she did. I should have kept my mouth shut. It’s far easier to draw in faint brows the way you like than having them tattooed on the way you don’t like and ending up stuck with godawful brows for years. My embroidery marks are still there, many years later 🙁
Good luck!
Hi Tine,
Do you think the procedure has advanced significantly since you first time you had eyebrow embroidery done that it might now be ok to do it, especially with the more realistic 3D style?
I must admit, I am still tempted to give it a try, but am nervous at the thought of it.
Thanks.
V
Hi Vanessa,
To be honest, I don’t know. I don’t intend to ever do it again so I can’t say from personal experience that the procedure has improved significantly or not. My mother had hers done recently and to be honest, I didn’t like it. It made the brows look unnaturally dark and too arched. Mum wasn’t too happy about it either. 🙁
I’d say research the heck out of it. Most importantly, when you do get it done, make sure they do a “test brow” on you first. This means that they’re draw and fill them in with an eyebrow pencil to make sure you’re fine with the shape, etc before they begin. The ones in Malaysia, at least from the ones I’ve seen, tend to make them very arched and pointed at the ends. Just be aware that that look can make you look perpetually surprised.
Good luck!
omg thanks for the warning about eyebrow embroidery. Every other blog post states that it would fade unlike the old technology which left the aunties with blue eyebrows. I thought of going for eyebrow embroidery as it would be cheaper than using eyebrow mascara and pencil in the long run. After seeing your post, I don’t want to go for it anymore!
A few weeks ago, a reader emailed me with a sad story of how she absolutely hated her eyebrows just a few days after she’s had it embroidered. She asked me how long it took for mine to fade as she really wanted hers gone but I’m so sorry to have to tell her that to this day, 7 years after I’ve had mine done, the lines are still there. They’ve faded significantly but they’re still there, a daily reminder to never, ever do eyebrow embroidery again and to warn people against them. Like you, I thought eyebrow embroidery would save me the time of having to get them tweezed and shaped monthly but it’s not worth it if it’s done badly. Having said that, I’ve seen eyebrow embroidery done well so I guess it’s not 100% evil, but it’s definitely something I would never go for again. I really wouldn’t recommend it to you either. The shape of your face changes over the years and you can always get them easily re-shaped to fit your face structure.
I just done eyebrow embroidery, I’m so regretted.