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Beauty problems we didn't have in the 80's

199 replies

DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen · 16/01/2017 18:20

*Pores- no one fussed about open pores,in fact the only place you read about them was in a science paper at school.

*Cellulite- it was just 'dimply legs' if you were a bit fat,then suddenly magazines made it a 'thing!'

  • The right colour foundation- there were only about 3 shades back then and no one made a fuss if you had the wrong one as everyone didGrin

  • No one cared about the damage Sun In and lemon juice did to your hairShock

  • No one waxed their eye brows,we all went at them like crazy with a pair of tweezers!

  • 99% of people had pubes!

I was contemplating this around Tesco earlierGrin

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NotMeNoNo · 16/01/2017 21:53

The main thing was that you didn't have your photo on Facebook or see anyone else's photos. Nothing to go on except the girls dancing in the background of Top of the Pops and Just 17. So it was difficult to worry too much.
Also all tops were baggy so what shape you were was irrelevant.
No thought of straightening hair, the more curly, fluffed up and scrunched the better (I have the perfect hair for this look.)

PollyPerky · 16/01/2017 22:05

Aren't some of these examples 60s and 70s- not 80s!
There were plenty of shades of foundation in the 80s- I was in my 30s then.
Brilliant blue eye shadow etc was more a theme of the early / mid 70s or even the 60s.

I don't recall the 80s being that different apart from the pubic hair thing, some people had perms(on head) and you just had a handbag (black, brown or navy) and it cost about £20. No one bought designer bags unless they could afford Chanel or Hermes.

Dizzybintess · 16/01/2017 22:11

My fave 80s product was glitter gel!

Sidge · 16/01/2017 22:18

I was terribly fond of my Constance Carroll rollerball cherry lip glosses. Made you look like you'd kissed a door your dad had been varnishing.

Also loved my electric blue mascara and kohl pencil.

Didn't have to worry about style too much as long as your plastic earrings matched your plastic bangles.

rollonthesummer · 16/01/2017 22:19

The Body Shop was a cheap place to spend your pocket money and it was rammed with most of the girls from your year filling wicket baskets up with bath pearls!

Walking past, I don't think I've seen anyone in our local Body Shop in the last fifteen years who wasn't an employee!

Floisme · 16/01/2017 22:24

I think the biggest difference was the street fashion.
You could go to the poxiest of clubs and see the most eye popping outfits.
Where has all that inventiveness gone?

MissBeehiving · 16/01/2017 22:25

We all had the most beautiful flicks that were held in place with industrial sized applications of Silverkrin hairspray that took up all the room in your school bag. The hairspray was so thick in the loos that you could cut it with a knife.

St Ives apricot face scrub and those roll on lipglosses.

HardcoreLadyType · 16/01/2017 22:27

Doing Your Colours. If someone asked the 80s me if I was Cool Summer or Cool Winter or whatever season I'd have been confused

I had my colours done twice in the 80s. First time I was a summer, the second time I was a spring. So, that actually was confusing.

MissBeehiving · 16/01/2017 22:29

Tis true flo - I used to buy fifties/sixties dresses from charity shops - never had enough pocket money to buy from real shops!

travailtotravel · 16/01/2017 22:34

Oh god, Constance Carroll - the memories!
I plastered myself in translucent powder which I thought i looked great in. I have seen photos. I did not look great.

Mind, I had to wear a yellow school uniform shirt and it made me look like absolute death - people would always comment on how tired I looked. Now I know about House of Colour and all the stuff, I will not go near the colour - blue based only for me from here on. No more looking like absolute death!

becausebecausebecause · 16/01/2017 23:18

Ah the 80s! Miss Selfridge white compact powder for that New Romantic deathly glow. I still have an old one lying around, covered in lips. Sure I had a dressing gown to match.

Floisme · 16/01/2017 23:24

And young people would have chewed off an arm rather than dress like their parents.

domesticslattern · 16/01/2017 23:28

Yes! I too had my colours done in the eighties. I was told NEVER to wear black by my face, but went on to spend the next ten years wearing nothing but black. With a slick of morello cherry lip balm.
And bras were simpler in the eighties, no? None of this wonderbra nonsense, at least in the first half of the decade.

DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen · 16/01/2017 23:31

Made you look like you'd kissed a door your dad had been varnishing

And tasted like it too!

I don't recall the 80s being that different apart from the pubic hair thing, some people had perms(on head) and you just had a handbag (black, brown or navy) and it cost about £20

Seriously? Every other person looked like Boy George where I lived, we were all so colurful ,we were like walking pieces of art!

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user1471545174 · 17/01/2017 00:08

Makeup was very colourful. I had a shocking pink Constance Carroll lipstick I was very fond of. Don't remember being orange, I was white with carefully shaded cheekbones Grin Lots of black eyeliner on the inside of the lid.

PenguinsandPebbles · 17/01/2017 00:23

Body shop bath pearls... them were the days followed everywhere by the faint hint of white musk or sandalwood.

Having seen a photo of myself with more hair on my eyebrows than I have on other parts of my body these days, gold eye shadow, a puff ball skirt and a very bad perm...

I think I am happy to leave those days behind! I definitely do not look like "art" in that photo Grin and NO I'm not sharing it nobody is ever seeing that!!

DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen · 17/01/2017 05:51

We didn't have to worry about skin care either- we thought if we had Japanese Washing Grains and Anne French cleansing milk we were practically Caroline Hirons!

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Firefries · 17/01/2017 06:01

Ah the 80s I loved the big hair. I remember seeing pics from the 70s and thinking how ugly long straight ironed hair looked. We all made our hair big back then and no one in their right mind wanted to iron it Grin.
These days faces and contouring ... why? Contours were only talked about in geography. What happened that we all became so obsessed with ourselves that people now spend hours putting on make up?

Truckingalong · 17/01/2017 06:04

Bums weren't a thing. No one thought about whether they had junk in the trunk or not!

DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen · 17/01/2017 06:07

Tbf I use to spend hours putting make up on back then but not in a "I'm so wonderful,look at me,I'll put this on Instagram" way. That really is the equivalent of putting on your make up and putting a pic on the Tesco notice board for everyone to fawn over which would've been laughable!

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DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen · 17/01/2017 06:09

I remember a boyfriend making fun of my thigh gap- which was really impressive back then ( bastard!)

It hasn't been seen for a looooong time now thoughHmm

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BusterGonad · 17/01/2017 06:25

Ann French, my sister had it and I loved it, I thought she was so sophisticated, I wouldn't mind some Ann French today. So simple, apply to a cotton pad, swipe and moisturize.

DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen · 17/01/2017 06:28

m.boots.com/h5/cat_hub?unCountry=uk&path=%2Fen%2FAnne-French-Deep-Cleansing-Milk-200ml_1225752 knock yourself out!

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Firefries · 17/01/2017 06:43

Lol at putting your pic up on the Tesco notice board (or up in the Newsagents window - look at my hair, new tan 😂 ). Seriously that would be funny to do today just to help us laugh at ourselves now.

Floisme · 17/01/2017 07:18

Me to MissBeehiving (love your name by the way!) In fact I've recently gone back to it, partly because I'm consciously trying to buy fewer new clothes but also because I'm a bit bored with fashion at the moment.