For fun - what daft things have you done in the name of 'skincare'?

[Feedingthebirds1]

I'm assuming that for most women (and men) during the spotty, blackheady teenage years, washing your face with washing up liquid at least once was a rite of passage .

Did anyone else actually try bleaching the blackheads with Domestos? (). Or anything else that was really crazy?

(My mother could never tan. I'm the same. When she was younger her friend, who went mahogany in the sun, recommended Mum tried olive oil on her skin. Much blistering and burning ensued. Different times...)

Hang on - what did I miss re St Ives Apricot Scrub? I used to LOVE it.

Put surgical spirit on a spot. It stung ...and I smelt of surgical spirit.
Put some of dad's aftershave on a spot. It stung...and I smelt of Old Spice.

Silky mitt-actually worked fine. Putting body lotion on after didn’t.

Oh lord, as a teen I once put neat dettol on several spots then covered them with plasters to ‘keep the goodness in’ 🤦‍♀️

Severely burned large areas of my fave and sat with iced towels for several days.

@Iamthewombat

Remember when Mizz and Just 17 told us to steam our faces over a sink full of hot water, with a towel over our heads, to ‘clean out the pores’? Madness.

Oh I remember doing this religiously, having got it from a special skincare booklet provided by either Miss, Just 17 or Sugar. I think I added herbal teabags or essential oils too.

Also used Immac on my face to get rid of that light fuzz so my foundation would look better. But I left it on way beyond the recommended time, and my face was this scorched, red mess for days!

I also became convinced to the point of distress that I had rosacea when actually, looking back, I was really pale. I used green foundation (ordered from.this goth website) as a colour-correcter... I must have looked like a ghoul.

@GonePenguin

Hang on - what did I miss re St Ives Apricot Scrub? I used to LOVE it.

Using an exfoliating scrub like that is way too harsh for the skin on your face

I was pretty lucky with skin care, I followed my mums advice of baby lotion cleanser then Nivea or Astral. I then moved on to Super drug vitimin e oil every night before bed (loads of it rubbed in), they then added loads of perfume. The only thing I did wrong was had a spate of using spot stuff for my imaginary black heads on my nose, when in fact I have dry sensitive skin.

I tell a lie, I used to bleach my moustache which have me a ginger tash and/or scabby burned skin. Nice.

I was really into some of the super early youtubers like Michelle Phan and Bubzbeauty, so I did the egg face mask and used porridge oats to exfoliate!!!

A friend (ahem) may have used Domestos to lighten her hair.
Used baby oil in her face to get a tan.
Trimmed eyelashes to 'stimulate growth '

Some of these I've done and they worked! Oat face masks are great, fridge-cold cucumber slices on tired eyes are lovely and cooling, and lemon juice used to highlight my already blonde hair beautifully (although the streaks were a bit dry and frizzy for a day afterwards).

My friend bleached her fringe with Domestos and burnt her forehead badly enough to need hospital, though, and the Bodyshop blackhead squeezers never worked.

I rubbed avocado skins on my face and it made my face go pale green. Everyone thought I was ill.

Oh God yes, I've done the Immac in face thing too.

Immac Equals frizzy burnt tash hair, still attached to face plus chemical burns on upper lip!!!

Aged 11, my friend and I shaved our legs and forearms with her stepdad's razor. Stung like hell and we had noticeably prickly arms for a while afterwards 😂

My beauty therapist dyed my eyebrows way too dark the day before my works do. I looked awful.

I googled all different ways to make them lighten up so I ended up rubbing vodka, lemon juice, bicarb, several different shampoos and conditioners and face scrubs into my eyebrows. God knows how they didn’t fall out.

It didn’t work and I ended up having to go really heavy on the rest of my eye make up to try and style it out.

St ives
Steam face, squeeze spots and black heads
Oh i did the toothpaste thing, had it on overnight and rolled out of bed next morning and took dog out for a pee (at end of the street), spoke to a man walking his dog but noticed he looked at me funny, yip toothpaste still on my face!
Sudocrem on spots
Those gradual tanners, never had a good result

I read that Anusol was good for under-eye bags so I bought some. It did nothing!

Oh yes, I remember when fake tan was first a 'thing' it was so expensive too. I bought The Body Shop one. It stunk. It made me so patchy and orange. I was so ashamed of my super white legs. I thought they were so blotchy and ugly. It's strange how as a teenager you dispise so much of yourself. My legs, white as they are, are certainly my best feature.

@Howzaboutye

I bleached my arm hair as a teenager with facial bleaching cream. Ended up with orangy arms. Not a good look!

I did the same to my eyebrows at secondary school. It came out stripy. People said I looked like a tiger I was trying to avoid painful plucking

Looked like a frazzle 😂

The other tip I remember being repeated ad infinitum in those magazines was, instead of paying for make up brushes, go to an art supplies shop and buy top quality paintbrushes instead, they are miles cheaper!

Which was bobbins. I was a keen, although unaccomplished, young artist in the late 1980s and anybody going to an art shop back then, expecting to find bargain make up brushes, would have had a surprise.

It appeared most months, though.

The other thing in the late 80s and early 90s was, everything had to be matte. Everything. Face, lips, everything. We were regularly told which face powder gave the longest lasting matte effect. It feels bizarre now, when everything is about ‘glow’ and light reflection.

I'm old enough to remember when everything had to be bright blue or green - even the mascara!
I also became exfoliation obsessed and felt it was the secret to perfect skin, just like Yasmin Le Bon. That led to basically applying any kitchen condiment to my face. Salt, sugar - it all got rubbed in...

Sun in on my really dark hair, it turned it ginger in big frizzy patches.

Oat face mask used to give me spots

I thought bathing in Dettol would sort my bacne, in reality I just stank of Dettol.

Homemade oat face maks; would inevitably get some in my fringe that I would then attempt to rinse out with hot water and end up making porridge in my hair.