When my mother was at work, I would delight in experimenting at her dressing room table. Her brown-hued Dior lipsticks were smeared, her Chanel No 5 was sprayed, and her drugstore, multi-coloured eyeshadow palette was spread across my entire face. I looked like a novice clown. Times have changed, but I’m more determined than ever, to relive my childhood beauty routine.
Damage was at a minimum
I once became obsessed with blow-drying my hair. Every few months, my mum would have to travel away for work, and she packed her blow-dryer along with her. Distraught – me and my sister had no choice but to attempt to dry our hip-length hair with a fan. Yes, we thought that would work.
The other hair memory I have, is doing absolutely nothing. Washing my hair and letting nature take its course. No wonder, my hair back then was healthier, shinier and much-longer.
To my teenage horror, this is what I’ve gone back to. This childhood beauty routine of simply washing my hair and leaving it to air-dry. It saves me numerous minutes each morning, and I’m less consumed by split-ends.
Chemicals were less present
I wrote recently about dangers of chemicals in beauty products. The facts I discovered are shocking. The billion-dollar beauty industry is extremely unregulated. The older we get, the more we’re encouraged to buy a wider selection of products.
Beauty items are packed full of chemicals. Unless you opt for natural, you are most-likely applying dozens of chemicals to your skin on a daily basis.
As a child, I stuck to the basics. My main concern was hygiene and protection. How did I allow myself to stock up on bath bombs and self-tan, when I wasn’t applying SPF routinely?
Whilst I still use makeup with chemicals, I’ve tried to simplify my regime. I’m investing in healthier products and avoiding anything unnecessary.
Natural beauty radiated
It’s an understatement to say I was insecure as a child. All I wanted was to look older and emulate glamorous 90’s stars. But I did have to accept my appearance as the only makeup I owned was a shimmer lip gloss collection.
I can’t say I’ll stop wearing makeup or that I think people are better without it. However, I do try to embrace more natural days. My cosmetic routine is sizeable quicker. What was an hour in the morning, is now 20 minutes.
I left my features alone – specifically my eyebrows
I still remember the day I had my eyebrows waxed away. I hated how thick and bushy they were, especially in contrast to my classmates. Thin brows took over my face for a decade. I loved trying to make them look defined and strongly angled.
These past months, I have stepped away from my tweezers. I’m really enjoying just letting my eyebrows grow how they want and not painstakingly trying to fix them to some angled shape.
Another thing I’m now leaving alone is my hair. Cutting it into a bob was an amazing feeling and I have no regrets about going short. But now I’m at a stage where I want my hair down to my hips – I truly don’t ask for much.
Childhood beauty routine – did I have it all figured out back then?
There is something very chic and French about having a care-free, laid-back attitude to beauty. This article isn’t to suggest that we or I should stop being glamorous. I still love cosmetics, treatments and pampering.
But from this piece, I’ve reminded myself that there is a glamour and a beauty to simplicity. With all the pressure to contour and highlight our faces, maybe our childhood beauty routines can remind us to find balance.
How would you describe your beauty routine? How long does it take you to get ready?
When I was younger, I had no beauty routine. My mum didn’t use make up and I was/am the oldest cousin so I didn’t have anyone to learn from.
Now that I’m older, I’m actually getting my mum into make up (a bit) 🙂
I let my hair air dry, I mean, there’s so little of it that it takes about 5 seconds to do so! Then I have pretty much eeeeeverything from Clinique for my face! I’m allergic to so many products, both make up, perfume and body stuff (great english right there…), so I decided to just get what I’m not allergic to and not care about the rest. It simply stressed me out too much. The organic make up I’ve tried has not worked out, I reacted to all of them 🙁
And, you know, SPF ftw! 🙂 I should actually use SPF all year round because my skin is so sensitive…
Oh, and btw, that oufit looks soo good on you!!
Thank you! I really appreciate all your comments by the way!! 🙂
Haha, I realized after a while that I was commenting on all the posts I read from you and felt a bit like a stalker… 🙂
You say stalker, I say a good blogging friend 🙂
I like that better 🙂
So they actually recommend everyone uses SPF all year round because the sun is always out, even if it’s cloudy and you can’t see it. I have been trying to apply sunscreen daily now, but I guess it would feel weird putting SPF on in the freezing cold!
I love air-drying my hair. It looks so much healthier and I don’t get as many split ends. I had the opposite to you. My mum is obsessed with makeup and beauty products, so I grew up desperate to wear it all.
Oh girl the eyebrows! What the H. E. double toothpick were we thinking with waxing our eyebrows to needle points? I swear that is my biggest beauty horror, and it has made lasting impressions, my eyebrows are JUST getting fuller again and it has taken well over a decade! Oy vey! lol. Your eyebrows are gorgeous!
I do agree with going more natural. There are days where I just wear red lipstick and concealer. I have never been one who spends an hour on her beauty routine. Even twenty minutes is asking for a lot from me! lol. <3
Haha! I use to lift up all my eyebrow hairs and then pluck all the ones underneath. I also tried to copy Marilyn Monroe’s eyebrows once and ended up with two thin triangles.
Mine are just getting fuller right now as well! They are still quite spare though in areas, so I need to do some good filling in. I’m actually not wearing foundation to work tomorrow to give myself an extra 5 minutes. 😛 Thank you for reading beauty!x
I didn’t start wearing makeup until my early 20s haha! I just didn’t have any interest in it. I started messing around with it and seeing what I can do more and more, but I do agree that there’s beauty in simplicity. These days, I go minimal. It really does save time in the morning 🙂
Because my mum is a makeup addict, it was really hard for me to not want to wear it. So I started experimenting really young. And maybe looking back at all my makeup disasters, has inspired me to go more minimal. And the fact that I like being able to have time to eat in the morning 🙂