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18 Makeup Mistakes Everyone Made as a Teen

You know you loved that glittery bronzer.

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One of the most fun things about being a teenager is discovering and playing around with makeup. And one of the most fun things about being an adult is looking back and remembering all the ridiculous ways you made your face up when you were younger.

1

Using frosted shadow to get oh-so-shiny eyelids.

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In theory, it makes your eyes appear bigger. In actuality, it makes you look like you belong in a cheerleading competition. And unless you were a cheerleader in high school, this probably wasn't a good thing.

2

Sweeping bronzer all over your face.

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Sure, it's safer than hanging out in a tanning bed or laying around in the sun, so naturally, we all thought it was a great idea to load it on our cheekbones, foreheads, chins, noses, and necks. Our punishment: Looking like carrots.

3

Penciling in your eyebrows with one single line.

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Be honest: We have all messed up our eyebrows at some point. Let's all hold hands and pray for those poor, sad brows. Amen!

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4

Using the sponge-tip applicators that come with your eyeshadow.

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Why are companies still putting this in eye shadow compacts? Now we know better, but nobody told us anything about makeup brushes when we were a kid — and these tiny things seemed like our only option for pretty eye makeup. Albeit, badly applied eye makeup.

5

Wearing dramatic colored contact lenses.

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This seemed like such an easy way to get a totally different look — and it was! A really creepy, unnatural look that wasn't remotely believable, especially in photos. Your mom was right, these looked awkward.

6

Showing off a visible foundation line.

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When you were a teenager, you were just happy your mother bought you your own concealer and powder. What she didn't tell you is that this "base makeup" wasn't exclusively for your face — you still needed to blend it down your jawline and neck. Thanks mom!

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7

Experimenting with acrylic nails.

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Every middle schooler eager to become a "real lady" wanted a pair of these elegant talons — until you realized they're actually uncomfortable and impractical in every single way. Bonus points if you had these with a French tip.

8

Applying thick kohl liner all around the eyes.

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Black eyeliner! What teen wasn't obsessed with this totally rad look? And we're not talking strategic gaps or angled cat eyes, either. Just a black ring around the eyes, the way the Egyptians intended it.

9

Dropping your allowance on giant makeup palettes.

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When you were a kid, buying one of those 100-eyeshadow palettes from the department store for $20 seemed like such an amazing deal. But then you quickly realized that all the colors were just translucent, slightly tinted shades of beige that wore off in about half an hour. Um, not cool.

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10

Going wild with glitter.

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Glitter in the hair, glitter on the nails, glitter below the brow, and on the cheekbones, and in your lip gloss. Glitter was everywhere in the '80s, '90s, and 2000s. If you grew up in the past 30 years, you simply couldn't escape it.

11

Caking on the opaque blue eyeshadow.

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While thick blue eyeshadow can be worn well, let's be real, none of us did it right when we were teenagers.

12

Overdoing it with gooey lip gloss.

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Did your younger self ever think, If I wear lots of lip gloss, people will want to kiss me? Don't worry, you weren't alone, but as your adult self now knows, this is not true — nobody likes to kiss someone wearing globs of lip gloss. Seriously, why did we subject ourselves to a makeup product that made our hair stick to our lips nonstop?

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13

Swapping normal nail polish for press-on nails.

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The perfect nail art in just a few minutes with minimal work on your part? It sounds almost too good to be true! Because it was. It was way too good to be true, because these always looked far too awkward to be real.

14

Picking the wrong foundation color — and using it anyway.

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Too yellow, too pink, too light, too dark — we all kind of went with whatever drugstore foundation seemed reasonable. And if it wasn't a perfect match, we just used it regardless because hey, nobody will notice, right? Big mistake.

15

Overloading on the mascara.

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One layer of mascara? Awesome. Two layers? Absolutely! Middle school logic: OK, so why not five? Because spider lashes. That's why.

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16

Slathering on the self-tanner.

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"I just need a little glow," you insisted just before summer break started. Two weeks and a bottle of self-tanner later and you were basically an Oompa Loompa.

17

Applying your eyeshadow up to your brows.

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Eyeshadow has "eye" right in the name, so naturally you thought that meant your whole eye, right?

18

Using Wite-Out as nail polish.

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Even if this wasn't your school supply weapon of choice, at the very least, you probably colored in your nails with a Sharpe. Call it "primitive nail art" — it sounds better.

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Sam Escobar
Contributor

Sam's enthusiasm for makeup is only rivaled by their love of all things relating to cats. In their spare time, they enjoy watching scary movies, putting avocado on everything, and seeing how many shades of the rainbow they can dye their hair before 30.

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