I was feeling somewhat nostalgic this morning and started thinking about how my love affair with make-up and all things beauty related began.

I have always been intrigued by cosmetics, especially make-up which seemed particularly full of mystery to me as a child. My mum is very much a soap & water kind of girl. She has never worn make-up, not even on her wedding day (she doesn’t need it, she’s gorgeous), so there was never any make-up lying round and I never really got to see anyone applying it.

Before high school I was really into The Body Shop. I adored the banana shampoo and the kiwi lip balm. My mum wouldn’t really let me wear make-up but I always found ways of sneaking a bit of lippy past her! As soon as I started earning my own money at about 14 (I had a part-time job in a pharmacy… they paid me £2.50 an hr!) my cosmetic addiction really began to take hold. I spent my hard earned funds on Clinique lipstick, clothes from Miss Selfridge and Haagen Dazs ice cream (which I considered another illicit treat).

Some of the products I was obsessed with during my teens:

My signature scent in high school was this beauty from Cacherel. I can’t really remember what it smelt like although I’m sure it was fairly light, sweet and fresh. I wore this ALL the time and got through bottles of the stuff. I have never been as loyal to any other scent since.
This was usually layered over one of these… impulse body sprays. I had a whole collection of them but 02 was my favourite. I remember feeling really grown up using a body spray and thinking that they were somehow cool, something to do with the way they were advertised I think. I’m sure Lynx body spray had the same connotations for teenage boys, kind of like a pubescent rite of passage! My make-up staple was definitely lipstick. I don’t think there was quite as much choice in terms of good drugstore make-up back then but I certainly showed Rimmel a lot of love. I wore a shade called ‘Heather Shimmer’ (which they still make) almost constantly. I also wore ‘Black Cherry’ and Almond Macaroon (which I think was kind of orange… not a good look).

My beauty icons at the time (and we’re talking early to mid 90s) were *cringe* Jennifer Anniston (Friends era), the Spice Girls and Britney Spears! My pierced belly-button is an everlasting reminder of that last one! I wore a lot of brown toned lipstick thanks to Miss. Anniston… my first MAC purchase was something along those lines, I wish I could remember the shade though. Oh and yes, I had THE haircut!
Hmmmmm… how humiliating. Thank goodness being a teenager is just a phase, no?

Loveaudrey xxx