What was I thinking?

Visiting home always seems to result in a trip down memory lane, which would not be complete without a look through the umpteen photo albums buried in the cupboards. Inevitably, the looks sported so many years ago were often ill conceived or just plain wrong.

Examples would include the early foundation days, when for some reason I though Mum’s old tube of Revlon or Max Factor was just the right colour and would serve my purposes well. Yes, I trotted off happily to school with a face like a demented Oompa Lumpa, convinced that a face full of caked on mismatched foundation has just rendered me gorgeous in the eyes of the world. How wrong I was! Thankfully I have since discovered the art of blending and colour matching.

Over the following years the foundation became less offensive, but I was soon to begin experimenting with coloured eye shadows. I should begin by explaining that I am very pale and blue eyed, which means browns and taupes are my friends. Not the 3 shades of blue I sported simultaneously at 18 years old, complete with ... wait for it... silver liquid eyeliner. Oh, the shame! I must have looked like a lost backing singer for ABBA.

This was soon followed with bright purple Bourjois eye shadow, which I discovered to my delight, could be used wet to make it more intense. OMG, the memories of how pleased I was with my new venture into the double shiner look. Lovely!

Naturally, like many ladies of a similar age to myself, I went through the pink lipstick and liner two million shades darker. How ridiculous was that? I loved it, complete with foundation that was packed on so heavily to hide my freckles, I once went through a cream foundation compact in 2 weeks. I thought I was Pamela Anderson at the time, albeit a much less endowed version. I was mistaken.

I cringe now when I recall the disaster that was my first oil free foundation, by NO7. It wasn’t the colour and I had finally learned less is more; it was the rain and a makeup malfunction. I applied makeup and set off down the road for a night out. On the way I got caught in the rain, a pretty heavy downpour as I recall. When I arrived, I noticed there were some funny looks, so I headed into the ladies room to check how much I looked like a drowned rat. To my horror, I discovered I had a stripy face where the rain has washed off my base in streaks and the mascara had run down to replace it. I looked like a vertically striped tiger. No wonder there were looks.

So, ladies... fess up... what have been your make up disasters. I can’t be the only one here. Confession is good for the soul and all that :D