Beauty Advice To My Teen Self ♡

Hey everyone and welcome back! ♡

This is a slightly different blog post because as a teenager I wasn't very good at looking after my skin. Growing up, you tend to push away skincare and cake on foundation. Maybe you exfoliate once in a blue moon and you wash your face a few times a week. So, this is a little note to younger me who never really looked after her skin a lot.

(Side note: be ready to see fetus photos of me and laugh!)


Firstly, I really had great skin growing up, until I was about 12. I had minor cystic acne for about 6 years and I tried lots of different faces washes, antibiotics and scrubs to help it. Nothing worked so when I was 17, I was put on Roaccutane. If you don't know what that is then I made a video on it and you can watch it here.

This was my minor cystic acne which I had for
most of my teen years.

While my skin flared up and I had severe acne for about 6 months, I learnt a lot about finding the right moisturisers and keeping my skin hydrated as the pills dried it out. I found a few good products but, as a teen, I always went with cheap products rather than expensive and worth it. Now, don't get me wrong, drug store stuff can be amazing, but you have to find the right product for your skin, you can't just pick any old one and hope it helps.

Anyway, if you have severe acne then definitely watch my video because I recommend a few good moisturisers and lip balms.

Now onto the things I wish I didn't do as a teen (oh gosh, this is gonna be full of regret!).

This was when my skin was getting better but was
still very acne ridden.

Firstly, here's a common misconception which has been influenced by the film Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. Can you guess where I'm going with this?

VASELINE ON EYELASHES!

I used to religiously put vaseline on my eyelashes when I was about 13, with high hopes that they would grow. WRONG! Vaseline is so bad for your eyes, it clogs up the sensitive pores around your eyes and will leave you with what looks like under the skin spots but you can't get rid of them.

For about 2 years, I constantly put vaseline on my eyelashes, every night, until I Googled it and found out it was a bad idea. The skin around my eyes is so thin and Vaseline is very thick and greasy. I then realised I had those little bumps around my eyes (they're called milia) and I tried to figure out how to get rid of them. In the end I think they went away on their own, but after that I never put Vaseline near my eyes again.

Next is not squeezing your spots. OMG! This is the worst thing ever, I used to squeeze a lot because it was tempting right? When you see a spot come to a head you're like yes, I wanna squeeze it! NO NO NO! It's so bad for your skin. My skin scars badly, especially my face, because the skin is SO thin and sensitive, so squeezing spots is a no no.

If you feel tempted then put some cream on it, I use Sudocrem because it dries the spot out. It'll come to a head and fall out without irritating or damaging your skin. If you're going out and you don't want to walk out with blobs of white cream all over your face then you can find some clear gels/ spot wands which will help. (My favourite one was a witch hazel and tea tree spot wand by Boots, you can check it out here.)

I was about 15 here and you can see the
redness of my skin.

Another misconception is, putting toothpaste on spots. I remember people at school telling me this as it "hands down" worked for them because the toothpaste dried out the spots. Please don't do this, toothpaste is for your mouth and not your spots. Again, the sensitive skin on your face will not like toothpaste being smeared onto it.

So along the same point, you need to listen to your skin. If it feels dry, give it a bit extra moisturiser. If it's feeling rough, exfoliate it. Just listen to what it wants, skin changes depending on seasons, foods, hormones, environment and so many others variables. So you need to listen to it in order to achieve the best looking skin.

As a teen one of my worst habits was chewing my lips. I wish I could tell my teen self not to do that because my early 20s self now has the worst lips, they're so dry and cracked and bleed a lot.

I honestly should have stopped chewing them and put lip balm on everyday because it would have helped so much in the long run. Now, I apply lip balm all the time, scrub them and try harder to look after them generally. Remember, no one wants to kiss chapped lips (unless you're into that of course...).

Lastly, WASH YOUR HAIR! As a teen I used to either wash my hair everyday or didn't wash it for a week. Those are both terrible habits. Washing too often strips your hair of all the essential oils that help your hair and scalp stay healthy. Not washing for a week, well that's just grim isn't it?

I used to dye my hair a lot, especially when I was about 17 up until I was 19 and washing your hair too often made the dye fade so I used to avoid washing it at all costs. That's so so so, gross and I can't believe I used to do that. (I did use dry shampoo though!)

Now I wash it every other day or every 2, and I use dry shampoo or translucent powder when it looks a bit oily. (I'm planning on doing a night routine video on my YouTube channel so keep your eyes peeled for that).

Also, I wasn't as bad at this (thank God!) but, my friends were. Getting you hair cut often. It's much better to get a haircut every 10-14 weeks depending on how long your hair is. It's going to benefit your hair so much and it'll also help you when it comes to styling! Honestly, it's really gross and bad for your hair not to cut it, you're just gonna get split ends that spread like wildfire and ruin your hair and generally just don't behave.

And here is my skin now! BLEMISH FREEEE! (Obviously, I am
wearing a bit of makeup but you get the idea!)

So, to end this post, it's very easy to be lazy with your skin when you're young, thinking:

"Oh it's fine I have teenage skin and it's healthy". BUT, it is really important to look after it even now because you'll 100% regret it when you're older!


Until next time,

Beffy xo