We can all agree that we had some crazy fashion trends when we were younger. Whether it was crimping our hair and showering it with butterfly clips, or only buying dream matte mousse that was three shades darker than our actual skin tone. There was nothing quite like 00s fashion! Whilst at the time we thought we looked like Gwen Stefani’s stylist, we really ended up looking like a patchwork mess with a million different fashion tragedies going on at once.
This clash is probably a result of decades of fashion abuse to begin with. It seems that the previous generations have forged their own, unique paths only to discover that the destination was a lifetime of bad photos due to these mega mistakes that were made. Therefore, there is not much for the rest of the world to go off of and so we have to take what we know and try to sculpt out a new look of our own. The only problem is that we often failed in our attempt to secure for ourselves a fashion history worthy of being idolized for years to come.
Now, we are well aware of our mistakes because they can only be looked upon with pity for not knowing any better. Unfortunately, we never notice these mistakes until it’s too late. Now, they regrettably haunt us and it is clear that our generation was no better than any of those before us, especially when it comes to making these mega fashion blunders:
Here are 30 fashion crimes that we all sadly committed when we were younger.
1. Square-tipped false nails.
We were never willing to splash the cash on getting these nails done professionally when we were younger, so the only way to get around this was to do it on our own.
What you needed was stick-on nails from your local Claire’s or Body Shop. Then, you and your friends tried not to stick your fingers together with the nail glue and tried to stick on the nails for each other. The most embarrassing part was that your mum had to buy the nail glue for you because you weren’t old enough! Needless to say, the things fell off almost as fast as you put them on. You could barely open the front door of your home without losing one!
2. Johnson’s holiday skin.
Most girls in my year smelt of beef and biscuits on a Friday after covering themselves with half of their Johnson’s holiday skin. If you managed to put this on without waking up with streaky legs you were bloody lucky.
This build up tan never really worked, it always left you with streaks in the most obvious places. Not only this, but it was quite clearly an ORANGE tan not the golden brown look you get from actually sitting on a beach. However, a beach retreat wasn’t always an option which meant this was your last option.
3. GHDs.
When everyone went through that phase of dragging their hair back into a ponytail but leaving two disgustingly straight strands, GHDs were the perfect straighteners to achieve that embarrassingly bad look. Hands up if you used to forget to turn your straighteners off most mornings and almost set your house on fire?
If you wanted a slightly different look, and you were a pro with GHDs, you knew how to curl your hair. Although this took the best part of an hour, you really didn’t care.. any outrageous look was great for you!
4. Lee Stafford hair protector.
You couldn’t use your GHDs without first drenching your hair with this stuff. This was fairly expensive but you were willing to pop to Boots to buy a mini bottle of this. It used to smell so nice too!
If you wanted flat, greasy looking hair, then this was the perfect product for you. This really helped you master the classic hair scraped back with two strands hanging at the front of your face.
5. Lancome Juicy Tubes.
Any form of make-up was banned at school, whether it was mascara, blue eyeshadow or lipgloss. However, we ALL owned one of these and took it to school with us. If we ever got questioned on this we always used the excuse that it was just lip balm.
We always used to get one of these in our stockings around Christmas time. If you had the full set then you were automatically ranked as cool. The worst was when you put a ridiculous amount on your lips then all your hair would get stuck to it.
6. Miss Sporty clear mascara.
This mascara was a life saver in school. It was the only bit of makeup you could get away with wearing without the teacher clocking on. This was because it wasn’t your typical, clunky mascara that made all your eyelashes stick together… not a good look.
We all remember the days of buying a tube of this, what a great invention! You also couldn’t wear enough of this when you had it. The Miss Sporty range from Superdrug really was a life saver!
7. Tipp-Ex manicures.
Back when you weren’t allowed to get falsies because your mum said you were too young. So, instead of actually listening in class you decided that this was a much better way to spend your time.
There was so much time and effort that went into getting our nails looking perfect with Tipp-Ex. Did anyone else used to draw on with their pen on top of their Tipp-Ex nails? This definitely brings back some memories!
8. Stripy highlights.
Remember those little box dyes you could get from Boots? The model on the front of the box had lovely natural looking highlights which was the look most of us were trying to go for.
However, we ended up with the less subtle look that resembled a zebra’s coat. Home hair dye kits were never a good idea, however, we never really learnt that these didn’t work out as expected.. especially when you got one of your friends to do it for you. It was bound to end in disaster, wasn’t it?!
9. Thin eyebrows.
Your tweezers were your best friend back in the day. The thinner your eyebrows were the better and you’d make sure you’d plucked your brows to the thickness of one hair…
You learnt to tolerate the pain of plucking your eyebrows, no matter how much it made your eyes water. This was because you had a point to prove that you had the best eyebrows in your year at school.
10. Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse.
This was the foundation to wear back in the day, they only had about 5 shades available, so if your skin didn’t match the foundation then it was tough. I used to walk around with this foundation on – as did every other girl at school.
The one thing wrong was that it was guaranteed to never match your skin tone, no matter how much the adverts on telly tried to convince you. I think we were fooled by the thought of a creamy paste covering up all our blemishes, but instead having to face the reality that it just highlighted those bumps and gave us slag lines.
11. JLo Glow or Britney Spears Curious.
Which one was your favourite? I think we all owned both of these perfumes when we were younger. They were a great Christmas present to give or to receive! There was actually nothing that smelt better than Britney’s Curious was there?
We can all remember the bottle that J-Lo Glow came in, it had a necklace drooped around the neck of the bottle. I think the one thing that always convinced us to buy these perfumes was the adverts that they showed on telly.
12. Belly button piercings.
I wonder how many of us went behind our parent’s backs and got our belly buttons pierced? I’m embarrassed to say I had a playboy piercing in that was completely full of fake, tacky diamonds. We were always sure to hide this from our parents, but when we went to a party there was nothing we wanted more than to show it off to everyone.
The absolute worst was when your belly button piercing got infected.. there was nothing we hated more than this. It was definitely the cheap, tacky belly bars that made them get infected… not a good look!
13. Ridiculously layered hair.
Charlotte Crosby from Season 1 of Geordie Shore is the perfect example of what I mean here. Long extensions with massively backcombed layers were the in thing for a while. Not only this, but that huge thick side fringe also featured for a lot of us!
We know that this look was ridiculously popular… which meant that everyone in the whole school year walked around with the same hair. But looking back we can all clearly see that this look was just awful.
14. Sally’s hair extensions.
They claimed their hair extensions were “real hair” but the hair ended up looking like you had bits of straw coming off your head in no time at all. The colour choices you opted for were always the ones that were nothing like your actual hair colour.
Not only this, but you could always tell when you had hair extensions in because you would see the clips at the back of your head coming out. Basically, everything we did when we were at school was ridiculously embarrassing!
15. Impulse spray in every possible colour.
I think they all smelt pretty much the same, but who cared – we were completely obsessed with these! If I’m feeling nostalgic I sometimes go and buy a bottle and keep it in my bag. There’s no denying Impulse sprays smell good.
The one memory that it always brings back is of the girls changing rooms in P.E. You would have gone through a full can of this by passing it round to each other.. it completely gassed out the changing rooms, didn’t it?!
16. Shimmery white eyeshadow.
Oh lord. Did our parents never tell us less is more? Shimmery white eyeshadow with pink lips was my thing for some reason. I thought I’d dazzle all the boys at my school prom with my makeup, how I was wrong…
The worst thing about this was that it was so irritating when you put it on your eyes. This definitely wasn’t meant for your eyelids and it was such a pain to get it off after a night out. If you wore this on a Saturday night, you would still find bits of glitter when Monday morning came around!
17. Bronzing pearls.
They were usually from Bodycare as well. It was a big tub of bronzing pearls that usually turned you a bright shade of burnt orange. I used to put mine on with the hardest kabuki brush from, I was asking to end up with a streaky orange face really.
If you were ever bored these were so fun to squish in your hands and get everywhere. Did anyone else used to take these into school with them and show off that they has new make-up? These will forever remind me of the 00s and all the terrible make-up mistakes we made.
18. Sun shimmer.
I still use Sun Shimmer even now, I have nothing against the stuff. But back in the 00s before we were told to use a mitt when applying tan we usually used our hands. The resulted in us having bright orange coloured palms and ridiculously streaky legs and arms.
The worst was if you even got the slightest bit of water anywhere on your body… this meant it washed off instantly and left a huge orange splodge on your skin. Definitely NOT a good look! If you were going out for the weekend you spent all of Thursday night perfecting your fake tan to ensure you looked super glam.
19. Body shop hair dye.
Who used this stuff when they were younger? This was a ridiculous craze that we were all obsessed with. I bought a red hair dye from the Body Shop which came in a little packet for 99p (that price and the packaging should have been more of a giveaway that it was crap).
However, when my friend poorly applied it onto my hair it literally turned the colour of a traffic light. The worst part was that it stained every bit of clothing that I was wearing at the time. Not only this but my pillow the next morning was badly stained. All in all, it wasn’t my best purchase and it really annoyed my mum!
20. Glitter.
Ohhhh, how could we forget about glitter? I think we all went to our school disco’s with butterfly clips in our hair with glitter sprinkled all over us. Some of the body glitters were so gloopy that they left a new layer of thick glitter on your skin. Not only did this feel gross but it made your whole body so sticky.
But, we were quickly able to overcome the negatives of this product because the outcome was glorious.. we were completely full of glitter. However, this was NEVER a good shout once you had fake tanned your arms and legs… this combination just ended up in pure disaster.
21. Natural collection sprays.
These were like the cheap version of Victoria Secrets sprays. They were the perfect size to fit in your bag, they did the job and they certainly didn’t break the bank. We always used to buy these from Boots back in the day. These were a GREAT addition to any birthday present if you were looking for something extra.
Which one was your favourite? The strawberry one actually smelt incredible. I think I would still happily purchase one of these to use! The best thing about these was that they used to last an actual lifetime – even when everyone in P.E asked for a spray of yours in the changing rooms.
22. Curling tongues.
Curling tongues were and still are the bane of my life. However, I think this is because I never properly understood how to curl my hair correctly. I liked to think I had my technique down to a tee, but this really wasn’t the case when the outcome was me looking like a poodle.
I think the worst part of these was that you used to burn yourself on them constantly. The struggle came when you had to try and curl the back of your hair before going out. Although this seemed like a good idea at the time, it left you angry with only half your hair up to standards.
23. St Ives face scrub.
Everyone seemed to love this face wash in the 00s. There were two things that were really good about this product, firstly it was really cheap which meant us teenagers could actually afford it. Not only this, but it was also really good! We used to use this scrub daily and it made us feel fresh!
The smell of it was also so nice! I don’t know why we ever moved onto using different face scrubs because we definitely found a really good one to use here. This was definitely a great addition to any cosmetic collection you used to own!
24. Barry M eyeshadow.
That shimmery eyeshadow that used to go all over your cheek when you put it on your eyelids and blinked. It was so dusty that it used to end up going all over your face and ruining the make-up you’d just spent hours doing. But, that didn’t stop us using it every time we went out.
Barry M was absolutely perfect for us because it was so cheap but it was fairly good make-up. We would get the eyeshadow in so many different colours so we could match it up to all of the different outfits we wore. Did anyone else used to try and put it on with their finger when they couldn’t find the makeup brush to apply it with? That ended in ultimate disaster!
25. Bad Girl eyeliner.
If you wanted to look like you’d had a heavy night on the lash, then this was the perfect eyeliner for you. No, I’m joking, well only slightly. It was ridiculously thick so if you put a tiny but too much you ended up looking like a panda.
But, half of us really didn’t mind. There was something that we absolutely loved about the ‘bad girl’ look and this eyeliner just helped you achieve that a little better. It was true that we all maybe over did it with the amount of eye liner we used to put on… yes, we used to draw the thickest line around the WHOLE of our eye. Interesting.
26. Lush bath bombs.
I don’t understand how that shop is still open! Every time I go in, I come out with a pounding headache from the intense bath bomb fruitiness smell. It’s so overpowering and so are the bath bombs. Even the staff there are SO intense as soon as you step foot in the shop!
But, even though the shop is extremely overwhelming, you still manage to go in there and spend loads of money on products you probably could have done without. The bath bombs were the best and all smelt ridiculously nice. We all loved the fact that you used to get these as a Christmas present too.
27. Barry M Nail Paint.
Pretty much most of my EMA money in college used to get blown on Barry M Nail polishes. Mum thought it was getting used on the train… but beauty definitely came before anything else in life. There was definitely a problem because I just HAD to have every single colour they brought out.
I think half the time it was the adverts that they had that made me buy the new nail polishes. Who remembers when the ‘cracked’ version came out? You used to put that over another layer of nail polish and it dried it in a really cool way. Either way, anything that Barry M brought out was added to every makeup collection we had.
28. Body Shop sprays.
Body Shop was amazing until they upped the price on everything and tried to become a cool hipster shop. Thanks a lot. I swear every single Christmas you ended up without about five different presents that were from The Body Shop. Not that we were complaining though because we still managed to get through all the products we got given.
These body sprays were ridiculously good. You could guarantee that all of these smelt amazing. If you needed something to carry around in your bag for a freshen up throughout the day, then this was definitely the one thing you would go out and buy. I think they still make these sprays! The scents definitely take you on a trip down memory lane.
29. So kiss me spray.
I think that every single one of us had this perfume in school, didn’t we? I can’t believe it’s still available to buy! Although this was fairly cheap, it was probably the first bottle perfume that we ever bought when we were growing up. This definitely brings back some funny memories from growing up.
I remember only spraying this perfume when I was going on a big night out. It definitely didn’t deserve to be wasted on any normal day. So, this delicious perfume was preserved for big events! I really want to see what it smells like again because it must hold so many different memories for me!
30. Claire’s hair mascara.
Hair mascara was actually impossible to get out of your hair. We always thought that this was a great product to put in our hair until we had to deal with all of the consequences that it held. Not only did it take years to get out of your hair, it was also a pain to put into your hair in the first place.
When you were applying it, your hair would get wrapped around the applicator and stick to it. This ripped out so many strands of hair and it was such a pain to try and pick off the hair that had wrapped around the stick. Either way, hair mascara always has been, and always will be, a bad idea!
