Vault

Max value reached

Adding this item would put you over your total vault limit of $250. please review your cart to stay under the limit.

Remembering Your First... Unforgettable Beauty Rituals!

12 July, 2018 - 07:11pm by - Head Pixie | 21 Comments

By BR Kellie

There's nothing quite like your first time...

Heads out of the gutters, ladies! I'm talking in the beauty sense! Things took a nostalgic turn in BRHQ recently as we wandered down memory lane, recalling the tentative steps we took in the beauty world. The things we tried that lead us to become our beauty loving... okay, obsessed... selves.

So what were the rituals we dipped our toes in before diving in? Read on...

The first shave. Okay, I now have Rod crooning in my head - 'the first cut is the deepest...' The first time you shave your legs is like a step into adulthood. Shedding the baby fur that kept your leggy-loos warm through your childhood. The first time you swipe your hand over smooth skin is unforgettable. I am woman, hear my furless legged self roar.

I feel like young women today have it good. When it comes to applying their first foundation they have YouTube. They have beauty gurus. We had teen girl mags that didn't really tell us much of anything. We had no knowledge of swatching. We had demarcation lines and pancake application... BUT, we thought we were fab. Which, of course, we were. Until we looked back and realised we were doing it wrong. But at least we all were...

Hands up whose first hair colour was Sun In? That bottle of lightening liquid turned our mops into variable shades of blonde, strawberry blonde, possibly even a touch red. Just spray and sit in the sun, or hit your head up with the hair dryer, and you were on your way to an beautiful, natural *cough* shade of blonde. Bliss. 

The first eyeliner. If it wasn't thick and black and rimming the inner and outer parts of your eyes, you were doing it wrong. As for using eyeshadow to create a smokey line? Well that was just crazy talk.

Oh to look like a golden goddess! Evenly tanned from top to toe. No strap marks or patchy areas to be seen. Self-tanning seemed like the ultimate way to get that sophisticated 'just be on holiday at a fancy tropical resort' look without having to spend the money, or sit out in the sun all day, or bare your bare bum to a complete stranger at a salon. Nobody tells you though about the discoloured ankles and knees. The yellow palms. The streakiness... Once done wrong, never done again. OR, done much more carefully the second time round. 

Which leads us to... The first spray tan. If you're anything like me, you gave up on self-tanning. But, one day, you find yourself off on holiday and you want to step out in your swimsuit with a tan already plastered to your body. So you book in for a spray tan and quickly discover that it is possible to hit new heights of humiliation. Between the paper g-string, the getting your girls out in front of a complete stranger, and doing a slow version of the robot in order to ensure every part of you is getting a good colour on, it's a moment you'll never forget... even if you want to.

'Take your top and your bra off and lie face down.' Not to be mistaken for a line in a really bad romance book, this is how we're so often introduced to our first massage. Chances are, you've never taken your bra and top off in a strange room for a stranger before. Will they see side-boob? Will they judge back pimples? Will they... and then they begin working out the knots in your back and you suddenly stop caring.

Do I talk? Do I not talk? Do I keep my eyes shut? Do I open them? Is taking a nap okay? Ah, the questions posed by the first facial. Once you've found a therapist and worked out your groove though, you go back again and again and again, and sometimes it'll develop into one of the most meaningful relationships of your life.

So there you have it... the firsts we'll never forget. So our beloved beauties... now's the time to tell your stories... what were your first experiences in the beauty world like? Embarassing, awkward, mistake-ridden, dear to heart? You know what they say... sharing is caring!

back

Comments

Please sign in or register to add a comment.

18th October, 2022

I remember my first lipgloss from the dairy! It made my lips so shiny but would end up on my chin. My aunty would put her bright "party pink" collection on lipsticks on me - loved this time with her as a kid

5th August, 2018

My first tanning! Omg it’s stuck in my memory forever! Bang on with this one x

3rd August, 2018

Ahahaha this made me laugh so much! I remember literally every one of these moments. A single stroke of $2 Shop liner along the bottom of my eyes was my go-to glam look :-P

22nd July, 2018

How could one ever forget about that ghastly DYI product Sun In.My hair was like straw after using that many many years ago.That would have to be one of the worst ways I had ever tried to make my hair lighter as I was naturally brunette.It certainly didn't look great after using that and sitting hours in the sun listening to my walkman ,it came out very yellow/ginger toned.

17th July, 2018

I really had to pack on the foundation as my acne was awful I often got the colour wrong or it oxidized as no primer was used I didnt know about it I am not sure it was even a thing. I think we all recall our first waxing experiences. I trained as a beauty therapist and my partner went home sick plus she never really participated in that part of intimate waxing I think she found it too akward and the teacher and others had to do it I felt pretty embarrassed as I lay on the bed for so long but it was really nice that job got finished not half done it just took a long time as we were all students

15th July, 2018

Holy moly sun in lol Yeah I remember that fondly .

15th July, 2018

My first hair color was SO horrible. Hahaha I just came back from the beach and wanted to color my hair with highlights to match my tan and it looked so tacky omg. Horrible!

13th July, 2018

The first time my sister shaped my brows. It was before bedtime and she decided to shape my good brow and tweeze it thin then she decided she was too tired to do the other one, to make matters worse the next day I had to go take a photo for my ID. I remember the thing in the pic that stands out most is my brows. Yep I took my black eyeliner/brow pencil and colored them in to make them match, the rest of my facial features sink into the rest of my face since I was into the most natural makeup which turned out to be like hardly anything especially in photos.

13th July, 2018

I've never had a spray tan. I'm a spray it myself kinda girl. Discovering the tanning mitt was a godsend though.

13th July, 2018

The first time I shaved my legs ... haha, it took 3 disposable razors (with Mom supervising), because the “fluff” was so thick and long that it just kept clogging the razors and making them blunt. No amount of rinsing helped. Never mind the fact that it took around 45 mins. I’ll never forget that memory. Also, the very first time I went swimming after having shaved my legs - the water felt so weird!

13th July, 2018

My first brow shape from my natural bushy ones to fleek thin ones as a teenager. I forgot how much of my face it took

13th July, 2018

I remember my first eyeliner, because I was still living at home, and I vividly remember my dad looking at me (I did also have one of those spectacular mini tube skirts too!) and he said "...you can go back to your room and take that mess off your eyes, you're not leaving the house looking like that" … to this day he still hates me wearing eyeliner, and not a fan of red lippy either haha.....

13th July, 2018

The first time I shaved my legs shall I say I borrowed my mother's shaver and proceeded to shave my legs dry and wondered why they were itchy lol well I didn't know to use soap he he he. A friend and I loved colouring our hair with Glints by Clairol, we loved those brighter colours.

13th July, 2018

I'll never, ever forget the first time my Mum plucked my eyebrows. The torture! The agony. The teary, running eyes with each hair. It took hours I swear it. So then I tried to discover an easier way. Hair removal cream - WOW, it's fast & the pretty lady on the packaging was pretty convincing that it was gentle on skin.... Jokes on me I guess. So there I was, 15 years old, stepping up in the world & shaping my own brows. It was catastrophic! So after only about 1-2 minutes my skin felt like it was next to a direct flame, the burning was intense. Quickly referring back to the packaging - May cause slight burning sensation, if severe, remove product straight away & rinse well. Um... crap, what's severe? Like am I dying or something? I'll just give it another minute or two.... Time to rinse/wipe. I felt as though I was wiping my own skin off, and once I looked in the mirror, I almost wished I had. Bye-bye eyebrows. You see, this was prior to discovering I needed glasses in life. I would've been lucky to maybe have about 10 hairs in random spots on my face where my brows used to be. As if that didn't have me sobbing like a big sook - you almost couldn't see my actual eyes because the skin was so swollen and bright red it had puffed down over my eyelids! Bonus I guess, I was about to be blind & wouldn't have to look at my hideous eyebrows! My mum made me up an ice pack, whilst her & my sisters cackled in fits over my awful grooming fail. All I can say today is, thank god it was winter & I wasn't prepping for swimwear!

13th July, 2018

First self tan -I plastered all over me and then went to bed - I woke up really early and I was streaky orange all over -What was I thinking !!!

AboutFace
13th July, 2018

Yes I remember those orange streaks

Julieal
14th July, 2018

Yes I remember spending hours in the bath trying to scrub off

MareeB
13th July, 2018

You have my sympathy. I used to do other peoples and it always hurt them!

tannygirl
13th July, 2018

I had the burn when I used delipatory cream on the mou my skin came off my lips got burnt too. I had the same problem which certain waxing strips. Now I just tweeze that way I don't have to wait till the mou is really grown in.

MickChick
14th July, 2018

I wax now - the pain is over with so quickly. My mother traumatized me with tweezers haha

MareeB
14th July, 2018

Yep waxing is definitely the way to go lol

SooziesWorld
13th July, 2018

Yes! Glints all the way for me too! Never touched Sun-In thank goodness.

Julieal
15th July, 2018

OUCH !!!

AboutFace
15th July, 2018

The things we do for beauty lol

Julieal
15th July, 2018

Oh Yes -I remember that too

MareeB
16th July, 2018

Weird Macs, but I've never heard of it. What is it?

Macs
17th July, 2018

It’s this gradual hair dye spray . It lightens your hair . It didn’t work well for me . Made my hair patchy coloured lol

Lisa-Lou
22nd July, 2018

Maree you spray it in your hair and the sun literally lightens it! Lol its horrible stuff turned me orange

Whittakers-lover
15th October, 2022

This brings back a lot of memories. Pretty sure we were all covered in coconut oil as well lol

WELCOME TO NZ'S BIGGEST BEAUTY GUIDE!

READ AND WRITE REVIEWS ON YOUR FAVOURITE (or not so favourite!) PRODUCTS!

Sign up to receive our newsletter and stay up to date with all of the latest happenings here at Beauty Review!

You'll be the first to know about Trial Teams, Vault restocks and Giveaways.

We promise never to spam you - only to share the best in NZ beauty!

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE MAILING LIST!