Blue frosted eyeshadow, thin eye brows and excessive amounts of quick tan. Christina Aguilera understood the noughty assignment. Photo / Getty Images
Blue frosted eyeshadow, thin eye brows and excessive amounts of quick tan. Christina Aguilera understood the noughty assignment. Photo / Getty Images
OPINION:
If, like me, you spent your last boring winter weekend going through old photos, you may also be wondering why the 2000s were such an iconic time for beauty.
From wildly chunky hair highlights to overlining your lips with a horrendously dark lip liner, there is no denying it was a special time - particularly the early noughties, when the only way to summarise what happened was with one word: rogue.
Back in the good old days when Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears were the “it girls” of pop culture, Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse and overplucked eyebrows were the “it” trends of beauty. It was colourful, wild, jaw-dropping, it was full of trends that genuinely made you feel cool because they were so unique but also ones you look back on and cringe at.
So, in the essence of Throwback Thursday and never forgetting your roots, here are the wildest beauty trends of the noughties:
Concealed lips were a thing of early 2000s beauty. Photo / Twitter
One thing about lips in the early 2000s? They were a secret. Absolutely no one was to know they existed. You wanted them to be more invisible than John Cena when he wore his camouflage pants during WWE. Whether you were using Maybelline Dream Matte Mouse foundation to cover those pre-teen lips for a casual Friday at school, or nabbing a Revlon concealer you stole out of your mum’s drawer, one thing is for sure, they were more bland than your line-dancing Aunty from Tapanui.
Juicy tubes
I'll take one in every flavour, please. Photo / Getty Images
If you were one of the lucky ones, your mum probably brought you the Lancôme Juicy Tubes mini set for Christmas in 2004. You carried them in your little fluffy handbag from Jay Jays, chucked a chunky headband on and lived your most immaculate sticky-lipped life. Total Girl may have said Paris Hilton was the “it girl” of 2003 but with these babies, you were definitely the new supreme.
Body glitter
Roll on glitter. Photo / Reddit
Oops… You did it again. Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera paved the way for excessive body glitter and after picking up the latest copy of Crème or Girlfriend magazine, there is no way you were going to skip out on this trend. Once school was out on Friday afternoon, you gathered your girlfriends, popped some bubblegum in your mouth and headed down to the local $2 shop to spend your pocket money on some roll-on glitter that would absolutely get all over the couch and drive your mum nuts.
Tyra Banks was more committed to her blush than staying unproblematic in the 2000s. Photo / Getty Images
America’s Next Top Model ruled the world in 2003, so when you noticed Tyra Banks was wearing bright pink blush that wasn’t blended, nor toned to her skin and low-key made her look like your one-year-old sister who was mid-teething, you obviously had to pray the next Sabrina the Teenage Witch make up box instalment came with a super bright blush - and it did.
All the popstars were wearing side ponys – yes, even Mariah Carey and Fergie, which is how you knew it was cool. But only if you topped the look off with shimmer eyeshadow, nude lips and a truly tacky pair of earrings from Diva that cost you $5 ($8.41 today, thank you inflation). Sure, you’ve never felt pain like taking out the extremely tight hair tie after a day of being fashionable, but beauty is pain.
Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse
Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse. Photo / Twitter
Is it cake? Is it orange cream? No! It’s Dream Matte Mousse. In the early 2000s, it was very important your face was not only one colour, but also extremely cakey and something your dad cringed at. He just didn’t understand fashion but it’s okay, just sit back, relax and say it with me Dad, “Maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s Maybelline”.
Shimmery Pastel eyeshadow
Just a light shimmer eyeshadow for Britney Spears at the 2000 Grammy Awards. Photo / Getty Images
In the days of JoJo, SClub 7, Britney and Christina, the coolest girls around were always seen to be wearing shimmer pastel eyeshadow. It might have been blue, green, pink, heck, even frosted white, it didn’t matter. As long as your lids looked more shimmery than your viscose bedspread, you were happy.
Overplucking your eyebrows
Christina Aguilera understood 2000s glam in a way no one else ever will. Photo / Getty Images
Cara Delevingne would have never survived the early 2000s. Eyebrows were thinner than your patience in between episodes of The OC and if anyone even thought about telling you they will grow that way forever, you were ready to tell them that’s fine because you won’t ever want them to be thick anyway.
Lillie Rohan is an Auckland-based reporter covering lifestyle and entertainment stories who joined the Herald in 2020. She specialises in all things relationships and dating, great Taylor Swift ticket wars and TV shows you simply cannot miss out on.
