By Jadie

The noughties might be responsible for some questionable trends – gypsy skirts, baker boy hats, horrendous chunky belts – but, thankfully, it wasn’t all bad.

Back in the days before contouring and Charlotte Tilbury palettes, make-up for teenage girls meant experimenting with dodgy blue eyeshadow and lip gloss that looked like dribble.

BUT as a sixteen-year-old with ideas way above my station (and Devon on hand to encourage excessive spending), I’d trot straight from my Saturday job to the beauty counters in Selfridges and happily spend almost all of my day’s wages (£25, FYI) on a Chanel lipstick.

So what would you find in my beauty arsenal circa 2006?

Nostalgic Beauty Buys

Here are the beauty bits I would spend my hard-earned cash on…

DIOR Diorshow Mascara

DIOR Diorshow Mascara, £25.50, Boots

This mascara was one of my first true beauty loves. A couple of licks does the job, but my go-to was to lather it on with about seven coats, creating lashes so chunky I’d have to peel it off afterwards. Dreamy.

Pout Plump Lipgloss

Forget Juicy Tubes – this gloss promised to give you a fuller pout way before lip fillers were a thing. It smelled like mint and it tingled so good, but sadly, it was discontinued. RIP burning lip gloss.

MAC Powder Blush

MAC Powder Blush, £19.50, MAC

For when I needed that SUPER pink glow, Dollymix was my saviour. It brings rosy cheeks to another level, and thankfully the masterminds over at MAC agree because it’s still going strong. Hurrah.

ghd’s

The Original ghd IV Styler, £109, ghd

Because you just CAN’T do a noughties nostalgic beauty round up without including a pair of these bad boys. We all owned GHDs to achieve poker straight hair, the only acceptable style way back when – and I still own the very same pair I bought in 2005. Testament to their nuclear strength.

Barry M Colour Changing Lip Paint

Barry M Colour Changing Lip Paint, £4.99, Barry M

Who is Barry? Who really cares when you’ve got a lipstick that goes from green to pink? While we all invested in the garish collection of nail varnishes, I was particularly fond of this magical beauty buy – and I’m still in awe of how it works today, tbh.

YSL Touch Éclat

YSL Touch Éclat, £25.50, Yves Saint Laurent

Did I have any idea what I was doing with it? No. Did I think it looked cool? Yes. God knows what sixteen-year-old me needed it for, but I bought it regardless.

Benefit Hoola Matte Bronzer

Benefit Hoola, £25.50, Benefit

After years of that Rimmel bronzer with the sun printed into that everyone had, it was time to move on to this iconic powder which, quelle surprise, stands the test of time.

Maybelline Intense XXL Mascara

Maybelline Intense XXL Mascara, £9.71, Health Monthly

Layering black mascara over white mascara for perfectly fanned lashes was groundbreaking. I discovered this gem the first time I got legless drunk and decided to use the one in my friend’s mum’s bathroom cupboard. Yes, I was a scumbag.

B Never Too Busy To Be Beautiful Eye Glitter

Proof that this amazing brand was gone too soon, the only picture I could find to demonstrate the beauty of this glitter is from an old catalogue. It lasted actual years and the pot felt like something from Jumanji. No gold sparkle will ever compare.