Beaut.ie wonders: What's the most duff bit of beauty advice you've ever received?

We've gabbed previously about the most amazing sparkling gems of beauty wisdom we've ever received and I, for one, have picked up a few new tricks as a result, but somehow we've never really talked about the flipside, about the worst bits of beauty advice that have been passed on to us.

This is a terrible oversight that must be rectified immediately.

I've been on the receiving end of a fair few clangers in my time. Most have just been pure rubbish or embarrassing at worst but ultimately fairly harmless; the notable exception was the DIY cinnamon mask which promised radiant skin but actually delivered what looked like first degree burns all over my face and neck. Owie.

It took years to realise that an awful lot of sales assistants, with their aura of beauty authority, don't have a breeze what they're on about and seem to have graduated from the Jamie Lee Curtis circa My Girl school of beauty. They're still insisting that I need to wear foundation a couple of shades darker than my skin to "lift" my pale colouring - they're at it with Aisling, too - but at least now I'm confident enough to politely ignore that, um, advice.

I was pretty lucky with the majority of what Mam passed on to me - she scared me off completely over-plucking my eyebrows, showed me how to check for foundation tidemarks, steered me away from panstick, and tried unsuccessfully to get me to ditch Rimmel Heather Shimmer - but her advice to use Immac rather than razors for a longer lasting result always made hair removal a smelly, laborious process. When I eventually tried shaving my legs it was a whole new convenient hair-free world. (Sorry Mam.)

What's been the crappiest beauty advice you've ever received - and how long did you spend thinking it was awesome?