To ask what make up you loved in the 90s

[PennyDreadfuI]

I'm on a bit of a nostalgia trip this afternoon after finding a stub of MAC Viva Glam (the first iteration) which I bought from Harvey Nichols in 1994 (amazingly it still smells fine and applies just like it did 26 years ago). I bought it from one of my first pay packets and went on a waiting list to get it. I also remember being on a waiting list for ALL the Hard Candy pastel nail polishes a couple of years later - £12 a pop and I bought five or six! Also waiting list for Chanel Rouge Noir - took months to get my hands on it and in the meantime I mixed black and red nail polish which resulted in a lovely streaky mess 😂

At the start of the 90s I was a sort of goth/Manic Street Preachers fan hybrid so lots of smudged black eyeliner and red lips and glitter for nights out. Mid 90s I was Courtney Love obsessed with hair, clothes and makeup to match. Towards the end of the decade it was all MAC Spice lipliner and Carmex with shimmery eyeshadow. And for all of it, skinny perma-surprised brows which never grew back.

What were your favourite looks/fondly remembered but long gone 90s beauty staples?

@formerbabe

I was still wearing sunflowers until about five years ago.... I like it

Perfume smells different on different people - my skin chemistry doesn't take kindly to a lot of florals which smell like a beautiful bouquet on others, but end up smelling a little bit like cat piss on me. I don't know whether Sunflowers was always pissy on me or whether hormones/age have changed how it smells but either way it's definitely a no-no now!

I'm struggling to remember how it smells now...I think I'll have a little search for some next time I'm shopping!

Anyone remember Donna Karan chaos fragrance, or the other which I think was just called Donna Karan, in a slim tall bottle ?
Both incredible scents .

@formerbabe a lady walked past me with it on few months ago, took me back and reminded me how much I love that smell. As op says it may now smell totally different on my less than youthful skin.
Why is it that smells take you back so much more than sights/touch etc, probably an obvious answer but its such a powerful jolt of nostalgia

Perfume companies are also notorious for reformulating classic scents, particularly if they've become a lot cheaper as Sunflowers has. So it's possible that one or two ingredients will be different, which completely changes how it behaves on your skin. Anaïs reformulated loads over the years but a couple of years ago they went back to the original formulation and it's beautiful.

*Anaïs Anaïs

I used to wear Versace red jeans perfume too. Would practically douse myself in a whole bottle of the stuff when I was first dating mrformer...

All perfume companies were obliged to reformulate in the late 90s because of ingredient bans in the EU.
That's why you need to look on eBay etc if you want to resmell the 80s and 90s.
Apart from Anaïs Anaïs (my comfort food perfume) off the top of my head: Obsession (you need a bottle with a gold line around the lid or however vintage you are told it us, it isn't) Ysatis (black box only and depends on bottle inside) Fidji, Chanel 19, Miss Dior (which given that there are now eleventy billion flankers makes it a minefield, you need Miss Dior originale and even some of the Dior sales assts will try and flog you the thing with the pink bow) Dioressence, Diorella etc etc. All changed. Some have survived better than others. Miss Dior originale and Fidji aren't bad, but modern Obsession and Ysstis are unrecognisable until you get hold of an old one.

Another one I just remembered Sun Moon and Stars perfume. All makeup safely stored in a caboodle box I miss the 90s.

@Inthebackoftheimpala

Another one I just remembered Sun Moon and Stars perfume. All makeup safely stored in a caboodle box I miss the 90s.

I liked the perfume but I loved the bottle. Everything was sun/moon/stars in the early/mid 90s! I used to work in a shop which sold soft furnishings and we had these huge sun moon and stars woven throws which were £95 almost 30 years ago but they sold out every time we got them in, and we had a waiting list for them. I had a moonphase watch and enamelled earrings in navy and gold - one was a smiling moon and the other was a star. It was a lovely aesthetic actually and I'd love a moonphase watch again!

Cabotine perfume, there's another one. With what looked like a little cabbage on the lid.

PennyDreadful
And if I was feeling flush and fancy, I'd go to Screenface in Notting Hill for the clear make-up artist shoulder bags.

@PennyDreadfuI

It was fantastic in the mid/late 90s when nail polish got really exciting wasn't it. I think Rouge Noir and Hard Candy paved the way for it. Before if you wanted 'weird' colours like (gasp!) black, deep wine or green you had to use gothy brands like Stargazer but suddenly they were everywhere. I gave birth to DD in 1997 wearing electric blue nail polish by Boots 17. And don't even start me on the advent of holographic glitter polish, or 'crushed CD bits' as me and my friends used to call it. Like something from outer space.

Oh, God. I bonded with one of my oldest friends over nail polish. I recognised the Stargazer orange shade on her hands We even ordered holographic nail polish from Bath and Body Works in America.

@twilightcafe

PennyDreadful And if I was feeling flush and fancy, I'd go to Screenface in Notting Hill for the clear make-up artist shoulder bags.

Oh my goodness, Screenface! How we all covered transparent plastic

Does anyone remember Sixth Sense body spray, was in a black can and when I mention it no one believes me (and thinks I must have had to much mad dog 20-20 at the time)

PennyDreadful I still use the bags!

Barry Monday
Glitz and Glam nail varnish 😂😂😂😂
Anything Dewberry scented by the Body shop!

Barry m not Monday! !!!

Cabotine has the little cabbage. Its older sister is Cabochard. Cabochard has aged better, still lovely and leathery. Cabotine is a bit sweeter now than it used to be.

Does Iron Lady lipstick from Miss Selfridge count? God I look at pictures and think what was I thinking

@twilightcafe I meant coveted, not covered! I can't recall if I had any 'real' ones or if they were cheapo knockoffs but they've all long since been lost. I'm amazed how much stuff I do still have from the 90s and how a lot of the makeup is still usable! All kinds of ill-advised I know but my approach to make up is the same as food - if it looks ok and smells ok it probably is ok!

Ah, Miss Selfridge lippie

Boots 17 Bon Bon lipstick and there was also a Cover Girl one that I loved in a brownish-berry shade. I used to like the Cover Girl foundation and powder in one compact too.

Perfumes I wore were Dewberry and Cotton White from Body Shop, Deci Dela and Lou Lou (I’ve just ordered a bottle from Amazon!).

Oh I had forgotten about the bon bon lipstick..I wore that and Lou Lou perfume, loved it

Ah yes, Bonbon. And of course, Twilight Teaser

I seem to remember No 17 did a UV hair mascara and nail varnish. We thought we looked fab in clubs with our uv nails and clumps (patches) of uv hair.

Eden by Cacharel was my perfume of choice but I also loved She by Armani, Tommy Girl and that Jean Paul Gaultier classique one.