Discontinued products. Oh, the heartache!

[BumBurnerBum]

I wasted a very pleasant hour or so yesterday afternoon drowning in nostalgia on the 90s teem magazine thread that is in Classics - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/4178119-Early-Noughties-teen-mag-ridiculousness?pg=14.

That sent me down an Instagram wormhole on the @90steenmagazinearchiveuk page (well worth a look!)

I have recently had my world rocked by the realisation that my favourite By Terry lipstain has been discontinued, and that Crabtree & Evelyn no longer do the Jojoba Oil soaps that I loved.

However, this trawl through 90s fashion and beauty has made me ache for some of the products I lived in then.

I know it's been done before but I would give my (lengthening) eye-teeth for:

Impulse O2; Miss Selfridge nail varnish (scented or glow in the dark); Charlse Worthington thickening spray (it smelt amazing though did nothing for the thickness of my hair); BATH PEARLS; 40 million soaps shaped like various animals etc.

The thing I miss the most though is the huge range of body products that Boots Natural Collection used to do. My friends and I whiled away many hours milling around sniffing various body sprays, shower jels, bubble baths and God knows what else.

Seeing photos of the Boots catalogue Natural Collection pages from around 1996 was such a visceral hit of nostalgia it was akin to a punch in the stomach.

Am I alone?

Another one - St Ives hair repair - that original white minty conditioner....did you have that in the UK?

@Mellonsprite

If they could just make the old Revlon flex shampoo & conditioner again, I would die happy. I really yearn for the gorgeous smell, but can’t even start to describe it properly, kind of spicy?

Pretty sure I've seen it in savers/Poundland (my new favourite shops) for £99/£1!

Garnier Sleek hair cream
Neutrogena soap bars
Shisheido Glimmer chest cream

@Coniferhedge

Lots of my old favourites on here - Flex, Vidal Sassoon, Body Shop Oceania and Rommel Black Cherries. I always feel fortunate that one of my favourite perfumes from my teens, Body Shop White Musk, is still made and I still wear it when I’m feeling nostalgic.

The other thing I miss is an Impulse body spray from the 90s called Free Spirit. People always used to compliment me when I wore it and asked what perfume I was wearing. It was only Impulse!

I was just going to say Impulse Free Spirit! I still remember the ad on tv "he gives me fever..." I still have an old can of Dynamique to keep for nostalgia sniffs! I also loved Delial sun cream it smelled divine! I had the after sun in my cupboard for ages to sniff but it went off in the end 😭 Wasn't the same when they got took over by Ambre solaire

@whippitwoowoo

I remember buying my mum a Charles of the Ritz red lipstick as a present when I was about 9 or 10. That brand hasn’t been around for donkeys years.

I’d love to buy some Revlon flex. ☺️

My gran used to love Charles of the Ritz make up.

I loved
Boots Natural Collection lip balm- Cherry choc chip
Boots Natural Collection Candyfloss lip gloss.
No 17 Twilight teaser lipstick
Natural Collection 'Air' body spray.
Boots Botanicals? Body gel that had those little beads that pop.
Boots Aromatherapy collection bath stuff. There was relaxing, sensual, uplifting...all lovely jewel colours.
Revlon 'Outrageous' shampoo.
Just 17 body spray ( that started life as a freebie on the front of the mag but was sold in boots for a limited time )
Beverley Hills 90210 perfume.
Boujours did a pale blue lipstick I used to love.

Ghost Serenity perfume and the Ice Musk stuff from Boots. I'll never get over them.

Remember in late 90's/early 2000s when body glitter and crystal tattoos were all the rage.

Not beauty products but all the cool girls used to dress in Miss Sixty ultra low rise jeans with the poppers up the side. I saved up for ages for a faux leather pair and I thought I was the mutts nuts.

Also the diamanté back thongs so when your low rise trousers slid down you didn't expose your arse crack but a beautiful piece of jewellery 🤣

Lipstick and perfumes are the ones I mourn the most.

Just found out Marc Jacobs Woman is no longer being made!

@FixItUpChappie

Another one - St Ives hair repair - that original white minty conditioner....did you have that in the UK?

I mentioned that upthread, but couldn't remember what it was called. Gorgeous stuff. A popular endurance test among me and my friends was to see who could leave it on the longest while the gentle tingle progressed to scalp napalm.

Made your hair lovely though and smelled fabulous.

@Mellonsprite

If they could just make the old Revlon flex shampoo & conditioner again, I would die happy. I really yearn for the gorgeous smell, but can’t even start to describe it properly, kind of spicy?

Try the South African shop as we still get it here.

@TheMNChicken

Ghost Serenity perfume and the Ice Musk stuff from Boots. I'll never get over them.

Ice Musk! I'd completely forgotten about that. When Boots Natural Collection was excellent and an affordable Body Shop rip off

Ice Musk was the White Musk I bought when I couldn't afford White Musk as a poor sixth former.

Does anyone remember when Yardley did makeup? Late 80s/early 90s? They did the first twist up eyeliners I ever saw/used. And their lipsticks were beautiful - they were packaged in gold ribbed metal cases and smelled like 'proper' makeup. Tea Rose was the best MLBB shade I've ever used, nothing has ever come close.

I mourn the old Body Shop. Raspberry Ripple bathing bubbles, elderflower eye gel, peppermint foot lotion, banana conditioner, ice blue shampoo, oily bath beads, glycerine soaps that smelled like oranges and strawberries and don't even get me started on the Perfume Bar or I might cry. These days The Body Shop is an overpriced body butter boutique. It's unrecognisable from its glory days ever since it was sold to L'Oreal.

They're not lying, you really could feel it working

@MissBattleaxe

I mourn the old Body Shop. Raspberry Ripple bathing bubbles, elderflower eye gel, peppermint foot lotion, banana conditioner, ice blue shampoo, oily bath beads, glycerine soaps that smelled like oranges and strawberries and don't even get me started on the Perfume Bar or I might cry. These days The Body Shop is an overpriced body butter boutique. It's unrecognisable from its glory days ever since it was sold to L'Oreal.

Agree. I loved the old stuff there.

Was actually just reminiscing about the old Parisian looking oil blotting papers they used to sell in there. I loved them!

There was a Clinique lipstick called After Party that was perfect for me.

I still miss it.

@WineGetsMeThroughIt I know what you mean! A little book of powdered paper for powdering your nose. It's nothing like it used to be since it was sold. I used to go in there every weekend in the olden days and now it's once a year.

I loved that Swiss Formula hair repair. I'd forgotten all about it. Amazing stuff.

For me it would have to be Rimmel recover foundation from 20 years ago. I used to get soooo many compliments when I used it. It was my absolute fav. Nothing, and I mean nothing has ever matched my skin tone so perfectly since it was discontinued. And I’ve tried so many, even the really expensive stuff. It was so flawless and youthful and perfect. It wasn’t heavy or oily and it didn’t have any odour. I feel like I’m always looking for a replica and it just doesn’t exist.

Anyone miss the smell of original Pantene? I used to get my hair sniffed regularly when I used that (sounds a bit weird now but it did smell lovely!)

Clairol Daily Defence shampoo and conditioner.....the smell!!! Sigh...

Ah, memory lane! I too grieve for Corn Silk face powder (Kat Von D setting powder runs it a pretty close second though). I also miss everything about the original Body Shop. In my late teens/early 20s back in the eighties I used to love stocking up on products there. A few things have survived: they still do the grapefruit shower gel, also Lush 9-5 cleanser is basically the old Orchid Oil cleansing milk. I never found anything to replace the Glycerine and Oat facial lather though.

Wow I just googled flex shampoo - can buy it online for £23 per bottle!!!
I used to buy it from my local market - loved that stuff.

Gucci II perfume. My brother bought me a bottle one Christmas and it was the first perfume that was just 'me'. I was too skint to buy any to replace it and then, just as I could, they discontinued it. It's especially sad as he died a couple of years ago in an accident.

Garnier Neutralia 2-in-1 Bath and shower gel, shampoo & conditioner and bath oil. Smelled clean, fresh and didn't irritate my skin or that of the kids. I even emailed them to ask and all I got back was a snotty reply saying 'These are discontinued'. The name is used on one or two products in France, but they aren't the same items.

Original Infacare. The replacement smells all dusty and talcum powdery, not clean, happy baby. Waitrose's Camomile cheapy bubble bath smells almost right, but it isn't as gentle.

Original Timotei shampoo.

Pond's Cold Cream - or the Boots version - I've managed to get one tub of the first, but it's going up to stupid prices all the time and Pond's Vanishing Cream, as it smelled nice, was just the right level of moisture without extra ingredients to set off my skin.

Benefit individual eye shadows. They were amazing quality and depth, went on like silk and lasted all day.

Bourjois make up counters. They were cheap enough that a mistake wasn't a problem, but nice enough that you didn't have to go to the big name concessions. Except for the nail varnish. That was crap compared to Barry M or Stargazer.