I remember going on a shopping spree and buying products from Benefit and MAC. I remember an eyeshadow brush from Benefit that I still have (though I don’t use it still). There were Benefit Show-offs, which were a loose, pearly shimmer. At MAC, I remember buying a few pans of eyeshadow!
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The first memory I have with using makeup I had to have been about 12 or 13, and the boys from my church’s youth group were coming over for an activity. I asked my mom if I could wear her mascara. It was the first time I remember wanting to wear makeup. That next summer my mom and my aunt took me to the Estee Lauder counter at Nordstrom to “have my colors done” as we used to do every year and that made me feel so special to be with my mom and my aunt. I remember it kinda like a rite of passage. That year when I started school I saw one of those boys in the hall and he said “hey are you wearing makeup?” It made me feel so mature and grown-up. (One of the few moments of grace, poise, and confidence before the rest of the usual teenage awkward engulfed me.)
Cherish this memory of you with your mom and aunt. It is special to be with your mom and aunt….not just a title of passage….especially when they no longer are around. Though I don’t have a makeup outing with my mother to share, my mother criticized me in every way, but she never criticized me for my many makeup purchases.
They are memorable when it is a first whether to buy…drug store ? at Walgreens or gifts with purchase from Clinique or from brands like Ralph Lauren or Halston that no longer sell makeup or from Ultimata (the first Nakeds) or from Chanel- pretty pink and purple eyeshadow duo chrome. They all are my first when one is literally a teenager.
As a teenager and young woman, my life was dictated by magazines, first Seventeen, and when I outgrew that, Glamour and Mademoiselle. The beauty editor at Glamour in the 1960s was Amy Greene. After she left Glamour, she set up shop at Henri Bendel on West 57th St in NYC with something called Beauty Checkers. You brought in your makeup and paid a fee for Amy to go through your bag and teach you how to apply everything. They suggested additional products but you did not need to purchase anything. I remember coming in with a Revlon sheer foundation, a tube of Max Factor Erace, black mascara and lavender eye shadow. All drug store because that’s all I could afford. Amy introduced me to green color corrector, tawny blush, blue pencil on my lower waterline, and yellow and pink eyeshadow. I still remember the disdain she had for the pastel blue eyeshadow. I stopped needing the green color corrector after my acne faded but to this day, that makeover resonates with me on a daily basis.
Getting into my Mom’s rather expensive and perfect tube of red lipstick when I was around 2 ½ or possibly 3 y.o. There’s even an absolutely hilarious photo of the incident to back it up, too! You have never seen a worse application of red lipstick in your whole life. The tube was literally destroyed. And while Dad laughed, Mom was NOT amused so much!
Lesson? Beware of toddlers who love ?!
We so want to be like our mothers, and mimic them.
Going into my moms stash. Back then it was a tube of shiny blue eyeshadow, red & hot pink lipsticks. And, a liquid red blush. I was idk, very young, lol. And, felt oh, so glamorous. This started it all.
My first memorable experience with makeup was in my Grade 6 concert at primary school and we had to wear makeup. I thought it was wonderful then and I still think it is wonderful now. I have never looked back…
When I was 16 I went to a Merle Norman and got a makeover. I think I just used mascara and lip balm but had gotten a job at a department store so I was trying to class up. The woman must’ve used 4 layers of face products on my young, clear skin. I felt I needed to make a purchase so I left with a jar of yellow color corrector. I finally threw it out when I finished college without ever using it.
Honestly, when I had my first job and was able to go blow my paycheck on drugstore makeup. And back then drugstore was nothing like it is now! I had no clue there was any such thing as Dior or Chanel makeup. This was before the Internet so you only had your friends and the TV to rely on. I was so happy when I hit that checkout lane at Skaggs Albertsons with lots of “cool” makeup especially my bright blue Maybelline eyeshadow!
I was about 4, and my brother was a year younger. My mom fell asleep, so of course that was the perfect time for a makeover.
She had these stacking cream eyeshadow sticks that fit into one another, similar to the Avon eyeshadow “wand.” I thought they were the coolest things ever. They were early ’70s shades of white, purple, blue, green, and I forget the last shade. Maybe a brown or gray? Anyway, we used them on her full face: Green eyes, blue lips, purple “blush.” Then being the anal retentive child I was, I put them all back exactly as she had them.
She woke up when someone knocked at the door, not knowing we did her makeup. What makes it memorable is her reaction to checking herself in the mirror because she got funny looks from whoever knocked, and then we got into big trouble. lol
I tell you, brother and I were just ahead of our time with alternative makeup colors!
My best friend’s mom was a model in the early 80’s, so from elementary school and beyond we had her leftover makeup to play with. MASSIVE amounts! There were products in her kit I hadn’t seen available for purchase in the stores for many years later.
I also remember buying (and hiding from my mom) a navy Covergirl eyeliner with the sponge smudger on the opposite end. All the girls wore that color and the would melt the eyeliner with the cigarette lighter and then draw a thick dark line on the waterline all the way around their eyes.
I used to wear lipstick all the time in Jr. High and High School, nowadays I feel weird when I wear it, I don’t know what happened. My favorites were “Sugar Plum Ice” from Clinique and “Gold Coin” from Revlon. I also remember a dark berry lip balm from Clinique but I can’t remember what it was….