Did you play with makeup as a child? Did it influence you?
I didn’t! My mom wore very makeup rarely (maybe for a wedding or something like that), so I wasn’t exposed to it growing up.
— Christine
Explore Temptalia
We're here to help you make better beauty purchases that you'll enjoy and love! We recommend signing up to take advantage of personalized features like tracking products you own, viewing dupes that you already have, and more!
Here are some useful resources for you:
Compare Any Two
Curious how two shades compare to each other? Type in the shades below to get instant side-by-side swatches!
25 Comments
Comments that do not adhere to our comment policy may be removed. Discussion and debate are highly encouraged but we expect community members to participate respectfully. Please keep discussion on-topic, and if you have general feedback, a product review request, an off-topic question, or need technical support, please contact us!
Please help us streamline the comments' section and be more efficient: double-check the post above for more basic information like pricing, availability, and so on to make sure your question wasn't answered already. Comments alerting us to typos or small errors in the post are appreciated (!) but will typically be removed after errors are fixed (unless a response is needed).
We appreciate enthusiasm for new releases but ask readers to please hold questions regarding if/when a review will be posted as we can't commit to or guarantee product reviews. We don't want to set expectations and then disappoint readers as even products that are swatched don't always end up being reviewed due to time constraints and changes in priorities! Thank you for understanding!
Comments on this post are closed.
We try to approve comments within 24 hours (and reply to them within 72 hours) but can sometimes get behind and appreciate your patience! 🙂 If you have general feedback, product review requests, off-topic questions, or need technical support, please contact us directly. Thank you for your patience!
Very rarely. I was given it and used to try putting stuff on my face, but I had no idea what I was doing. My family would give me a hard time over my “poor taste” as well (I was indirectly influenced by the prevailing fashion at the time, so my taste wasn’t that poor). Put me off for a long time.
I was more influenced by the women around me who wore makeup, a classic red lip and a hint of perfume. I always aspired to be that elegant.
No
I didn’t. I wasn’t exposed to it growing up either, but I’m going to be self-indulgent and talk about that:
I come from a family that showed a great deal of restraint in … everything. My paternal side didn’t drink, didn’t gamble, didn’t listen to music, and were completely unfussy; my maternal side were salt-of-the-earth types that were proud of being very basic. My mom did rebel a bit and went to college, but the most makeup I ever saw on her was lipstick (Cherries In the Snow!). I can’t remember every seeing makeup on any women on my mom’s side growing up other than my aunt, but she was the unspoken black sheep, so … not a role model. My dad also rebelled — wore Nehru jackets and listened to Dylan — but he didn’t approve of falsity or attention-seeking (which I think is how most of them viewed makeup). Having said that, my paternal grandmother was raised to not appear in public without a full face of tastefully-done makeup, but full-face back then meant something completely different, and it was still supremely natural (i.e. you didn’t look at it and think “makeup!”).
The only daily examples I had for makeup application were the girls at school when I got to junior high school and later, but since I was a dyed-in-the-wool tomboy, I didn’t have many (any!) female friends to discuss it with. I did experiment a little for a few years for the sake of “fitting in,” but on some level I despised makeup and was happy to eventually drop it entirely.
I think the point where I became interested in makeup was when I realized I don’t have to look “pretty” — that makeup doesn’t have to be about making yourself look the way other people want you to look. Once I got that, my natural love for color kicked in and I dove in head first. These days I’m more Disney Villain than Disney Princess (at least aesthetically), but I’m all in! Sometimes I wish the switch had flipped when I was younger, but financially, it was better for me to wait for later anyway, so … [shrug] … call me a late bloomer.
Yes, I think this is me as well. Once I realised that beauty (and fashion more broadly) could be about self-expression, not just forcing yourself to dance to someone else’s tune, I was all in.
Like you, Christine, I had a mother who didn’t really wear makeup, so I never played with it.
I started painting my nails at around age 12 or 13 and that was the only makeup I wore until my late 20s. My current collection would suggest I’m making up for lost time…
My earliest “make up” memories include “Tinker Bell ” kids’ make up and getting into my mother’s makeup drawer and spilling her foundation on her bed as I was experimenting with it! It stained her mattress and I was reminded of it for years to come!!
When I was in high school, I walked to the neighborhood pharmacy at lunchtime to buy make up and charged it to her account— weekly.
Now , I have 2 daughters. One of them loves make up as much as I do. As a toddler, she destroyed a fair amount of my Chanel products as well.
Make up and skincare are a passion that we share and discuss many times each day! ( I have never met a 19 year old so concerned about getting crows feet! But, I reassure her everyday that she is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside!
P Jill, sooo much of what you wrote, I can (and DO) relate to! With me and my kids, it went in reverse. I was the one who single handedly decimated an expensive designer lipstick. My son DRANK a whole bottle of my liquid foundation! My husband frantically called 911, who told him to call Poison Control, but that they didn’t think this was a medical emergency? He was so upset and freaked out that I was the one who called Poison Control. They said that he may be a little constipated, but foundation isn’t “poisonous”. To this day, Kyle can’t live this one down!
Oh my! I would have freaked out too! That foundation must have looked extra creamy and delicious to him!! As a toddler, one of my girls consumed an entire cherry chapstick she found on the backseat of the car during a ride home. Needless to say, the result was the opposite of constipation!!
Not necessarily as a child but as a teenager I’d frequently try different looks like a smokey eye I’d seen in a magazine or something. I had always been interested in makeup since I was young and till this day I still do.
I wish, but my mom was strict and she wouldn’t allow me to do anything with makeup until I was 15. There was no play allowed, she was too afraid that her daughters would make a mess in the carpet or look too “grown up”. However, when she would pan one of those Cover Girl pressed powder compacts – you know, the tortoise shell round ones! – she would give me the empty compact and I could play imagine.
So of course once I was allowed to use makeup, I went nuts with it. Of course.
I had theatrical m/u..pancake type stuff, due to being in kiddie theatre. My MGM wore l/s, a tad of foundation, rouge…yes, the days before powder blush. My mum had Cherries and Fire and Ice, and a foundation she never used (or needed to); MGM was more adventurous, even had some rosewood and beige shades of l/s.. She favored Germaine Monteil. My mum ‘grew into’ a bit of EA taupe fat eyebrow pencil. No eye shadow ever, though it existed, for either. My PGM was a staunch Scots Presbyterian Bluestocking from NS, and would not be caught dead in what she probably thought was vain, harlot type stuff. She was too busy taking the switch from those who beat horses and beating the abuser. And, yes, sometimes being detained for the behavior. I think the PGM had one red l/s that she wore on the American High Holidays and Christmas Church only. I never played with their stuff, though MGM did hand me down some. But, starting in fourth grade, I did use my allowance to start getting my own, which I played with incessantly.
I sure did. My mother didn’t wear much and I was told I could not until I was 13, but I did anyway. Looking back, I see how kindly patient she was when I’d sneak hers once in awhile.
I don’t know if it influenced me one way or another. I think it was more that I was bound and determined to play with pretty things, perhaps my hardwiring or something.
I sure did, lol! The first time I did so wasn’t exactly a “permitted” makeup/dress up time…my poor Mom. I got a hold of her pricey red lipstick that she treasured and wore almost every day, and with my little 2 y.o. hands, attempted to apply it to my lips. Smush city lipstick and messy toddler to clean up, but my Dad thought it was hilarious and got her to take a picture before dealing with the aftermath!
By the time I was 8 or 9, I was allowed to play with makeup, but had to take it off before leaving the house.
I never played with makeup because
1. I was an aggressive rule-follower.
2. It never occurred to me that I could ask permission.
My mom would do stage makeup on me for my tap and ballet recitals. That’s probably part of the reason I love dramatic eyes now.
No, I used to watch my mom put on her makeup, but I didn’t have any until I was 11 or so, when my mom let me have lip gloss.
Yes! My cousin was 4 years older than I and was my role model. I started wearing makeup when I was 10 but my mother didn’t know. I kept it very light. I started working full-time at 12 (while still going to school & getting good grades). I bought all my makeup from then on. I had training from a Hollywood artist who did the stars of tv shows as well as mags. I was an artist for awhile. I’m in my 60’s and wouldn’t go outside my home without makeup. My 16 yr old granddaughter has followed suit. Her idea of a fun day with Nana is to go to Sephora and get our makeup done. My 21 month old granddaughter puckers up when she sees me get out lip gloss. I’m training my girls right! 😀
Yeah, always loved it but there wasn’t much around. I picture my mom w/ foundation, lipstick (2-3 tubes, max),
maybe a bit of mascara for special occasions. My earliest makeup memories are her letting me put it on her, and what a sweet, close time it was – and how surprised and pleased she was with the results. So gratifying. Thinking this started when I was about 10. I started experimenting on me in Jr. High.
My mother vary rarely wore lipstick on a night out. So I did not have any exposure to makeup. I was self taught from magazines and now the internet and I go for makeovers at Sephora quite often and pick their brains for all the info I can get. I learn something new every time I go. I go a little early and have a mini facial done before hand too.
Yes, but more as an arts and craft thing. I’d use my mom’s makeup to draw random stuff…she didn’t appreciate it much lol.
I was never really into trying it out on my face for whatever reason.
No, I didn’t play with makeup as a child as my mother didn’t really wear it much either. In those days most women didn’t wear a full face of makeup, just a bit of powder and some lipstick.
My mother only wore lipstick and wore it rarely. My little sister and I played with it every chance we got! That was my only opportunity until I earned baby sitting money and bought my own toys.
I had an older sister so I was always getting into her makeup and getting in trouble. Also I used to love to look at the makeup in my grandma’s bathroom cabinet. As for myself, I had Tinkerbelle lip glosses that were flavored. I was fascinated with makeup from a young age and couldn’t wait to wear it as a teen!
No. The women in the family did that largely for special occasions. I wasn’t allowed to wear any kind of makeup except for clear nail polish. I finally started to dabble in it when i was in college at the encouragement of a friend. I bought three blushes – MAC Harmony, Gingerly and Prism, black eyeliner, and Twig lipstick, and foundation and concealer and that was it. I rarely used eyeshadow. Then I turned 35 and then my interest just exploded. The rest is makeup history.
Not really. My mom wore makeup, and she would sometimes give me those teeny sample Avon tubes they used to make, or matchstick lipstick samples from higher-end brands (I’m really aging myself). Other than that, I wasn’t really allowed to play with makeup as a child, and I didn’t have toy makeup.
I was allowed to wear very light cream blush and lipstick from Avon by age 11, though. By the time I was 14 and starting high school, I could wear a full face of whatever I wanted.
Absolutely! My mom always wore pretty simple makeup so I never played with hers, but I had some Bratz (dolls) eyeshadow quads. My parents both hated Bratz, so they must have been a birthday present or something. I loooooved the blue shade, haha! Can’t find any pics of what I had on google.