I have a few! One would be MAC Jealousy Wakes eyeshadow, since that was my shade, and then both Revlon False Eyelashes and Illamasqua Nail Varnishes put our award logo on their physical products, so I have those in my office cabinet on display as well.
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Definitely the Hello Kitty 40th Anniversary Pop Up Party Palette! I love Hello Kitty, always did, always will. And despite a few misses (Dear Daniel is just horrible), I love the palette, it’s full of fun and unique shades, including some surprisingly great ones, and the packaging is so cute. I’m hoping they do something extra special for their 50th, because the rest of the time, it’s all horrible play makeup that I just skip
My Unzipped Gold palette because my son picked it out for me. Turns out he’s got good taste. It’s one of the best palettes I own 🙂
Yes, a couple, mainly the products I used for my wedding! A Caron loose powder, and a Guerlain blush.
Hmm, the only things that come to mind are some *really* old nail polishes that probably aren’t exactly safe to wear, but they remind me off happier times. In particular, visiting AZ before we moved here, or after moving here, our one and only vacay back there. Sometimes I’ll run across one and it’ll take me back.
On a truly bizarre note, I STILL have that heart-shaped Victoria’s Secret Rapture Perfume that my now ex-husband gave me as an “apology” gift. I never wear it. But the bottle sure is pretty! Waiting for it to dry up like his apologies, haha!
You are hilarious!
My mom’s Conair hot roller set from 30 or 40 years ago. I remember watching her get herself ready when I was a little girl and just in awe of the transformation. I was truly touched when she let me have the set she used. As for makeup, I don’t think so anymore, I think I got rid of them in the last purge. I might still have a few brushes and shadows from way back when but they will probably get thrown out in the next purge.
Not really. Although I do have extra love for the ones that are gifts from friends 🙂
My Nars ‘Dione’ eyeshadow will always be in my collection! I even still have it in the box and put it back in when I use it (not too often even though it’s a beautiful colour). How can I not have a sentimental attachment to an eyeshadow with my name on it?:)
my naked one palette, which I depotted! but other than that, probably the too faced sweethearts blush in Carrie and Big because I used to LOVE sex and the city and it was something I lusted after for quite a while, and I think it was my first high end purchase (still do tbh!)
Yes, many of them. The red lipstick I bought before the first spontaneous “sleepover” at my now-husbands, a Chubby Stick I got at the airport before our epic road trip to Chile… Things like that.
Yes. MAC’s Burmese Beauty quad, as I love cats and I customised the back with pictures of the Burmese breed. I bought Cargo’s Northern Lights palette to commemorate my trip to Iceland (which was fabulous!). I also have Zoya’s nail polish in Skye, which I named my dog after 🙂 MAC’s London Life lipstick is another sentimental item as I lived in London for many years until I got married.
What a neat story, Caroline!
Thanks, Pearl 🙂
Must be my good old Oriflame lipgloss that I’ve been holding on to for the past 6-7 years (I think?) – the very first makeup product that I purchased and the one that started my cosmetic appreciation / obsession 🙂
Yes, definitely!
My first (and only for like 5 years) dior eyeshadow palette, offered by my mother when I was 20. It was my first occasion to play with eyeshadows… I’ve completely used up 4 colors out of 5. I didn’t know how to use the darkest shade back then. I know I should part with it but it’s only one small item… it comes from my mom and she chose it so perfectly for me and it was such a surprise! I can still see myself opening it for the first time!
Nope. Even though I can name specifically the first MAC, Nars, Chanel, etc. products that I ever purchased, I don’t really have a “sentimental” attachment to any of them, with the possible exception of MAC Grand Entrance simply because it was the first shadow I really fell in love with, it is unique and gorgeous and just somehow “special” to me.
Same! I have lots of makeup I love. A lot of stuff I will repurchase if I use it up. Some LE too. But I don’t have an emotional attachment to any of it. Not sentimental
MAC Ever Hip lipstick – it was my very first MAC purchase 🙂
Chanel Dragon – it was a gift from my younger sister since she knew I wanted it, and it was being discontinued.
MAC Jealousy Wakes – to be part of a historical moment for Temptalia!
A Shu Uemura eyeshadow quad – from my mom that she put together herself for me in Korea. Honestly, I never use this thing lol but my mommy made it for me so I keep it.
BECCA shimmering skin perfector pressed in Moonstone.BECCA highlighters were so hyped, that I knew my inner makeup hoarder would not feel complete without it. Now it’s my prized posession.
The one product I hold near and dear is my MAC Hello Kitty LE lipstick in Most Popular. I’m a HK collector and pretty brand loyal to MAC, so this was a dream collection for me when it was released. I have 2 almost totally used up tubes of this lipstick that I now strictly apply on special occasions such as my birthday and or a night out. I’d just love it if MAC re-released this shade because it’s my #1 favourite colour they ever created.
Another Hello Kitty fan here! Sadly, I totally missed out on the MAC Hello Kitty collection. I wasn’t into makeup or MAC back then, but eagerly awaiting Hello Kitty’s 50th anniversary to see what comes out !
I do hold onto any makeup item bc of sentimental value. I know wha wha wha:)
*don’t *
I bought Mac Jealousy Wakes because of you and honestly loved it.
Yes. My late mother, gone for 30 years now, always wore one and only one shade of lipstick, Revlon’s Love That Pink. So I bought one and sometimes look at it but never use it. Silly, huh.
That’s not silly at all, Susan! I have a lipstick that was given to me by grandmother shortly before she passed away. It’s one of those color changing “mood” lipsticks. I never wear it. In fact, I’ve never even tried it on. But I keep it because it reminds me of her. She loved those color changing lipsticks. She would get such a kick out of them! 🙂
That’s not silly in the least. My mother’s lipsticks were two shades from Avon called “Red Suede” and “Iced Watermelon.” She’d be 82 now if she were still with us, and I won’t use OR part with those lipsticks for anything 🙂
Oh, and I also have a bar of Old English Lavender bath soap that my grandmother gave me (She’d be 108!). It’s still in the wrapper in one of my dresser drawers. And it’ll stay that way.
Clinique pink chocolate it was a quad I brought on my first vacation with my husband. I wore it everyday on the vacation now wearing it takes me back to the happy memories.
I’m really sad that I missed out on Jealous Wakes while you were working on that. It is such a beautiful color. I know you don’t really WANT there to be dupes of it, but are there any other products that have come out since that you would consider to be close?
I showed how to dupe it when I announced it 🙂 Kat Von D Iggy is probably the closest permanent shade out there.
My Nana is the reason I like makeup. My mom never wore much, but my Nana had a dedicated makeup table in the corner of her dining room in my grandparents’ apartment, and every time I went over as a kid I always went straight for it. She never minded and I would always do a full face and then re-emerge into the living room where everyone was sitting. When she passed a couple years ago my grandfather told me I could take whatever I wanted, so I took most of what she had as well as a big organizer and a mirror, both of which I use. Her stuff was never fancy, almost entirely drugstore, and a lot of it is very old ladyish and stuff I honestly would never buy for myself, like frosty coral lipsticks, but I can’t bring myself to toss anything. I think of her whenever I do my makeup and I will occasionally use something in her honor.
That’s me Roisin! I love my makeup, always have and have a large collection. My daughter in law is not a big fan of it. But my granddaughter Olivia – she just LOVES it. Always wants some “ipstick” – and a spray of perfume on her clothes. She’s two. I am sure you miss your grandmother very much and it is a lovely memory to have and share with us.
Thanks Genevieve! It really does help to have these pieces of her with me. I’m sure your granddaughter will treasure these memories!
MAC Ever Hip lipstick because it was the first shade I very tried that felt like ME. My Crown Brush synthetic flat top kabuki because it’s served me well for over a decade now.
Nope. Nary a one.
I have a Guerlain Quad my husband bought be when we first moved to Germany! I remember the shop and everything about that day. Seems silly but I loved it!
The entirety of my first ColourPop order is sentimental to me because it’s the first time I really branched out with colors. Up until that point it had been whatever lipsticks my sister hadn’t liked and passed down to me. Even though Nevermind doesn’t really work, it, Grunge, and Dazed are always gonna mean something to me. Also my first time trying maroon eyeshadow with Central Perk–big fail. But I’ll keep it anyway 🙂
My Guerlain Meteorites Powder but not because of the powder but rather because of the scent. I do love the powder also but the scent reminds me of my maternal grandmother who loved violets and it was the only scent she wore so every time I put them on I am reminded of her. My paternal grandmother was the “high society” grandmother and she always had her nails freshly manicured and loved red nail polish so I have several bottles of red nail polish from her. I don’t wear them as they are too old but they remind me of her every time I look at them.
Yep, my first eyeshadow ever (a dark navy shadow from j.a.n.e. cosmetics), some unusable nail polishes from Revlon’s Street Wear line, and a double sided frosted lipstick from Bath & Body Works’ old cosmetic line. I also have some old Urban Decay packaging I kept and am still using most of the first makeup brushes I bought from The Body Shop some 20 years ago.
Revlon’s A Wine with Everything lipstick. It’s the first one my then boyfriend (now husband of 30 years) told me was beautiful.
Oh gosh! That was one of my absolute favorites back in the day. I betcha I still have a tube rolling around in the back of the drawer somewhere. I believe it had a nail polish to match.
They still make it, believe it or not! I bought a tube about a year ago. Not the same, or my coloring has changed a bit through the years. Wasn’t as good on me as the old days.
I wore it 35 plus years ago when I was in the Army serving in the Netherlands, and then in Germany! I loved it, also, the blush of the same name.
Do you ever wear jealousy wakes?
Not usually, since I am testing new things most of the time 🙂
Yes, beauty products I bought while in Italy 3 years ago. And in France last year. I don’t want to run out of them so I rarely used them and when that happens, I will still keep the product just bc they came from Italy and France 🙂
If I’m travelling anywhere and buy something while I’m there, I always remember the trip when I use the item, so yeah, I have some. They’re nothing special, really, other than the memories of the trip that go with the product.
Guerlain Meteorites, because my mom loved them and I have some sweet childhood memories of watching her put makeup on and using them. And it’s not makeup but Chanel No 5 perfume. It was my mom’s signature fragrance so the smell reminds me of her.
I don’t have any makeup or beauty products that are sentimental to me just very old hats that are in excellent condition that belonged to my mom they have the veil’s in front of them they really are pretty. They were hers when she was young and she’s be gone over 35 years.
Makeup doesn’t last forever and I use to hold onto very old makeup but not anymore. If it isn’t opened than I will hold onto to it forever but once it is opened depending on what it is the max I will hold onto it is two of three years.
Just before my 18th birthday, I purchased my first lipstick (ever!): Viva Glam III by MAC. It is still my baby almost two years later and even though the tube is empty, I just can’t throw it away. Just a month later, my best friend and I bought Eugenie from the Giambattista Valli collection. It was my first LE lipstick and it always reminds me of her because we did it together. She loves that lipstick to death and it always makes me smile :). It also reminds me of the moment I started collecting LE’s, which was just a month after our purchase.
Other beauty products are my L.A. Girl Pro Concealers and my favorite highlighter so far (so far, because I just ordered ABH Sun Dipped and that might become my new favorite), Shaft of Gold. My classmate, who happened to have the same name as my best friend, really got me into concealing and highlighting since I’m a bit of a latebloomer when it comes to makeup (and she is a beautyblogger). I ended up liking highlighting so much, especially since I found Shaft of Gold. It really compliments my skintone and it’s a bit peachy, so it’s also a blush for me. So now whenever I apply highlighter, I always think of her. She’s now one of my closest friends!
I actually had bought a new lipstick and a perfume, that I wore, when I went on my first date with my husband, 11 almost 12 years ago! The perfume is Chanel Chance and the lipstick is NYX, Lip Smacking Fun Colors in LSS 509 NARCISSUS. It is now My very own “signature”. Lol. And it obviously ?% worked! To this day, everyone, including my husband knows my scent and my pink lips! Now THAT’S Awesome!! ?
Oh, I sure did. It was a Lancome lipstick in Crushed Rose from about 20 years ago. I loved that color. It was perfect for me. DCd. Sobbing….. I tried to match it so many times but it each time the consultant would recoil in horror at the smell. I had to toss it. Still looking for its 21st century replacement.
My personal makeup assistant did my makeup for the first time when I met her upon visiting the Clinique counter before my first highschool dance. We have become great friends, and she is now moved away. We still stay into contact, but I am very sentimental about each piece I bought that night. When I use them they remind me of how sweet she was to help out a high school girl who had no clue what she was doing with her makeup.
I also am attached to my Kat Von D face contour palette. I bought it when my boyfriend and I visited New York and I bought it because I knew I’d let myswlf splurge on vacation, but I wouldn’t have bought it had I been home. It ends up, however, I LOVE it and wouldn’t trade it for the world!!
My mother had a box of Coty Airspun Powder. It was the first powder I ever used. Whenever I see it in the store I get a bit happy and sad at the same time…my mother has been gone for 26 years now and I can still remember the fragrance of that powder on her face. Also, Revlon Wine With Everything Lipstick since it was the first lipstick I bought with my own money.
Maybe Clinique Almost Lipstick in Black Honey. It needs frequent application but I love the color. It reminds me of my first non-traditional nursing position and a old friend back then. She moved to another state, got divorced and we lost track of each other.
Yes I do – because they were given to me as gifts from my son for a birthday and for Christmas. – Dior Jardin and Naked 2. Another one is the Estee Lauder Blue Dahlia palette – because this got me interested in eye shadow palettes and it was the first time I had seen shades of blue for a long time. It’s still a lovely collection of teals and blues.
Yes, my mother’s tweezers and her crystal powder boxes. I use them almost every day. I’m sure the tweezers were probably just a cheap Revlon pair or something, but they still work (she died in 1972!) and the crystal boxes are treasures. I know I got my love of makeup from her.
Ahhh… you’ve just sparked memories of my grandmother’s beautiful, cherry wood vanity. She, too, had a crystal container for powder. I also remember her fancy perfume bottle (a refillable sprayer) and her decorative hand mirror, brush and comb set. I haven’t thought about those in a while, so thank you!
I still have the Elizabeth Arden eyeshadow trio I bought in May of 1992, a little over a month after my oldest daughter was born. The TF Pink Glow palette is also sentimental as it was a Valentine’s Day gift… and I was only expecting the TF Chocolate Bon Bons palette. 😀
I have a Dior lip gloss that I bought in Paris over 10 years ago. It was a limited edition color I guess & I don’t even know what it looked like anymore – I scraped every last bit out of the tube! I’ve saved the empty tube as a souvenir of my fancy shopping trip in Paris.
Any cosmetics I bought in Japan have sentimental value but I will still use them because I can’t bear to waste them. The item that stands out most to me is the Anna Sui Star Lipstick in Pink x Brown I bought in Shibuya Tokyu Plaza. I love Anna Sui and to be able to go up to their counter and peruse their items, chat with the staff and buy items there was wonderful. The lipstick is so beautiful and I will no doubt keep the packaging when it’s ran out. Oh, another sentimental item I have is a lipstick that is one of the last purchases I made in Japan – I bought it in Narita Airport from a brand I hadn’t heard of or seen before; ‘Addiction’. I swatched the dusty purple colour, loved it, bought it, then looked at the shade name – ‘Tokyo Mon Amour’. That was a beautiful send off from Japan and made me smile so much.
MAC Viva Glam IV lipstick and a certain Lauder eye color palette I wore with my sapphire blue Tadashi gown at my older girl’s wedding five years ago. I received numerous compliments on all of them, and felt almost like a bride myself! I can still get the Viva Glam IV color from MAC, which is “my” color, and wear it often.
I have a very heavy gold heart shaped powder compact by YSL with sapphire jewels on the top that I bought on my honeymoon 32 years ago! Still in perfect, unused condition. Those were the days when the cosmetic companies made really nice things and many very nice gifts with purchase. I remember shopping in a department store (maybe Bonwit Teller?) in Beverly Hills in the 70’s and I saw Olivia De Havilland (Melanie in Gone With The Wind). She must have been near her 70’s but she was gorgeous with baby like skin. She was dressed like a lady and beautifully coiffed and was eyeing a pearl necklace. Classy woman.
I have a few, my Mom’s Avon Instant Mocha lipstick. She wore that color for as long as I can remember, and I have the last one she bought. What is left of a Jordache (as in jeans) makeup collection. I pretty much used up every thing in it, and the neat purple box is where I keep my extra sponges and brushes. I also have the last vestige of a palette that was the first high end palette, Stendhal Paris Face Kit. My Mom, sister and I used to go to Chicago in August in the 80’s and ’90’s when the Miracle Mile had all their great back to school sales, and I got that palette on our 1984 trip. That’s about it for sentimental things.