Was there a product that made you fall in love with makeup?
Easy: MAC Pigments. I was hooked!
— Christine
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Lipstick. My grandmother gave me one of hers for a Halloween costume in 2nd grade. Just some inexpensive drugstore brand I don’t remember the name of but I was hooked from that day forward!
I saw the BH Cosmetics Galaxy Chic palette some years ago and thought it looked amazing! I didn’t end up getting it but it got me interested 🙂
My Barbie clam shell of lip glosses in 3rd grade (circa 1980). They had no pigmentation on the lips but in the case they were soooo pretty I loved just looking at them. Which probably explains why I’m a sucker for pretty packaging over performance.
NARS blush.
Mac cosmetics (lipsticks, blushes, eye shadows and their studio foundation)
MAC lipsticks for me, too, back in the early 1990s. Even though, I know objectively that there may be cheaper and/or better lipsticks out there , they are still sort of an addiction for me. My first MAC lipstick was Sheer Plum, which I adored and of which I used up several tubes before discovering other colors. Sheer Plum is now too brown for me, but that was the shade that started my MAC journey.
Urban Decay deluxe shadows. Freakshow and Frigid were both so pretty; and, I love the graffiti-inspired packaging. I wish they would bring those back.
Lol! I was going to say the same thing. I started high school and wearing makeup during the American Idiot era. My everyday look was wearing the only the black one over my entire lid with no blending. The blacker the better. Yikes! And then they expanded the range to include Heat (I think that was the shade name) back when red eyeshadow didn’t really exist. Had to have that one too.
Waaaay back in the day, it was Estee Lauder’s launches and fall collections (the ones that featured Karen Graham). But then, fast forwarding to the 90’s, MAC eyeshadows, for sure (I remember the joy of using Satin Taupe, Smoke&Diamonds and Grand Entrance – it was a revelation!) and, after that, UD’s first (and now gone….can you believe it?) NAKED palette! Eyeshadow primers – UDPP was my first – were also a big factor since they make it possible for shadows to stay put and not form into ugly, greasy creases.
I have a huge collection which I don’t use. Any idea what to do with them?
Check with your local domestic violence shelter or high school. Most domestic violence victims don’t have enough money to purchase cosmetics. However, makeup can help cover scars and provide a confidence boost. There are groups that help disadvantaged students get dresses for prom. Some of these groups will also help the students get dresses for prom; including hair and makeup.
A Maybelline eyeshadow quad and a photo of my favorite Bollywood actress (there was no such thing as YouTube back then!). Once I’d replicated her eye look I was hooked!
Well, always had some interest, having been in kiddie theatre. Bought first l/s from allowance, w/o explicit permission (or denial), in another part of town, in fourth grade. Only had a few products through h.s. and never wore w/regularity. Then, the Mary Quant/Carnaby Street/Twiggy stuff hit. Yardley Glimmericks palette and Biba Blue Roses. Swingin’ London look. Now it makes me think of Austin Powers, lol cringe! But beyond then, explosive interest. Another big fave was Aziza Clinging Vine mascara. Must have had at least 5 tubes, as they did not d/c stuff so frequently then. Truthfully, I have never been without green mascara since that one came out, and have scored nearly every one since…from Hard Candy through Vincent Luongo to today’s YSL vinyl couture.
My mom’s lipsticks. She loved Helena Rubinstein’s, in particular. I used to love looking at them as a little kid. I don’t remember what brand it was, but she had this extraordinarily vivid fuchsia in a black and floral cloisonne tube that I was obsessed with. It was so bright that she rarely wore it, but I coveted it.
Which time? LOL.
In the very beginning, it had to be those tubes of liquid-cream eyeshadow by Mary Quant, because once they dried down on my very hooded eyes, it didn’t budge! And at 15 y.o., I hated how eyeshadow would always crease on me, as we had no primers then.
As an adult, it was the colorful, ultra creative looks of the 80’s along with the use of black eyeshadow and the beginning of duochrome shadows that literally swept me off my feet! Getting to be a MUA for a while during that creative era was a joy!
Then came my long dry spell…33-48-ish. ?
Late 40’s, I rediscovered my love for makeup. Slowly, but surely. At 50, when I saw that UD BOS with NYC, the flame was fully reignited! My daughter was helping to fan the flames by introducing me to Temptalia and Allura, from there, I began to discover other respectable, honest sites on my own.
I can’t pinpoint it to one particular product, but it was Mary Quant Makeup in general. I absolutely loved the packaging with the little flower, and the way the models looked in the ads.
Yes! Nars Rated R palette of electric blue and chartreuse. I liked makeup prior, that palette drove home my love for COLOR on my lids! 🙂
I still have my Rated R. That duo is awesome!
Not really a product but … YouTube.
I grew up well before YouTube existed and my mother and older sister wore no makeup and I never learned as a teenager how to use it. My attempts, mostly trying to imitate what I saw in magazines with a few not-so-great drugstore items and no tools, were um … very hit-and-miss. I remember when I got my first job, I got a department store makeover and wore those same products for a year because it was the one look I knew I could make work.
Discovering YouTube as an adult was a total revelation. Tutorials walked me through things I never had any concept of and I finally understood how looks I saw were accomplished and what tools I needed to create them. Learning the basics then let me experiment with confidence–and that in turn made me excited to buy makeup I would have been terrified of in the past.
Yeah, I can agree with this too. I go into it seriously after watching Wayne Goss videos.
Lipstick – it was the first product I splurged on once I had a “grown up” job. From then on it’s still what I will splurge on the most – it’s easy for me to spend the most on lip products because I’ve easily used them up time and again. It was my first makeup Love and the item I love the most.
Yes, mascara! I just felt so pretty and extra girly and feminine after I put it on (and during the entire process). It seemed like magic to me! My favorite mascara is Ciaté Triple Shot Mascara in Espresso (it also comes in black and in blue). I also love Lancôme Definicils in Deep Brown (also comes in black). I can’t wear black mascara because it washes me out, so I wear dark brown, and it’s perfect!
My aunt gave me a Plum Storm Lip Quencher lipstick when I was about 8.
Bonnie Bell Lip Smackers. Had to have many of the flavors. Growing up in Hawaii, I didn’t really use much makeup because the heat would melt it off. When I graduated from high school and came to the mainland for college it was Maybelline Great Lash and Loreal makeup. My foray into higher end came when I graduated from college and became a nurse. Bobbie Brown and Mac were the first higher end makeup. It has only gone up from there…..
ColorPop Shock Shadows.
The idea of easy to use product yet very beautiful and had great price made me appreciate the brand itself.
In 10th grade, colored mascaras hit my local ds – green, purple and blue lashes were my go-tos from then on, coordinated w/ whatever shirt I was wearing under my daily overalls and hiking boots. For special events – it’d be jeans, (w/ maybe a vintage tie worn beneath), 1940s jackets (literally) tailor-made by my grandparents for my mom when she was in high school. Wanted you to get the whole picture…..colored mascara was the indispensable finale, elevating quirk into theater – and so provided a bit of magic in my overheated imagination. ….I’m so much tamer now……..
I liked makeup from the start but what really nailed it for me were two brands…Stagelight and Baronne. I just loved them because they were different from any thing else out there. I also liked Madeline Mono and Borghese for all of the different color choices.
I had to wear makeup for a Grade 6 concert and that was it – I was hooked.
Fast forward a few decades and Estee Lauder released her Blue Dahia eyeshadow palette and that made me hooked on eyeshadow palettes.
My mom’s blue eye shadow.
My first really bold red lipstick; I think it was (now DC) Revlon Opulent Garnet. I felt like a 1950s movie star the moment I put it on (at least, once I cleaned up my wobbly application!). A swipe of a really good red can still fix a bad day for me.
I was a ballet dancer in my teenage years and I was on national stage when I was just eleven. I used to wear my mother’s makeup on stage. But she was a redhead with golden skin and wore golden-coppery shades, which were all wrong for me, since I’m a typical cool winter. Still, I was already in love with the transforming power of makeup.
Then came Isabella Rosselini’ s Lancome ads with smokey eyes and cool red lips. Her face and colouring was like a grown up version of mine and I was fascinated with her looks then.
My mother’s red lipstick as a child. As a youngish adult, I bought a quad of silvers, greys, and a pink by either Estee Lauder or Elizabeth Arden. Loved and repurchased many times.
This is an easy one-the Hard Candy 4/5 color eye shadow palettes, back in the late 90’s/early 2000’s when the brand was sold at a counter in department stores. They were like $45ish each and I LOVED them! Also, MAC pigments and their eyeshadows. I am a color addict and love to see all the colors so I’m an eyeshadow junkie-palettes are my favorite so I can just open it up and see all the prettiness laid out before my eyes ?
Wow, goog question, but I don’t really think so. I just slipped into it slowly and then it picked up steam (it’s my stress relief to look at all the colors and textures and swatches them and imagine). I used to run regularly and in my mid 40’s and then couldn’t anymore (I am still hoping for a miracle there) and makeup just filled in where running used to do it for me. So, I’d say perhaps, long ago reading Seventeen magazines as a teen and using my first lipgloss (Kissing Potion “Bubblegum flavor” by Maybelline) is what did it for me. They introduced me to the comfort feeling you can have using or looking at makeup.
Soft and Gentle MSF that was used on me for my wedding. After that day I went crazy on makeup! Was never a big makeup person before that!
This may sound odd but it was the Tarte blush in Exposed. This was the first product I had ever used that when i looked at it in the pan I thought “meh”, but when i applied it to my cheeks it instantly transformed my face. It seemed almost magical that “meh” to go “wow” in a *snap* of my fingers. I will always remember my reaction and it was quite early on in my latest makeup wearing phase.
No particular product, but I think that when I discovered indie brands existed it set me on the path; UD was a start, but it was the indies that blew the dust off my makeup muse and made her feel welcome.
In the early iterations, lip balm (including Lip Smackers), and a rainbow eyeshadow palette that I loved for ages. Watching women seemingly be effortlessly glamorous with big lashes and red lips.
Excluding the tries I made at it where I felt I had to figure this stuff out to be a proper adult… the products that made me go from doing it (safely and badly) to wanting to do it and enjoy it were an Elf berry lip stain (shocking quality, but woah, it was beautiful on me), a few of their mad for matte palettes, eventually supplemented by a few Nyx jumbo eye pencils (contrary to popular wisdom, Cashmere is my go-to over Milk), and Boots No. 7 lipstick in Honey Bloom (which is probably the first beauty product I’ll ever throw out- probably soon- because I’ve run out rather than because it’s impossibly ancient or it’s gone off)
My mom introduced me to Clinique skin care I think about last year of high school?
Clinique and Elizabeth’s Arden, also Estée Lauder were my first introduction to the madness of makeup. Those rows of beautiful lipsticks in a rainbow of choices! First it was lipsticks lots of them followed by eyeshadow palettes of course, and blushes. I couldn’t name a single brand but all the displays and pretty packaging. Lately I been crazy for blushes too and have in many shades, I call them my best friends just a bit can turn my pale face into healthy and a bit of bronzer. I have always purchased on pure impulse even after watching reviews of whatever item is supposed to be great or not. I just get whatever draws my undivided attention. Lol! Highliters seem to whisper my name walking down those makeup isles. Dangerous thing to do. 😉
I am totally aging myself, but it was those beautiful Mary Quant pots of eye shadows and lip and cheek pots. Those marbleized little pots were like treasures to me.