What was the first beauty product you purchased? Not as a gift, not by parents, but you!
I remember buying a Benefit eyeshadow brush, Show Offs, and I want to say something else but I’ve forgotten!
Thanks to Jamie for today’s question! Do you have a question idea? Submit yours here.
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:
Curious how two shades compare to each other? Type in the shades below to get instant side-by-side swatches!
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!
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!
Smashbox concealer, Korres tinted moisturizer and a red Clinique lipstick! I think I also bought a Neutrogena plum eyeliner pencil too.
I’m sure it was a lip balm of some sort.
Wet n Wild black nail polish, back when that was the most unusual color polish you could buy. It’s so nice to have so many non-red and pink polishes these days!
So many will NEVER know the color desert we lived in…
So true! I always wanted fun colors back then, now there are so many fun colors!
Right? I’m still not jaded about it! When was painting my nails with the Sephora 24k top coat over this pastel shade I had on, it’s like I was nine again!
Oh wow! I had completely forgotten my middle school nail polish phase. I wore dark colors like black and navy with sparkles over them. It must have been Wet n Wild, and I stopped before high school, but that was definitely my actual first experience diving into beauty products.
Wet n’ Wild nail polish in “Denim Chrome.”
I was in 6th grade, so that would have been… 1997. It was such a dark color because I had bruised my thumbnail and I was covering it up.
Other early purchases:
Dr. Pepper lip smackers. (Maybe 1997-98)
Covergirl Cheekers “Snow Plum.” (2000-ish)
Maybelline WetShine Diamonds “Strawberry Ice.” (2000-ish)
I cannot *believe* I was able to recall those product names. Wow.
Jordana eyeliner =)
I’m going with from this time period, because I can’t remember in high school. In college it was probably something bare minerals, though. But my first purchase of my beginning to get obsessed with makeup phase was the Sephora Give Me Some Lip set from…2011, I think. I loved it so much I went and bought full sizes of a couple glosses from the package, then I started buying other makeup, and now my collection’s growing exponentially. Funny thing is, I don’t use anything from that set these days, and the products I loved from it I don’t like anymore.
It had to be concealer or mascara. Maybelline Stiletto, maybe? I know my first foray into higher end makeup was a Sephora lipstick, a very pretty ruby red that I still wear occasionally. 🙂
The very first beauty product I purchased was… a M.A.C lipstick “lovelorn”!!! after that, I really fell in love with a cosmetic brand M.A.C itl this time 🙂
Hmm, now that I think about it, most of my makeup isn’t stuff I got myself.
The first one I think I bought on my own was Bite Beauty’s High Pigment Pencil in Pomegranate. Super pigmented, nice texture, although I don’t actually wear it very often.
MAC Springsheen, Capricious, and 129 were my first purchases. 🙂
The first makeup purchase I made (for stuff I use regularly) was two Chanel nailpolishes (Black Pearl, Morning Rose) and one from OPI (Mermaid Tears). I remember being extremely frustrated because I had saved some money for the summer sales to find new clothes, and bought nothing because my size was never available. These nailpolishes started my interest in makeup!
I had probably bought a couple of things before that, but I didn’t use them more than twice, so I don’t remember.
I was like 14. Covet Girl powder and it made me break out! So i bought a mac powder. it didnt work that well for me so i moved on to an estee lauder one.
Mac electric eel eyeshadow
Well like I said in the last discussion, the first time I wore makeup was while getting colomatched at a MAC counter. So naturally, I walked out of there with something. I believe it was the MAC Studio Moisture Tint SPF 15 tinted moisturizer (TM) in Medium Plus.
It’s probably one of the best TMs available on the market today in terms of finish, color selection, and price. It’s a pity that it provides so little protection against the sun. 🙁
Ah well. My personal favorite, the Tarte Smooth Operator TM, beats that by a very comfortable margin.
A really cheap dark blue nail polish.
Geez, that was so long ago. Aside from whatever drugstore stuff I bought as a kid (a failed experiment in temporary red hair dye, probably some type of lip balm, etc.) the first purchases I remember were Urban Decay eye shadows. I went straight for those bold colors. 🙂
The first one I remember was Revlon’s old Mineral Mousse foundation, and gosh was it terrible!
A set of cheap eyeshadows from a service station when I was 12. Don’t remember the brand, though.
my first high end lipstick / makeup was DIOR Backstage Pink addict lipstick which I picked in 2009 in my anniversary month ….. and compromised on dinner hmmmmmm 😀 😀 it is my lucky charm till date and I keep it with so much care
my firST MAC product I remember – REBEL Lipstick ….
I can share some fond memories ….
it was 2009 and my son was almost 1 yr 4 months , in april I decided to buy my first MAC Lipstick after reading so much MAC MAC on internet … i only knew the price but nothing much about finish and all … so I was dressed up in all WHITE so that I can judge the actual color ….
soooo not me but hubby picked my first lipstick : REBEL , as that was the brightest and best lipstick amongst the whole lot .. i picked that from bloomingdales 😀
after that no looking back 😀
“TEMPTALIA” and Christine still plays a big role in my each and every makeup piece and am proud of the fact that my love for you is growing to new heights with each passing day 😀
Aww, thank you so much 🙂
It must have been a mascara by L’Oréal, which were much cheaper back then! (mid-90s)
Other than Chapstick and Bonne Bell Lip Smackers, I believe it was a Cover Girl LipSlicks in the yellow tube. 🙂 I don’t know if Benefit and some of these brands existed when I started buying makeup!
yes! lipslicks that was my first purchase too. color was “wine”…probabably in 1994 🙂
So funny – mine was definitely a Benefit product too. Either Benetint or the fan brush, I think!
I’m considerably older than most posters here but I think the first product I ever purchased was a Cutex lipstick in “Peppermint Pink”. That company has a line of lipsticks that were flavoured and the Peppermint Pink one actually tasted of peppermint. I also remember buying a Maybelline eye shadow in a frosted white shade but that was more to wear to a costume party where I was going as a “beatnik”.
Love it!
Mariella, I’m probably older than you and I also had the Cutex Peppermint Pink flavored lipstick! Do you also remember their Eggnog Grog lipstick from the same collection? It was so daring for the time; a very pale, cool, sheer frosted yellow that smelled and tasted divine! I also remember a caramel flavored shade from the same collection, but I can’t remember the name of it, maybe Caramel Kiss? Anyway. I believe that this whole collection came out around Christmastime, and was mostly aimed at the teen-early ’20’s demographic. Sorry to have jumped in on your comment this way, but I seldom have the opportunity to interact with other beauty-lovers of my own age group and I love to reminesce about the early products that I loved! Most of the younger-than-myself readers here (and in no way an I putting them down; I learn so many NEW things from them!) would have no idea what I am even talking about!
I don’t recall Eggnog Grog (though, being in Canada, it might not have been released here) but I do remember the caramel one (it actually didn’t really taste like caramel at all, though I guess they tried their best!). And no need to apologize for “jumping in” – I love it too when I can share memories like this with women of my “vintage”. Do you remember the Yardley Slickers (I think that’s what they were called) lipsticks and the “Londonderry Hair” line (I think Jean Shrimpton was their “spokesmodel”). What fun memories!
I remember exactly what my item was, it was one of those large beauty train cases from Woolworth’s and it had a bunch of non branded makeup inside it. I thought it was a bargain because it was £15.00 and it had sooo much makeup inside. At the time i didn’t realize that quality mattered, i thought all makeup was the same. The makeup was terrible, eye-shadows and blushes were chalky, didn’t have any pigmentation. mascara was runny like water. The lipsticks all seemed to have this metallic sheen to them and they smelled like plastic. The liners were hard to use. I stopped using it after several failed attempts of trying to recreate a look from a youtube video, but couldn’t. I just started to buy drugstore makeup after that.
Ok this is a bit off topic but I miss the awesome old/exciting smell of Woolworths.
More than likely it was a mascara. I wore mascara long before any other makeup :).
The Revlon Colorstay Foundation :))
Doesn’t count as a beauty product, really, but I bought so many LipSmackers lip balms back in the day! I kept them all on a keychain!
My first non-drugstore buy was MUFE HD Liquid Foundation! I’ve tried so many other foundations in all sorts of price points since then, but MUFE’s is still my favorite! 🙂 I think I may have actually bought it because of one of your foundation tutorials! Until then, I had always used my hands to put on foundation, haha!
The Summer I turned 15, I had a Summer job, and had done some modelling, leaaving me with quite a bit of cash in my pocket. I had already been wearing makeup, but everything had been purchased by my mom. There was a Montgomery Ward in the plaza I worked, and one day I stepped in, just to have a look. There was a “Buy 2, Get 1 Free” sale on L’Oreal lipstick, and I bought Cameo, Grecian Lilac, & Sea-“something”, which was a sheer, pale pink with a bit of irridescence. This began my love affair with L’Oreal lipstick…
The Sea one was almost a duo chrome-y looking one in the tube, right? Pinky/purple?
All my makeup was bought by my mother until college… so the first thing I bought myself was probably maybelline purestay powder foundation because I wore that stuff for like 6 years (until they discontinued my color!)
Maybelline eyeliner, the short red wood pencils that you had to take a lighter to in order to apply it smoothly to your waterline.
OMG, I remember those…
omg that was easily my second or third purchase! i remember a girl getting kicked out of english class for having a lighter in high school! she tried to say it was for the eyeliner!
My first purchase was MAC Russian Red. I had a neighbor that wore it when I was in high school. She left for work when I was leaving for school and I would always compliment it. When she finally told me what it was, I made my first delve in to makeup.
I didn’t actually sit down and learn about the full-face fun until I was about 19? I think. I sat down at a Benefit counter, got a makeover and purchased everything the woman had used on me. That was actually the first time that it sunk it that makeup could be so uniquely your own!
stuff from elf. this was in 2007
Maybelline eyeliner and mascara
I believe it was CG’s Volume Exact mascara. It was not good.
The first “real” makeup I bought was this Covergirl lipstick…It was like Bronze Goddess or something, I think. My mum thought it looked good on me, so I bought it. Looking back, it was way too warm for me. 0_o
Clinique Mauve Crystal lipstick from Bloomingdales at King of Prussia Mall circa 1987. It was a big deal.
When I was 16, I worked at McDonalds and with my first paycheck I splurged on Mary Kate and Ashley eyeliner. It was an automatic eyeliner, so I didn’t have to sharpen it, and I like how pigmented it was…and hey, only a dollar! 😀
MAC Satellite Dreams eyeshadow
Oh man. I can’t remember the name. It was this brown lip gloss from the drug store that I used to put on my lips (and eyes, gross!) and I thought it was the most amazing thing in the world. That was in middle school. I do remember getting trouble in the 2nd grade because I took my mom’s make up to school and was playing with it in the bathroom and my teacher (who was evil) got pissed and made me take it off.
the first one i REMEMBER buying was some cover girl tinted lip balm. i saw claire danes wearing it on the cover of seventeen magazine and i HAD to have it.
Hmm… I’m sure I purchased some drugstore makeup before this, but I remember making a Clinique purchase, picking out an eyeshadow palette and eyeliner and I think a tinted moisturizer. I remember thinking… wow, that added up fast
Covergirl mascara in the purple tube
I’d have to say my first high end product purchase was Lancôme Dual Finish compact (then $16.50) in 1986.
I appear to be much older than everyone commenting. I bought my first beauty product at Woolworth in the early 70s. It was a cheap blusher that I hid from my parents. I grew to love Ultimate II cosmetics. Kevyn Aucoin really knew his stuff. I currently use his foundation.
The first product I ever bought myself was N.Y.C’s Clear Roll-On Lipgloss at age 11 or 12. I used to get an allowance, so I would always be sure to save a dollar or two just for my gloss so I would never run out.
Well….since I was 13 it was rather typical…silver eyeshadow by CoverGirl and a roll on, clear, no name, super shiny lipgloss and a Maybelline stick concealer for my acne
Two things spring to mind – not sure which was first – I bought a Black Ruby Miners nail varnish at the end of the ‘punk’ era (still something that I’d buy now!), and also I remember shocking my mother by purchasing a Guerlain Meteorities early edition with birthday money – I think they only did one colour then! I wish I’d kept it – it’d be worth something 🙂 I was about eighteen I think – probably indications of expensive tastes to come!!!
My mom sold AVON so that’s always what I had, I would give her money to buy stuff from the catalog at half price. I know for sure what my first high end purchase was, it was a few things from Benefit during a promotion; Coralista, Stilleto cream shadow, Birthday suit cream shadow and BadGal plum.
Before that my only other highend product experience was getting my makeup done at a Clinique counter for prom, my mom bought be a lipgloss and powder for the $50 minimum you half to spend for getting your makeup done.
My first big-end beauty purchase was a set of mini UD lip glosses.
I remember the first beauty product I bought were two UD eyeshadows when I was in grade 8… It was in Stalker & Sin 🙂
Probably Fashion Fair Cream Finish Foundation or Chocolate Raspberry Lipstick.
I’m also from the “older crowd” and I think my first makeup was frosted white lipstick made by Yardley. Probably in about 1970-71!!
Mac Earthline Technakohl. I was absolutely in love with it and felt so grown up, haha!
It was the Maybelline mascara in the pink tube…and I made quite a mess with it as I recall.
No! It wasn’t the mascara, it was the covergirl foundation in the glass bottle and it was about 6 shades too dark for me. I had no idea how to blend or sheer it out either. I looked like a freaky clown before I really learned how to wear makeup. It smelled really “medicinal” too. It was awful. Beauty brands have really come a long way haven’t they?
The rule in my house was that I would be allowed to wear make up until I was 15… And when I was 15, I got a very cheap mascara from a 99 cent store, which was horrible, so I then went to the DS (I think it was Rite Aid) and got a L’Oreal Mascara, a NYC blush which I used from the 10th-12th grades, NYC lipstick in Sheer Red, and NYC WaterProof eyeliners (which I still love and use, for $3 pop, you get great color plus long lasting results) and a Maybelline eyeshadow quad in some blue and purple colors (which sucked btw) and a CoverGirl eye shadow quad in earthy colors (I think its discontinued, I have tried to look for the color all over but I can’t find it, it was such a lovely quad. My first MAC lipstick was So Chaud, great, beautiful color, but I don’t wear it that often anymore because it got so dry (darn matte formula), and then, thanks to my sister, I started to get obsessed with make up 🙂
Maybelline’s Seashore Frost Eyeshadow quad. Used them all like only a 13yr old would;)
When I was a little girl it was probably one of those NYC roll-on lipgloss things. When I was in high school though, my first serious makeup purchase was a Bourjois eyeshadow trio.
An awful CoverGirl cream eyeshadow quad that gave me an allergic reaction and made my eyelids red and swollen. >_>; I bought a Maybelline WetShine Diamonds lipstick the same day in a frosty pink. I was 13 and bought them to participate in makeovers my classmates were giving each other the next day in Choir.
I only remember Bonne Belle Cheek Stain Blush. Great product! Before retreating into Lip Smackers they were a legit cosmetics company. And a friend put me on to Revlon black liquid eyeliner and a great brush for it- bright glowing pearl handled lucite and it never went wrong. Always perfect liner.
It was the 90s and i took my babysitting money to get this Lancome lipstick called “brun rose” which looked like something Monica from Friends would wear, it was a brownish dusty rose, just like the name. I loved that lipstick!
Yes! I had that one too! It was huge at our High school, along with Revlon Toast of New York. When people say a brown lipstick looks “So 90’s” I’m usually automatically interested 😉
When I was 13 or 14 I bought a wet n wild eyeshadow palette from the only store in my really small town, but I will always remember it! It was pink,purple and blue. As an adult the first purchase I made was Dior mascara.
I think the very first two beauty products that I brought was a basic nude eyeshadow palette and an apricot blush. Both of them were from the drugstore. They have worked well for me.
My first purchase was a few really bright eyeshadows from MAC… Gorgeous Gold, Tilt, Swish, Electric Eel. Those days are long gone! I look at those colors now like, “What was I thinking?”
The first product I bought was L’oreal Feria hair dye line. But, face makeup was Max Factor cake makeup and a shimmery blue shadow stick from Maybelline.
A blue discounted eye-pencil which I used wear in the low inner lid. It was hard and my eyes were costantly wet! It was the only beauty product my mum allowed me to wear! (I was only 13)
I think it was a Maybelline lipgloss or something.
Well my first drugstore purchase was a foundation from maybelline it was amazing!!! I actually wish I could still get it because it looked so natural. I can’t remember what the name of it was called though. And then for high end it would be a yellow MAC eyeshadow which I still have and I do use it on occasion.
I remember purchasing a Chanel lipstick, 😀 and I also remember loving it.
The first beauty product purchase i made was a royal blue eyeliner from cover girl and a royal blue mascara to match was my second purchase. This was back in the 80’s ,lol.
A Cover Girl pressed powder – I still remember how it smelled like and how excited I was!
I’ve only recently gotten into “high end” makeup, but the first things I bought were the Glinda Palette from Urban Decay, a Sephora Pro Shadow Brush, a Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes mascara and a brush cleaner.
Though technically I did buy a black mineral shadow at one point before, but I used it as a weathering power for Warhammer 40k miniatures…so I don’t think that counts.
Being that I am as old as the hills and things like MAC and Sephora did not exist, I remember Revlon Moon Drops as being my favorite cosmetic. Not only the lipstick but the foundation and moisturizer and I would give a weeks pay to be able to smell that wonderful scent again. I also used Yardley Slicker lipstick, actually all the Yardley makeup products as well as Oh de London perfume. I can’t narrow it down to a single item but the memories are oh so wonderful.
Each summer, when I was younger, we went to my grandparents beach house. As soon as I got into makeup the biggest treasure hunt was finding all the Moon Drop lipsticks my Nana had put in various drawers around the house and forgotten. So much fun.