InStyle Editors Share Their Favorite #Throwback Beauty Products
Remember your very first "big girl" beauty product? You know, the one item that was the makeup equivalent of your passport, leaving behind those peel-off nail polishes and starter lip balm tints to allow you entry into a more grown-up world of beauty products. Whether it was a bottle of Liz Claiborne's Curve perfume or a BonneBell Lip Smacker, it was the product that almost seemed to announce your arrival into womanhood (or anyway, as an official teenager), and always seemed that much cooler when complemented by your lime green scrunchie. To celebrate #ThrowbackThursday, we asked our beauty editors to dig through their Caboodles and tell us all about the products that made them feel not like a girl, but not yet a woman.
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Cacharel Anaïs Anaïs Original
"I remember the smell of Anaïs Anaïs so clearly. It was the first 'grown-up' fragrance I ever I wore. Along with Aussie Sprunch Spray and frosted pink lipstick, it brings me back to summer in the mid-eighties when the hair was big and baby oil was my only SPF. That was my first signature and when I smell it—even on a stranger—it conjures up the memories of my first taste of freedom and fun. It will always have a special place in my heart."—Selene Milano, Senior Beauty Editor
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MAC Tinted Lipglass in Prrr
"If we're getting technical, MAC's Nico was my very first Lipglass from the brand, but that glitter-infused lavender of my dreams has ceased to exist. Prrr was my second MAC purchase, and it's been a staple in my makeup bag for decades. I love how it mimics the natural color of my lips, and is shimmery without veering into that old-school frosted territory."—Marianne Mychaskiw, Associate Beauty Editor
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Love's Baby Soft
"Love’s Baby Soft was my first signature scent (until I graduated to Fidji in junior high). The bottle came with a t-shirt that said 'I’m Baby Soft' at my local drugstore. I wore both together with such grown-up pride."—Didi Gluck, Contributing Beauty Editor
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Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse Foundation
"The first face makeup I ever discovered was Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse Foundation. I’d slather it on like spackle every morning before school, and admire my smooth complexion in the tiny mirror I kept in my locker. Though I definitely overdid the application at the time, I’ve gotta admit: It’s still one of my favorite foundations."—Dianna Mazzone, Assistant Beauty Editor
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YSL Baby Doll Perfume
"You never forget your first time—and in my case, I mean my first time in a Sephora, where I spent 3 hours (not kidding) inside to eventually emerge with a handful of lip glosses and a bottle of YSL's Baby Doll. It was a pretty pink mixture of rose, grenadine, peach, and red currant that smelled super-sweet on my skin, and I thought I was so classy every time I'd spray an actual cloud of the stuff around myself. Every time I catch a whiff, I swear I hear a Ja Rule duet playing in the distance, and I hope it never ever ever gets discontinued."—Marianne Mychaskiw, Associate Beauty Editor
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Village Lip Lickers Lip Balm in Bubble Gum
"Before there was Bonne Bell, there were Village Lip Lickers, which came in a tin. My all-time favorite flavor was bubble gum. I kept mine in my Bermuda Bag at all times."—Didi Gluck, Contributing Beauty Editor
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Ralph by Ralph Lauren
"I first graduated from sickeningly sweet body sprays to 'real' fragrance with a bottle of Ralph By Ralph Lauren. As an avid reader of Teen People and YM, this bottle was the back cover ad on many issues of these publications when it first came out in the early ‘00s—and I had to have it. I got it for Christmas and religiously spritzed it on every day throughout middle school into the first half of high school. My mom always used to complain that floral scent stayed on my clothes even after she did laundry. Needless, to say she was relieved when I eventually moved on to another fragrance."—Erin Lukas, Beauty Writer
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Stila Eyeshadow
"Blue eyeshadow served as rite of passage that took me out of the Tinkerbell starter makeup category into the heavy-duty Caboodle items, and out of all the shades I dabbled with, Stila's Popova still stands out in my mind. I loved how the cardboard exterior had a tiny poem or saying printed inside, kind of like a beauty fortune cookie, if you will. The brand has since ditched the cardboard packaging, not to mention that shimmery blue Popova shade, but the Cha Cha hue in the current lineup is a pretty close match."—Marianne Mychaskiw, Associate Beauty Editor