Make up has only been part of my life for the past 5 odd years or so. Before that, I never cared about it or paid much attention to it. I used to wear some make up in my ‘clubbing days’, but I never wore make up in every day life. How times have changed. I now wear make up almost every day. On workdays or when I know I’ll be going somewhere I wear make up and it has become part of my life. It all started with wanting to look a bit more awake and look where it stands now. Looking back on the past 5 years and the minimal amount of make up I used before that, I have found a few products that instantly take me back. These are my make up memories.
Bourjois eyeshadow in no 48 in vert petillant
Lo and behold: the oldest make up product I own. I bought this eyeshadow when I was a teenager and it was my staple color (over a yellow cream base and a gold colored highlight) for my look when I went to clubs. I hardly ever use it now, but I remember buying it and thinking it was so expensive. Funny, when you know I now own eyeshadows that cost me 3x as much. The only reason why I still have it is for sentimental reasons.
Guerlain dark brown kohl pencil
When I decided I was going to wear make up on a more regular basis, I had just started working my first real job. I wanted to buy ‘good’ products and me being a make up noob, thought my safest bet was to go to my local high end drug store. There they sold me this eyeliner pencil. I used it quite a bit, at the start of my make up venture days, but I now know this pencil to be awful. It’s hard and doesn’t slide on easily. So glad I found the Urban Decay 24/7 liners. Those work so much better.
The Body Shop off white matte highlighter eyeshadow
This is also a product I bought when I first dabbled in make up. The lady at the drug store had applied a very nice dark brown look and I simply bought the products, or similar ones to recreate it. She had used a matte off white color for my eyeshadow highlight and when I found this I knew it was right on the money. This is still my favorite highlight and I’m sure to hit pan on it some time soon. You can already see the major dent in the middle.
Chanel lipstick Rouge Coco in no 23 Rouge Orage
My very first lipstick splurge. I bought this while on vacation in Berlin (KaDeWe to be exact) so that makes this lipstick extra special. It will always remind me of that trip. It was also my first red lipstick and the guy that helped me at the counter was over the moon at how fabulous it looked. I have to admit that I don’t wear this too often, but ever since finding Lisa Eldridge’s video on how to wear lipstick several ways this has become a new favorite of mine. This looks great when applied as a stain.
NARS Dolce Vita lipgloss
One of my favorite lipglosses and again a great memory attached to it. I bought this in London last year in some department store. I was looking for a ‘my lips but better’ shade and the make up artist brought this out. Unfortunately it was out of stock at that department store, so I scoured half of London to track one down. And it’s perfect. The gloss has a great staying power and the color is just right.
Sleek Blush by 3 blush palette in Pumpkin
I love Sleek blushes and when I was in London this year. I hadn’t heard of these yet as the information hadn’t trickled down to Dutch beauty blogs yet, so you can imagine how surprised I was when I walked into Superdrug. I bought this one because of the bright colors and the fact that the orange is completely matte. I love matte blusher, but the other two colors work really well with my skin tone too. These are some great blushes for spring/ summer and the fact that you get 3 colors in one palette makes it easy to take with you on vacation too. Great plus.
I also swatched all of the products:
Swatches
From left to right: bourjois eyeshadow, NARS lipgloss, all three Sleek blushes, the eyelinere, matte white eyeshadow, Chanel lipstick
What are your make up memories?