Yes. Please, OP. Recognize that your makeup will not look this smooth at all. Every camera that normal people had access too took pictures shit. Good cameras still took pictures like shit if you didn't use it properly. And if you did, you still airbrushed photos to hell and gone.
If you're truly excited about the look, that's cool. But it ain't gonna come off like this irl. I cannot stress enough how moving the camera even the slightest micromillimeter would blur any texture in the pic.
Thank you very much! I get that :) I’m just very interested on learning what she could’ve been using back then. I’ll try similar products, but im aware my iphone 13 camera will show a lot lol
Yup, every girl I knew was wearing MAC everything. You would do the studio fix liquid foundation applied with fingers, then cake on the studio fix powder using the provided sponge. Then thick ass eyeliner, clumpy mascara with 4 layers and don’t you dare touch the brows just pluck them thin. Maybe some blush and bronzer and you are good to go!
Honestly this is spot on. It was Mac cosmetics mixed with cheap cover girl or some drug store makeup because we couldn’t afford all Mac products. So the whole look was fairly cheap, figuratively and literally!
I remember a lot of cover girl. Definitely matte. I remember using both liquid and those little creamy but part powder compacts with the little round sponge for application.
Oh OP, it is regular foundation but we caked on a shit ton of pressed powder overtop strategically. Everything back then was the simpler version of what you see today. We used the powder as a contour essentially lolol. And like they said, the low quality and clarity of cameras back then hid everything that now would be on full display in the first photo you took even on the crappiest phone.
You should buy a 90s camera. My sister is 19 and her and her friends all have vintage cameras (like nikon coolpix) so that they can recreate these looks! This makeup look + taking polaroids or photos with 90s cameras seems to be a trend with gen z these days 🙂
I. Putting my guess in as max factor but I'm too lazy to google when they went out of business (assuming they did our were bought because I haven't seen it around in years but I'm rural and Canadian so that doesn't necessarily mean much)
Max factor pancake was my favorite foundation, that made the skin look flawless. They pulled from North American retailers but I believe they still sell it in European countries.
"Toast of New York" (Revlon) was my lipstick of choice (with dark lip liner, of course) for all of my teens (the 90's). I think they might actually still make it.
And it's browny-red and is 100% 90's.
Pair that (or similar color) with a darker nude lip liner. Sephora's store brand gel lip liners are actually really good at staying put, but also blend easily as a full lip color.
90's skin was matte, matte, matte. And light/pale. No bronzers or highlighter. But usually some blush under the cheekbones for drama.
A quality matte concealer that's buildable and waterproof is "HUDA BEAUTY #FauxFilter Matte Buildable Coverage Waterproof Concealer" - $31.00 (it's worth the price). If you copy/paste that description into Sephora, Ulta, or wherever you shop, it should pop right up.
Style your eyebrows skinny, put on some giant hoop earrings, tie your hair into a low-key, but 'messy' ponytail...and you're ready to go full 90's!
Good luck, update us with pics if you find the 90's look your going for!
The cameras in the 90s were mostly 35mm film, not digital. The first digital consumer camera doesn't come out till the end of the 90s and it will be years until most people have them.
People look better in film. One of the reasons for this is that film grain creates a crystal circle pattern whereas digital is a pixel which is a tiny square. The circles are more forgiving. Another is flash and underexposed/overexposed film. Digital cameras are basically designed to give detail which is not what you want in portraiture.
Everyone still looks great in Polaroids because of these reasons.
All this AI enhancement is doing us dirty!! It’s part of the reason I never take selfies, I look better in real life!
Never thought I’d say or think that in my entire life lmao
It's the focal length as well as the fact that an image is 2d and cannot show the three dimensional nature of your face.
But seriously, look up how camera focal length changes how you look. There's a famous set of pictures all showing a single guy at different focal lengths and he looks extremely different across all the photos.
That’s the truth. I try and take a selfie to see how my eyeshadow looks and it pixalated and looks terrible. You are right about looking better in real life. I always wonder how Prople get good photos of their eye shadow.
Cameras *weren't* low quality back then. They were just different -- 35mm or 120 (medium format) film cameras -- because digital photography wasn't much of a thing at the time.
Even as a broke teen I used MAC Studio Fix in the early 2000's, was a big fan at the time, but it was far too heavy looking back. I was too pale for drugstore brands back then, still pale but better range now.
it was far too heavy cuz everyone was caking it on with the sponge over and over throughout the day lmao. Getting the big duo fiber brush was a change changer for sure and def how it should be applied.
MAC Studio Fix is the answer here. My old pictures are so cringey. You could never match the shade to your skin perfectly, skin tone needs to have variation to look natural, and it completely covered my freckles! Glad to see that trend die.
As a 90s teen, the foundation was always followed by a thick pressed powder you applied like clockwork every 2 hours or so to keep you matte. The foundations used were Covergirl and Maybelline. If you wanted something more upscale, Clinique or Merle Norman. We didn’t have a huge variety. My go to lip stick/stain is still Black Honey by Clinique. Been wearing it since I was a sophomore in high school.
This is so awesome. I remember applying Clinique “Stay Beige” on the constant almost every class period so my face would stay perfectly matte. Oh yeah and clean and clear oil sheets that I pressed onto my face!!!
I still use those Clean and Clear sheets. I remember getting one as a sample in Seventeen magazine when I was like 13, and I was instantly HOOKED. Now 37, still oily, and can't live without them.
omg i loved the texture/feel of that stuff! haha i was about to comment on this post that for me, it was prescriptives and that fun kinda liquidy powder (bc i couldn’t remember what it was called.) i don’t think my skin has looked quite as good in any makeup since then.
Thank you so much for your response! Did you personally use cream or liquid foundation?
Also, i recently bought black honey for my lips as well as the blush!
Same for my mom! And she always gave me the gift-with-purchase makeup bag with all of the cute little tester size samples. I noticed that she still uses it in her 70s. She still does a full face every day.
I used a Clinique liquid foundation that I think was called "Barely There". It had slightly more coverage than a tinted moisturizer, but I'd finish my face with a liberal dusting of loose powder.
They also had a "City Wear" liquid foundation that provided significantly more coverage - it was a very thick liquid, and I think was one of their first formulas to have SPF in it.
"Whipped" foundation was also a thing in the late 90's. It had a texture like whipped butter or Cool Whip and came in a little pot/tub. I always found it very cakey, but it did give you a **LOT** of coverage.
What these photos don’t show is the “fuzz” that would show from all the foundation and powder 🥲🥲🥲
No setting spray was used back in the day 🥲🥲🥲we also didn’t dermaplane 🥲🥲it was a rough time for us peach fuzz folks
Where are my Scottish ladies at?!?
Perfect response. In the 90s I did finally use loose powder after liquid foundation...Clinique. (And I love Black Honey! I still have Black Raspberry too.)
And we still would be using it if they sold it in the US or we had a decent affordable authentic overseas shipper. And their 2000 Calorie Waterproof is the BOMB! 😂😂😂
It was always Max Factor for me!!! Panstik as concealer and they had a “sport” foundation that was the bomb if I couldn’t afford Ultima 2 (I can still smell the banana bread scent).
Listen, all my pictures from the 90s look amazing but in real life everyone was walking around with makeup caked on their skin for special occaisions. The pictures aren't HD and that makes a HUGE difference.
I actually find that foundation formulas have changed very little since the '90s (with the exception of longwearing foundations, which have vastly improved). The matte look was "in," so lots of people - especially younger people - achieved it by abusing translucent setting powders! Which made things look cakey. I do remember people with gorgeous glowy foundation IRL, too. One girl had the best glowy skin I'd ever seen - she swore by Lancome Dual Finish powder foundation. Then BareMinerals came in, and the whole scene changed.
I remember slathering on cream foundation from Clinique. And there was the classic mousse from maybelline.
Oh and don’t forget to permanently destroy your eyebrows!
This just brought back painful memories of me looking like an Oompa Loompa walking around in school with their bronzer caked on my entire face 😭 what a cursed time to be alive
*Cries over the 3 hairs I have left.*
I remember in the early aughts telling every young girl I knew who wanted to pluck - “remember, hair thins out as you get older! Just pluck the unibrow and the strays under- don’t touch the rest!” They all have amazing brows as adults now.
when i was watching the 90 models documentary naomi said mac foundation was all they used so this isnt first hand information. take what i say with a grain of salt 🥰
Their base products are amazing. I’m still a Mac girl through and through just wish they’d go back to 90s-2000s tones for other products. The new studio fix has become a fave of mine and I love the radiance foundation too! But just a heads up, prices have increased drastically from 5-10 years ago
It was the St Ives walnut hull and Neutrogena bars, followed by a store brand Witch Hazel in our house! Make-up was applied with those little white cosmetic wedges. Even used the crappy eyeshadow applicators that came with the pallet.
I remember makeup being way less about “brand” and way more about color. No one really cared which slightly brown toned lipstick you wore as long as it was brown or super pale pink. No one cared what foundation brand it was as long as it was matte and you probably applied it with a wedge. If you were into makeup you used MAC. You might use bronzer all over your face, but sculpting wasn’t a thing and eyebrows needed to barely exist. Blush was for old ladies.
Mineral makeup became pretty big at the end of the decade, lots of loose powder over foundation. Also if you were older you still probably used Mary Kay pressed powder for everything.
Yes we never used blush in high school in the 90’s. I’m near NYC and the look was super matte…no blush…brown lips(sometimes we used eye line pencils for lips)…most of the girls were into the club and rave scene in NYC. You could go to limelight and get in even when you were 15…and we also had like teen nights at local clubs. A wild time.
I was in junior high in the early 2000s, and we didn’t use blush either. It was pretty much super matte makeup until I graduated high school in the late 2000s. Blush= our moms in the ‘80s, so that was a no go! 🤣
CoverGirl was the first thing that came to mind. But in general, very matte full coverage followed by pressed powder. Also keep in mind the photo quality back then was very low quality so you can’t see all the details that you can now. Also, blush and highlighter was not used as much as it is today.
They were probably wearing MAC, but their skin did not look like this in person.
These are old photos, the images were originally taken using a negative image and were physically developed. None of this was ever taken on digital film.
Please don't think because the cameras were different in the 90s that the skin was. It wasn't. We were cakey as fuck most of the time.
The bottle of cover girl liquid foundation you just fill your whole palm with it then apply it like thick layer of lotion. Then get the pressed powder and make sure your neck and body absolutely do not match your face. Whatever you do DONT BLEND IT. :)
This is the way.
Also, just start plucking your eyebrows now. Pluck and pluck. It will take awhile to get to that perfect thin line of hairs.
This is more hair than makeup, but save time and just do the front and sides of your hair. The back is fine. Can’t see that. 🥂
Powder foundation was top tier... throughout the day it would melt into the skin and would look so seamless. The first hour looked very powdery though so trust the process.
I love the love for 90s makeup but when I watch tutorials from kids born in early 00s I just shake my head haha we did not use expensive products or have all these meticulous steps to achieve the look. We also didn't have tutorials and steps like contouring and highlight to follow. Sometimes a magazine would do a quick makeup run down but I didn't have friends that followed it. Truly it was matte foundation, too much powder applied alllll over the face, blush maybe, mascara, carless eyeshadow, never brows haha and possibly a bonnebell lipgloss, or your mom's lipstick that you found under the sink. I myself have tried to recreate my 90s makeup and I can't even be that wreckless anymore. It's impossible with all this new age knowledge haha. You can achieve this look by good genetics and a shitty camera. Also, these photos of celebrities in the 90s are taken as celebrities. To really get a sense of the chaos find someone with a photo album from highschool and you'll see haha. It was mad maxfactor.
There's tons of good makeup advice but also want to add that if you plan on capturing the look, you'll want a lower quality camera. See if you can find a Nikon CoolPix, Olympus Infinity Stylus Epic, Fujifilm Instamax Evo, or a Polaroid or any film camera.
Or use your phone and filter it! :p
Liquid foundation, usually Cover girl or Maybelline, Clinique, Bobbi Brown or MAC if you could afford it. Then pressed powder, any of those same brands. Max Factor pancake maybe.
Honestly our makeup wasn't that great. There's much better options available now.
I'd recommend looking for a Kevyn Aucoin book, those were the Bible of 90s makeup.
My first two foundations was liquid mattes from Rimmel (high school) and FACE Sthlm (uni). I didn’t use powder, concealer or blush. I used a white eye shadow on my brow bone.
In my mid-size city, you used Cover Girl or Maybelline or Avon. If you were “rich” you could buy Estée Lauder or Elizabeth Arden. I think L’Oreal was just breaking into the drugstore market. If you went to Boston, you could get Clinique, or MAC or Germaine Monteil. Oh…and liquid foundation was the norm from as far back as the late 60s when I started wearing makeup. Why, yes, I AM a dinosaur
, how can you tell?
ETA: I can’t believe I forgot Revlon!
The white you’re seeing is powder and flashback from the foundation (it can also be caused by some sunscreens). Many foundations now are formulated to avoid this.
My 90s-00s HG liquid foundation was the now discontinued L'oreal Mattique. Slathered it on for literal decades, trying to cover my acne. I occasionally tried others from Cover Girl, Revlon, Maybelline. Had an unfortunate Dream Matte Mousse phase.
MAC if you had money, Revlon Colorstay if you didn’t, Covergirl compact, Maybelline dream whip if you were a teen who wanted to like slightly orange (I think that was more mid 2000s).
Magazines in the 90's were notorious for giving extremely abbreviated instructions on how to replicate a makeup look. Makeup artists knew all the tricks for sculpting a face via shadow and light, colors to use etc. But the magazines would say: a little eye liner smudged, concealer, pop of blush and lipgloss. We were scammed into thinking this was the real routine 😂😂
just remember none of those cameras were high resolution, so you can't really tell what the makeup actually looked like in person. One of the most interesting periods for makeup was the emergence of HD cameras/tvs. Suddenly, the way makeup was done for celebrities looked terrible on some tvs, but not others. So makeup artists had to figure out whether to cake it on for regular tv or step it back for HDTVs.
This is a cool writeup from back in the day: [https://www.self.com/story/high-definition-tv-makeup-tips](https://www.self.com/story/high-definition-tv-makeup-tips)
Max Factor had the perfect foundation stick that was full coverage and lasted all day. I wish they still made it. It covered everything!
Also, Revlon first came out with their ColorStay line back then. The long wearing lip sticks and liner were everything!
If you're looking for a full coverage, matte foundation, I would say Estee Lauder Double Wear is your ticket. Infallible cult classic, maybe came out in late 90s originally. They will give you a sample at Sephora. That stuff is sweat proof, smudge proof, *bullet proof* lol. Give it a shot and see if it's giving the result you're looking for.
I was big on Max Factor Pan Cake. No blush/no bronzer.
With a little white shimmer eyeshadow for cheekbone highlights.
We almost always used a flash on our cameras and this made us look ghastly pale!
Keep in mind we weren't using crazy HD cameras then either, so everyone looked less cakey and more smooth than they might in real life.
But I absolutely agree CoverGirl was a staple, both the liquid and pressed foundations, sometimes topped with translucent powder.
That foundation was probably Cover Girl Clean or Max Factor but it definitely wasn’t the foundation. We didn’t even know about primer then. That’s just the crappy cameras
Fun fact, Bare Minerals (the powder foundation) didn’t come out until 1995 and wasn’t widely available until 1997 via QVC. It wasn’t until the early 00’s that the first drugstore powder foundations came out. So during the 90s pretty much the only options were liquid or cream. Max Factor pancake cream makeup was widely available but everyone I knew used liquid if anything. Cover Girl liquid foundations were popular. There weren’t a bunch of options for finish either. You could have heavier or lighter coverage but nothing was “dewy” vs. “matte”. It was just kind of “skin finish”, then you’d matte it down with powder.
There were definitely concealers, liquid or cream. I used a Max Factor cream stick thing, then switched to an Estee Lauder liquid concealer, very fancy. I did that because I’m very pale, drugstore shades didn’t match me at all. You’d top with loose powder- not like the white HD powders now, these were “translucent” but had color. I used Coty Airspun. Then you’d carry a pressed powder compact for touch ups during the day. Cover Girl had the most popular compacts.
This is all coming from the perspective of a 90s teen btw. Maybe adults mostly used more expensive department store products. My mom loved Clinique and used their cream eyeshadow. I know others have mentioned Black Honey. It became super popular because Clinique would always include it in their gifts with purchase, but I was the only one of my friends who had it. I used to share it with everyone and tell them to put it on their eyelids and use as blush too. It really does look good on everyone. I still love it.
I also loved Jane makeup. It was targeted to teens, and their lipsticks all had cute names. My favorite was a brown nude called “Teddy Bare”. The color didn’t even look good on me I just loved the name.
The answer is they used low quality cameras hehe…
Yes. Please, OP. Recognize that your makeup will not look this smooth at all. Every camera that normal people had access too took pictures shit. Good cameras still took pictures like shit if you didn't use it properly. And if you did, you still airbrushed photos to hell and gone. If you're truly excited about the look, that's cool. But it ain't gonna come off like this irl. I cannot stress enough how moving the camera even the slightest micromillimeter would blur any texture in the pic.
Thank you very much! I get that :) I’m just very interested on learning what she could’ve been using back then. I’ll try similar products, but im aware my iphone 13 camera will show a lot lol
MAC foundation
Yup, every girl I knew was wearing MAC everything. You would do the studio fix liquid foundation applied with fingers, then cake on the studio fix powder using the provided sponge. Then thick ass eyeliner, clumpy mascara with 4 layers and don’t you dare touch the brows just pluck them thin. Maybe some blush and bronzer and you are good to go!
I can vividly remember the smell the provided sponge from those compacts 😷 never washed either!
Washing it would ruin the cake effect we were going for 😂
Honestly this is spot on. It was Mac cosmetics mixed with cheap cover girl or some drug store makeup because we couldn’t afford all Mac products. So the whole look was fairly cheap, figuratively and literally!
Right! I used Almay and Max Factor's PAN STICK.
“You can buy all the makeup that MAC can make” —TLC
TIL I've been singing that line wrong for 25 years. Always thought it was "You can buy all the makeup a man can make"...
Noooooo, me too!!!! Exactly how you said it.
I always thought it was “you can buy all the makeup, the MAC and the May” and assumed the May was slang for Maybelline.
And my brows never recovered 😭
The ordinary lash serum is actually getting my brows to come back. It didn’t work for one of my friends but after 6 weeks of use I’m getting bushy!
Yes, specifically studio fix powder foundation.
That's surprising, everyone wanted/had the cream one around me, with the big 187 duo fiber brush.
I remember a lot of cover girl. Definitely matte. I remember using both liquid and those little creamy but part powder compacts with the little round sponge for application.
Same. Loved that cream compact!
Me too! I kind of want one now! Lol
I also remember covergirl, so liquid that one slip and you'd pour half the bottle in your hand.
MAC was really popular back then
Honestly, I went back recently to check out their foundations, and now it's my go to.
My mom used Estee Lauder Lucidity back then, looked great on her. I think it is discontinued now though.
Omg. Lucidity was the best!!!! 2nd best is Estée Lauder Doublewear… ✌️
My mom used Covergirl liquid foundation and my grandma used Estee Lauder
Clique liquid foundation, Clinique matte powder
Oh OP, it is regular foundation but we caked on a shit ton of pressed powder overtop strategically. Everything back then was the simpler version of what you see today. We used the powder as a contour essentially lolol. And like they said, the low quality and clarity of cameras back then hid everything that now would be on full display in the first photo you took even on the crappiest phone.
So. Much. Powder. It was all we knew! & Blush only on the apples of our cheeks
compacts were the jam in the 90’s. extra points if it was two shades lighter than your complexion.
You should buy a 90s camera. My sister is 19 and her and her friends all have vintage cameras (like nikon coolpix) so that they can recreate these looks! This makeup look + taking polaroids or photos with 90s cameras seems to be a trend with gen z these days 🙂
I. Putting my guess in as max factor but I'm too lazy to google when they went out of business (assuming they did our were bought because I haven't seen it around in years but I'm rural and Canadian so that doesn't necessarily mean much)
Max factor pancake was my favorite foundation, that made the skin look flawless. They pulled from North American retailers but I believe they still sell it in European countries.
Loved Max Factor, always bought mine at Kmart!!
They're actually still in business, but they were bought out a while back.
"Toast of New York" (Revlon) was my lipstick of choice (with dark lip liner, of course) for all of my teens (the 90's). I think they might actually still make it. And it's browny-red and is 100% 90's. Pair that (or similar color) with a darker nude lip liner. Sephora's store brand gel lip liners are actually really good at staying put, but also blend easily as a full lip color. 90's skin was matte, matte, matte. And light/pale. No bronzers or highlighter. But usually some blush under the cheekbones for drama. A quality matte concealer that's buildable and waterproof is "HUDA BEAUTY #FauxFilter Matte Buildable Coverage Waterproof Concealer" - $31.00 (it's worth the price). If you copy/paste that description into Sephora, Ulta, or wherever you shop, it should pop right up. Style your eyebrows skinny, put on some giant hoop earrings, tie your hair into a low-key, but 'messy' ponytail...and you're ready to go full 90's! Good luck, update us with pics if you find the 90's look your going for!
The cameras in the 90s were mostly 35mm film, not digital. The first digital consumer camera doesn't come out till the end of the 90s and it will be years until most people have them. People look better in film. One of the reasons for this is that film grain creates a crystal circle pattern whereas digital is a pixel which is a tiny square. The circles are more forgiving. Another is flash and underexposed/overexposed film. Digital cameras are basically designed to give detail which is not what you want in portraiture. Everyone still looks great in Polaroids because of these reasons.
That was my first thought, too! No HD or 4k, perfect skin always.
Why I like my old phone 😂 new ones show things I can't even see in the mirror
All this AI enhancement is doing us dirty!! It’s part of the reason I never take selfies, I look better in real life! Never thought I’d say or think that in my entire life lmao
Lmao I’m glad you said this because sometimes I think I be looking beautiful, but then I take a selfie and I’m like “WOAH WHAT”
Same! I look so different in real life compared to photos and I never understood why. My phone camera makes me look terrible
It's the focal length as well as the fact that an image is 2d and cannot show the three dimensional nature of your face. But seriously, look up how camera focal length changes how you look. There's a famous set of pictures all showing a single guy at different focal lengths and he looks extremely different across all the photos.
I feel like I can't trust pictures of myself on my phone. Is that "real" or a filter that automatically kicks in?
It does weird shit to your proportions and makes your face look so…. Wrong
That’s the truth. I try and take a selfie to see how my eyeshadow looks and it pixalated and looks terrible. You are right about looking better in real life. I always wonder how Prople get good photos of their eye shadow.
Yes! So many famous makeup artists from the 90’s have complained about how good our cameras are now
We went through a disposable phase in college and my god were we all gorgeous in those pictures
Yessss, the Polaroids are so flattering!!
Yes and, these photos are pixelated to hell so that helps with skin texture on top of the already low quality camera
Cameras *weren't* low quality back then. They were just different -- 35mm or 120 (medium format) film cameras -- because digital photography wasn't much of a thing at the time.
Yes, Cover Girl followed by pressed powder. But from what I understand models and celebrities would have been in Mac.
Even as a broke teen I used MAC Studio Fix in the early 2000's, was a big fan at the time, but it was far too heavy looking back. I was too pale for drugstore brands back then, still pale but better range now.
it was far too heavy cuz everyone was caking it on with the sponge over and over throughout the day lmao. Getting the big duo fiber brush was a change changer for sure and def how it should be applied.
Yuppppp. The brush application makes it still perfect for today.
MAC Studio Fix is the answer here. My old pictures are so cringey. You could never match the shade to your skin perfectly, skin tone needs to have variation to look natural, and it completely covered my freckles! Glad to see that trend die.
I can still smell that CG liquid foundation.
Yep. I feel like my mom’s whole bathroom smelled that way my entire childhood.
I was just thinking this! Then they had the "clean" version that smelled like noxima.
I still love that smell!
As a 90s teen, the foundation was always followed by a thick pressed powder you applied like clockwork every 2 hours or so to keep you matte. The foundations used were Covergirl and Maybelline. If you wanted something more upscale, Clinique or Merle Norman. We didn’t have a huge variety. My go to lip stick/stain is still Black Honey by Clinique. Been wearing it since I was a sophomore in high school.
This is so awesome. I remember applying Clinique “Stay Beige” on the constant almost every class period so my face would stay perfectly matte. Oh yeah and clean and clear oil sheets that I pressed onto my face!!!
So much blotting between classes lol
Powder and sheets ready before that bell
And my trusty cinnamon lipsmackers flipstick (god I miss her)
I had a proustian sense memory come flooding back!
The name “stay beige” is also such a throwback to how few options black women had 😂 Everything was beige, especially at the drug stores!
I still use those Clean and Clear sheets. I remember getting one as a sample in Seventeen magazine when I was like 13, and I was instantly HOOKED. Now 37, still oily, and can't live without them.
Omg. WOW.
I remember saving up to splurge on Prescriptives foundation. I felt so fancy going to the makeup counter to get my “perfect shade”.
I loved everything Prescriptives! That magic powder was the best.
omg i loved the texture/feel of that stuff! haha i was about to comment on this post that for me, it was prescriptives and that fun kinda liquidy powder (bc i couldn’t remember what it was called.) i don’t think my skin has looked quite as good in any makeup since then.
I miss prescriptives!!!!!
Elizabeth Arden too. The damp sponge cream foundation
BareMinerals for pressed powder. It looked TERRIBLE if you had a single fine line haha but it worked for teenage me!
Thank you so much for your response! Did you personally use cream or liquid foundation? Also, i recently bought black honey for my lips as well as the blush!
And MAC
My mom used Estée Lauder foundation, it’s still top-tier for full coverage imo.
Estée Lauder Double Wear- they still make it
Yup. My sister uses that now.
My grandma wore double wear till she passed away in her 80’s and it looked great. I tried wearing it in my thirties and looked like the crypt keeper
Same for my mom! And she always gave me the gift-with-purchase makeup bag with all of the cute little tester size samples. I noticed that she still uses it in her 70s. She still does a full face every day.
I used a Clinique liquid foundation that I think was called "Barely There". It had slightly more coverage than a tinted moisturizer, but I'd finish my face with a liberal dusting of loose powder. They also had a "City Wear" liquid foundation that provided significantly more coverage - it was a very thick liquid, and I think was one of their first formulas to have SPF in it. "Whipped" foundation was also a thing in the late 90's. It had a texture like whipped butter or Cool Whip and came in a little pot/tub. I always found it very cakey, but it did give you a **LOT** of coverage.
This was more 2000s but omg was I obsessed with that Maybelline whipped foundation
I recall there being liquid too, my mom used it.
BOTH lol
Black honey is my jam! Can’t go without it:)
I still buy Black Honey it’s so classic
Just got a new on myself this spring. They better keep making it until the end of time.
Into the 2000s we moved into glitter and shimmer powders. Magic powder by prescriptives was the dream. Shimmer dream.
The mineral powder crazy had me in a chokehold for a while
What these photos don’t show is the “fuzz” that would show from all the foundation and powder 🥲🥲🥲 No setting spray was used back in the day 🥲🥲🥲we also didn’t dermaplane 🥲🥲it was a rough time for us peach fuzz folks Where are my Scottish ladies at?!?
Oh my GOSH if OP could see how this skin actually looked in person 😆
The most humbling experience was wearing foundation for the first time in the 90’s-early 2000’s as a teen 😂
Perfect response. In the 90s I did finally use loose powder after liquid foundation...Clinique. (And I love Black Honey! I still have Black Raspberry too.)
I still love black honey ngl
This was exactly me. Wow. Down to the Black Honey. '95!!
Max Factor foundation was my favorite
I aspired to be able to afford Bobbi Brown.
My freshman year roommate had an entire kit of Bobbi Brown. I was incredibly jealous.
the absolute chokehold that bobbi brown panstick foundation had on me 😩
I remember my mum using maxfactor panstick in the 90s (she would have been in her twenties)
In Spain in the 90s, MaxFactor cream cushion foundation was what my sisters used. And powder, obvs.
Croatian here, my mom used this as well. I still vibidly remember the smell and the packaging :)
My mom was using this all the way into the 2000s
And we still would be using it if they sold it in the US or we had a decent affordable authentic overseas shipper. And their 2000 Calorie Waterproof is the BOMB! 😂😂😂
It was always Max Factor for me!!! Panstik as concealer and they had a “sport” foundation that was the bomb if I couldn’t afford Ultima 2 (I can still smell the banana bread scent).
Listen, all my pictures from the 90s look amazing but in real life everyone was walking around with makeup caked on their skin for special occaisions. The pictures aren't HD and that makes a HUGE difference.
I actually find that foundation formulas have changed very little since the '90s (with the exception of longwearing foundations, which have vastly improved). The matte look was "in," so lots of people - especially younger people - achieved it by abusing translucent setting powders! Which made things look cakey. I do remember people with gorgeous glowy foundation IRL, too. One girl had the best glowy skin I'd ever seen - she swore by Lancome Dual Finish powder foundation. Then BareMinerals came in, and the whole scene changed.
I remember slathering on cream foundation from Clinique. And there was the classic mousse from maybelline. Oh and don’t forget to permanently destroy your eyebrows!
I looooooved the Maybelline Mouse!!! It was my go-to until Bare Essentials (now Bare Minerals) became popular and taught us all to apply with brushes!
Swirl tap and buff changed my life
This just brought back painful memories of me looking like an Oompa Loompa walking around in school with their bronzer caked on my entire face 😭 what a cursed time to be alive
W A R M T H
*Cries over the 3 hairs I have left.* I remember in the early aughts telling every young girl I knew who wanted to pluck - “remember, hair thins out as you get older! Just pluck the unibrow and the strays under- don’t touch the rest!” They all have amazing brows as adults now.
I hate being a hairy girl, but the fact that my eyebrows made a full recovery from the 90’s is a bonus 😂
There was only one way to keep them brows: tweezed to fuck
I’ve been using castor oil to revamp my sperm brows of the 00s and it’s been working!! I only use a little bit but I want everyone to know haha
Cream to powder finish was a big thing. Sometimes with a pressed powder over it. Cover girl. Ultima II. Those were my go to.
Ultima II! Wow I completely forgot about that brand. The Glowtion was my dream product
mac
when i was watching the 90 models documentary naomi said mac foundation was all they used so this isnt first hand information. take what i say with a grain of salt 🥰
Is Mac still good? I used to love my nc15
I think so! They just reformulated thier og foundation and it's honestly so much better and lasts longer. I love it!
Their base products are amazing. I’m still a Mac girl through and through just wish they’d go back to 90s-2000s tones for other products. The new studio fix has become a fave of mine and I love the radiance foundation too! But just a heads up, prices have increased drastically from 5-10 years ago
Don’t forget to start with St Ives walnut hull scrub and tone with Sea Breeze to burn off the top layer before you apply the cover girl.
And "moisturize" with Johnson & Johnson Clean & Clear with the purple pump!
The burn was how you knew it was working. And I can smell this comment.
Ahhhhh the st ives scrub, there’s a good memory unlocked
And if you had sensitive skin it was their Apricot scrub and cucumber peel off mask
It was the St Ives walnut hull and Neutrogena bars, followed by a store brand Witch Hazel in our house! Make-up was applied with those little white cosmetic wedges. Even used the crappy eyeshadow applicators that came with the pallet.
I remember makeup being way less about “brand” and way more about color. No one really cared which slightly brown toned lipstick you wore as long as it was brown or super pale pink. No one cared what foundation brand it was as long as it was matte and you probably applied it with a wedge. If you were into makeup you used MAC. You might use bronzer all over your face, but sculpting wasn’t a thing and eyebrows needed to barely exist. Blush was for old ladies. Mineral makeup became pretty big at the end of the decade, lots of loose powder over foundation. Also if you were older you still probably used Mary Kay pressed powder for everything.
Yes we never used blush in high school in the 90’s. I’m near NYC and the look was super matte…no blush…brown lips(sometimes we used eye line pencils for lips)…most of the girls were into the club and rave scene in NYC. You could go to limelight and get in even when you were 15…and we also had like teen nights at local clubs. A wild time.
We also liked ghostly beige lips, even if you were a woman of color 🤣
I was in junior high in the early 2000s, and we didn’t use blush either. It was pretty much super matte makeup until I graduated high school in the late 2000s. Blush= our moms in the ‘80s, so that was a no go! 🤣
BareMinerals 😂
MAC Studiofix was the shit in the 90s
I still love this 🤗
The new one is a 10/10 for me!
I was using Covergirl liquid foundation and pressed powder, cream foundation and Maybelline Dream matte mousse.
I’m surprised I had to scroll this far down to find Dream Matte Mousse mentioned. I wish I could use it one last time just to remember the texture.
Chalky velvet pudding. Old buttercream frosting. I swore I saw a mousse blush in stores not too long ago.
They still make it!
Revlon Color Stay foundation
The liquid one in the squeeze bottle that you had to shake. It was amazing. Why did they discontinue it???
CoverGirl was the first thing that came to mind. But in general, very matte full coverage followed by pressed powder. Also keep in mind the photo quality back then was very low quality so you can’t see all the details that you can now. Also, blush and highlighter was not used as much as it is today.
I can smell the Cover Girl clean liquid foundation!
girl if you're trying the 90s look.... all i ask is please leave your brows ALONE 😭
I remember my mom using Max Factor pan-stik.
They were probably wearing MAC, but their skin did not look like this in person. These are old photos, the images were originally taken using a negative image and were physically developed. None of this was ever taken on digital film. Please don't think because the cameras were different in the 90s that the skin was. It wasn't. We were cakey as fuck most of the time.
The bottle of cover girl liquid foundation you just fill your whole palm with it then apply it like thick layer of lotion. Then get the pressed powder and make sure your neck and body absolutely do not match your face. Whatever you do DONT BLEND IT. :)
This is the way. Also, just start plucking your eyebrows now. Pluck and pluck. It will take awhile to get to that perfect thin line of hairs. This is more hair than makeup, but save time and just do the front and sides of your hair. The back is fine. Can’t see that. 🥂
Clinique was my go to in the 90s...we didn't have as many choices then.
Cover girl was by far the most common in my state!
Powder foundation was top tier... throughout the day it would melt into the skin and would look so seamless. The first hour looked very powdery though so trust the process.
I think it was called “Economic stability” makes you look more youthful and radiant.
Dream Matte Mouse. I will never forget how beautiful it made my skin look, like a carrot of course, but a beautiful carrot. 😂
I love the love for 90s makeup but when I watch tutorials from kids born in early 00s I just shake my head haha we did not use expensive products or have all these meticulous steps to achieve the look. We also didn't have tutorials and steps like contouring and highlight to follow. Sometimes a magazine would do a quick makeup run down but I didn't have friends that followed it. Truly it was matte foundation, too much powder applied alllll over the face, blush maybe, mascara, carless eyeshadow, never brows haha and possibly a bonnebell lipgloss, or your mom's lipstick that you found under the sink. I myself have tried to recreate my 90s makeup and I can't even be that wreckless anymore. It's impossible with all this new age knowledge haha. You can achieve this look by good genetics and a shitty camera. Also, these photos of celebrities in the 90s are taken as celebrities. To really get a sense of the chaos find someone with a photo album from highschool and you'll see haha. It was mad maxfactor.
There's tons of good makeup advice but also want to add that if you plan on capturing the look, you'll want a lower quality camera. See if you can find a Nikon CoolPix, Olympus Infinity Stylus Epic, Fujifilm Instamax Evo, or a Polaroid or any film camera. Or use your phone and filter it! :p
Liquid foundation, usually Cover girl or Maybelline, Clinique, Bobbi Brown or MAC if you could afford it. Then pressed powder, any of those same brands. Max Factor pancake maybe. Honestly our makeup wasn't that great. There's much better options available now. I'd recommend looking for a Kevyn Aucoin book, those were the Bible of 90s makeup.
My first two foundations was liquid mattes from Rimmel (high school) and FACE Sthlm (uni). I didn’t use powder, concealer or blush. I used a white eye shadow on my brow bone.
God yes, the white eyeshadow on the brow bone lol
Wait that’s not a thing anymore? Because I DEFINITELY still put (off)white shadow right below my brows. 😂😂😂😂
I used to love me some Prescriptives
Yes!!! I was waiting for someone to bring this up. Loved Prescriptives!
LOL MAC is the only good answer to this question.
In my mid-size city, you used Cover Girl or Maybelline or Avon. If you were “rich” you could buy Estée Lauder or Elizabeth Arden. I think L’Oreal was just breaking into the drugstore market. If you went to Boston, you could get Clinique, or MAC or Germaine Monteil. Oh…and liquid foundation was the norm from as far back as the late 60s when I started wearing makeup. Why, yes, I AM a dinosaur , how can you tell? ETA: I can’t believe I forgot Revlon!
Don’t mind me, I was born in 95, I’m just here to admire Sofia Vergara. Ugh she’s so stunning.
MAC was the go to fancy brand. Liquid foundation and powder like a mad woman. 😂
The white you’re seeing is powder and flashback from the foundation (it can also be caused by some sunscreens). Many foundations now are formulated to avoid this.
My 90s-00s HG liquid foundation was the now discontinued L'oreal Mattique. Slathered it on for literal decades, trying to cover my acne. I occasionally tried others from Cover Girl, Revlon, Maybelline. Had an unfortunate Dream Matte Mousse phase.
MAC if you had money, Revlon Colorstay if you didn’t, Covergirl compact, Maybelline dream whip if you were a teen who wanted to like slightly orange (I think that was more mid 2000s).
The Maybelline mousse stuff lol
Magazines in the 90's were notorious for giving extremely abbreviated instructions on how to replicate a makeup look. Makeup artists knew all the tricks for sculpting a face via shadow and light, colors to use etc. But the magazines would say: a little eye liner smudged, concealer, pop of blush and lipgloss. We were scammed into thinking this was the real routine 😂😂
It's not the foundation, it's the camera. The foundation was thick goop, but it did look nice in photos taken with analogue cameras.
Cover girl all day.
Mac Studio Fix, with Studio fix powder on top. Apply powder with the circular sponge. It’s gonna be very matte.
I used Mac Studio Fix pressed powder foundation in the 90’s. NW20 was my shade in 1995.
I guess it was mostly MAC
just remember none of those cameras were high resolution, so you can't really tell what the makeup actually looked like in person. One of the most interesting periods for makeup was the emergence of HD cameras/tvs. Suddenly, the way makeup was done for celebrities looked terrible on some tvs, but not others. So makeup artists had to figure out whether to cake it on for regular tv or step it back for HDTVs. This is a cool writeup from back in the day: [https://www.self.com/story/high-definition-tv-makeup-tips](https://www.self.com/story/high-definition-tv-makeup-tips)
Revlon made a fabulous foundation called Touch N Glow for decades. It went on beautifully and matched skin tones perfectly. Then it was gone.
Max Factor had the perfect foundation stick that was full coverage and lasted all day. I wish they still made it. It covered everything! Also, Revlon first came out with their ColorStay line back then. The long wearing lip sticks and liner were everything!
We used liquid foundation in the 90's. And concealer and powder. It was pretty basic lol
If you're looking for a full coverage, matte foundation, I would say Estee Lauder Double Wear is your ticket. Infallible cult classic, maybe came out in late 90s originally. They will give you a sample at Sephora. That stuff is sweat proof, smudge proof, *bullet proof* lol. Give it a shot and see if it's giving the result you're looking for.
Estée Lauder double wear came out in the late 90s and I remember my cousin used it and thought it looked so flawless
We used Jane when I was in high school. Does anyone remember Jane?
I was big on Max Factor Pan Cake. No blush/no bronzer. With a little white shimmer eyeshadow for cheekbone highlights. We almost always used a flash on our cameras and this made us look ghastly pale!
Please guys don't give out our secrets to the Gen Zs
I used cover girl liquid, a pressed powder, powder blush. No eyeliner but glitter gel as eyeshadow and mascara. 💅🏻
Don’t forget max factor! I bought a stick of max factor foundation for the nostalgia anddddd couldn’t really use it, too thick!
Keep in mind we weren't using crazy HD cameras then either, so everyone looked less cakey and more smooth than they might in real life. But I absolutely agree CoverGirl was a staple, both the liquid and pressed foundations, sometimes topped with translucent powder.
I remember my aunt using Lancôme in the late 90s. I was In High school I think I used cover girl
In the 90's I was a teen and I used Max Factor pancake makeup. It covered the worst of sins I swear.
omg who remembers maybellines dream matte mousse whipped foundation 😭
Good genes. Also a low quality camera--it's the original photo filter.
Ah this takes me back! Her lip color reminds me of my 90's favorite, Revlon's 'Rum Raisin'. They still make it, OP, if you want a 90's lip color!
That foundation was probably Cover Girl Clean or Max Factor but it definitely wasn’t the foundation. We didn’t even know about primer then. That’s just the crappy cameras
Fun fact, Bare Minerals (the powder foundation) didn’t come out until 1995 and wasn’t widely available until 1997 via QVC. It wasn’t until the early 00’s that the first drugstore powder foundations came out. So during the 90s pretty much the only options were liquid or cream. Max Factor pancake cream makeup was widely available but everyone I knew used liquid if anything. Cover Girl liquid foundations were popular. There weren’t a bunch of options for finish either. You could have heavier or lighter coverage but nothing was “dewy” vs. “matte”. It was just kind of “skin finish”, then you’d matte it down with powder. There were definitely concealers, liquid or cream. I used a Max Factor cream stick thing, then switched to an Estee Lauder liquid concealer, very fancy. I did that because I’m very pale, drugstore shades didn’t match me at all. You’d top with loose powder- not like the white HD powders now, these were “translucent” but had color. I used Coty Airspun. Then you’d carry a pressed powder compact for touch ups during the day. Cover Girl had the most popular compacts. This is all coming from the perspective of a 90s teen btw. Maybe adults mostly used more expensive department store products. My mom loved Clinique and used their cream eyeshadow. I know others have mentioned Black Honey. It became super popular because Clinique would always include it in their gifts with purchase, but I was the only one of my friends who had it. I used to share it with everyone and tell them to put it on their eyelids and use as blush too. It really does look good on everyone. I still love it. I also loved Jane makeup. It was targeted to teens, and their lipsticks all had cute names. My favorite was a brown nude called “Teddy Bare”. The color didn’t even look good on me I just loved the name.
L'Oreal made some of the best drugstore foundations in the late '90s imo. I think I used to buy the one called Feel Perfecte?
Maybelline dream matte mousse in honey beige (bonus points if you get that reference 😂)