makeup memory lane #3

Twee? Indie sleaze? We simply called it 'hipster.'

So… I had given myself a little break from posting to deal with some rather stressful house stuff (I did not think a small bit of renovation would involve so much crying) but then I got COVID! A rare case of God giving with both hands. I was fairly sick with it but decided to use my ample Indoor Time to dig deep for another Makeup Memory Lane post.

Vogue and TikTok have proclaimed that ‘twee’ and ‘indie sleaze,’ two fashion trends that were apparently big when I was in college (so around 2010-2013), are now back in style. I don’t recall us ever referring to them as such — didn’t we just lump them all together as ‘hipster?’ Regardless of whether you leaned more Zooey Deschanel or Alexa Chung, you were a hipster. I dabbled in both styles. Peter pan collars. Ripped sheer tights, or the ones with fake suspenders on them. Jersey skater skirts with over-the-knee socks. Chunky chain necklaces. American Apparel disco pants (though I never actually bought a pair after trying them on and realising with horror that they made me look like I was wearing a wetsuit). Nightclub photography. Metallics. The girls who get it, get it.

I had been on Tumblr for years at that stage (more of a lurker than an active user) and was heavily inspired by the fashion girlies there. As in my emo days, I was not too successful at actually achieving the look, but I gave it a good go anyway:

Chunky chain! Metallic mini skirt! T-shirt with a black-and-white print of a random pop culture icon (in my case, Salvador Dali, because I was ~*not like other girls*~)! I actually love this outfit and hair colour, which was about 70 different box dyes layered on top of each other.

Look at this! A prime example of what the kids today call “twee.” I’m wearing a vintage playsuit I bought that summer in Toronto and was making that face because I got all dressed up and then people didn’t want to go out. The playsuit later became known as the ‘cursed playsuit’ because when I wore it, the night tended to end badly. 

My college years were when I started to get really and truly “into” makeup. Before, it had simply been a way to express my teenage angst. I didn’t know anything about brands, bar what was in the local pharmacy. The advent of blogging and YouTube tutorials changed all that — I consumed everything I could about “cult products” and “holy grails” and the stuff you could only get in Sephora. This isn’t to say that I was any good at actually applying makeup yet. That would only come with time and the consumption of even more YouTube tutorials.

Nevertheless, I slowly assembled my own collection of treasured products that I subsequently wore into the ground. Here are a few of them.

MAC lipsticks in Ruby Woo, Diva, and Rebel

MAC was THE brand, and Ruby Woo was my first ‘luxury’ makeup purchase. I think I probably learned about it from the Sunday Times Style magazine, which I read from cover to cover every weekend at my grandparents’ house. I can vaguely remember the day I went into Brown Thomas to buy it — the actual thrill of them putting it in the little striped bag and tying the wee bow! 

What people forget is that the “hipster” trend was closely preceded by the pinup revival. We all wanted to do our makeup like Dita Von Teese and wear stripy tops and large waist belts and knotted scarves in our hair. Ruby Woo was key to that. Can anyone who has bought it recently confirm whether or not it is still dry AF? Because that is the one thing stopping me from buying it again.

The purchase of Diva and later Rebel marked the first times I stepped out of my comfort zone with makeup. Diva is described as an intense reddish-burgundy, while Rebel is a dark berry. I think I’m wearing Diva in the picture with the gold skirt. No blush, nothing in my eyebrows, a smudge of black eyeliner, off we go. 

Rimmel Kate Moss lipsticks in 08 and 107

Show me an Irish woman who did not own a Rimmel Kate Moss lipstick. Go on. Not only were they offering MAC-esque shades for a third of the price, but they were actually great lipsticks. 08 was the only nude colour I owned because I didn’t really see the point of nude lipstick — more often than not, I just wouldn’t wear any product on my lips at all if I wanted ‘nude.’ 107 (pictured above) was in the same vein as MAC Diva but slightly more berry-toned, so right up my street. Thank you, Ms Moss, for your service to our makeup bags.

Rimmel Exaggerate Liquid Liner

I love that this is still around. I don’t think I’d buy it, because I have moved on to the brush-tip pen life, but it’s nice to think it will always be here. This product facilitated countless cat eyes for me. It’s opaque, matte, and long-lasting — the only issue was that the felt tip would start to get ball-y, after which achieving a sharp wing became impossible. Still, it was either this or the ones with the horrible scratchy plastic brushes, and I would never do that to myself.

Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation

I was always really cautious about foundation, which was probably understandable for someone who grew up surrounded by Pan Stik and Dream Matte Mousse. For a long time, I used a mini-tube of an Estée Lauder one my mother got in one of those gift-with-purchase bags. It lasted me forever because I only used a microscopic dot of it each time, so terrified was I of going overboard. 

Healthy Mix blew my mind because I hadn’t realised that foundation could be used to enhance, not just cover. I will never stop being mad about Bourjois pulling out of the UK and Ireland, because like the Rimmel eyeliner, it was nice to think that it would always be there. I shouldn’t have taken you for granted, Healthy Mix. I hope to see you again in some French pharmacy. :’(

Benefit blush in Dallas

The chokehold Benefit had on all of us in the 2000s. As with MAC, I would have done terrible things to get my hands on any Benefit product at all. The end of someone’s Bad Gal eyeliner, even! I need these Gen Z kiddies to understand that the packaging was the height of sophistication at the time. We were actual decades away from neutral minimalism! We were susceptible to a colourful gimmick! I still am, in fact! 

I was afraid of bronzer as a youth so I didn’t have Hoola — the rosy-brown Dallas blush provided enough of a sunkissed look for me. Benefit blushes are still really nice (Galifornia especially!) and now that I’ve come round to bronzer, I enjoy Hoola. Proof that we can grow and change and evolve as people.

Max Factor Creme Puff powder

I always had a broken, beat-up one of these in my bag because shine was the enemy. If you told 20-year-old Valerie that one day she’d be applying products to her face specifically to be shiny, she’d have slapped you. I was convinced my skin was very oily when in reality, it was lightly combination at most. To me, the smell of this powder evokes a nightclub toilet with Starships by Nicki Minaj booming in the background. 

Johnson’s wipes

I didn’t have a skincare routine in 2011. Who did? I’m honestly asking. All of the above products were removed with the pink Johnson’s wipes — it had to be the pink ones. I can’t remember why. They may have been for sensitive skin? I really thought I was caring for my face by picking the sensitive pink wipes over the evil blue ones. My skin was, of course, gorgeous. Now I will only use makeup wipes at festivals and my skin is worse than it ever was in my teens and early 20s. LOL.

What was in your makeup bag from approximately 2008-2013? Do you also owe Kate Moss your life, lipstick-wise? Please let me know.

Thank you for reading Vanity Project! I’m off to listen to Crystal Castles and look up Hipster Runoff on the Wayback Machine. See you next time!