Make up

[Sparky_the_Wonder_Spirit]

My mom let me start around 7th grade, as I recall. She even bought me some lip gloss, blush and eye shadow.

I never bothered much with it. I still don’t.

[YaraMateo]

@Dogzilla

I don’t remember any big battle about it. Back when I was a tween and a young teen, blue eyeliner was all the rage. I had a strong preference for green eyeliner (I use “raisin” – a purple eyeliner now). My dad, probably in an attempt to shame us out of wearing make up at all, would tell us he thought we had moldy eyes. This, of course, caused us to lay it on thicker.

I think I probably started experimenting at home with mom’s old make up around 10-12. I maybe started wearing makeup to school around 7th or 8th grade – mostly because my friends were the source of my blue or green eyeliner for a while until I started babysitting (around the same age) and had my own money to buy make up with. I know my parents wouldn’t pay for it (it was like pulling teeth just to get lunch money; luxuries like make up were not even on the table as an option).

I don’t recall my parents – and I’m talking about conservative mormons here – ever saying squat about it, as long as I wasn’t made up like a cheap hooker. Subtle application that gives a natural look was fine. Aqua blue eyeshadow up to my eyebrows was not going to happen.

That kinda worked out in your favor.

[YaraMateo]

@zweisamkeit

Well, my mom was never into nail polish herself (didn’t want to deal with chipping polish, etc), so I didn’t have the early opportunity, heh. If she had been, I’m sure I’d have been a 3 year old with sparkly fingers, too.

Nail polish was probably the biggest beauty product difference between us. I’m a nail polish whore (I’m closing in on 300 bottles. : cough : ). Recently, she’s actually started to try polish and I’ve been squeeing over the lil’ bonding opportunity. I just need to get her over that beginner’s hump and then I’ll have her in my Mean & Green-colored (nailblog photo; not mine) clutches!

Cool. I’m a polish whore, too. What’s your brand of choice? I love Essie.

[nashiitashii]

My mom was okay with me wearing eyeliner, powder and lipstick around 6th grade, but she preferred if I was wearing stuff that was a bit gentler on skin-- I got restricted to Almay, Jane and The Body Shop brands for a while. I wore makeup fairly consistently throughout middle school, then started caring less about it in high school and college. I did, however, wear it more consistently in college than in my later high school years.

[Katriona]

I was allowed clear lip gloss and a touch of mascara at age 12 (7th grade). That was pretty much the norm for my friends; actually, most of them started wearing it at the beginning of the year, and I fought my mom until she finally broke down around Christmas. This was in 1980, FWIW.

[LurkerInNJ]

@YaraMateo

Cool. I’m a polish whore, too. What’s your brand of choice? I love Essie.

Another polish whore here. OPI.

[zweisamkeit]

@YaraMateo

Cool. I’m a polish whore, too. What’s your brand of choice? I love Essie.

Keeping true to the “whore” descriptive, I have dozens of brands. My base/top coats and manicure method is what makes my polish last (I can make a 69¢ Wet N Wild color last a week without chipping).

With that caveat, my one overall love is Rescue Beauty Lounge. My eyes :eek:ed at the $18 price tag FOR ONE BOTTLE, but I kept hearing rave reviews. I got a couple as a random surprise gift and they are absolutely amazing. Incredibly pigmented, very smooth and easy application and more flexible (so if your nail hits something and bends, the polish is more likely to stick to the nail and bend with it instead of cracking). She also has some incredibly unique colors. Also, I love that I’m supporting a tiny business who respond personally to every customer service email.

On the exact opposite end of the price spectrum is Ruby Kisses HD Nail Polish. It’s $1.99 at the ethnic beauty stores here and it’s an insane value for the quality.

I have a couple of Essies and I dig the quality, but it took me ages to even try them because the bottle is awful*. It was only after seeing many swatches on nail blogs that I realized that there’s actually a nice color hiding in that craptastic bottle.

I have OPI but I personally find them a bit overrated. Underrated, IMO, is Sally Hansen. Great polish, tons of different collections that are rotated in and out and they’re often one of the more on-trend brands in the drugstore arena.

• The overall look just seems incredibly old and dated, like it’d be sitting on a dusty shelf of a backwater dollar store. Also, the tall rectangle shape does nothing to show off the color of the polish; every damn bottle looks so blah!

[ZipperJJ]

I honestly don’t remember ever asking to wear makeup or wanting to. I’m sure I had to do something when I was in dance recitals. I don’t know if I liked it or hated it.

My mom has beautiful olive skin and no blemishes, and wears very little makeup. I have pale and ruddy skin and could probably stand to wear makeup every day but I don’t. And she can’t help me. She’s never worn foundation in her life, and her big thing is mascara but I have huge thick lashes naturally.

I seem to have very reactive skin too so everything I try to wear just turns me into a pizza face. I was in to Bare Minerals for a while (like, when I was 29-31) but I got tired of wearing makeup.

Now I just go around like a common schlub, baring my natural meh for all to see.