These 9 Beauty Products From The 90s Are Better Than Any Of These New Millennium Brands
Refusing to fix what’s not broken.
Image: Touchstone Pictures
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by The Candidly Team
As your humble(ish), over-40 beauty editors, we try hundreds of products each year in an effort to give you honest and timely reviews of the dizzying landscape of makeup and skincare.
We do our best to boil things down, make them simple. We write a lot about what we can’t live without, what we end up splurging on with our own money, and what we find at the drugstore that’s just as good. We don’t love to hate on things. We’d rather just not write about them.
But just because there are 797 new products seemingly released every single day doesn’t mean they’re any better than what came before them. Our Editor-in-Chief, Audie, recently had this realization, while applying an entire face of makeup from 90s it-brand Estée Lauder. Some of their items are still the best in class, and that got us to thinking what other products from the 90s are still just superior?
And well, here are those 9 things:
1. Maybelline great lash mascara
If your mom didn’t wear this in the 80s and 90s, are you even Gen X? The genius thing about the formula is that it never flakes but it also washes off with just water.
Price: $10
2. Stila Convertible Color Lip & Cheek Cream Blush
We try every single cream blush that launches. We wish that were a lie, but it’s true. Cream blush is our soul song. And we always come back to this one. The wide pot with lots of surface area means you can use a fat sponge, a brush, or your fingers (without the product ever getting under you nails)—makeup packaging designers, please make a note of this! The formula is SO glowy and so sheer but never greasy, and it contains ZERO shimmer or glitter which is great for our Gen X skin, aka textured and porous. When in doubt, just choose the shade Lillium* for a perfect, underdone, French-looking flush.
Price: $26
3. Nivea Creme
The scent is so nostalgic we would likely cry if we smelled it right now. Nothing better for ultra dry skin.
Price: $27
4. Benefit Cosmetics Benetint Liquid Lip + Cheek Blush Stain
We almost forgot about the brilliance of Benefit’s iconic lip tint, but this video from Allana Davidson reminded us. It’s one of the prettiest things we’ve seen on a lip since the 90s frankly.
She wears it in the color dark cherry* and pairs it with this Merit lip liner in Bespoke* (our favorite lip liner, which magically works with every other lip color). The result is sultry and stunning.
Price: $28
5. Bobbi brown crushed lip color in ruby
Speaking of sultry and stunning, anyone who calls themselves “classic” and a “lipstick person” will appreciate this ruby hue from Bobbi Brown. It was a favorite of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and is one of those rare red-family shades that looks good on everyone.
Image: Tyler Mallory | Getty Images
Price: $30
6. Nemat Egyptian musk Fragrance
7. Estée Lauder Double WearStay-in-Place Longwear Matte Foundation
For us, this is the only full coverage foundation that truly looks like skin. So if you like to really cover things up but don’t want your foundation to look textured and mask-like, this is the only one. Their concealer* is also phenomenal in that it covers everything while looking like nothing. We wrote all about it HERE.
Price: $52
8.Chanel Le Vernis In Rouge Noir (Formerly Vamp)
We wrote an entire article about this undupable nail color from Chanel. It feels like some kind of magical alchemy is at work, because no other deep, dark, marooney red is or will ever be this moody and romantic and chic and classic all at once. We fell in love back when it was called Vamp in the 90s. It’s now called Rouge Noir, and is worth every penny.
How it started Image: Pulp Fiction | Miramax
How it’s going
Price: $34
9. Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream
Catherine Zeta Jones named this one of her “desert island products,” and we couldn’t agree more. The balmy moisture is almost healing, as if it seals heavy doses of hydration into our skin, making it more youthful. We slather it all over our face as a last step before bed—it keeps all of our serums locked in. We also love to wear it on planes and during travel so our skin stays hydrated and happy.
Price: $33
At The Candidly, we try a lot of stuff so you don’t have to. We only recommend things we truly love, and that we think you’ll love, too. All products are chosen independently by our creative team, and all details reflect the price and availability of products at the time of publication. If you buy something we link to, The Candidly may earn a commission.
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