I wish I had an inspirational, paradigm-shifting or empowering story to answer this question with, but I don’t… I just wanted to do what my friends were doing (I was in seventh grade), and they were all wearing makeup…but not makeup to the Instagram-levels kids wear today — just simple things like pencil liner, lipstick, blush, powder. Or, if you were *really* fancy, you wore mascara, ooh-la-la!
It started with me sneaking shaky, uneven purple eyeliner onto my lids in the girls’ bathroom in seventh grade every morning when I got to school, which was kinda dumb now that I think about it because my parents left for work before I left for school in the morning, so I could’ve easily put it on before school, but I think there was something alluring about actually doing my makeup at school… It made that purple liner seem even more forbidden.
How about you? Why did you start wearing makeup?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
I never wore much makeup until I started working after college. I probably wore mascara & lip gloss in college a few times. My interest in makeup really picked up when I started working in NYC in my early 20’s, even then I think I didn’t wear much to work until the ’90’s when all these new brands started to pop up. Then it was, really fun!
I was addicted to lipstick since I was a little 3-4 year old, sneaking into my moms and grandmas shelves for their red tones hahaha, i have many school pictures where I was wearing some reds.
After I grew up around 7 yo I just totally forgot about make up until I started going out as a teenager at my 16’s. At that time, make up was only used for “going out”, when I would maximum wear eyeshadow (poorly blended with a little sponge brush hahaha), black pencil liner and mascara, and that was about it. No foundation, concealer or blush- i thought it was too much! Also, living my teenage years in Brasil I didnt have so many options as in U.S., and make up was much more an “luxury item” that we didnt find at the drugstore.
It was not until my college years that I started using a little bit more make up, and not until my Graduate years that I started using as a daily basis. For daily basis, I started with mascara, a little bit of coral creamy blush and some bold lip colors that i started to love again!! Deep purples and reds were my faves, my first MAC lipsticks were Flat Out Fabulous and the purple shade that Lorde, the singer, made in collab.
Nowadays I cant imagine myself without doing at least BB cream + mascara to go for work, and I still love the bold lipsticks, although now I switch back and forth with some neutral shades.
I started wearing makeup in about 7th and 8th grade because all the other girls were. I remember being fascinated by it when my teenage babysitters were wearing it and reapplying their lipstick!
I had terrible skin and wanted to use cover up… over the years I started to wear a solid amount of make up everyday to cover up skin and dark circles, well into my late 20s. By the time I hit my 30s though, I started asking myself why? Was I putting on make up because I enjoyed it, or because I was hiding? So I started removing my make up on a day to day basis, a little bit at a time, until I could go out barefaced every day and feel comfortable in my skin. Now I think I’m a lot more confident, waste less time on unnecessary make up, and actually ENJOY wearing it when I do. 🙂
I started in about 7th grade too. I asked my mom for some for Christmas and my father was dead set against it. My mom tells me to this day, it was a huge argument between them. My mom must have won because I remember the set I got. It was like an all in one deal. Several eyeshadows, a few different blushes and some lipglosses. And a big bottle of Loves Baby Soft. I used to love that stuff! I’m totally aging myself 🙂
My story is even worse because it wasn’t my idea! It was for picture day in the 7th grade and my mother thought I should at least put on a little mascara. After that, my friend’s older sister gave us all the tips and techniques. 🙂 But, as you know, I’ve never been super into color (since the 80s). After that, it’s mostly been a natural look.
I was in eight grade. My parents were very strict and even painting my nails required permission. Would you believe I used a black felt tip marker for eyeliner? It’s so crazy when I think about it now. I didn’t wear much makeup in high school
and college other eyeliner (the real kind this time) and lipstick mainly because I didn’t know how. When I was on maternity leave for my first kid 6 years ago, I discovered YouTube tutorials and that’s when I started wearing a full face of makeup. I’m back to more minimalistic makeup these days though; no one in my real life seems to wear more than lipstick and mascara.
Well… as far as I remember myself, makeup has always been “the most coveted fruit” of childhood. I saw my mom every day putting on makeup and I was enchanted by the eyeshadow palette with fuchsia pinks and bright purples she owned: each shade was embossed with ace silouhette on each shade, and were held together by mauve pink, heavy case with gold lid. Pinks,of course, were my favourite and I could not understand why she my mom never wore them, haha… At that time (I was 3 or 4) I made my first commitments for my future life: 1) I will have a lot of makeup! Much, much more than my mama does… 2) My makeup will have beautiful covers 3) I will wear makeup so much that noone recognizes me.
(Honestly – everything of that has now come true!)
I started to wear makeup when I was 11 – I received well-expired makeup set from my aunt. Of course, the application of it occured surreptitiously – when parents did not noticed. Moreover, the colors I wore, were bright green or birght blue eyeshadows with orange or vibrant raspberry pink lip. Yup! Insane…
My daily makeup that was approved by my mother was at the age of 13 – I could wear silver eyeliner. Well… I also have to mention, that the eyeliner was actually regular “Herlitz” pencil in silver color, which I regularly licked before application to “adjust” for my eye needs.
Makeup was forbidden for us to use before the age of 15 in my culture, and even then, only tame, natural looks were approved for use. I couldn’t sneak it at school because, going to Catholic schools, the nuns were every bit as strict as my parents. It was against uniform dress code. Even in HS we had to sorta sneak the natural looking mascara and push the tinted lip balm limits. Of course when something is taboo, it only increases the allure. I remember sneaking into my mom’s bathroom around age 5 to get at her Avon lipsticks, hovering around the drugstore and department store makeup counters lusting after some sparkly purple thing. Coming of age in the MTV ’80s when every celeb I thought was cool, including the guys, wore a lot of makeup- so we experimented with a lot of color when we went out as teens- it was a FUN ritual getting ready together. Because of this, wearing makeup symbolized my independence and womanhood, so I take a lot of pride and pleasure in my now extensive collection!
Hi Karen,
I can’t even remember- exactly but I know I used to wear God-awful blue frosted eye shadow constantly!!! I would imagine it had something to do with trying to look more grown up that I actually was. I was always in a hurry to be a grown up- which now drives me mad. Gosh, I hate it when I can’t remember!! I’m pretty sure that I started out with Clinique – I remember the three-step but I also remember graduating to Duo-Finish by Lancome pretty quickly I used to go through that stuff like crazy. Gosh, girl, it’s been some years for me!! I just did a full face today and I haven’t in quite some time but my Mac primer must have gotten old or something- my foundation did not play well!!! That’s the first time that I have experienced that.. I’m dying to get the new MUF Matte foundation especially with the Sephora sale- but I just don’t have the funds. I had received a sample and the shade was perfect!! I really fell in love with it- and it wore beautifully for hours on my oily skin. Oh well. It isn’t going anywhere. BTW — I do not do blue eyeshadow anymore…. period!!! Perhaps an eyeliner in navy sometimes… but hella no on the eyeshadow to me that is just downright frightening on anyone!!! Have you tried the new MUF foundation? I just loved it!!!
Wow, in high school in 9th grade. Just wanted to be like all the other girls, and I had a wonderful aunt who loved to give her nieces (and nephews) things Mom didn’t allow. So that Christmas I received a purse from my aunt, when I opened it, it was filled to the brim with makeup from Avon, a line they produced in the 70’s-80’s targeted towards teenagers. The whole deal, frosted blue eyeshadow and frosty pink lip gloss and bright pink blush and mascara. I was in total heaven and my mother had a fit. And yes, I spackled my face with it and now I shudder to think what I looked like!
Seriously the movie Ckeopatra came out and everyone told me my eyes were like hers . So I became obsessed w eyeliner , mascara and well Cleo bangs for my hair!
In 5th grade I used to sneak in some kajal eyeliner. In 6th grade I went to Walgreens by school and bought a cobalt blue mascara and used it by myself in my room and would wash it off. My parents were strict and I went to a catholic school where even clear mail polish was forbidden.
Finally in 9th grade I wore a lot of it but then my mom out a stop to it. My mom never wore makeup ever. I remember some atrocity involving purple and teal eyeshadows that ended my makeup career until about college.
I now only have boys but if I had girls I would take them for a teen makeover at Sephora. Instagram and YouTube aren’t good places for real life advice.
I started wearing CoverGirl foundation in high school to cover my acne. It’s still the main reason why I wear makeup (I’m 36 years old now). I do like mascara and lipstick for special occasions because it makes me feel glam in a pin-up sort of way… I just wish that I could get only wearing those 2 things! But I have to cover/conceal/even out my skin, and then add in blush etc to make it look like “real” skin again. It sucks.
When I was 12 or so I asked my mom if I could start wearing makeup(I had a WetN Wild frosty lipstick I had picked up for 99 cents that I wore in secret but got caught because I left it in my jeans pocket lol). We picked up some CoverGiro stuff I think – some lavender and aqua eyeshadows that had no pigment, a foundation, a blush, and I think clear mascara? I did t actually learn how to wear makeup until I was 17 and was in a pageant. My mom has literally never worn eyeliner so I could never figure it out.
I had a brief period of badly applied eyeshadow and clinique lipstick in college (black honey ftw!!) but I was never really into makeup until a year or two ago, and now I can’t get enough— but I still reeeaallyy suck at applying it, so as much product as I have at my disposal, I usually keep it really simple… still fun though! 🙂
I was 14 when I started wearing Cherry Chapstick, because makeup wasn’t allowed in school, and my parents thought I was too young to be wearing more than that. I was 18 when I started wearing black eyeliner. I wore a light dusting of Johnson’s baby powder as face powder at the time, and wore Clinique Black Honey for my lipstick. I think I learned how to put on eye makeup from my Seventeen and Teen Vogue magazines back then. Then when I started working I would treat myself to a new lipstick every so often.
I started wearing makeup when I was 12 in 8th grade, originally just a tiny bit of mineral powder to even my skin & some lipgloss but after I found eyeshadow I really fell in love because I just loved applying it. Beauty blogs & YouTube did exist but only in their infancy so we still had a lot of mess ups. I’m just happy that I worked out I had yellow undertones pretty damn quickly because I would look even worse than I already did. Honestly I still love the gold eyes & nude glossy lips look and it’s just the blending & base products that have improved.
Since I was the youngest, I was the manakin for everyone else to practice their makeup skills on. So it was only natural for me to want to do it on myself lol
I was in 6th or 7th grade and I wore Physicians formula concealer all over my face like foundation and mascara!! Hahaha! My mom would tell me “Ca…just wear foundation?” and I was like “NO MOM THIS IS BETTER SEE NO LINES!” really a hottie pottatti lemme tell ya lol
There wasn’t a reason why. I just kind of grew up around it. My mom was a model before meeting my dad, and she always had makeup around. I loved the colors and packaging, and the way they transformed her. I couldn’t wait to wear it myself. When I was little, she’d give me the teeny sample lipstick tubes from Avon or the matchstick samples higher end brands gave out. I could play with them at home.
When I in 5th grade, my mom let me start wearing light pink and peach cream blush and lipsticks from Avon in public. In 8th grade, I was allowed to wear mascara, pencil liner, and light eyeshadow. By 9th grade (1984), I was allowed to wear a full face and pretty much anything I wanted. I had acne, so I was glad to finally be allowed to wear foundation — even if it was on the orange side! lol
I was 13 and not allowed make up at home or school but had a school friend whose mum allowed her to wear it at home and when out.She and her mum helped me apply make up for the first time for a disco we were attending. Looking back it was quite tarty actually,black eyeliner and masacara, blue eyeshadow,blush and red lipstick. certainly seemed to attract the boys at the disco and got my first kiss that night so been wearing it ever since!
Hi Fiona,
Aww, I kinda love this story. It sounds like something I would’ve done because I wasn’t allowed to wear makeup at 13! Did you ever keep in touch with that friend?