I was thinking about this the other day because Chelsea and I (She comments here on the blog! Say hi to her sometime. She speaks French, has a few furbabies, and she takes circus classes for fun.) were talking about the makeup we wore in our high school senior pics.
I was looking at mine recently, and I don’t think I was wearing any concealer at all… I was so not wearing the two things I wear every day now — actually, the three things I wear every day.
I didn’t fill in my brows (they’re completely untouched), no concealer (the horror, LOL!) and no mascara.
Like…what?! Who goes for their high school senior photos without any mascara on? THIS GIRL.
And I loved makeup back then. I don’t know what I was thinking.
I’m pretty sure I had on a little foundation and some powder, because that’s what I did back then, and I think I was also wearing blush…
I had this shade — I think it was by Covergirl — that was this peachy brown matte, and the lip!? Funny thing is, that color is something I’d totally wear now. It’s a matte coppery reddish brown. I wish I could remember what it was… I think it was either Revlon or Covergirl.
I almost didn’t wear those over-sized pearl earrings. I love accessories, but I’m generally not a big jewelry person (although I do have my phases), and my mom, who lives for jewelry, was like, “You HAVE to wear some jewelry. YOU HAVE TO.” She left me some options to choose from, and I ended up grabbing what was closest, which happened to be the over-sized pearl earrings, not really thinking about like, how these pictures would follow me into my old age, LOL!
As I’m looking at this picture now, the earrings were kind of big, right?
Anyway, what makeup did you wear in your high school senior portrait? Do you remember? Were you full-on glam? Did you wear nothing but lip balm? Were you wearing any makeup at all? Let me know in the comments.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S. Happy hump day!
Oh G-d, I would have to first find the photo in the first place! Chances are, and I am pretty sure, I wore no makeup at all. I didn’t wear makeup at all until I started working in the early ’80’s.
Made my soup last night and baking brownies tonight. We are getting ready for the feast. Have a happy Thanksgiving.
Yum, girl! If I lived near by I’d volunteer to be your brownie tester. Did you know that you can make brownies with black beans? They’re “healthy” brownies. I used to eat them when I was pregs with Connor.
I have to dig mine out but I think I wore, foundation, powder and blush. I know I had a perm. I’ll find mine over the weekend and tag you on Instragram, Karen!
Yes, Barb! Definitely do that ’cause I wanna see your glorious permed hair!
Happy Wednesday. What are you doing today? I’ve got some last minute T-day errands to run, and I have to do some cleaning up around the house that I’ve putting off for days.
17 and looking 12! And I mean that in the sweetest way possible. My goodness, you look like such a little girl. 🙂 I think that lip color is fabulous and don’t think the earrings are too big. And your hair looks very nice, which is the biggest challenge for senior pictures (and how dated they can look!). I haven’t looked at mine in a while but I would have worn foundation, powder, blush, mascara (untouched brows as well) eyeliner and I’m not 100% sure about shadow. I would guess not. Maybe some very subtle earrings (like small, gold hoops) but I can’t be sure. But, gurl, the 80s bangs and spiral perm were not my best look. HAHA!
I was such a baby in that picture, but I remember thinking that I was so grown up! Ahh, youth. It’s hilarious. If you find your senior pic you gotta post it in FB and tag me ’cause I need to see your that ’80s hair! I bet it was big and glorious. Speaking of ’80s perms, I went to Nordstrom Rack last weekend and saw an oversized My Little Pony with the best spiral perm hair ever, HAHA. It was my dream hair circa 1989/1990/1991.
One more day till T-day and I’m so not ready! I’m gonna go pick up the pre-made meal at the grocery in an hour, then I have to do a quick house cleaning (if the baby and cat will let me).
I had raccoon eyeliner and red lips for daaaaaaays.
Red lips are classic, right?! Was it matte? Or shiny?
I really pulled out all the stops for my senior portrait! I remember that I actually took my eyeshadow highlight color and put it on my cupid’s bow so it would reflect nicely for the camera. I also wore contacts (I only used to do that for super special occasions), and had my hair straightened. It’s funny how I’ve changed over time, because for my college graduation, I wore my glasses and had my hair wavy/curly. I also haven’t worn contacts at all for years.
It’s still a really nice photo; it’s one of my favorites that I’ve ever taken. The only thing that I had an issue with was my hereditary eye circles, which are extremely dark. I put so much concealer on to cover them up but still needed that part of the photo retouched — and even the digital retouching couldn’t completely get rid of them, ha ha.
It probably also helps that I graduated from high school not too long ago (within the past 7 years), so everything isn’t horribly outdated yet. I still have the outfit that I wore in it, and I wear it to work now!
Hi Ali,
It’s interesting how makeup trends make their way into our lives. I love that you highlighted your cupid’s bow because when I was a senior in high school highlighting wasn’t even a thing. It was all about ’90s mattes and brown. Everything was brown! I also wore a brown matte lip for my college graduation pic. But by that time my brows were skinny little things… Damn those tweezers.
Off topic but now every time I go to Marshalls or TJ Maxx I keep hoping I’ll find Athleta leggings because of you!
I hardly wore any makeup in high school. I was probably only wearing a light coverage foundation, mascara, and eyeliner. I don’t think I wore any powder or blush back then! And I know I wouldn’t have anything in my brows!
Hi Katie,
At least you were wearing mascara, LOL! I wish I knew what a lash curler was back then. Isn’t it funny how so many people have brows in their natural state in their senior pics? What I would give for those big bush brows now, le sigh. I can’t believe I spent so many years plucking them into oblivion.
How are things in new mommy-land? I hope you and baby girl and doing great and getting some sleep.
I also plucked my brows and now regret it! I keep trying to grow them back in but it looks such a mess I just cave and clean them up again.
Mommy-land is going ok, baby girl had her fist round of shots on Monday and things were ROUGH for a couple days after that but she is back to her sweet self now 🙂 How about you and the family? Any big plans for Thanksgiving?
Aww, sweet girl. I’m glad she’s in a better mood. Just wait until the next couple rounds… She’s going to know what’s coming and won’t be having it!
We’re doing great, thanks for asking. We’re hosting this year so everyone is coming to us (YAY!). I ordered a pre-made meal at a local market and the only thing I’ll have to do is warm everything up. There’s some additional cleaning I should do which may or may not happen tonight; we’ll see. What are your plans for the holiday?
The hubby and I decided no traveling for the holidays this year (yay!) with the new baby so we are staying home. Our families live different places so it’s just us, I’m making a small thanksgiving dinner for just us and keeping it way low key ?
I wore more makeup in high school (and my 20s) than I do now. I had on foundation, eyeshadow, mascara, lipstick and maybe blush. Now I sometimes put on lip gloss if I am going out! 🙂 We’re about the same age, I graduated high school in 1992. I love reading about your high school memories, even though you grew up in California and I grew up in the suburbs of Vancouver, BC, they are similar to mine. 🙂
Aww, Denise! We graduated in 1993. You would’ve been my cool senior big-sis!
OK, about a billion years ago you mentioned you loved The Cheesecake Factory. I was there a couple weeks ago and had the most divine cheesecake. It was pumpkin flavored cheesecake with a layer of pecan pie filling underneath. OMG, so good!
Hey girl hey!
I know I haven’t commented a lot but life has been crazy with a fast trip to my hometown on the weekend for a baptism and my graduation ceremony yesterday.
For high school photo I did wear an interesting amount of stuff: primer, tinted moisturizer, concealer, two shades of powder for doing a really subtle contour, blush and lipbalm. It’s funny because back in the day I thought I wore the kitchen sink and everything else, but now I know I do wear a lot more for photos.
I realized that I didn’t post that photo on Instagram so I may upload it and tag you to see a four year old photo.
I hope Connor is behaving better now.
Wait — are you officially done with school?! OMG, CONGRATS!
Technically yes, I’ll start my professional practices on January and that’s the last thing I need to do before to get my diploma. So yes I don’t need to go to the university unless I need to do any procedure.
Thank you!
I can’t even talk about what makeup I wore in my senior pic because I get so freaking distracted by my BANGS! It looked like I had a bed skirt just hanging on forehead, On the plus side, they hid the never plucked eyebrows and drew some (not all) of the attention away from my poop brown lipstick. What can you say? It was the 90’s.
1978. Clear lip gloss and a bit of mascara , that’s it
Hi Karen, for my grad picture I had a hired make-up artist do my make-up and it was the first time I wore make-up. I regret not experimenting with make-up beforehand because after the make-up artist was done, I thought I looked like a harlot! I was really uncomfortable wearing full on make up, but looking back at my yearbook pic now, I see that the eyeshadow and lipstick were not garish at all. I had a floral dress on (the only choice I didn’t regret), and the makeup artist chose to give me purple eyeshadow and mauve lipstick.
I started wearing makeup in jr high. Eyeliner , brown eyeshadow, dark brown hair .
Same as I wear now.
My father hated it and my short skirts.
People on the street would ask me to close my eyes so they could see my eyeshadow.
Circa 1966 and roe same now.
Happy Thanksgiving ?? Karen to you and yours,
Was it Toast of New York by Revlon lipstick? It was my bestfriend’s (and everybody’s) favorite back in the 90’s. She loved that color as well as the Black Honey Almost Lipstick by Clinique. I was not into makeup whatsoever around that time but I still kind of paid attention.
Happy Thanksgiving, Karen, El Hub, Tabs, Connor Claire and family! May you have a meaningful and blessed holiday!
Gobble, gobble!
~Cha
Hey Cha,
I think it was, LOL! Everyone I knew wore that color. Black Honey too. Revlon Cherries in the Snow was popular! Did you ever wear that shade?
I hope you and your fam have a lovely T-day. 🙂
I don’t even know if my senior pictures still exist anywhere. Pretty sure the yearbooks have been tossed. It was 41 years ago. It was all drugstore makeup. I didn’t wear foundation back then. Didn’t need to fill my brows, I just tweezed the strays. (My mother warned me that if I over plucked them they wouldn’t grow back. I also had a friend who got carried away sophomore year and hers didn’t grow back, so I was ok with what I had). Probably a shadow quad by a company called Aziza. I remember it having a green, a gray, a peachy shade and a gold. Maybelline eyeliner and a berry-ish color on my lips.
We didn’t have these pictures in Germany, but around this time I was wearing turquoise liner with a flick every single day.
Ahhh, I’m famous!
Close to no makeup in my senior photos. An extraordinarily sheer lip gloss and clear mascara (seriously, who wears clear mascara?) Bonus is that I don’t look dated, at least!
As I had no makeup, I would wet my eyelashes to make it seem as if I was wearing clear mascara. XD
I didn’t wear any makeup. In fact, I didn’t own any makeup, so I would sometimes sneak into my older sister’s room when she was out and try on her (very limited colletion of) makeup.
I remember I had really badly chapped lips and it was the morning after the senior class had collectively gone for a night out. Lots of girls slapped on some makeup to somewhat seem put together! XD All in all, not the best picture ever taken of me.
IMO, it was a little sadistic of school to organise to have our pictures taken the morning after the tradional going out night of senior year.
For my school leaving picture in England it was our tradition to really glam up and try to look much older!So lots of foundation,blush, red gloss lipstick, mascara,eye liner and pale blue eyeshadow. Also plucked and shaved our brows and pencilled in replacement brows. Felt very grown up !
Oh dear!! This brings back scary memories for me. The year was 1985 and I was in full 80’s regalia for my senior portrait. I had winged hair and tons of makeup. Purple and mauve were my passion. My lipstick and blush matched and there was a lot of it. I remember thinking that I liked the way it looked. So hilarious…I looked like an Italian American Princess. Not a good look!! LOL!! Wish I could post the picture on here. Karen…it would give you a good laugh. Btw, I really like your portrait Karen. You look so fresh and natural. Love it!!
I’m late to this party but I just have to declare my past love for the Ultima II Matte lipstick (probably not the right name) in Chocolate? Swiss chocolate? something like that. It was the beginning of the matte brownish lips that make me think of Beverly Hills 90210, and that was totally my jam.
Hi Danielle,
I remember Ultima II back in the day as being really fancy. I always wanted a lipstick but never got around to getting one. 🙂