Every decade has its own style — granted bits of it always come back around — but 90’s style holds a special place in my heart, as I was just coming into my own, getting a grasp on who I was, and I was obsessive over pop culture. While I’d never consider myself daring in the fashion sense, there’s a few trends I latched onto in the 90s.
Brightly colored eyeshadow — No color too bold; the 90s were about expressing your mood via eyeshadow hues in greens, blue, and purple. And framing the whole thing with shimmery, silver-white shadow (often sold as a loose powder). If you were super serious, you’d whip out the white eyeliner.
Hair, twisted and clipped — I was constantly trying new things with my hair, things that I thought looked super cool, and when I see pics now, I realize how terrible I looked and have NO idea how I had friends. I did lemon juice, hair gel, oversized hot rollers, and even used the scary “wave iron.” But when 90’s pop music icons started twisting their bangs back and clipping them, I did the same (though I always opted for glitter bobby pins over butterfly clips).
Peach lip gloss — I remember reading that Mandy Moore wore peach lipgloss, and because I loved Mandy Moore, I was constantly on The Hunt for peach lip gloss (oh, the struggle). I finally settled on a shimmery peach tube of Lipsmackers (with the sponge applicator) that I completely took for granted, because if I had it today, I’d totally rock that shit, DAILY.
Unnaturally colored mascara — I suppose this goes hand-in-hand with the brightly colored eyeshadow trend, but blue or green mascara is one of those things you think people aren’t going to notice and they totally do. Now that I think of it, bold nail polish colors were also a hit in the 90s. I completely blame Fiona Apple and Gwen Stefani for this, and I’m not mad about it whatsoever.
Slick hair meets the power pony — Yep, greasy-looking hair was so IN. I often went for the 10-Things-I-Hate-About-You look with the scrunched wet hair (with gel that was often green or blue) in a massive clip and the crispy hair would fall out of the clip in a waterfall-like look. It was terrible. Yet again, I thought it was completely cool.
Cheek stain — The 90s were all about extremes: bold makeup looks or completely natural looks. When I rocked the au naturale look, I pulled out the peach gloss and I often colored my cheeks with a red stick of gel. It was basically lip gloss that I put on my skin (and I wonder why I had acne). The only problem? Cheek stain doesn’t look great when you’re wearing foundation and/or powder.
Gap scents — Sometime in the mid-90s, GAP became the place to shop (apparently plain t-shirts were all the rave) and their scents for men and women were a must have. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but the scents were mass-produced and essentially just a way for GAP to continue not to make a statement, while making a statement. There was Grass, Dream, Earth, Heaven, OM, and Day. If you’re really recalling the 90s now, check out this article I found on, “What Your GAP Fragrance Said About You.”
Britney — I could not get enough of Britney Spears (and I still can’t). I loved her style; her clothes and hair, and I especially loved her dancing. I pretty much wanted to BE HER. If she wore turquoise tops, so did I, if she did 500 situps in a day, so did I (plus we had to wear midriff tops for dance team), and if she wore a Catholic school uniform, so did I (for Halloween).
Body glitter — I actually almost left this one off the list and then I realized that forgetting BODY GLITTER would be a mortal sin, given that I loved the stuff, had an embarrassing amount of it, and needed no excuse to wear it. There was scented glitter, colored glitter, glitter in giant jars of gel, glitter with hearts and stars! You could wear it on your eyes, temples, in your hair, on your chest, around your belly ring, whatever — shit was fly. When I went to Hangout Fest last year, body glitter was all the rave (basically it was just loose glitter sticking to sweat) and I found a glorious human with a CAN of silver glitter. She “glittered” me and I was as happy as I’ve ever been in my life. Seriously.
And there you have it. A lot of these trends are finding their way back as we speak, and I’ll tell you one thing: I’m not going to be sad about it. And just because I found it, here’s a mashup of some 90-00 influencers.
The Bitter Lemon 