(Culture)
It's 1999: You've got your Nokia cell phone in one hand and a holographic handbag in the other. With hair twisted into a claw clip, spewing volcanically from the crown of your head and brows that have been plucked to oblivion, you're the poster child for every iconic '90s beauty look that now makes you cringe.
Perhaps you've blocked the most embarrassing ones from memory. You know, as a sort of coping strategy? The skunk-like highlights. The up-to-your-brows blue eyeshadow. The buckets of body glitter that wound up on your bedroom floor. The yearbook pictures alone are enough to lose sleep over.
Yet Gen Zers like Bella Hadid and Kendall Jenner continue to pluck trends from the time capsule — crimped hair, butterfly clips, face-framing tendrils, brown lipstick — and drop them right back into the rotation as if it were 1997 again. The ones that haven't already been summoned are bound to resurface in due time.
Today, you see snippets of your childhood all over Instagram, on the runway, on the subway, or wherever, and if you've maintained your coolness after all these years, you're rocking the '90s look nowadays as well. A few trends from the decade, for nostalgia's sake, ahead.
Frosty Lips
Back in the day, we wanted our lips to be just a shade lighter than our actual flesh and to have a sort of icy sheen to them. Remember? Glossy-to-the-point-of-being-sticky and sometimes with an iridescent finish was the ideal pout. Mandy Moore circa-"Candy" was the prime example of this.
Overplucked Brows
It's likely taken this long for your brows to recover from the '90s plucking frenzy, but if the ultra-thin look were to come back in style, they might just get up and walk off your face. Thankfully, more recent decades have adhered to a "fuller is better" sentiment.
Crunchy Curls
Hair gel was in high demand. So much for curls that were smooth and bouncy; first, you had to run the crimper through it, then a hearty handful of gel would give it that desired crunchy finish. How hair survived the gel era, no one will ever know.
Fountain Ponytails
From Janet Jackson's iconic braided style to Stephanie Tanner's side version, no era redefined the ponytail quite like the '90s. And it seems the world isn't done with the look; Ariana Grande has given it the comeback it deserves, with her army of fans following suit.
Blue Eyeshadow
In the '90s, there was no holding back with blue eyeshadow: It was applied with a heavy hand, and all over (just look at J.Lo's lid-to-eyebrow shadow from 1999 for proof). No red carpet from the decade was complete without at least one celebrity wearing the bright shade, and it was often paired with pale skin, dark lips, and a choker, to boot.
Dark Lipstick
Speaking of dark lips, it seemed not a single '90s icon skipped that brick-hued trend. The shade took over the makeup bags of everyone from Drew Barrymore to Gwen Stefani, and served as the grungy antidote to the frosty lips that also dominated the decade.
