Back in my day

There are so many posts out there about 1980s beauty products and the best 1990s products and everything we remember from school. However, the lists never work for me.  My high school years were 1988 to 1992, so half the products are from when I was too young and the other half are when I was older. I decided to make my own list of the things that defined my high school years, and there's going to be a comparison of then and now.

Fresh Breath
I was a tapper. I tapped my fingers, my toes, my pens. The folks around me couldn't stand it, and so I started chewing gum - lots and lots and lots of gum. My fresh breath went on and on with Big Red. I went through a large pack of 20 every day. When I was a Rotary Youth Exchange Student in New Zealand, I discovered that cinnamon gum was an American thing. There was no Big Red in Hamilton, and I couldn't even find cinnamon gun. My parents sent it to me in bulk a couple of times, and after a month in customs, I got to chew my nice, stale gum.

Top: Big Red cinnamon chewing gum, Bottom: Altoids cinnamon mints

These days I avoid chewing gum, but I still love cinnamon. I usually have cinnamon altoids in my purse. I love the heat.

Multiple Earrings
My mom had my ears pierced when I was four, but when I hit high school I wanted multiple ear holes. I had a second set done my junior year of high school. My senior I went for all the funkadoo and put a third hole in my right ear only. Within three years, I was back down to my original earring holes only.

Left: Ear from someone on the net, if it's yours, let me know. Right: My left ear

In the early 00s I got an inner conch piercing, so now I sport my original holes from when I was four, my inner conch, and a nice couple of scars from the three additional high school holes.


Star Trek
Back in high school I had this weird belief that Star Trek was something to be ashamed of. I have no idea why since I was a fairly unapologetic nerd. I preferred Star Trek Next Generation to Deep Space Nine.

Top: Star Trek Next Generation, Bottom: Star Trek Voyager

My first Star Trek may have been Next Gen, but these days my heart belongs to Janeway.

Romance Me, Bay-bee
My stepmother gave me my first romance novel when I was eleven years old, and I filled my life with them. I read several per week.

Left: A Harlequin Romance from the 1990s, Right: An awesome werewolf lesbian romance

Then I got older and got out of the closet. Years of supermarket romance have been replaced by my current obsession with lesbian vampires and werewolves. Ok, fine, I might read other books, too, but my lesbian supernatural lovers don't mind.

Hair Products
I know I started high school in the 1980s, but I stopped using Aquanet before high school because I heard that my hair was killing the ozone layer. I used Rave. It was cheap, and you only had to clean out the spray hole every few days.  I can't remember what kind of mousse I used with it, though.

Left: Rave Ultra Hold Hairspray, Right: Kevin Murphy's Antigravity Spray

These days I use what my hairstylist gives me, and she sold me Kevin Murphy's Antigravity Spray. I also use the Kevin Murphy powder wax and the dry wax spray sometimes. My hair's short and brightly colored now!

Wakeup and Makeup
I started wearing MaryKay at eleven years old when my stepmother threw a MaryKay party for me and my friends to learn how to wear makeup. I wore it for years, eschewing the cool Maybelline that my friends wore so that I could put on my purple eyeshadow from my pink compact.  No primer, no setting spray, just three shades of purple eyeshadow, purple eyeliner, and purple mascara. The purple shadow trifecta!

Left: Marykay compact with interchangeable shadows, Right:  BH Solar Flare

These days I wear a lot of different kinds of makeup, but I use some of those massive eye shadow palettes. Sometimes I pull out three different palettes to use only one color from each! First I have to pop on some eye primer, use a matte neutral, then go with a couple of these for some pretty metallic shimmery joy. I skip the eyeliner most days because I've got such hooded eyes, and my mascara is brown,or very occasionally black.

Nummy Nummy Smells (I'm channeling Spike here!)
My mom sold Avon, so I used a lot of Avon products. Sure, it was the age of Skin So Soft everything, but it was the peach products that used in high school. In college I was all about The Body Shop, but in high school, I swore by that peach shampoo and lotion!

Left: Avon peach products, Right: body butter from TheSheaShak

These days, I have problems with scents, but I still like having soft skin! If I don't make my own body butter, I use Etsy, and  my current favorite shop is TheSheaShak. I buy unscented most of the time, and the delicious scent of cocoa butter and coconut oil is amazing. I do get lavender essential oils sometimes.

High Hair
So here's the thing, I was a Jersey girl. High hair was a requirement. The best high hair out there was Jennifer Keaton's. She was the perfect girl. She was smart, athletic, beautiful, and her hair, oh my goodness, she was a dream.

Right: Jennifer Keaton, Family Ties Season 6 or 7, Left: Tina Yothers, the actress

And guess what, Tina Yothers, the actress who played Jennifer Keaton is an absolutely gorgeous adult who still has a beautiful smile. She also learned that we don't need to tease our hair to look fabulous.

Nail Polish
Ah nail polish. I got in so much trouble for nail polish as a wee kid. I decided that pink would be a good color for the side of my dresser. It turns out parents aren't keen on that type of thing. The nail polish for all young girls was Wet n Wild for $0.99.

Left: W&W polish circa 1980s, Right: W&W 2018

These days I use... Wet n Wild for $0.99. They've stepped up their game. I bring it with me when I go for a mani/pedi, and it lasts longer then the fancy polish they use there!

Kissable Lips
I loved my lip gloss. I still wore Kissing Potion long after everyone else stopped.  I mean, unless it was a Rotary event, at which point I'd put on some Mary Kay lipstick, but I still have a soft spot for rollerball lip glosses because of that.

Left: Kissing Potion lip gloss, Right Clinique Pep Start

Lets face it, Kissing Potion just makes your lips sticky. Nobody wants to kiss that. So while I do war lip gloss sometimes, I generally prefer a sheer tinted lip balm. The Clinique Pep Start is a great color for me, and I've got super soft lips ;-)

Tip Toeing Through the Tulips
The shoe of 1990 was the boat shoe, and it had a very special knot!  It was this funky loop around the edge. My friend, who I am still friends with almost 30 years later, showed me how to do the knots. I think I could still do them, too.  However, I don't wear LL Bean boat shoes anymore, so, well, I have nothing to do the knot on.

Top:  Some other brand of boat shoes with knots, Bottom my favorite pink short boots

I have more shoes then I had back then. These days my favorite shoes are knee high leather boots and these little hot pink booties. Truthfully, I chose to show you my pink booties because they fit in the frame better than my legs in boots that go all the way up to the knees.

Moving Right Along
My first car was a 1980 Chevie Citation, white. It was falling apart. You couldn't put your foot down when you stepped into the driver's seat because it was rusted through - if I'd put my foot down too hard, it would have gone through the brake lines!  The passenger side window was busted - if you put it down it wouldn't always go up, even if you had someone pull on it while you turned the handle. The driver side door was broken. You could open and close it, but it didn't always work. It was better to just slide across. Oh! And I replaced the transmission twice (with a junk yard transmission). But oh, what fun it was to drive in a rusty Chevrolet!

Top: somebody else's chevie citation, Bottom: My new stinky ride

These days I live in the Boston area, which means I could afford a vehicle or I could afford rent.  I've got a monthly charlie card, so I can get around town on the bus and train! I think my first car was in better shape than the vehicles that take me to the office.