Makeup Nostalgia

We all get makeup nostalgia - right? You favorite lipstick was discontinued; you bought a limited-edition item and couldn't get another once you decided you couldn't live without it. There's help for those situations, and it's not at Makeup Addicts Anonymous.

Three Custom Color Specialists can make you that lipstick - or just about anything else. I'll bet they have already made it for someone else! My friend and Chanel representative at Neiman Marcus, Marilyn Schubert, and I both loved Chanel's Hydrasoleil Sheer Lipstick in Mirage (they have re-issued the name twice). Mirage was the perfect warm, sheer shade for both of us. I carried it with me for years, bought a bunch of them, but finally ran out - except for a nubbin I have left somewhere. I went on the Three Custom Color Specialists Web site, and sure enough, they had the formula for Mirage. They had made it for another customer. I don't even have to send them the little nubbin I still have.

eBay is another incredible source for makeup you thought you'd never see again. I loved some limited-edition Eye Mousse cream eye shadow pots made by Revlon (see a Makeupalley review here). My favorite was Natural Cashmere (a name Revlon has also reused). They were long gone when I started to pine for more. Where did I find sealed and unused pots? eBay - about two years later. Amazing!

Recently, I had a different kind of nostalgia. I found a shrink-wrapped Tom Ford Estee Lauder Face Gloss Illuminateur Visage in Amber Nude (shown above) in one of my boxes. I was dumbfounded. How could I have squirreled away something so coveted - for over three years? Was I getting dotty?

The Face Gloss was a fun "discovery," and I've been playing with it all week. It's a very sheer cream highlighter, and you can wear it anywhere - even on your eyelids. The Tom Ford Collection for Estee Lauder was amazing. The packaging was elegant; the products were elegant. The box for the Amber Nude compact had a tan top and gold bottom, and the information on the top was stamped in gold. When I opened the shrink wrap, I found that the lower half of the box was designed to carefully nestle the round gold compact, which itself was housed in a gold leather pouch. There's even an amber "jewel" on the compact's catch. Everything about the experience - other than my disbelief that I had neglected it - was special. It was like finding a perfect, shimmering masterpiece!

The lesson here? If you lost it, you can find it again! It may live on with Three Custom Color Specialists, at eBay or other sites where you can find discontinued cosmetics (be careful out there!), or you may just find it in your house!

Photo courtesy of makemeheal (where Amber Nude is out of stock)