9 Beauty Products That Give Us All The Feels

Ask a woman about her first foray into the wide world of beauty, and she’ll probably tell you a story about pocketing one of her mum’s lipsticks or sitting and watching a big sister paint her eyelids blue before a school dance. My own first beauty memory comes from the mornings I spent watching my mum get ready for work. She’d swipe on one coat of Chapstick (which btw is mostly sheer in colour), then turn to me and ask, “Is this too dramatic?”

Save from that sheer lip balm, the only other beauty product she wore was a spritz of perfume behind the ears, a dab on her wrists, and just a touch on the backs of her knees. While my makeup routine is much more involved than my mother’s ever was, I follow her same fragrance pattern — ears, wrists, knees, out the door. And when I asked my fellow Refinery29 staffers what their first beauty memory was, so many told me about the fragrances that still take them back to when they were children watching a loved one get ready. Read on, and tell us in the comments which products remind you of the mother figure in your life. (And maybe give her a call while you’re at it.)