We Wore Our Middle School Makeup A Decade Later — & Here’s How It Looked

When we think back to our middle school years, we're reminded of braces (and the holiday-themed rubber-bands they came with), puberty (and the resulting first encounters with pimples), and physical-fitness tests (tell us, why were shuttle runs always on the hottest days?!). So yeah, it's a mixed bag of memories.

On the brighter side, it was middle school that marked the start of our love affair with all things beauty. Glitter nail polish! Dr. Pepper Lip Smackers! Great Lash mascara! If you were a tween in the 1990s or 2000s, these were likely staples in your bathroom. And seeing as the cool new thing for twenty- and thirtysomethings is to embrace the nostalgic markers of youth — Pokémon, adult summer camps, spaghetti straps — we decided we'd swap out the current products in our makeup bags for the ones we used back in the days of note-passing and geometry proofs.

Ahead, see how six Refinery29 beauty editors re-created their tween looks — the good, the bad, and the frosty.