discontinued brands – saleintothe90s

(my photo of the Sears in Hampton, VA)

As we all know by now, Sears is pretty much on death’s door. They can close stores all they want (including the one in my hometown which is finally closing after nearly 44+ years of being open) but guys, they’re dead.

My most vivid memory of Sears during my teenage years in the late 90s is that they tried to get into the cosmetics department. My mom was always at Sears in the late 90s, using her Sears card. Finally one day in late 1999, there was something for me to do while I waited for her: a help-yourself cosmetics counter, with samples.

(http://gaus212.com/Sears.php) Ours in Hampton looked kinda like this? It was white that’s all I remember. White and long.

I’m mad that I don’t remember the brand names of the cosmetics sears carried at my store, they were not the brands that were in usual department stores, like Lancome, or Clinique, Sears in the U.S. couldn’t get those names. I just primarily remember Circle of Beauty, Sears’ in house brand. I remember all the shades being totally unflattering. I got a couple of things when Sears shut down their cosmetics counter in 2001, and the blush had no pigment, and the foundation felt like paint.

There were several other brands that catered to younger women, that I had a couple of items from. I think one brand was Studio Essentials? I had a white sparkily powder, that I put all over my face, because I didn’t know what highlighter was back in ‘99, 2000. I’ve looked all over for something about the brand, but all I find is the stuff dumb dumbs buy thinking its real MAC. The compact was square and black, and the font for the brand was something in the lucinda console family.

edit

I found a Pic I took 12 years ago of my embarrassing makeup. Guess who was there. The brand was called “studiomakeup" :

Clearly I could not afford makeup back then.

Also, it was an in house brand for Sears, according to the Paula Begoun book “Don’t go to the cosmetics counter without me” (2001 edition) 1:

Chicago Tribune:

Now Sears is rolling out a new line called Studio Makeup to attract a younger, edgier set of customers. By design, Studio Makeup resembles MAC, a line of highly pigmented products popularized by professional makeup artists. “We’re looking to be hip but extraordinarily more affordable,” said Mark Cohen, Sears senior vice president of merchandising in charge of cosmetics and accessories. 2

Another brand whose name I have completely forgotten, but they made lipsticks in tiny silver tubes, and at the top of the tube was the letters “FX”. The lipstick I wore to my high school graduation (hot pink, crunchy sparkles) in 2001 came from them. Solar FX?

(source)

I originally learned of Smell this perfume though the Delia*s catalog back in the late 90s. I flipped out when I saw that Sears had a small section of it in their new cosmetics department. I got Soda Pop Fizz and Canned Peaces for Christmas. I still have them! Of course I never use them because there’s only a drop left of each, but they still smell the same after nearly 20 years. I got Iced Tea to wear at high school graduation right before Sears stopped selling cosmetics. This is my most missed perfume line of all time. There’s absolutely none of it left online, except for some scant bottles of cookie dough lotion. ew.

I forgot that Sears also ~~sold~~ had on the shelves a lot of The Healing Garden. I only liked the one in the dark blue packaging for when you had a cold, the menthol one.

Time Out – when I think of the term “Time Out”, I think of a stressed out mom yelling “TIME OUT!” –not relaxing . This was Sears’ bobo answer to Bath and Body Works. This strawberry one STUNK. I remember getting a free set of it one year while back to school shopping. I still remember how crappy the bottle tops were, how they would leak all over the shelves at Sears.

1. Begoun, Paula, “Don’t go to the cosmetics counter without me : a unique guide to over 30,000 products, plus the latest skin-care research,” (Seattle: Beginning Press, 2001), 825.https://archive.org/details/dontgocosmetics00bego/page/824

2. Chandler, Susan, “Following the Scent,” Chicago Tribune, October 11, 1998. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1998-10-11-9810110471-story.html

Tag: discontinued brands

367. When Sears tried to get into cosmetics (late 1990s)