The Mecca of 90s beauty: The Cosmetic Center
Once upon a time, situated in a nondescript strip mall dwelled, an enchanting place.
A place where Lip Smackers lived next to Gorgio Armani and Caboodles lined the aisles as far as the eye could see.
Sort of like the United Nations of beauty.
Madonna’s “Cherish” would play overhead while you linked arms with your best friend, racing down each aisle in anticipation of what you might find.
What if they had the latest Jane foundation from this month’s TEEN.
“It’s dermatologist tested,” you’d whisper to your friend:
“That means its like really good.”
Of course, the foundation was there.
This was The Cosmetic Center.
It was the place of possibilities.
Basically, it’s where you went to become beautiful. Think Extreme-Makeover Home Edition (but with your face) or The Swan.
I’d clutch one of their baskets, imagining how each perfectly packaged product (say that three times fast-ha!) was going to transform me.
This went beyond your average People’s makeup aisle. (No shade-just facts. This was pre-CVS; its predecessor People’s didn’t have THIS kind of selection)
Let me provide some context: This was the mid-90s. Places like Sephora and Ulta didn’t exist yet. The internet was happening sure-but it was for fun things like IMing your friends, listening to MP3s (accidentally downloading a virus), and obsessively reloading Netscape to stalk MTV’s “webpage.”
Dial-up was not going to deliver Maybelline to your door. Sure, you could go to a department store, but that was for old people. Besides, every time you tried to escape to the juniors section, the women working at the make-up counters would basically scream at you that you needed a makeover.
Those environments felt so blah. There was nothing fun or inspiring about Lysol floors and women over zealously spraying you with Sunflowers by Elizabeth Arden.
This was a time when shopping was a full end-to-end experience.
The Cosmetic Center delivered every beauty need for every part of your body and pre-teen psyche.
Skincare, haircare, makeup-The Cosmetic Center had it all.
It often felt like an endless stream of aisles-but not in that bad overwhelming way.
The good way-where all of your creative energy is firing on all cylinders.
You could get your Baby Soft perfume, sponge curlers, and that expensive compact blush in one spot.
The Cosmetic Center (in my mind) was one of the first stores to introduce the high/low concept.
I often wonder if Target and other retailers drew inspiration from the Cosmetic Center’s diverse and expansive offerings.
For the 90s, it was an ideal concept; the pairing of low, high, and everything in between brands in one place.
The “high-end” perfumes were sequestered in a faraway section of the store.
These designer perfumes lived behind the glass counter with industrial-sized sensors. CK One was NOT coming home with you unless you could get your mom to shell out the dough, and an employee magically appeared.
It was always horribly lit in that section for some reason.
Very I know What You Did Last Summer Vibes.
I’m sorry, but what’s going on in this ad
Here is some more historical context for The Cosmetic Centers’ origin story
All Good Things Must Come To A End
Do you have a favorite Cosmetic Center story or 90s product you wish would get its own reboot? Mine would have to be Tribe, hands down.
“Tribe ran, so Axe could dare to walk one day”-ME
XO
April