The Joyous Return of Discontinued Beauty Products
There’s no worse feeling for a beauty junkie than having their favorite product discontinued. You’ve finally found the perfect shade, the ideal texture, or the impossible-to-find signature scent and then boom—it’s gone. Unless you want to spend your evenings surfing eBay for an unopened bottle of whatever you miss most. And who wants that?
Luckily, thanks to two parts social media and one part nostalgia, brands are listening, bringing back their best-loved products. Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook have made it unbelievably easy for fans to communicate directly with brands, whether it’s asking a question about how to use a product, or sharing a lengthy love letter to a favorite shade. Last spring, Revlon revived 5 of their most popular lipsticks and in the past few weeks, three of our favorite brands have reissued previously discontinued formulas.
Related: The Most In-Demand Discontinued Beauty Products
Helmut Lang’s three cult fragrances were discontinued in 2005 after only a few years on shelves, when the designer himself left his eponymous brand. Now they’re back. Eau de Cologne is a clean musk scent with notes of rosemary and orange while Cuiron’s a more masculine fragrance of wood and leather. The vanilla-based Eau de Parfum, the most feminine of the bunch, is powdery soft.
Meanwhile, Chanel has re-released three classic red nail polishes that first debuted in the 1980s: Rouge No.19, Laque Rouge, and Rouge Flamboyant. In fact, there’s now a whole section on their website dedicated to discontinued favorites made available again for a limited time.
And finally, NARS jumped on the train and brought back their Mysterious Red matte lip pencil, a limited edition color from the Fall 2013 collection—a crazy good shade of vibrant red that’s universally flattering and so easy to apply.
Related: Can ‘90s Brands Make A Comeback With Today’s Teens?
If this is in fact related to our recent obsession with nostalgia—from weekly throwbacks on Instagram to endless ‘best lists’ celebrating the ‘90s (and even the ‘00s)—here’s hoping it’s the first of many comebacks. Which products would you like to see make a triumphant return?
