I wanted to share with you an old mailer from 1996 for LA Splash Cosmetics.
Unfortunately, I cannot find the actual flier anymore. I took these photos in 2012 and can no longer find it in my house. Believe me, I’ve been looking so I could scan it in and give you an entire look at it, with better resolution! We can’t even read the ocean themed names on the bottom panel. But, alas, I had to take a screenshot after scrolling through the depths of my Instagram account and this is what we are left with!
I showed my Instagram photo to a staff member working the booth of LA Splash at IMATS. She said it was for sure the same company. (Also she may have been born that year, which makes me feel old.) According their website, that is the very year they were founded!
I probably requested this after seeing an ad in the back of a teen magazine. Back in the day, I’d write to companies on an index card and ask them to send me a catalog. That is probably how I got this! I loved looking at things I couldn’t afford to buy and circle the stuff I wanted.
In 1996, everything was mostly still mail order, which made it difficult to talk my mom into buying anything for me. There obviously weren’t any swatches and all we had to rely on printed ink against a white background. How do we know what it really looks like? We don’t! I mentally picked out what I wanted from each category. But I knew my mom would have thought it was too expensive and that I didn’t need any makeup. So unfortunately my mom wasn’t going to be ordering these for me! I mean, she complained that I spent $20 on makeup at the drugstore!
My favorite part of this flier was the Barnacle Remover, even though it was a risk cause it only came in one color. But it was a fun name for what I assume was a medicated concealer and I had zits. I probably (mentally) picked the brown lipstick cause it was 1996.
I love the concept of LA Splash being mermaid/ ocean themed. I am hoping they will release a new collection to pay homage to their original mermaid themed line but with their updated formulas. The mermaid trend, still going on 20+ years later. I also appreciate the logo, it reminds me of a water park and “LA” in “Splash” being a different color, saves some design real estate. Let’s not forget to mention that the icons are adorable! IG makeup swatch accounts do this now!
Don’t think I’m not acknowledging their current collections! They currently have the awesome horror, Dia de los Muertos, and their Angels and Sinners line! But having that mermaid line, complete with glitter, is still relevant today!
If anyone reposts this, please keep my watermark on the picture so people can refer to my blog and read a little more about it. I may not be the only person in the world that kept it, but damnit I should get some credit for not throwing it out! I am still cleaning, and hope I will run across this mailer again! If I do, I will definitely post the entire thing!
I have been posting some throwback makeup items from my stash on my Instagram, so be sure to follow me on there if you are interested in makeup from the 90s and 2000s! (And especially makeup of now!)
This week marks the 7 year anniversary of my mother’s death. She would be utterly horrified at my current makeup collection and maybe not too fond of my purple hair.
Disclaimer: I was not paid for this throwback, but I hope LA Splash sees this and maybe they have one archived in their office that they can share.
