A teenage girl’s reaction to her mother wearing 1990s make-up has people laughing.
Dawn, who did not want to give her surname, lives in the UK and said she wanted to show her daughter, who loves makeup, how she used to apply it.
Dawn rubbed foundation onto her face with her hands, then used a highlighter stick to boldly fill in her pencil-thin eyebrows while her daughter Lily looked on in horror.
“The inspiration for this video came from watching a lot of modern makeup tutorials,” Dawn told Newsweek magazine. “Lily loves doing my makeup, so I wanted to show her how quick and easy it was to do the makeup looks my sister and mom did in the ’90s.”
As she continued to create her ’90s style, Lily even tried to help, grabbing brushes and shaking her head in confusion.
“I knew she would be embarrassed about not contouring and using a brush,” laughed Dawn, “and it was kind of fun to hear her earnest reaction to ’90s makeup, but then it brought back some core memories for a lot of women and it was a big blast.”
Image from a video of a mother teaching her daughter how to do 90s makeup. The daughter was terrified. Image from a video of a mother teaching her daughter how to do 90s makeup. The daughter was terrified. @haywardlegends/TikTok
The video has been viewed nearly 19 million times and is a delight to viewers on TikTok, the platform filled with curated tutorials and makeup tips.
“You did it so quickly, it’s like muscle memory,” wrote a user named Lily.
“It’s painful to watch, but I can’t stop watching,” said one viewer, Khushiri.
Many viewers were in disbelief at Lily’s reaction to her mum’s make-up. “There was a look of horror on her face,” Amuzu wrote, while Lulu commented: “She was stressed out watching you do this.”
Whereas once learning how to apply makeup required help from older relatives or lots of trial and error, today young people have access to a wealth of information and knowledge online, allowing many teenagers to avoid makeup mistakes.
However, some commenters were in favor of the old-fashioned way of applying makeup.
“I still do this lol,” Blisscrafting said.
Like Angie, some viewers felt Dawn did a great job. “You ate every crumb,” they wrote.
Of course, this isn’t the first time fashion and beauty have caused a generational divide: Last month, another TikTok user shared how a fellow Gen Zer told her she was wearing key items wrong.
Last year, another millennial mom was shocked when her Gen Z daughter told her that eye shadow was a “millennial thing” and that young people didn’t use it anymore.
Rare knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom, seeking common ground and finding connections.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom, seeking common ground and finding connections.
