Things Every '90s Girl Kept In Her Caboodle
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Being a kid or a teen in the '90s, means you grew up right on the cusp of some major social changes. You went from writing out dozens of copies of a superstitious chain letter on binder paper with an erasable ballpoint pen, to getting your first email address (@aol.com, of course) and experiencing the 24-hour reachability brought on by carrying that sweet Motorola pager (covered in stickers and nail polish doodles, duh). For us '90s girls, perhaps it was the act of straddling the thin line before, and after, the shifting technological and social tides leading up to the Y2K years, that's a reason why we find ourselves so nostalgic about all things pre-new millennium. Bright plastic, scratch n' sniff everything, and big-hair-don't-care fashion was the order of the day, and we love to relive those era-specific fashions, and get back a little bit of that childhood feeling.
So let's talk Caboodles, fellow '80s babies and '90s girls, and inhale the palpable nostalgia inherent in these hard plastic tackle boxes for all your lady things. If you were a middle class girl who had a subscription to Teen Beat, you definitely had one, or even two: one for all things beauty, and one for all things crafting. Or, if you more were ballin' on a budget like me, you got one as a special present from a cool aunt or older sister, and hoarded every little treasure you came across within its glossy, pink and seafoam green drawers.
So what did you keep inside yours, ladies? Just kidding, I already know! Here are the top 13 things every '90s girl kept in her Caboodle.
Butterfly barrette clips
I personally wore these bouncy babies deep into the 2000s, but they were originally the bomb in the '90s. Besides jelly sandals, a yellow smiley-face t-shirt, and giant fly girl pants, was there anything cooler to circle in the Delia's catalogue on the school bus ride home? No way.
White eyeliner
If you weren't pairing white eyeliner with pastel blue eye shadow, then what were you even doing with your life? Nineties makeup wasn't about subtly enhancing your the natural beauty of your features, it was about applying enough at one time to make sure everyone could tell you were cool and important enough to be wearing makeup.
Friendship bracelets
Either you kept your collection of gifted bracelets from last summer in there (hello, Miss Popular!), or you kept your yarn and bead fixin's in there to churn one out for whoever was on your good side that week. And you probably made one for yourself with alphabet beads spelling out "hottie," if you were really fly. Or, maybe the old standby, "2good2b4got10."
Roll-on body glitter
In retrospect, this stuff felt exactly like rubbing grainy lube all over your chest, cheeks, and eyelids. But to be stylish, you needed to be wearing generously applied body glitter all throughout the warm months. Forget showing up to the school dance without a thick layer. Bustle recently published this ode to the stuff, and it is extremely accurate.
Gel Roller Pens
These brightly colored and absolutely unreadable pens told the story of your life in the margins of your Sweet Valley Twins books, and your Lisa Frank diary. And girl, if you were cool, the Stussy logos covering your binder better have been drawn in glitter Gelly roll ink.
Wet n Wild black lipstick
You definitely weren't allowed to wear this to school. But you cleverly parlayed that one Halloween spent dressing as a witch, into ownership of your very own cool girl black lipstick. Who cares if you were only allowed to wear it in the house? You were occasionally goth in your heart, and always a fly girl.
Your Tamagotchi Pet
I remember the first time I accidentally killed my "Giga Pets" Tamagotchi knock-off. I forgot about him for maybe, like, a day, and he had basically drowned in his own poop, because I hadn't scooped it. I learned a grim lesson that day.
It looks like I'll get another chance to do right by a keychain virtual pet, as Mashable reports that the Japanese toy company, Bandai, is re-releasing the original version of their wildly popular Tamagotchi virtual pets.
Your Lip Smackers collection
We spent hours in the drugstore aisles as '90's girls, sniffing the Bonne Bell brand Lip Smackers roll-on gloss testers, mixing the Doctor Pepper gloss with the strawberry-kiwi one, and topping it off with Junior Mint flavor — and then slyly licking our lips. The winning colors and flavors got to come home with us and spend the night tucked away in our Cabbodle treasure boxes, on the shelf, next to our Care Bears-sheeted beds.
Scented markers
Don't pretend you don't still love Mr. Sketch. How many of us took a secret lick of the luscious blueberry-scented marker in the pack, and ended up disappointed with a blue mouth? If you ever forgot your lunch, you might remember torturing yourself while the other kids ate, by smelling these deceptively, deliciously-scented markers that every single kid had as part of their art supplies — and, tucked into the bottom of their Caboodles, of course.
An old candy necklace
Those chalky, pastel, candy bead necklaces have been around since 1958, according to this "Retro Candy Timeline," and they're still alive and kicking today. And we '90s girls were not above walking around, sucking our necklace at school all day, and putting the melted, nasty thing in our Caboodle box "for later," and then just letting it simmer in our saliva, mixed with our other treasures. Ah, the '90s were a simpler time.
Teen Spirit deodorant
It is very unlikely that you didn't play your Nirvana cassette tape single "Smells like Teen Spirit" while you rubbed on your "Pink Crush" Lady Speed Stick, knowing it was you and Kurt against the world. You can still buy this stuff. I'm just wondering if it's strong enough for a sweaty 30-something woman (asking for a friend).
Plastic charm bracelet
Before Pokémon Go, there was another way you had to "catch 'em all." And you'd better believe that owning every single charm was a status marker. If you're currently weeping for your lost plastic charm bracelet that marked you as a good little trend-follower in your elementary school years, you can dry those tears.
A few years back, Nylon published an editorial lauding this style, and a '90s-inspired replica made by the Organic Peroxide brand. This post-new millennium copy is no longer available in stores, but never fear! You can get the real thing ' now-vintage '90s plastic charms — on eBay. So yeah, you're basically buying your stuff back.
Stick-on jewel earrings
Taking your allowance or your chore money to Claire's on the weekend was kind of like the precursor to spending your whole paycheck at Sephora, amiright? And if you weren't lucky enough to have your ears pierced — or even if you just had the classic two holes, and wanted to do it up like a cool hippie girl with multiple earnings per ear — then that meant splurging on a constant influx of stick-on, 3D, gem earrings. For special occasions, putting these babies on your temples to highlight your eyes was a never-fail move.
Caboodles4life
Are you desperately missing your dear Caboodle now? Do you need one for your adult self, or your mini-me daughter? If your original has disappeared into the ether that is time, there is good news for contemporary Caboodle enthusiasts.
In addition to several vintage models being available on Etsy or on ebay, the Caboodle company is still rocking the world of makeup, art supplies, and random crap organization, with their buttoned-up "train case" line, and their more recognizable "teen" collection of Caboodle cases (not to mention their new spokesperson is cool girl and Olympic gold medalist, Simone Biles). So what are you waiting for? Get your Caboodle, get your life!