Dear reader, I cannot write about Selena Gomez‘s latest look without drawing attention to my age, which is… older than Selena Gomez. I’m turning 46 in a couple of months, OK? I’m only calling that out because I need to establish myself as an unimpeachable expert on being a teen in the ‘90s and because everything about Gomez’s hair, nails, outfit, and accessories are basically straight out of my aesthetic when I was 16.
It pains me to think that Gomez’s beauty and style inspiration in her latest Instagram post comes from 30 years ago—in my mind, 1995 is 10 years ago—but what doesn’t pain me is how flawlessly she’s executing the look. I speak from first-hand experience when I say that she has completely nailed the early Delia’s catalog vibe with her bow-print tank top and chokers.
But it’s Gomez’s beauty details that are really bringing me back, specifically to my 16th birthday sleepover, at which all four besties—and myself—wore our hair parted in the middle and held in place with high-set barrettes, just like Emilia Pérez star is doing with her white triangle snap clips.
Her bright blue nails are also so mid-’90s, and really had to be there to understand why. Although blue nail polish is no big deal nowadays, the ’90s were pretty much the first time people started really experimenting with nontraditional polish shades. So when you used your part-time job money to purchase a blue nail polish, you felt like a total rebel.
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