In the early ’90s, I washed my face exclusively with things that made my skin tingle (Noxzema, to be just like Rebecca Gayheart, Stridex pads and the like). But a few times a week, I needed to sand that shit DOWN, as it were. So I would save my babysitting money and buy a Buf-Puf pad (sometimes regular, sometimes the peach gentle version) once a month. It was only like $4, but you know. That was like, my allowance, practically.

I’d do a “face treatment” to myself using the Buf-Puf, then commandeer my brother’s face to see what a difference it made for his skin, following it up with Bonne Bell Ten-O-Six, naturally. He’d allow this in exchange for full monopoly over the TV, which is why I’ve seen every. single. episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

I got into the disposable single-use ones, too. That tear-shaped brillo pad of wonder was truly prophetic — it made skin brushes like the Clarisonic, Philips PureRadiance and Clinique Sonic System possible, much like how Diana Vreeland famously noted that Brigitte Bardot’s lips made Mick Jagger’s possible.

Did you Buf-Puf in the ’90s?