Holiday 1999

1999 was such a memorable time for the world on the brink of a new millenium. That and the Prince song that might of just got stuck in your head from me mentioning it. It only makes sense that Bonne Bell made Holiday 1999 such a memorable one with a whole collection of brand new, unforgettable flavors. 

Holiday 1999 trios 

Holiday 1999:

Strawberry Cheesecake

Sugar Plum

2000 Cookies

Candy Confetti 

Nilla Mint Frost

Berry Jelly Donut

Bonne Bell's holiday collections were immaculate and worth waiting all year for and Holiday 1999 is a very memorable one for me. I can literally smell this collection just from looking at it still in its sealed packaging. From the glittery and foiled wraps to the glitter infused translucent caps and tubes, this collection was created to C-E-L-E-B-R-A-T-E the turn of the century!

Strawberry Cheesecake was my first favorite from Holiday 1999 and I fell head over heals for the flawless flavor. I don't know how they captured it but this was a rich cheesecake topped with a sweet strawberry glaze and a buttery graham crust, all packed into a small tube. Still one of the most accurate cheesecake replicas I've ever smelled. The later Strawberry Cheesecake formula that came out in the Snack Time collection (2006) and then later in the Dessert trio (2010) was a new formula that I'm not sure why this was traded in for, and not nearly as spot on as Holiday 1999 Strawberry Cheesecake.

Sugar Plum was always a welcomed holiday flavor and only fitting to be in Bonne Bell's turn of the century collection. This was the original, classic sweet plummy formula with an added shimmer.

2000 Cookies is a memorable flavor for many. The gorgeous, eye-catching glitter gold label and the translucent yellow glitter encrusted cap was one of its many unforgettable attributes. And the formullllla! This smelled like 2000 dollops of delicious sugar cookie dough on a baking sheet! Sugary and oh-so-yummy and it also imparted a light frost on the lips.

Candy Confetti is a pinata full of fruity candy flavors in one gorgeous tube. This literally smelled like a busted pinata of fruity candy flavors for your lips, even similar to when you open up a bag of mixed fruity candy. The most prominent flavor I can smell is a grape hard candy-like note but there's definitely layers of other stuff here making this uniquely Bonne Bell. 

 Nilla Mint Frost frosted your senses and lips in minty decadence. This wasn't your typical vanilla mint flavor. Imagine Nilla Wafers dipped in creamy peppermint. This also left lips with an icy frost.

Berry Jelly Donut glazed your lips in the most decadent jelly donut aroma I've ever smelled. You could even smell a little yeast which I think came across chocolatey to many.  This was also one of Bonne Bell's first donut flavors ever created!

You can't celebrate the new 21st century without taking one the greatest inventions of the 20th century into it, the Biggy-sized Lip Smacker. Two very limited Biggy Lip Smackers flavors, Berry Blast and Midnight Berry, were sold at Target and came with a Smackers flower mirror keychain.  

Berry Blast featured a berry ice cream flavor with a gorgeous pale lavender balm with shimmer. Midnight Berry was a light and sweet strawberry ice cream dream flavor with a pale pink balm with shimmers. Check out the glittery, translucent keychain caps on these!

Candy Confetti got some extra love in this collection and even had a gorgeous multi-glitter scented nail polish that came in its own special collection. Candy Confetti eventually stayed around and became a Smackersville character with her pet cat, Cupcake.

No Bonne Bell holiday collection was complete unless you had the special-edition keepsake tins Bonne Bell brought out every year, featuring all the yummy flavors together. The 1999 tin is probably one of the most memorable, check it out below.

I remember this collection being sold everywhere; Target, Afterthoughts (remember this store?!), Meijer and even Walmart. Target had a whole endcap dedicated to the Holiday 1999 collection and even had exclusives, like the two Biggies above! I also vividly recall Afterthoughts selling carded singles of Strawberry Cheesecake, Berry Jelly Donut and 2000 Cookies. I remember Strawberry Cheesecake single had adorable floating cheesecakes with strawberry glaze on top. I also remember stores having this huge display for the 6 piece tins below. This is a mock-up the Bonne Bell marketing team used below to sell to retailers. Even though this was for Holiday 1999, the graphics are from the previous Holiday 1998 collection, which is typical if a collection isn't finalized yet when selling to retailers.

Holiday 1999 tin display mock-up 

  Most of the flavors from the 1999 collection stayed around and made their way into Original & Best trios, besides Sugar Plum which Bonne Bell reserved for annual holiday collections. Gummy Fruits replaced Sugar Plum in the trio with Nilla Mint Frost and Candy Confetti. Strawberry Cheesecake, 2000 Cookies and Berry Jelly Donut were sold together and stayed around for quite a few years longer than the other trio, and lived on through the mid to late 2000's. The Holiday 1999 collection featured a celebration full of authentic flavors and a collection that lives on long after we welcomed the new millennium.