When most people are looking at doing some sort of period-based makeup look, then tend to err towards the 1930s through to the 1950s. This is a time when the looks are clean, classic, simple, and iconic. A delicately lined eye, a dramatic red lip, a light dusting of blush on a flushed cheek (frankly, I’d like for us to try out some more 1850s makeup trends, because who doesn’t want to use a face cream made out of the waxy secretions found in the head cavity of a sperm whale? What do you mean, “everyone”? Goddamnit). What people don’t tend to think about is an era where the blush was loud, the lips were louder, and everything smelled sort of vaguely musky. A time when both men and women could be found wearing eyeliner, where hair was big and flammable and it seemed like all the lipstick ads were uncomfortably sexual.
Yes, it may not feel like that long ago, but the 1980s now count as history (no matter what Buzzfeed says), so we’re taking a leap back of about 35 years, meaning that a whole bunch of people reading this just reared back and went, “Oh my god, it was THAT long ago? I am old, oh god, I am old and I need wine.” Come, join me as we all think about our encroaching mortality and I’ll hold your hand as we discuss fuchsia lipstick, thick eyeliner, and the looming spectre of death that haunts us all (ok, not that last one, but I will see you in the comments to mope). Get your banana clips, slam your fist repeatedly into your keyboard while on this webpage, and douse yourself perfume that makes you smell like a knock-off Debbie Gibson (it was called Electric Youth, if you’re too young to remember it) — it’s time to look back at a time when matching your eye shadow to your blush seemed like a good idea.
While the 1970s oscillated between natural looks and disco (which was very eye-heavy, paired with glossy lips), the 1980s took one look at the “natural” makeup look, decided it wanted none of that, and immediately drove over to the nearest makeup counter in its Toyata Cressida, credit card in hand. The makeup of 1980s can be summed up thusly: Bright, colourful, and global. Thanks to the spread of media, magazines, movies, and various other words that start with ‘m’ (I don’t know, moms? Metropasses?) trends were now able to spread around the world, meaning that people from all races and backgrounds can pull out their old photo albums, flip to that series of pictures someone took at your cousin’s wedding in 1985, and go, “Uggghghhhggg.”
QUICK NOTE: I am not going to get too heavily into subcultures here. Obviously there are things like punk and early grunge and various other kinds of regional subcultures, but if I wrote about all of those then I’d still be writing this as you are reading it QUICK READ SLOWER I JUST REALLY NEED TO GO TO THE BATHROOM.
The 1980s is really an era of “anything goes.” It was a time when people actually went out to find what season they were. Want to wear a lot of blue eye shadow? Go for it! Peach everything? Why not? Are you physically repulsed by blush applied with a paintbrush? GET OUT. For skin, the natural, dewy look of the 1970s was gone. Now it was more about creating a heavier, flawless appearance, meaning liquid foundation was back with a vengeance (one that tended to leave fingerprints on everything). The point of the base makeup at this point was to create a flat canvas that would allow the rest of the face to stand out, and man, there certainly was a lot of face to be had. Power dressing was a trend, which meant that you had to have a POWER FACE to go along with it.
Lipstick at this time was kind of a mish-mash of everything. Shimmer, frost, gloss, and heavy pigmentation where all at play, meaning that lips were opaque, shiny, and bright. Popular colours included bright pinks, oranges, reds, corals, and fuchsias, with either satin or frost finishes, and occasionally topped with gloss. The makeup market in North America and Western Europe was also expanding more for young people, with cosmetic brands such as Bonne Bell (with the ever-popular Dr. Pepper being created in 1975. Fun fact: The first Lip Smacker flavours from the release in 1967 were Green Apple, Strawberry, and Orange Chocolate. This will probably cause some grumbling in the comments, but all of these flavours are terrible), Maybelline, and Avon creating various flavoured and scented lip glosses and balms. This includes the discontinued Maybelline Kissing Potion, shown here in this ad featuring a young lady who apparently assigns a flavor to each guy she’s seeing (what happens if you get it confused? Is he like, “Wait, is that orange? YOU’VE BEEN KISSING DAVE, HAVEN’T YOU?” I like to imagine that when she’s having a spat with one of them that she gets out like, a meatloaf flavoured one or something, like, “Bob’s being such a dick. He’s getting fish lips tonight!”). Over-lining the lips was also a thing, because fuck it, if you’re going to go big, go big. Lip liner may have been out in the 70s, but it definitely made a return in the 80s. Honestly, just watch this weird L’Erin lipstick ad combining the sounds of bombs, women in what appear to be stewardess outfits by way of Benetton, and weirdly phallic lipsticks. It’ll give you a feel for the era (and that feeling is “vague discomfort”).
For anyone who has ever read any other makeup piece I’ve written, you’ll know that the thing I end up screaming the most about is LIPS, LIPSTICK, PUT MORE ON, PREFERABLY RED. This is basically true for a good portion of the 20th century, but not the 1980s. I mean, lipstick is still definitely popular and bright, but right now the big thing is CHEEKS and BLUSH and MORE BLUSH. Rather than the subtle application favoured from the 1930s onwards, the 1980s is one of the few times were strong blush application is actually a viable trend (the last time this was a thing was the 1920s, back when rouge was also used to hide under-eye bags. I mean, I say “hide” but really it just makes you look like you’re dying). The most dramatic version of this is the iconic stripe application, where the blush acts more like a bizarre contour than a flush of colour, using the blush to create the illusion of cheekbones by keeping the placement stark and linear. Blushes were generally pink, berry, red, or peachy, and would sometimes be topped with a shimmery white finish as sort of an early version of highlighting. Now when people say that they’re contouring, you can tell them that they’re doing a great job of bring back 1980s trends! That will certainly kill the mood.
While lips and cheeks were strong and defined at the time, eye makeup was much more subtle. Hahaha, just kidding, it was also completely insane. While day-to-day looks tended to stick with shimmery eye shadows (pastels were big again, because of course they were), one trend that really grew during this time was the look of liner all around the eye. Outside of looks involving kajal or kohl and that period of time in the 1960s when graphic eyeliner was less of a statement and more of a war cry, most looks prior to the 1980s involving eyeliner tended to keep it on the upper lash line and relatively subtle. Well, the 1980s made sure that the idea of keeping your eyeliner and shadow on the top lid were crushed into a fine powder and then applied generously to your face. Liner went all around the eyes (and on the waterline), tails were flicked further out than ever before from the corner of the eye, and multiple colours of shadow were layered on. Colour-wise, basically any colour was fair game at this point, but the iconic colour of this era is bright blue as far as eye shadow is concerned (check out this L’Oreal ad for some great 80s eye shadow application). Eye shadow was applied not just to the lid, but also all the way up to the brow bone and on the lower lash line as well, and occasionally extended out from the eye in a sort of thick cat-eye. Multiple (usually contrasting) colours were also a popular choice. As for brows, this was the era of the POWER BROW, with brows grown out, groomed, and penciled in for the full Cindy Crawford effect. They were softer than the power brow of late (aka the “Instagram brow”), but were still quite thick and heavy.
Globally, the trends at the time leaned towards a “more-is-more” aesthetic. From South America to parts of Africa to Europe, the world at large saw a return of big hair and loud makeup. Now, I know I said that I was mostly going to avoid subcultures, but please note that I said “mostly” and also that I do what I want and no one can stop me (NOTE: the lovely editors here at The Toast can, indeed, stop me), there are a few areas worth taking a quick look at now: First, while the overarching trends for Mexican (and Mexican-American) women were basically the same as those in the US and Canada, one of the other main subcultures in the region at the time were the cholas. Although the history of the pachucas/cholas stems back to as early as 1922 (during what is known as the Mexican Repatriation) and the chola-style as we know it now truly started to evolve in the 1960s/1970s, the style emigrated from the US to Mexico mostly in the early 80s. Photographer Graciela Iturbide’s photos also helped to bring the chola look into the public eye. While the look itself is quite different from the standard 1980s trends, the style is another form of saturated femininity, contrasting the harsh, traditionally masculine clothing with plucked brows, darkly lined lips, and thick black liner.
In China, makeup was becoming available to the masses for the first time in almost 30 years (with makeup being treated as a bourgeois luxury in Maoist China prior to this). By the 1980s, with makeup now much more accessible, the looks became heavy, with dark eyes and deep red lips becoming one of the predominant trends.
For women in Japan, the 1980s were an economic boom time, and while previous trends tended to emulate Western looks, there was actually a move away from West-inspired looks during the 1980s. The makeup looks are relatively toned down in comparison to the trends happening basically everywhere else, but – to be honest – that didn’t take much. The gyaru (or gal) subculture also came onto the scene, which is what would eventually become the incredibly distinctive ganguro look in the late 90s/early 2000s (something that I would like to get into in a later article).
The 1980s is this sort of insane, over-saturated version of femininity. Everything is just too much and it acts as a wild backlash to the soft, natural looks of the 1970s. It’s an era that tends to get shit on a lot (for obvious reasons) when it comes to looking back on era-appropriate looks, but the trends are truly a product of their time. The world is growing both bigger and smaller at the same time, people are richer and things are slicker and crazier than ever. The kids of Baby Boomers are now old enough to make terrible decisions and this is what happened. They wore a lot of blush, used a lot of hairspray, and created a lot of the people currently reading this article (hi!). At it’s worst, it was an overdone insane blue eye shadowed romp, and at its best, it was an era that gave us things like MAC Cosmetics. It may not always be pretty, and it may not always be practical, but man, it looked like a lot of fun.
This is fucking awesome. More of this, please, forever, I will read EVERY DAY about how makeup and fashion intersect with the wider culture. I would read the shit out of an article about makeup TODAY and also makeup in the 1920s and basically forever and ever.
Yes. Yes to all of this.
I may have written an article about 1920s makeup (for a different site, awhile back) (ok, I totally did). I can’t seem to link stuff on here, but if you google my name + 1920s, it exists out there in the internet, haha. Is it weird to post links to writing on other sites? I DON’T MAN, I’M JUST REALLY NERVY LATELY.
there was a Jeopardy category about makeup a while back and I got all the questions right and my husband was like HOW? because I don’t even wear makeup! But yes I sure will read all the makeup stuff in magazines and pinterest and heck I’ll even watch youtube videos of people applying makeup. Bring it on!
“Come, join me as we all think about our encroaching mortality and I’ll hold your hand as we discuss fuchsia lipstick, thick eyeliner, and the looming spectre of death that haunts us all (ok, not that last one, but I will see you in the comments to mope).”
… But really, I kind of had this experience shopping for a face serum recently because I am suddenly aware of the fact that we’re all slowly shuffling toward the grave, one fine line at a time. Also, I should make an existential makeup tutorial channel on Youtube, because clearly the “death and beauty” market is my niche.
ETA: Of course the channel will be named “Death and The Maiden.” Alternately: “A (Makeup) Guide For The Perplexed.”
I’m sorry, but now I’m on an Existential Makeup Blog Title roll and I hate that I feel compelled to share these things with the internet.
Titles:
“Eyeliner/Or”
“Fear and Contouring”
“Human, Look Less Human”
“The Will to Powder”
>>>”Human, Look Less Human”
Trust me, I’m trying. Too bad that my face hates makeup. (*I* like makeup quite a lot – as long as it’s on other people…)
Sometimes I’ll be putting on moisturizer at night and I’m like, “This just means I am aging” and then I went and sat on my couch for a bit feeling slightly stressed. Then I watched a bunch of fail videos of people crashing model planes and felt a bit better.
OMG, has L’Oreal really been using, “Because I’m worth it” that long? The same tagline for 30 years? Is that an advertising record?
I was born in 1978, and me and my friend Ellie used to play with make-up all the time in the late eighties. We had her mum’s cast-offs, and then a few brightly coloured kid eyeshadow paletes, and some incredibly cheap Boyes make-up that I’d spent my pocket money on when I was at Grandma’s, and we read as many how-tos in grown-up magazines and teenage magazines as we could.
This means that whilst the first make-up I wore “for real” was nineties make-up (brown or black eyeshadow, orange-red lip, mostly Rimmel), eighties make-up makes sense to me on a deep level. Of course you cover your eye up to the eyebrow, then put a block of darker or brighter colour at the corner of your eye and blend! Of course you suck your cheeks in and draw a line up your “cheekbones” with blusher! Of course you wear bright blue mascara! Why would you not do that? That is how make-up is supposed to be done!
Vivid memories of my mother teaching me how to apply blush by sucking in my cheeks.
(eta: also how to blow-dry my hair by flipping my head upside down and blow-drying the roots for more volume, it took me LITERALLY until well into my 20s to figure out that that method, while wonderful for her fine, thin-ish hair, did not do good things for my thick, wavy, My Big Fat Greek Wedding hair, lesson overdue but welcome)
Yep, I still do blush like this, sucking in my cheeks. But I blend it? Whatevs, I figure I save on bronzer.
**Also, if my punk mom’s 80s looks are anything to go by, this article missed out on HOT PINK EYEBROWS. damn, mom!
I spent my teen years in the 80s and, if I may say so, was totally awesome at makeup, by which I mean I sported lots of brown and purple eyeshadow and pink blush. And blue mascara until I realized I was allergic to it. I had unfashionably (for the time) pale skin, which meant that I could always grab the palest bottle of foundation without testing to see if it would match. Can’t do that nowadays.
I realized how much makeup we all normally wore when I was bored in class one day and decided to fake being sick to go home so went to the nurse’s office and claimed I didn’t feel well. Coincidentally, I’d forgotten to put on blush that morning. The nurse took one look at me, exclaimed YOU ARE SO PALE!, and immediately gave me a pass to leave school.
I haven’t worn makeup EXCEPT for as a teen in the 80s, and I had that blue mascara, and turquoise eyeliner.
I did that all the time!! If I felt like skipping or playing hooky, I just skipped the blush. One time I just forgot to wear any and I was sent to the nurse’s office without any effort on my part because my teacher thought I was about to faint. It was awesome.
FUN FACT TIME: L’Oreal has been doing that forever, but Maxwell House has been using “Good to the last drop” since the 1940s, so they’re even more uncreative, apparently. And 1980s makeup is just… it’s everything. It’s everything on your face at once turned up to 11.
I don’t think Maxwell House use that in the uk, but also now you mention them I haven’t seen or heard or Maxwell House since the 1990s so maybe they don’t exist here any more?
My association with Maxwell House is almost exclusively from Adrian Mole.
Boyes! Did you grow up in the North East.of England? Because I have literally never heard anyone I did not know from my home town mention Boyes as a thing. So glorious, so full of cheap versions of everything you could ever want. I still use the pan I bought there before I went to university mumblety years ago.
I feel like modern eye makeup trends are echoing 80s eyes in a lot of ways. Or at least the stuff my femme friends are sharing on social media, which granted may be a skewed sample.
They ARE. For the first time in my life, I’ve developed an interest in eye makeup and I’m reading various tutorials and such and reading this description of eye makeup in the eighties is like, “That’s what they’re all telling me do!”
Yep, it’s still eye-shadow to the brow, but in tasteful neutrals instead of clown vomit. Contouring though? I wish that would go away. What a complete waste of time.
Whyyy is contouring so popular??? The shape of my face is OK already! I do not want to paint shapes on it to mimic a different time persons face and I say that as someone who LOVES makeup.
Well it’s great for the stage because if you don’t contour under stage lights your face looks like nothing.
I guess in real life maybe it’s good for disguises?
I don’t understand contouring – at least not the instagram make-up (ie the looks you see when you go to the “popular now” page on instagram) version of it. I’ve seen it in real life a few times and it just looks like you’re wearing stage makeup. Then again, maybe some people are so good at it I wouldn’t know they were doing it?
I saw a woman on the Tube once who just had a stripe of pink down the centre of her nose. I assume it was meant to be contouring, but it just looked like she had a stripey face.
I’ve wanted to learn it for cosplay purposes but I’m just….not that good at makeup. I get impatient.
O thank god. Because I came to the comments to be like “a lot of this is… what i currently do with my own eyes? Have i just not paid attention to changing styles?”
Note: i do not have blue eyeshadow up to my eyebrows. That is 2 cubicles away.
Blue eyeshadow has definitely been popping up on runways as of late, but now I think it’s still a lot of “one colour, artfully applied” versus “all the colors, just fucking put it on your eyeballs.” But I think we need to bring back some blue eyeshadow.
I was thinking less the BAJILLION COLORS and more the “eyeliner on the top lid! eyeliner on the bottom lid! eyeliner on the waterline! eyeliner on your eyeballs!” and the sweeping out in a cat-eye.
we’re taking a leap back of about 35 years, meaning that a whole bunch of people reading this just reared back and went, “Oh my god, it was THAT long ago? I am old, oh god, I am old and I need wine.”
This entire damn article is everything I need.
But … I am old, o god, I am old and I need wine, 10:30 am notwithstanding.
CF: oh god, I’m old and I wish I drank booze…
Shall you wear the bottoms of your trousers rolled?
I do! Apparently a high cuff is a fashion thing now and I was like “Yes! Salt stains setting trends!”
I wear mine rolled because my jeans are too long and I hate the cuffs dragging on ground but I’m too lazy to get them hemmed. This kid at my uni pointed it out as a fashion faux-pas, pointing out the look was “over” and I just laughed and laughed, like “It’s adorable that you think I knew it was even a thing to begin with”
Heh. way to turn the knife back on the assassin 🙂
Put some orange juice in it. Then it’s a breakfast drink!
oh god I am glad there are other olds here, I am old, and I need wine or perhaps rum and tonic with lime
I’m only 36 and I feel like I’m at least a decade older than most commenters (and writers!) here.
Yup, so old right now. But it’s 9.30am so gym instead of wine as I attempt to Hold Back Time Itself
I think I both loved and hated the way those Kissing Potions felt on my lips. This seems like a good time to also reminisce about the lip balm that was in those little bronze rectangular tubs with a slide on/off top. I cannot for the life of me remember what the brand name was, but I remember having many flavors, and probably never, ever finishing a tin before losing it somehow.
Lip Lickers! I loved them. I always had plans to use them up and store stickers in the empty tins but, like you, I always lost them first.
YES THANK YOU
I loved those too! My mom had one (I have no idea where she got it or why), but I loved borrowing it because it seemed so fancy somehow. I think it was a green apple flavor.
I was obSESSed with Kissing Potion in Cinnamon Stick flavor, despite the fact that it stung my lips every time I applied… or maybe because it did?
I hope to high heaven there was nothing toxic in that gloss, but I will not be surprised if my lips fall off before I’m 50.
It was probably just cinnamon flavoring of some sort, which is a potent irritant. Fear not! You’re probably okay. I mean, probably. (cinnamon: why you gotta be tasty but so burny?)
Someone I know once smeared an essential oil mix that was about half cinnamon on his taint as some kind of chakra thing. It went about as well as you imagine.
O_o.
This totally beats the story of the time i was helping a friend move and slipped in his last night’s lube. Félicitations.
I am suddenly so grateful that I realized there was A Problem with a Lush cinnamon leaf-spiked shower gel, after using it on my arms and before any delicate skin got touched. Still was a mild chemical burn but um wow at least it wasn’t on my junk.
1) the generally-approved compromise radio station at work is “first wave/80s alternative”, so I was reading this article with The Cure in the background, which really added to the effect. Now it’s the song Kids in America. Sign me up.
2) Although I generally don’t wear makeup at all, I have often felt that I would do SO WELL in the 80s because my hair really does not need all that much encouragement to go all-out gigantic. Gimme a few shoulder-padded power blazers and I could fool them all.
I’ve always been disappointed that huge hair went out of style. I would have been great at it.
I feel like with Lorde and other young stars, naturally big hair has come back in, in contrast to the flatironed look of the mid-late 2000s.
right?? although I’d struggle with the bangs, my hair doesn’t really ~feather
but nooo, instead I got to spend three! hours! straightening my hair any time I wanted to look nice in high school.
I was too lazy and always slept in in high school, so my hair got 1 hour of straightening when it really needed 3.
Semi-straightened is not a good look.
I never stopped. I’ve pretty much had the same hairstyle since 1985. I never took it to fashion extremes, but my hair is naturally poofy and likes to go into ringlets. This was a look I always wanted as a child, when my hair refused to do it; when I hit college, my hair magically became what I had always wanted it to be. I also get to irritate my mother, who cannot fathom having a child who loves having long hair at the age of 48. I simply flip my hair in response, like a 70s VO5 commercial. Bliss.
One of my friends bought a new car and it came with Sirius FM for a while. I loved that 80’s station. Ironically, it reminds me of my 20’s (which happened in the 00’s) because of the club where I went dancing so much.
Also Roger and Fred were names that cute boys at your school would have.
I love the way naming trends come in cycles. Right now we seem to be in a phase of “names that were popular about 70 years ago”, which means small children sound like old people. I heard a small child on public transport talking to his mum about someone at school: “No, not Reggie X; Reggie Y!” Reggie was definitely not popular enough for there to be two in the same class when I was his age. (Admittedly, I was one of two Veritys when I started school, a name which is never in the top 1000, so statistics are not necessarily reflected in individual cases. But still.)
I don’t know *what* you’re talking about.
(Though actually I think “70 years ago” is probably the typical name cycle: you name your kids with the names of your own grandparents’ generation, not your own parents’. In 25 years’ time, Pamela, Susan, Pauline, Christine and Linda will be coming back…)
I am sure you have no personal experience of this whatsoever.
The name cycle is so predictable, but still so fascinating (“they’ve called the baby WHAT? That’s an old person name!”). At one of my old jobs, when I was searching for particular people in our client database, I would sometimes run a search by first name and guess roughly what age the majority of people with that first name would be. It’s really interesting how some names cluster around particular years.
My grandmother is almost 80 and a Maureen, which doesn’t appear to have come back into fashion yet, but maybe in a few years’ time I will be seeing loads of them.
I have known quite a few Maureens in my lifetime (4?) and they were all my age (30ish). I don’t know if I could say that it made a comeback yet, but I bet it’s definitely ramping up!
What country are you in? I’m in the UK and I think of it as a name for people of 50 and up, but I may just be weird in not having met any young Maureens.
I’m a Maureen! And I’m in my 40s (and therefore well versed in the art of 80s makeup, but that’s neither here nor there).
Maureen has remained if not a popular name, then at least a consistent one, for girls in US Irish enclaves (NYC, Boston, Chicago) over time. But I think in the UK it is has not made a come back. I also have a very common Irish last name and three different Irishmen (all men strangely) have told me that I have the exact same name as their Grandmother.
But it is an awesome name and due for a comeback IMHO.
For some reason Oliver was a very popular boys name in England in the 80s/90s. I know far too many Ollie’s and they are all blond and work in finance.
My cohort at school (born 1989-1990) had a lot of Andrews, Daniels, Matthews and Benjamins.
I love that ad that basically encourages young women to have their own harem of men, and to categorize them by lipstick.
That ad slays me. WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU RUN OUT OF FLAVORS? WHAT THEN, BECKY?
Color code them like your file cabinet. Light Pink is for Ross, Dark rose for Matt…
It makes a lot of sense for organization of your harem.
Kiss *all* the boys (and make them cry?) Surely that has to be a Toast Slogan
Is that Kevin Bacon as Robert in the heart-shaped frame?
Anybody else see that? Just me? Ok.
I am impressed that you made it all the way through this article without posting any Patrick Nagel artwork.
Aw crap, I knew I forgot something. It’s true though, his stuff is basically the 1980s, distilled.
Don’t forget colored mascara! I know I had some in blue, to match my blue eye shadow and blue eye liner.
I was too young to wear makeup in the 80’s but I think it gets a bum rap. Has it aged particularly well? Not really, but there is something tremendously appealing and empowering about the more-is-more, fuck-your-natural-look aesthetic. It was adventurous and exuberant and performative without being overly cynical.
Contemporary Instagram makeup, taking but not acknowledging its cues from drag makeup, has some of the exuberance but strikes me as a bit humorless and sadly cynical. The biggest makeup trends now are designed for the camera, which I guess is fine, but it seems a bit joyless to me. I’m interested in seeing what will happen after makeup enthusiasts –armed with much better skills and products than ever before– get bored of the current look.
I was *so* disappointed when the natural look came in–I was around ten or so–because man, why even bother. Also floral rompers. Shut up, mid-nineties.
I cannot say I feel differently now, honestly.
Right? I started being allowed to wear a bit of makeup in, I don’t know, ’93 maybe, just in time for All Brown Everything and I was SO betrayed. Like, hello, I was promised electric blue mascara and “power pink” lipstick, what is this tasteful taupe nonsense?
I don’t even have the strength to discuss floral rompers. I was and am round and have a very long torso. I had to wear one of those rompers my grandmother got me until I tried it on and everyone realized I looked like one giant upholstered camel toe.
Tasteful Taupe Nonsense is the best phrase I’ve heard all week.
YEEEES. And flat center-parted hair, like, no, I do not actually want to look like a Manson girl, ugh. I want large hair and big earrings and bright lipstick like all my cool-girl babysitters had, please and thank you. ’93 can sit on it.
Floral rompers look good on nobody. NOBODY. Nor are they practical. The entire concept of a romper on anyone over six offends me on a deep level, and I will forgive Tim Gunn anything because he went on-air describing it, in tones of profound disgust, as “an adult-sized onesie.”
Basic Instinct is the apotheosis of the nineties beige. Literally everything is beige: Sharon Stone’s hair, skin, eyes, lip, clothes, cunt, girlfriend and decor. It’s practically in sepia.
There is something brilliant and also straight up bananas about 1980s makeup, kind of like wearing crushed velvet sweatpants or something. I feel like the combined look is too much for any one person, but aspects of it can still be worn on their own (like heavier blush or bright eyeshadow). The 80s are like going to a makeup buffet and going, “GIVE ME ONE OF EVERYTHING. ACTUALLY NO MAKE IT SIX.”
Yes to this! I was born in 1977, and the first time I got to wear makeup was in 1989. I wanted bright, bold, flashy colors – picture the body paint on women in Duran Duran videos – what I got was mostly pale pink and shimmery. I still love the idea of the bright, “adventurous and exuberant and performative” makeup. Along with being empowering, that more-is-more look is fun!
All I can think about now is I want to read the Brazilian Cosmo and how I need to go find some good old fashioned novelas and spend the rest of the day doing makeup to look like stars.
Right?? I really want to know now how I can “lower the standards without losing class”.
Big hair, no heart, loud makeup.
Yep.
My earliest memories are of my mother’s fashion choices: super short hair, coral lips, blue or purple shadow, super sharp blush to accent the already sharp cheekbones, jean jackets covered in Duran Duran pins and one earring. (Always just one dangly earring.)
It probably also didn’t help that I learned to do my makeup by watching all of my Mexican friends in Texas and I’m pretty sure they were still using most of these techniques in the 00s. Suck in your cheeks for blush? Check. Super brows? Check. Too much eyeshadow? No such thing.
Aaaand there’s another memory from my teen years popping up! I did the ‘one dangly earring’ look, too; wore a pair of studs in the ear with two piercings and one dangly shiny earring in the other ear.
Also yes to the pins on the jean jacket, except mine tended to metal bands to go with the Ozzy Osbourne backpatch 🙂
oh there were Ozzy patches too. And the ‘Frankie Says Arm The Unemployed’ one which always confused me as a child. And then a lot of ballet buttons.
My mother’s taste as a (very) young wife were rather varied.
I live in Mexico and can confirm as of 11:39 this morning that the above-mentioned look is still going strong.
I was the only white girl who sat with them and it left me with some very …interesting ideas about fashion in general.
FUN FACT: I actually tend to wear only one earring most days, although it’s a single spike stud. Maybe I should just go full Janet Jackson in the 1980s and wear a key.
That’s Janice Dickinson (the World’s First Supermodel TM) on the Vogue Mexico cover, right?
In the mid/late 80s, my best friend matched her eyeliner and mascara to her shirt every day. And she was not wearing any black or brown, due to it being the 80s. I was so jealous!!
It is! Also WHAT. That is a trend we have to bring back.
Colored mascara still exists! And/or is back!
Maybe don’t do the hyper-matching thing, though. (Also two pairs of socks = one to match your shirt and one to match your pants, unless your shirt had two or more colors in it…)
How does one wear two pairs of socks at the same time and have both of them visible? I am so confused.
Like this!
(That’s just one, but if you scrunch one less than the other, you get the idea. You have to roll the bottoms of your jeans for sure. The 80s!)
Yep, that is J.Dick in all her pouty, angular-lipped glory and I love her.
She looks exactly like Grace Gealey in Empire. Which is to say, spectacularly angular and over the top.
Did anybody else have Fashion Faces (the makeup/ hair version of Fashion Plates)? Spent my childhood designing strong eye looks featuring acres of blue and purple eye shadow
Whoa, I had completely erased this from my memory, but yes, of COURSE.
Whoa, I only had the fashion plates (both the regular and the bridal), but I can feel Child Me very much wanting this too right now.
(Okay, so does Adult Me.)
you can get them on eBay! (I may or may not have purchased one on eBay. I’m almost 40)
I think I only had the clothing fashion plates and a neighbor girl had the face one. But then, maybe she had the clothing one, too, and I just spent a lot of time at her house.
YESSSS
THOSE WERE THE BEST
I got one of those at a garage sale when I was small! All the makeup was gone, though, and it only had like two plates left. Maybe that’s why I never learned how to paint my face…
Friends, where can I go to get a makeup update? Like, can I just walk into Ulta and yell “Someone please fix me!” or is there a better option?
And I mean real life, not the internet.
Browse make up counters/stores until you find someone with a look you like, then ask them how they did it.
Also, Youtube the hell out of make up tutorials. Lots of them post a ton of looks from 80s-level spackling it on to barely using mascara and everything in between. (Currently my preferred method.)
I love Lisa Eldridge’s tutorials.
Literally this, that’s what the job is of the salespeople.
Sephora, or possibly the cosmetics counter at Saks Fifth Avenue, depending on how much you are willing to spend.
I’d recommend Sephora over Ulta for the attention you’ll get as well as the overall more luxe feel. Ulta is cheaper but a better choice only when you already know what you want. Brand-specific counters are kind of meh because they are commission-based and you want to have all the brands at your disposal, not just one.
frankly, I’d like for us to try out some more 1850s makeup trends, because who doesn’t want to use a face cream made out of the waxy secretions found in the head cavity of a sperm whale?
I mean, just this week I started using snail slime serum on my face, and it has been amazing, so who’s to say whale head secretions DON’T work?
I also use snail slime serum! It’s the best! So I can’t say I wouldn’t try sperm whale wax. You know, if the sperm whale were dead anyway, for other reasons.
Maybe the whales, I feel like they weren’t as into it (although they did have quite youthful complexions). I need to just write a bunch about insane stuff people used to put on their faces.
Yes to an article about the weird shit people used to put on their faces. There’s a skin care/makeup store that popped up in my neighborhood recently called Blue Mercury and I’m always like, “What? No! Mercury is horribly bad for you and is absorbed by the skin, why would you name your store after an actual poison!”
Which one do you use?! I will put all the snail slime on my face. I’m such a sucker for Japanes/Korean skincare products – they really work! Or at least a lot better than Western stuff, for the most part. I went nuts a few weeks ago and bought a bunch of sheet masks, including the Benton Snail Bee mask, and I love love love them.
I’m using the Benton Snail Bee High Content Essence! Unscented and absorbs super fast, but I swear my skin looks smoother and more evenly colored after only a few days.
Oooo, that’s very good to hear! Despite their popularity, I’ve always looked a bit askance at serums and essences because they seemed like a scam – but I do like the sheet masks, so that plus your endorsement is nudging me towards buying it.
I started using the snail slime stuff when I found out they don’t hurt the snails to get it. It really is marvellous.
Do they just have the snails crawl over sponges?
They basically just pop them on a bumpy surface which stimulates them to produce more slime than a flat surface. Apparently relaxed snails produce more slime so it’s in their best interests to keep the little fellas happy and healthy.
I am so happy to hear this. For some reason I thought these products were made of, like, mushed up snails, and it really squicked me out.
I am very curious now! Will have to look into this. But would it work if I just got a live snail and had it crawl over my face? I am cheap and the garden is nearly overrun…
(And I have now reminded myself of the Supersizers (BBC historical food show) episode set in the a Restoration Period where Sue Perkins tries to cure bunions by having a snail crawl along her foot, and she can’t keep still for tickling and she is generally so adorable in that episode I think I will go watch it right now….)
I have a gag reaction to anything mucus-like in texture, so every time people talk about putting “snail secretions” (god that even sounds gag-inducing) on their face I feel like the NOPEtepus.
That’s how I felt when I heard about it, but if it didn’t say “snail secretion” you wouldn’t even know. The filtrate is only 1-5% concentration in a cream. It doesn’t smell or feel any different to normal lotion.
But just the idea! Ack! I would know it was in there.
Whale head secretions work so well for what they’re for, when we stopped killing whales, we started synthesizing some of them. The canonical one of these is cetyl alcohol, where “cetyl” is cognate with “cetacean”; it was first isolated from whale oil. Nowadays, we have to make cetyl alcohol from palm oil, so there’s an irony for you.
My formative years were late 80s, early 90s, and to this day I LOVE BLUSH and pile that shit on. It isn’t quite as harsh as back then, but I feel like I look like death warmed over unless I have on just a liiiiiittttttle too much blush.
I think some faces, especially if you have naturally strong or high-contrast coloring, look marvelous with borderline irresponsible amounts of blush.
I am deeply looking forward to your essay on ganguro.
Japanese youth culture is so fascinating, for reals.
I’m gonna show my age right now and by age I mean lack of it but anyway back in 2006 I was a freshman in high school and I was a Cool Kid (i was not.) and decided that I had to be Obscure and go as Debbie Harry for Halloween. No one had a clue who I was but I wore some wild makeup and definitely had some shoulder pads, all courtesy of my mom, and I had a great time. I never really listened to popular music much as a kid but when I was in 7th or 8th grade I found my mom’s 80s CDs, pretty much all new wave and punk type stuff and I was like YES this was Meant For Me and lived there for several years. My first concert was the B-52s. It was a great time. So while I probably don’t regret not actually living through the 80s part of me, 14 year old me, really wishes she lived when all this was acceptable.
I did live when this was acceptable, but it wasn’t really acceptable in my small northern town and my dad disapproved so i never got to and… let’s just say i got to be Cyndi Lauper for Halowe’en this year and it required literally no effort or purchases on my part.
What is bred in the bone will out in the flesh.
KISSING POTION. Until I read those words I had completely forgotten I ever owned this product, and had an immediate visual of the little bottle and a taste of cherry. I was a teen in the 80s and while the big-hair-bold-makeup aesthetic was not my look I surely did use blush and shiny lip gloss and eyeliner (purple and green were my favourites).
I’ll have that wine now…
That L’Oreal eyeshadow commercial has served me LOOKS on a silver platter. The pigmentation! Those brows!
PLEASE do an article on gyaru make up and trends OHMYGOD! That stuff is fascinating, especially with regards to what it says about gender and culture in Japan.
I suppose it fell slightly outside the piece’s ambit, but I was quietly hoping for a shout-out to “Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific!”
In sixth grade I sat behind a girl who used it. Proustian. And horrible.
More late 70s, but damn, I actually used that stuff. Whether my hair actually smelled terrific or not, I can’t vouch.
(1) please please please write the ganguro article! I remember reading a really great article series in the early 00s somewhere on the web and have been kind of fascinated by it since. Would definitely enjoy a well-researched take.
(2) Grace Jones transcends trends. She could smear lipstick over half her face and I’d be like, “wow, that is simultaneously cool and flattering” because godlike bone structure
Read this and then went to go get some coffee. Passed a lady with heavy bright blue eyeliner on both lash lines and water lines. She’s keeping it real!
I LOVED THIS. More! More please. Would definitely like a series… I’m drinking wine and thinking about make up and death. In a good way.
I looooooove makeup history. Please keep writing these kinds of articles! I also really like how you used lots of magazines from Latin American countries. My grandma might have read that Vogue Mexico.
Most things from the ’80s make me recoil in horror (born in ’87, not old enough to remember anything), but I looooove that cat-smoky eye eyeshadow look. I wish I could do my eyes that way.
the trip down memory lane for me here was Lip Smackers, I think I had every flavor at one point. Dr Pepper forever! I was so addicted to those things until well into college. I made myself quit cold turkey one day when I realized I forgot I had one with me when I was half way to a final exam, and seriously contemplated going back and being late.
Blue was intensely tacky in our circles, unless it was part of the pale pastel palettes along with yellow, pink, and white, which we thought were particularly awesome in a striped pattern. Black eyeshadow, red lips, and toned down blush ( as toned down as that was possible in the 80s) were big, too.
I’m in love with those covers. I’m in love with those colours.
This is so interesting, thank you! I was born at the end of 1989, so did not get to directly experience 80s makeup, but I definitely tried to blend various shades of eyeshadow when experimenting with makeup as a young teenager. (I suspect it looked terrible.)
This piece was fabulous and I would LOVE to see this become a series!
I’m honestly glad I was high school class of ’09 since it paired my most unattractive years with the styles that worked least well with my body.
Boy-shaped bodies, straight hair, tan skin, thin eyebrows it’s all either tedious or impossible to achieve on me.
Although, I lowkey have always thought that I could have rocked 80s fashion given the opportunity.
Hey, we graduated the same year!
Seriously – the low-rise jeans and straight hair with streaky highlights weren’t going to work on me. I recall wearing a lot of skirts over jeans to try to cover up my midriff.
Class of ’08 here to say I was once forcibly held down and given an eyebrow plucking by some concerned friends. Teenagers huh.
Also my hair went very curly in puberty, exactly when poker straight hair came in. I could have slayed the eighties (my mother did so)
I was born in 1974 so 80s makeup was my formative years (we did our colours! I was an Autumn!) The best part was the crazy clashing eyeshadows that came with their own booklets to explain how to create a tropical paradise on your eyelids. I remember thinking that’s bonkers and then trying it and swooning at how rad my eyes looked with gold and pink and turquoise AND blue frosted eyeshadow. And then taking it off before my mum got home and realised I had got into her makeup.
I spent way too long on all those links–all the videos sent me down rabbit holes of other beauty advertisements!
I spent my high school and college days in the 80s. There were many perms, much Aqua Net, and MY GOD THE MAKEUP. God forbid my blush and lipstick should not match my Keds (fire engine red, natch).
I still mourn the passing of fuschia. I looked SO GOOD in fuschia. Sigh.
Also – eyebrows. I’m the same age as Brooke Shields, so when The Blue Lagoon came out, I wasn’t allowed to see it, haha! But her EYEBROWS from that movie became the eyebrows of the 80s. I remember a hair stylist telling me to never ever ever tweeze, wax, or otherwise try to diminish the size of my rather substantial eyebrows. Hahahahaha
I just waited patiently for “bold brows” to come back in style, because mine are So Good. Remember the supertweezed 90s eyebrows?
Moment of silence for the passing of the 80s eyebrows. Also, it’s 2016 and I have to tweeze (at least) weekly. Hmph. I’m with you, I want the 80s brows back.
“Promise Robert your strawberry kisses”. Good band name, or nah? PRySK? Am I forcing it? I think I’m forcing it. Dammit.
I was fourteen in 1985, makeovers were Our Thing. My best friend and I did up my twelve-year-old cousin with blue eyeliner and peach blush and best of all, our brand-new pale pink frosted lipstick.
My cousin strutted down the stairs. My best friend and I were SO PROUD. Makeover goddesses!
My uncle took one look at my cousin and said, “What is that on your lips? Have you been eating pork? Is that pork fat?”
I never wore that pale pink frosted lipstick.
(I’ve been binge-reading and lurking for weeks and it was 80’s makeup that got me to make my first comment! Hi, Toasties! Y’all are awesome!)
This is amazing!
Welcome! 🙂
My only regret is that I didn’t get to include this ad (I only just found it): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHYOxGq9Xes
What is she wearing? Is that a first communion dress? A night gown? IS THAT HER WEDDING? How does she get her hair to do that? WHAT IS HAPPENING I NEED HELP
So rich, so gentle, its called….. Rich ‘n’ Gentle
Not going to lie that was anticlimactic
My mom bought Color Me Beautiful and very seriously sat down with me when I was about eight years old to determine our seasons. She also used to get bored and do my hair and makeup, which means I have photos of myself at a very young age done up like a Robert Palmer video girl, but with giant hot rollered hair.
When my friends ask me how come I know so much about makeup, I tell them, the 80s. God bless us, every one.
Folks. Did you watch the Japanese make-up advert? It is everything. She is the fiercest B walking down the street, her scarf flying, every now and then she lets up on B face and it’s like the director was like, “Hey! You’re letting up on your bitch face!” and then it comes back with a fierce vengeance. She is amazing, and the make-up looks totally normal and beautiful, but I now want her as my spirit animal. One wonderful day I will be as fierce as she is when I’m asking someone for forgiveness. (F**k looking sad and ashamed when you make a mistake; you are a power goddess of righteousness and doing-what’s-right!)
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