Past trends in makeup

If we wish to peer into the future, we must study the past. After all, makeup is constantly changing because it is a definite reflection of the times - the social, political and economic climate in which we live. The past is the best yardstick to measure the future, even in the world of makeup. For example, when women took steps toward what would ultimately become the feminist movement of the late '60s by going to work during World War II, they felt emancipated, bold and somewhat extravagant, and so they wore very red lip colors. It was a society that was pulling together to fight a world war. The country was united. When the war ended, people slipped into tranquil, idyllic lives in suburban homes, behind white picket fences. Society became more homogenized and makeup reflected the desire for perfection and oneness.
The '50s was a decade of innocence and sophistication. It was Loretta Young twirling through a TV doorway in a weekly array of dazzling evening gowns. It was the all-American dream families of TV's Ozzie and Harriet, Donna Reed and Leave it to Beaver. It was the Father Knows Best era. It was the last decade in which society still attempted to emulate the perfection they had witnessed in the movies and on the television screen.
There's a line in the movie "Sunset Blvd" that Gloria Swanson utters-. "We had faces." She was referring to the early days of films. And it was true. During the '30s, '40s and even into the '50s the people who represented style, fashion and makeup were actors. And they did have faces-incredibly chiseled, classic, perfect faces. The photographers of those days knew how to photograph them, knew how to work with light and shade, how to bring out the best in those faces. There was an inherent amount of diffusion in the photography that permitted makeup artists and photographers to use more makeup to hide flaws and to make the best of those faces. There's no longer a need for that kind of perfection.
Perhaps it was the Vietnam War and the rebellion that accompanied it, but by the late '60s, the trend in movies was toward rougher-edged faces. A gritty reality began surfacing in movies and the smooth perfection of the previous eras was cast aside. There were hippies who either wore no makeup at all or wore a white lip color. The '60s also marked the beginning of the use of liquid (rather than pancake) makeup. Other than those trends, the cosmetic applications of the time consisted of layovers from the '50s - blue and green eye shadows, a lot of artificial lashes and heavy black eyeliner.

In the early '70s, after the Vietnam War ended, makeup applications retained the use of eyeliner, but it was a softer, less drawn-on liner and lashes looked more natural. In the mid-'70s all of the light, pastel lip colors were abandoned. Toward the end of the '70s artificial lashes were also relegated to the past as a desire to return to the tranquility of the '50s began to surface among the bell-bottom set.

During the '80s, makeup became more natural and earthier, thanks to the earth-tones we still use today. Then, in the mid-'80s, in a trend that also continues, music videos began replacing film as the major influence on makeup for more rebellious young people.