1920s. The 1920s were a time of experimentation for women, and they applied their eyeliner with a sense of drama. Heavy black eyeliner styles were huge at the time, and brands like Maybelline, Revlon, and Max Factor generated over $1 billion a year on kohl shadows.
The classic 1920s makeup look has a smooth, natural complexion with a rosy cheek. Lipstick created a dainty lip shape, and thin eyebrows were film star fashionable. The eyebrows were sometimes drawn curving beyond the natural brow line. Women wore obvious makeup during the day.
1. It dates way back in history. Eyeliner first arrived on the scene around 10,000 B.C in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Long Lashes Care of Mascara and Spit
Tube mascara wasn't available until the 50s, so women of the 20s had to use cake mascara to darken their lashes. This little black cake was essentially soap and black coloring, not something we'd want to put near our eyes today.
As for colors, red, orange-red and rose were popular lipstick colors in the 1920s. Dark red lipstick was also popular for the evening.
The 1920s lash market was all about MORE is more. Times were wild, and women wanted their face fashion to keep up with a decade of indulgence. As false eyelashes became more popular, the style and design changed.
The first recorded use of eyeliner suggests royals in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia were lining their waterlines as early as 400BC. The more the makeup the higher your status was, so Egyptians would pile on the kohl, winging it out to their hairlines and forming the incomparable, first 'cat eye.
Use Three Kinds of Eyeliner
So, Marilyn used three different colors of eyeliner to get it just right. For the upper lid and wing, she used black liner. For the lower lash line, she used brown, and in the water line, she used white to make the eyes look even bigger.
While most women choose either brown or black pencil eyeliners, Marilyn's make-up artist, Snyder, used a combination of both on the actress. Using Elizabeth Arden's classic eye pencils in both hues, he would apply liner to her upper eye lids and waterlines, extending the lash lines with wings to elongate.
To get the 20s look: take a dark brown or black and darken your eyebrow. Try to do just a really thin and arched eyebrow, by turning your eyebrows slightly downwards with the eyebrow pencil. Extend the ends to make them look extra long.
The most popular look was the heart-shaped “cupid's bow.” On the upper lip, lipstick rose above the lip line in the shape of a cupid's bow. On the lower lip, it was applied in an exaggerated manner. On the sides, the color stopped short of the natural lip line.
Beauty in the 1920s featured an androgynous look for women. They wore bras that flattened their chest and wore clothing that gave them a curve-less look. Women even shortened their hair, leaving behind the long-held belief that long hair signified beauty and desirability.
To put the finishing touches on their smoky eye look, Flappers - just like women today - turned to mascara. Also known as an “eyelash beautifier,” mascara during the 1920s looked slightly different than the tubes we are used to in the modern era. Instead, it was sold as either a liquid, paste, or in a solid block.
Flapper fashions included short hair under cloche hats, lingerie over corsets and loose dresses with hemlines that rose from the ankles in 1920, knee length or higher by the mid-1920s and back down to below the knee by 1930.
Cleopatra used the bright green malachite paste of the ancient Egyptians on her lower eyelids.
On Princess Diana's Use Of Eyeliner
'Diana was famed for her use of kohl but it was never used like eyeliner often is today, it never a graphic 60's-esque look, it was more about opening up Diana's eyes and subtly enhancing them.
Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson on 1 June 1926 at the Los Angeles General Hospital in Los Angeles, California. Her mother, Gladys Pearl Baker (née Monroe), was born in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico to a poor Midwestern family who migrated to California at the turn of the century.
Eye liner was first used in ancient India, ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia as a dark black line around the eyes. As early as 10,000 BC, Egyptians and Mesopotamians wore various cosmetics including eye liner not only for aesthetics but to protect the skin from the desert sun.
Putting black makeup around a baby's eyes is a common tradition across India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Some parents think the eyeliner protects the eyes or improves sight. But two recent lead poisoning cases in New Mexico offer parents another reminder to be extra careful with cosmetics on children's faces.
The first traces of the use of mascara date back to ancient Egypt, around 3000 BC. Egyptian women used a"kohl" made of a mixture of animal fat, antimony and soot. So mascara was originally antimony powder.
In the 1920s, it was customary for actresses in Hollywood to wear false eyelashes, inspiring flappers to copy their “baby doll eyes.” By the 1930s, false lashes were everywhere. Vogue had several fashion shoots with models wearing dramatic lashes.
Because the actress was a master at day-to-day glamour. Audrey famously used a pin to separate each of her lashes after applying mascara to get her trademark lush and defined eyelashes. Want the same effect without the risk of poking your eye out? A lash comb and non-clumping mascara should do the trick.
In 1911, a Canadian woman named Anna Taylor patented false eyelashes in the United States. Taylor's false eyelashes were designed using a crescent-shaped strip of fabric. The fabric had tiny pieces of hair placed on them.