1920s Women Makeup: 9 Ideas for Lips, Eyes and Nails

The 9 looks here run from a single swipe of soft pink shadow to a full evening face of kohl-rimmed eyes, long lashes and a dramatic purple lid, and what decides which one is yours is how steady your hands are and how much time you have.

Shaky hands do best with the pink shadow and blush, since soft color hides small mistakes; a precise hand can take on the Cupid’s bow, drawn peak by peak with a lip pencil.

1. Cupid’s Bow Lips

A heart-shaped upper lip is what makes this look read as 1920s. The color is red, but the shape does the work.

Start with a lip pencil and mark the 2 peaks of the upper lip, then draw each peak down toward the center dip so the curve stays soft.

Fill in with lipstick using a small brush, and blot once to keep the edges crisp.

I like a matte or satin red here. Glossy formulas tend to blur the very curve you just drew.

2. Thin, Arched Eyebrows

Thin, arched brows reshape a face more than almost any other detail, and beginners skip them most often. Without that slim arch, a flapper look just reads as modern makeup with a headband.

Brush your natural brows flat, then use a sharp brow pencil to draw a slender, gently curved line with a lifted arch. Short, feathery strokes look better than one solid line.

Skip actual plucking if you only need the look for one evening. Concealer under the brow’s lower edge slims it just as well, and it grows back for free.

3. Kohl-rimmed Eyes

Heavy liner around the eye is the backbone of this look, and a soft black kohl pencil is easier to control than liquid. Line the upper and lower lash lines, then smudge the edge slightly with a small brush.

Red lipstick balances all that darkness, so pick a true, slightly blue-leaning red and keep the shape defined. I would leave everything else on the face quiet.

One limit: dark liner on the waterline makes eyes look smaller. If yours are small, line the outer half only, and the drama stays.

4. Smoky Eye Makeup

Smoke belongs to evening. Dark, blended shadow with no hard edge is what separates this from kohl lining, so the blending brush matters more than the color.

Press a dark shadow close to the base of the upper lashes, then sweep it up and outward with a fluffy brush until the edge disappears. Build it in thin layers; one heavy pass turns muddy.

Thin brows and a deep lip suit this eye best, and they keep the look period-correct. In low light, I would take dark lips over bright ones every time.

5. Long Lashes

Long, defined lashes finish every other eye look here. Curl first, then apply mascara from the roots upward, wiggling the wand so the lashes separate.

2 coats of black mascara is my limit for daytime. For a stage-ready evening look, add false lashes, trimmed to fit your eye so the outer corner does not lift.

Waterproof formulas hold up under dancing, but they need an oil-based remover. Pulling them off dry costs you lashes.

6. Moon Manicure

Leaving a small crescent of bare nail at the base is the whole idea, and red polish looks especially good with it.

Place a hole-reinforcement sticker at the base of each clean nail, or use thin tape cut to a curve.

Paint the rest in red, let it dry for a few minutes, and peel the guide away gently. A clear base coat first prevents staining, and a top coat afterward seals the edges.

Steady hands help, but the stickers do most of the work.

7. Blue Eyeshadow with Red Lips

Blue shadow with a red lip works because the 2 colors fight for attention, so give the eye the shimmer and keep everything else muted.

Pat a shimmery blue over the eyelid with a fingertip, which grips better than a brush, and stop at the crease.

Thin, arched brows suit this look best, and a blue-leaning red on the lips ties it together. A warm orange-red clashes with the blue.

I would skip blush here, or use almost none.

8. Dramatic Purple Eyeshadow Look

Deep purple on both eyes and lips is the boldest option here, so commit to one dark area and let the other stay a shade lighter.

Build the shimmering shadow in thin layers starting at the base of the lashes and working up, then blend the edge until it fades.

Line the lips with a purple pencil before filling, since dark color shows every wobble. Blot once, as with the red lip.

Purple lipstick can be hard to wear in daylight. I would save this for evening.

9. Soft Pink Eyeshadow with Blush

Pink shadow with rosy cheeks is the gentlest look here, and the easiest to wear for an afternoon event.

Sweep a soft pink across the lid, then tap blush on the apples of the cheeks and blend outward so no edge shows.

Keep the lip in a muted rose, and add a little mascara so the eye doesn’t vanish.

Of the nine, this one forgives shaky hands the most, since soft color hides small mistakes.

Influence of Film Stars

Film stars did more for these looks than any ad copy. Actresses like Clara Bow, Gloria Swanson, Louise Brooks and Greta Garbo were admired and copied, and Colleen Moore was an early rival to Bow because both played flappers.

Photoplay and Motion Picture Magazine tracked the stars’ private lives and also ran cosmetic ads, so makeup companies were quick to put those famous faces on their packaging.

Over the course of the decade, the amount of makeup advertising in magazines climbed steeply.

If you want to recreate a look, pick one star and study her portraits.

Copying a single face gives a more coherent result than blending several, and the average woman at the time did the same: she couldn’t live like the screen flappers, but she could copy how they looked.

Social Acceptance of Makeup

Makeup moved from something questionable to part of a young woman’s everyday kit. A heavily painted face was a deliberate break from the demure Gibson Girl who had set the standard before the war.

Practical reasons played a part too.

Beauty publications told women entering offices and other workplaces that makeup helped them look their best while they competed with men for jobs. Lipstick came to signal confidence and a professional edge.

Compacts for cream and powder rouge, along with lipsticks and lip stains, were standard items. Applying them in public became part of the flapper’s attitude, so if you’re dressing the part, reapplying lipstick openly is a period-correct touch.

Cosmetic Innovations

Many of the products I take for granted were new and spreading fast.

The rouge compact, in cream or powder, was the signature piece, and women used it to add a flush to both lips and cheeks.

That’s useful if you want authenticity: a cream rouge pressed on with a fingertip looks closer to the period than a modern powder blush brushed on heavily.

Lip stains were popular too. For a softer, less glossy finish, a stain is the closest modern match.

Before the ’20s, it was messy to use and associated with promiscuous women. But with the introduction of the compact case, rouge became transportable, socially acceptable and easy to apply.

— Smithsonian Magazine

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