Illustration by Ed Vebell for a 1954 “New York Mirror Magazine” article, “You’re Sexier Than You Think.” The pursuit of beauty is eternal, and every age has its own unique standard. But while that standard may be in the eyes of the beholder, it frequently needs a little outside help. Here’s a look at some beauty trends down the decades and the tools that helped set them.
“Naive and innocent” was the prevailing style for young women in the ’50s: peachesand cream complexions, red or pink lips, and blue and green eyeshadows, with tresses softly curled or teased into a pompadour. While high-schoolers pulled their ponytails up with scarves (think Kathleen Turner in Peggy Sue Got Peggy Sue Got Married), their mothers emerged from weekly salon visits with bouffants requiring liberal doses of Aqua Net to hold their set. But looking good isn’t everything … one should also smell good, and antiperspirants such as Arrid, with its signature ingredient Perstop, or Gleem toothpaste, “for people who can’t brush after every meal,” helped avoid giving offense in that quarter.
Things were heating up by the ’60s, and not just on the social front. Heavy, spiked eyelashes (thanks, Twiggy!) accompanied dark eyeshadows and matte red lips. Towering lacquered ’dos of the ’50s still made an appearance, but by the middle of the decade, pixie cuts like those sported by Mia Farrow and Edie Sedgwick were increasingly popular, before giving way to the long and sleek Marcia Brady look.
The back-to-nature movement of the ’70s extended, unsurprisingly, to cosmetics. In other words, the point of makeup was to look like you weren’t wearing any. Foundations were nude, powders and blush translucent, and freshness was the order of the day. “Can you pass the healthy-looking skin test?” queried a commercial for Ivory soap, which touted the “99 and 44/100ths% pure” bar as being as vital to an enviable complexion as sleep and good nutrition.
Anyone who lived through the ’80s knows the decade can be largely summed up in three words: Bigger is Better, and not just when it came to houses and cars. Faces were painted on in a bold palette, and even fingertips were a status symbol: as one nailpolish marketing representative put it, “It was the
Dynasty era, and long nails went along with that excess.” Self-tanners brought the sun-kissed look to those who didn’t live near the beach or a pool, and what teen wanted to drop a lot of precious cash on professional highlights when she could pick up a bottle of Sun-In at the corner drugstore — even if some brunettes did complain their locks turned orange?
Of course, in any decade, a few trends that turned heads eventually turn stomachs, but the question of what constitutes ideal beauty will never die. Will body hair make a comeback? Or wrinkles be considered a greater turn-on than dewy youth? One consultant believes the smart ones in his field will “talk about ‘making the best of who you are’ rather than trying to make you become someone different.”
For most of us, that’s probably just the ticket.