Elegant 1930s Makeup: Key Features

Kiev makeup school New Look Studio has launched the Retro Trip project, where stars and models try on looks from the past to visually demonstrate the beauty style of each decade.

Today we get acquainted with the elegant makeup of the 1930s and figure out what features of makeup of the face, eyebrows, eyes and lips were key at that time.

Photographer: Tatyana Kizeeva

Makeup, hair: Evgeniya Spiktorenko

Model: Katya Antonenko

Stylist: Marie Noretz

Text: Marta Rodyk

The 1930s of the twentieth century became the period of the Great Depression - a global economic crisis that began in 1929 with the collapse of the stock exchange system in the United States and lasted until 1939.

Movies and movies have become the only entertainment for most people. Everything that was seen on the screen was repeated in life. Women all over the world copied the clothing designs, hairstyles and makeup of popular film actresses. Thanks to celebrities such as Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Carole Lombard, Jean Harlow and Mae West, new ideals of female beauty appeared in the world.

Lightening with perhydrol and permanent waving have become popular. The theatricality, popular in the 1920s, faded into the background. Makeup in the 1930s became more natural and adapted to real life. Refinement, femininity and aristocracy have become new standards of beauty. This period is also known as the time of the birth of the new “glamor” style.

Leather

Women were still trying to achieve aristocratic pale skin, despite the fact that tanning was gradually becoming fashionable.

Correcting the shape of the face with blush has become popular. Since the heart-shaped shape was the reference, blush was applied to the cheekbones and earlobes, which visually expanded the face a little - even those with an ideal oval shape used this technique. Girls mostly used cream blush.

Brows

Eyebrows became a key element of makeup in the 1930s. Unlike the smooth, falling line of the 1920s, the eyebrows of the 1930s were shaped like perfect arches. The hairs were plucked or shaved completely and an ideal thin arc was drawn with a pencil slightly above the natural growth line, and the end of the eyebrow was lowered below the natural one.

Eyes

For eye makeup, eye shadows were used in brown, dark gray, blue, blue, purple and green shades. For evening makeup, pearlescent and shimmering shadows were often used, and Vaseline was applied on top for additional shine.

Eyeliner was a must-have makeup element. It was applied in a neat line along the upper contour of the eye. The line was wider in the middle of the eyelid and thinned towards the edge. Dark shadows emphasized the lower contour of the eye.

The main emphasis in eye makeup was the eyelashes - perfectly colored, long and curled. False eyelashes were also often used.

During this period, popular cosmetics brands launched new products: Max Factor began producing cream shadows, and Helena Rubinstein released the first waterproof mascara.

Lips

Bow sponges, popular in the 1920s, have lost their relevance. Nobody made lips artificially narrow anymore; they were painted completely, with a very clear contour.

The first color films were not very sensitive to shades, and makeup artists sometimes used black lipstick to create more contrast on the screen.

In everyday life, fashionable shades of lipsticks were: light pink, peach and raspberry in the first half of the 1930s, bright red and burgundy in the second half of the decade.

The American magazines Photoplay, Picture-play and Hollywood regularly published articles with tips on applying fashionable makeup from leading experts such as Max Factor, the makeup guru of that time. He personally designed the looks and makeup of the most popular stars of the 1930s.

In 1932, a book by Virginia Vincent went on sale with step-by-step instructions on applying makeup, fashionable hairstyles, and care tips. The book had sections for each color type and age.

* New Look Studio is a Kiev makeup school founded by celebrity makeup artists Evgenia Spiktorenko and Natalia Malyukevich. New Look Studio is the only school that offers a separate in-depth course on 20th century makeup stylistics.