Today’s beauty standards and makeup trends are a combination of new, reinvented, and recurring techniques from generations past. In the last 80 years, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z have all defined certain generation-specific beauty norms. Throughout modern history, analyzing changes in makeup and accepted appearances leads to understanding how the cultures and taboos of the past affect today’s beauty standards.
Baby Boomers, those born in the 1940s-1960s, saw an era dominated by over-dramatic eyelashes, eyeshadow, and eyeliner, along with short boyish haircuts and French tip nails. Plastic surgery was largely need-driven and not as widespread as generations to come. The Hippie style of dress was very popular, with floral prints and bohemian vibes abound.
In Gen X, the “anti-fashion” era of the grunge movement consisted of an unkempt appearance and dirty hair. The Michigan Beauty found that plastic surgery increased as a result of the rise in the feminist movement, and the idea of empowered women taking control and fixing traits they don’t like. Though people became more aware of plastic surgery, it wasn’t widespread. “I don’t remember a lot of people in the 80s doing plastic surgery … no boob jobs, lip filler, Botox, no … It didn’t really become popular until the 2000s and actually it was more like when you look at supermodels from that generation [Gen X], like Cindy Crawford they were more natural looking,” Spanish teacher Mary Murray said.
Natural makeup looks progressed in the Millennial era, also considered the “wellness generation,” with the introduction and increased popularity of skincare and organic and environmentally friendly products, along with more natural-looking Botox. Brands including Revlon, Clinique, MAC, and L’Oreal Paris emerged in the 90s and are still heavily popular today, offering a variety of reddish-brown hue lipsticks and glosses. “[There was] definitely no contouring or anything. That is very new. It was very just simple, but a little bit more colored eyeshadow. I would see girls at school occasionally with a little bit of purple eyeshadow, not like the 80s [that] was crazy, but like a little tint of some color. … There were no fake eyelashes or anything. Girls would wear just mascara, a little bit of eyeliner, sometimes lip gloss,” Spanish teacher Kelsey Rathmanner said.
Even though makeup wasn’t used in great amounts, there was still a huge influx in surgeries and changing looks with breast augmentation, lip filler, and tummy tucks. Yet people didn’t feel as comfortable talking about surgeries as they do today, even though they were already as common. “I feel like you saw plastic surgery more for celebrities, and then it wasn’t talked about if other people did it that weren’t celebrities … If someone was getting their lips done or getting a little Botox, people did not talk about it at all, and I feel like now it’s being talked about a lot more,” Rathmanner said.
Lastly, there are many trends created by the students at BSM today; Gen Z’s makeup and appearance trends are diverse. Eco-friendly brands, skincare, and minimalistic makeup trends are back. Subtle makeup continued into the 2020s, with Hailey Bieber’s “no makeup” makeup getting huge amounts of attention. “I feel like, in past generations, they always would try to do the most makeup possible, but now it tends to be less, like [makeup] look[s] [more] natural,” sophomore Luella Curry said.
In 2010, the use of highlighter and bronzer to sculpt and snatch the face emerged, with blush as an afterthought. Now, using foundation, contour, and blush to sculpt the face is extremely popular. Many people like the contouring trend, but Curry and Rathmanner agree that looking too tan or contoured is too fake. “If contouring is done, well, I think it looks really good. but sometimes I feel like people go over the top of it, where you can look at them [it] doesn’t even look like [their] skin color anymore, … there’s times where that doesn’t look natural anymore,” Rathmanner said.
This era also coined the idea of “beauty blindness” as a term to describe the inability to see overexaggerated makeup until looking back on it later. Today, many people refer to “blush blindness” as excessive amounts of blush to appear bold and daring. Starting in 2023, Charlotte Tilbury’s introduction to blush-highlighter mixed sticks was ranked the second-hottest makeup trend. However, Selena Gomez’s brand of Rare Beauty, equipped with specially pigmented blushes and varieties of lip products, foundations, contour, concealer, and more, took first place. The blush from Rare Beauty led to the increased use of cheek tints, and people started to mix blushes, creating the new trend of “blush blindness.” With countless new powder and cream blushes and icon Sabrina Carpenter’s dramatic cheeks, blush has become increasingly popular and used to make a bold statement, drawing attention to the cheekbones and making cheeks look very rosy. “Personally, I feel like I have tan blindness or bronzer blindness, but I know I’ve heard people say they have blush blindness. … [It’s] when you just keep putting more and more on because you think you’re not tan enough or don’t have enough blush on, but really you do,” Curry said.
Along with the increased use of contouring with bronzer and blush, there is an influx of correcting facial features and bodies with plastic surgery. Brazilian butt lifts, lip filler, breast implants, Botox, and more are making faces “perfect” and are now a part of the beauty standard. Some believe the beauty standards of thin or “model” bodies have gone too far. “I think the fake butt stuff is way overused, and putting in butt pads I think is ridiculous. I think the idea too, of having to have a flat stomach, it’s not natural, you know …Getting Botox in your lips so they’re so huge, I feel like that’s overused. I can understand, doing it for some wrinkles or headaches, but I feel like some of that is way overused,” Murray said.
Whether sticking with “no makeup” makeup or using dramatic eyelashes, eyeshadow, bronzer, blush, or Botox; trends have fluctuated over generations and will continue to do so, but regardless of what is popular, people are encouraged to do what will make them feel confident. “Do whatever makes you happy, if that’s good for your mental health, great,” Rathmanner said.