The retro makeup is making a huge comeback these days – if it ever went out of fashion. Together with vintage dressing styles and hairdos, the retro era is so fashionable nowadays all women want a piece of it and for all the right reasons! If you feel like a fifties’ lady of glamour and want to get a really outstanding retro makeup, here is how you can get the look in 9 easy steps!
1. A Pale, but Natural-Looking Complexion
You need to get a natural, healthy, yet pale glow, so apply highlighter on your cheeks’ apples and under the arch of your eyebrows. You are going for the delicacy promoted by Elizabeth Arden, Max Factor, and Helena Rubinstein back in the day. Keep in mind that the 50s were all about achieving a flawless complexion. The powder colors of the era were peach and flesh, and nothing looked more feminine.
2. Highlight the Inner Corners of Your Eyes
A feminine look needs to highlight the beauty of your eyes. Use a shimmering cream eyeshadow to achieve a striking, yet natural look.
3. Highlight Your Cheekbones
Use a bronzer to contour your cheeks and put emphasis on your cheekbones. Don’t skip this step and make sure you use the best highlighter on the market to obtain a flawless look.
4. Blush Those Cheekbones
Channel your Audrey Hepburn with pale pink and peach blush. Peaches, pinks, and creams all call back to mind the fifties and their feminine sassiness. To get a retro look nowadays, you need to blush your cheeks’ apples with a baby-pink or peachy blush.
5. Make those Eyelids Leave People Breathless
Hepburn made pink the king of all makeup, but the women of the day were wearing a wide palette of pale greens, light blues, and subtle yellows as well. To achieve a retro makeup, pick the pastel hue closest to your skin tone and apply it on your eyelids. Choose the next color (the lightest shade of the palette) and delicately apply it on the inner corner of your eyes and below your eyebrows’ arch.
6. Depth and Drama
Use a darker nuance of eyeshadow (natural browns work well in this case) to give your eyes a deep, dramatic crease.
7. The Famous Winged Eye Line
Take your best eyeliner pencil and create the winged eyeliner look. First, line very close to the lids. Then, make sure the tip of your pencil is pointing outwards. Create the wing from the outer lash line and join the line towards the lash line. You need steady hands to sweep the line inwards to create a smooth curve.
8. Define Your Eyebrows
You can use wax underneath your eyebrows to define and frame them properly. Eyebrows can make or break the perfect look so make sure you know how to do your eyebrows.
9. Finish Everything with the Right Lipstick
The fifties loved bold lipsticks in pink, purple-red, orange-red, and so on. Back in the day, the retro makeup and hair tutorials were full of advice on choosing lipstick colors and promoted the Color Keying technique: choosing the best makeup for the best time of day, occasion, outfit, and so on. Apply lip tint or a pink lip-gloss before the actual lipstick to keep the color of your lips vibrant and durable. Remember, you can wear red lipstick casually, it’s not a color reserved for black tie events.
Picking Up the Lipsticks
Retro makeup is feminine and bold at the same time. While you need pastels and delicate color palettes, you have to remember that you need to make an immediate impression. For a spectacular effect, retro makeup specialists also recommend you use false eyelashes.