Marilyn’s bedroom eyes, Audrey’s gamine brows, Joan’s smeared lipstick—throughout history, makeup has provided us with some of the most influential looks on some of the most iconic stars. Film studios have been covering their actors in paint and cake makeup since the beginning of Hollywood; some of their creations have even solidified careers. From naïve waifs of the silent era to leading ladies of the morbid 1930s, makeup helped performers go from normal to otherworldly. Although products have changed, techniques altered, and formulas perfected, some celebrities we see today are painted with the same ideas in mind. 

1910s Changes to Hollywood Makeup

Lillian Gish in Broken Blossoms (1919)

With the transition from stage and vaudeville to the silver screen, old makeup techniques came off as harsh and had to change. Because film at the time was in black and white, it would capture many blues and reds as either a pale grey or dark black. This led many makeup artists to change the colors and tones they applied to thespians. For instance, a red lip would photograph black so it was lightly applied or avoided altogether; rouge would also appear dark and give the cheeks a hollow and gaunt appearance. These problems raised concerns about close-ups and whether they were to be used in film. With the future creation of panchromatic film, more tones were available for use, thus creating a more naturally colored face. Removing the garish colors from actors’ faces allowed for dramatic scenes to appear more genuine and relatable.

1930s Thinness

Jean Harlow

Eyebrows back then were a very different story than the thick, boxy shapes we see today. Actresses like Jean Harlow and Constance Bennett sported pencil thin brows after they plucked or shaved them. Their contemporaries also opted for the iconic shape, including Myrna Loy and Claudette Colbert. Marlene Dietrich took even more extreme measures with her dark brooding mug; avoiding lines and preserving elasticity was of utmost importance to her. In fact, by dragging a freezing ice cube all over her face, Dietrich believed herself to be preventing premature aging. Copying the looks of the sophisticates was as easy as applying a full-coverage foundation or concealer over your natural brows and carving a brow within an inch of its life.

1940s Sirens

Rita Hayworth

During the World War 2 era, women needed convenient and quick makeup tricks to look refined yet appropriate in their new and frequently labour intensive occupations. Pancake foundation created by makeup extraordinaire Max Factor was a go-to for many working women and compact powders were proving much more useful than the loose version of earlier years. But the quintessential feature of women’s faces were their lips, dressed up in the reddest of reds. While the eye shadows and contours were much more muted than they would be in later decades, starlets like the redheaded Rita Hayworth and film noir alum Veronica Lake stunned audiences with their ruby pouts and naturally alluring eyes. The sensuality and seductive gazes provided a much-needed escape for war-torn America.

Makeup has been evolving for hundreds, even thousands of years, but only in the 20th century did it really take form. Contrary to popular belief, makeup wasn’t invented with Instagram and social media. Old Hollywood was filled with starlets going to extreme measures to look flawless. Shaving eyebrows, changing hairlines, orange paint—beauty has changed in countless ways, but Hollywood’s fascination with it remains the same.