Over the years, there have been some truly great makeup trends that have stuck around to this day, but there have been some others that history couldn't do away with fast enough. The best ones are often simple and classic, enhancing your beauty instead of drawing attention to something shiny on your face, while the worst ones are overdone, tacky, or just take too much work. From the classic looks that may date back farther than you realize to the bizarre choices that make you wonder how they were ever popular, let's take a look at three of the best and three of the worst makeup trends in history.
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00:00Makeup trends go in and out of style, like everything else in fashion.
00:04But there are some clear standout style winners — and losers — throughout history.
00:07Ranging from the iconic to the bizarre,
00:09these are some of the best and worst of history's makeup trends.
00:13Did your favorite looks make the list?
00:15The winged eyeliner look is timeless. One of the most popular styles in recent years,
00:19this look is so classic that it has been around for centuries. Yep,
00:23centuries. Women have been trying to get the perfect winged eye since ancient Egypt.
00:27As noted by Vogue Arabia, in those days, women lined their eyes in black and green not just
00:32because it made their eyes stand out, but also because they believed it protected them from the
00:35evil eye. Around the same time, Bedouin women — and men — were applying coal around their
00:40eyes to protect them from the desert climate, and this look eventually ended up morphing into
00:43a fashion statement. In the 1950s, the invention of liquid eyeliner made achieving the perfect wing
00:48easier than ever. The decades saw Hollywood stars like Sophia Loren and Elizabeth Taylor
00:53rocking the trend. With so much history behind the sophisticated look, it doesn't seem like
00:57winged eyeliner is going anywhere — and we wouldn't want it to.
01:01Grooming your eyebrows is one thing, but there's a huge difference between plucking a stray hair
01:05and getting rid of most of your eyebrows altogether.
01:08I don't know if I can take any more plucking. It hurts so bad.
01:11That's the look the women of the 1920s went for, plucking most of their eyebrows out and then
01:15penciling in ultra-fine brows with an eyebrow pencil. According to Vogue Australia, film stars
01:20helped to popularize the trend, which endured for years until the 1940s brought back fuller,
01:24more defined brows — for the most part. While trying to look like the Mona Lisa isn't the worst
01:29makeup choice you can make, it does seem like an unnecessarily painful one. Who wants to
01:33constantly have to pluck or shave their eyebrows? Our advice is to let your eyebrows grow free.
01:37It's less painful and requires far less upkeep.
01:41The perfect ruby red lips are an iconic look that doesn't seem like it'll ever go out of style.
01:46Evoking sophistication and sensuality, red lips have long been associated with femininity,
01:50and have even been embraced as a feminist statement. In the early 20th century,
01:54beauty mogul Elizabeth Arden supplied red lipstick from her business to women fighting
01:58for their right to vote, and as such, it became an identifying mark of the women's suffrage movement.
02:03What an incredible thing to imagine, a woman out there handing out red lipstick
02:08as a sign of empowerment."
02:10But red lipstick goes back even further than that, as noted by Bustle. Ancient Egyptians
02:14crushed bugs to color their lips crimson. Sex workers in ancient Greece stained their
02:18lips with wine to signal their profession. In the Middle Ages, makeup was frowned upon
02:22unless it was used for the express purpose of making a woman more attractive for her husband.
02:26Queen Elizabeth I rocked ruby red lips,
02:28and she even believed that lip color had the power to ward off death. Red lipstick's long
02:32and fascinating history makes it not just one of history's best makeup trends,
02:35but one of its most enduring.
02:38Don't get us wrong, lip liner can be a powerful thing. But there is a limit to how much should
02:42be applied. Just what is that limit, you might ask? Generally speaking, if your liner is too
02:46far from your actual lip line, things are going to get messy. Sure, you can make your lips look
02:51a little bigger with exaggerated liner, a la Kylie Jenner. Just know that you're not tricking
02:55anyone into thinking that's your natural lip line. The trend dates back to the 1930s, when
02:59actress Joan Crawford started to broadly line her upper lip in a style known as the smear,
03:03as noted by Revelist. The look was surprisingly popular, leading to a 1,500 percent increase in
03:09lipstick sales that decade. Since then, many people have tried to accentuate their lips
03:13by painting them on thick, but the potential for overdoing it is huge. If you still want
03:17to attempt the look, celeb makeup artists Ash Holm and Mary Phillips told Cosmopolitan that
03:21it's best to stick with a neutral tone, which will help keep your overdrawn lips from looking
03:25too unnatural.
03:27Let's be honest, contouring is basically magic. It enables you to look completely different and
03:32can downplay parts of your face while highlighting others. It's one of the hottest trends of modern
03:36times, and is already so iconic that it's safe to call it one of the best trends ever.
03:40While the fad didn't really catch on with everyday makeup users until the 2010s,
03:44contouring actually has a pretty interesting history. Contouring was long associated with
03:48the theater. In the 1800s, actors began using makeup and grease paint to emphasize their
03:52dramatic facial expressions. In the 1920s, Hollywood stars brought contouring magic to
03:57the silver screen. Many stars going forward sported contoured faces, but the magic of
04:01contouring still largely remained an industry secret. Finally, in 2012, Kim Kardashian brought
04:06the magic of contouring to the public's attention through her Instagram account.
04:09Thanks to the power of social media, it looks like contouring is here to stay.
04:14Okay, glitter is pretty, and we can't blame anyone for wanting a bit more sparkle in their lives.
04:18"'Glitter bomb!'
04:25However, actually applying glitter to your face is a pretty terrible makeup trend.
04:29Those little flecks might catch the light and add pizazz to your look,
04:32but they can also, well, blind you. Since each piece of glitter is pretty much a tiny piece of
04:37plastic, it can scratch your eye and, in extreme cases, lead to infection and even blindness.
04:42If that isn't enough to scare you off glitter, here's another not-so-nice tidbit. Glitter is
04:46terrible for the environment. While there are non-plastic types of glitter, the stuff's usually
04:50made from plastic or aluminum foil, neither of which are biodegradable.
04:54Glitter, considered a category of microplastic, is under the microscope,
04:58scientists saying they're a danger to our waterways and marine life.
05:02Every day, 8 million tons of plastic enter our oceans, and since glitter is so tiny,
05:07even small organisms can swallow it. What's the point of beauty at the cost of our planet?
05:12Glitter is terrible for the environment, scientists saying they're a danger to our waterways and marine life.