How To Do 50s Style Makeup

Have you ever wanted to know how to do 50s style makeup? Have you ever wanted to look as effortlessly fabulous as Marylin Monroe? If your answer is yes, read on to find out how!

Wash your face

First things first, you need clean skin to make sure that your makeup goes on smoothly. (I personally use Biore charcoal facewash—which is $7 at Walmart–because it works the best on my skin, but you can use whatever product you normally do.)

Thoroughly foam, scrub, or mask your face to become your best naked self. Then rinse, pat your face dry, and moisturize. For moisturizer, I exclusively use measurable difference rose hip oil because it is a miracle worker for my skin, and one bottle lasts forever because a little goes a very long way.

Once you’re finished making sure your face is clean, you’re ready to get glam!

Build a base

For this, I recommend a face primer. Think of your face as a blank canvas, and the primer is what goes under the paint to make sure it stays in pace.

Because my skin is really sensitive and loves to break out, I use Urban Decay Primer Potion. It’s light and creamy, so it doesn’t feel heavy on my face. I am not sure why, but it works really well with my skin. You can buy the Primer Potion at any Ulta for around $30, but you can use whatever works best for your skin.

Evenly spread your primer across your face and you’re ready to move on to the next step of creating a 50s style makeup look.

Foundation

I’ve found that the best way to apply foundation is with a damp beauty blender sponge. I use Urban Decay Naked Skin foundation because it’s full coverage, but it’s also very light and natural looking. The shade varies depending on the time of year, but right now I’m using shade 3.5.

Take medium-sized beauty blender, wet it thoroughly, then apply your foundation directly to the beauty blender. Blend evenly across your face, and make sure to blend a little down your neck to avoid harsh lines.

Blush

Time to give the illusion of rosy cheeks! Grab your favorite blush and an angled makeup brush. For the summer, I recommend a light pink shade as opposed to a brown, red, or burgundy shade. There are lots of options in every store, so finding one that’s right for you will be easy.

For this look, it’s important to apply the color to your cheekbone area to give yourself a more natural look. A nice trick for doing this correctly is to smile and apply the color directly to the top portion of your cheek.

Eyes

Sparkle, sparkle, sparkle. The 50s were all about glitz and glam, and that means shimmer.

For this look I recommend literally any metallic Morphe eyeshadow, preferably in a warm bronze or brown shade, because their makeup is super pigmented and they stay in place.

Grab a flat eye makeup brush and lightly apply the color from the lash line to under the eyebrow.

Next, it’s time to create a cat eye. Really any eyeliner will do, but I use an NYX eyeliner marker to make my look.

Apply the pen to the lash line across your eyelid, flicking it out into a wing at the outer corner. Boom, instant bombshell.

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Lastly for the eyes, you need to apply your mascara. I use the Tartiest mascara, but there are hundreds of mascara options out there that will work just as well. I recommend applying one to three coats of mascara, but make sure to wait until the mascara is tacky before applying the next coat to prevent clumping.

Lips

Next, we need to get the perfect pout. First, you need to line your lips. To do this you can choose any shade of lip liner that you would like for your look, but I recommend a bright red. If you’re going to go 50s style makeup glam you might as well go all the way, right?

Once you have your lips lined, it’s time to put on your lipstick.

I am a HUGE fan of Maybelline’s super stay line. I own almost every shade, and lucky for us they have a great red color called pioneer available for $10 at any Walmart.

Make sure to stay within the lines you’ve drawn on your lips, swipe the color on, and you’re one pout closer to being fabulous.

Eyebrows

This step is optional. I’m not sure if they enhanced eyebrows for makeup looks in the 50s. You don’t have to enhance your eyebrows—I normally don’t—but if you like to have bold brows then I recommend using the Maybelline brow tattoo pen in whatever shade matches your brows best. I have the black/brown shade handy in case I ever want to use it. It’s super easy to use, looks natural, and stays on for a really long time.

That’s it!

Spray some setting spray across your face, and you are done with this 50s style makeup look! You are gorgeous. Marylin would be proud. Now, get out there and knock some socks off.