You’ve seen the look. A thick, ink-black line carved into the crease of the eyelid, lashes so long they practically touch the eyebrows, and lips so pale they almost disappear into the face. It’s everywhere. From the high-fashion runways of Milan to that one girl on TikTok who does historical recreations in her bedroom, 1960s makeup is the undead trend that refuses to stay in the past. It’s iconic.
But here’s the thing: most people get it wrong. They think the sixties was just one long "Summer of Love" with flowers painted on cheeks. It wasn’t. The decade was actually a chaotic, experimental, and surprisingly technical era of beauty that moved from the stiff, polished elegance of the 1950s housewife to the bug-eyed, space-age "Mod" look, and finally into the earthy, unwashed aesthetic of the late-sixties hippie movement. It changed everything.
The Death of the "Matchy-Matchy" Face
Before 1960, makeup was about harmony. Your lipstick matched your nail polish, which matched your blush, which probably matched your handbag. It was very "put together." Then the youth quake happened. Suddenly, the focus shifted entirely.
The eyes became the main event.
In the early part of the decade, the heavy lifting was done by liquid liner. This wasn't the subtle "kitten flick" we see today. We’re talking about the cut crease. If you look at photos of Sophia Loren or early Barbra Streisand, you’ll see a dark, defined line sitting right in the socket line of the eye. This wasn't blended out into a soft smoky shadow. It was sharp. It was meant to make the eyes look cavernous and massive, almost like a doll.
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Twiggy and the "Clumpy" Revolution
You can't talk about this era without mentioning Lesley Hornby—better known as Twiggy. She became the face of the decade specifically because of her eyes. Her look wasn't "natural" by any stretch of the imagination. She would famously apply three layers of false eyelashes and then—this is the part that would make modern makeup artists cringe—she used black eyeliner to draw individual "spikes" or lashes directly onto her skin underneath her lower eyes.
They called these "Twillies."
It gave her that "deer in the headlights" look that defined the London Mod scene. While the 1950s focused on a seductive, feline "cat eye," the 1960s went for the "doe eye." Wide. Innocent. Slightly startled. Basically, if you didn't look like you’d just seen a ghost, you weren't doing it right.
The Pale Lip Mystery
While the eyes were getting darker and heavier, lips were doing the exact opposite. If you look at the best-selling lipsticks from brands like Revlon or Max Factor in 1964, you’ll see names like "Nude," "Pale Pink," and "Peach." Some women even used concealer or foundation on their lips to get that "dead" look.
Why? Because the eyes were so loud that the mouth had to shut up.
It was a total reversal of the 1940s and 50s red lip. For the first time, "pretty" didn't mean "flushed and healthy." It meant "cool and detached."
Putting It On: The Real Products
Women in the mid-sixties weren't using the sophisticated palettes we have now. They had "cake" eyeliner. You’d take a little brush, wet it with a drop of water, rub it into a hard block of black pigment, and hope for the best. It was difficult. It flaked.
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Foundation was also changing. Pan-Stik makeup (pioneered by Max Factor) was huge. It was heavy, full-coverage, and matte. There was no "dewy skin" trend back then. If your face didn't look like a perfectly smooth piece of unglazed porcelain, you were failing.
- The Brow: Kept groomed but often filled in with a pencil to be slightly shorter and thicker than the 1950s "arch."
- The Blush: It was barely there. Mostly used for contouring under the cheekbones rather than "rosy" cheeks.
- The Lashes: Often doubled up. A strip on top, a strip on bottom.
The Great Shift of 1967
Everything changed when the "Summer of Love" hit. As the Vietnam War escalated and the counter-culture grew, the heavy, artificial Mod look started to feel... fake.
The kids in Haight-Ashbury weren't wearing cut creases. They were wearing nothing. Or, they were painting daisies on their foreheads with face paint. This was the birth of the "Natural Look," though ironically, it often took just as much work to look like you weren't wearing makeup as it did to look like Twiggy.
By 1969, the heavy black liners were being replaced by shimmering frosts and iridescent blues. Brands like Yardley of London started marketing "London Look" kits that were softer and more ethereal. We moved away from the sharp, geometric lines of Mary Quant and toward the soft, blurry edges of the 1970s.
Why 1960s Makeup Still Works Today
We’re obsessed with this era because it was the first time makeup was used as a tool for rebellion rather than just "beautification." It was weird. It was graphic. It was punk before punk existed.
If you want to pull this off today without looking like you're wearing a costume, you have to pick one element. Don't do the pale lip, the cut crease, and the bottom lashes all at once. Modernize the cut crease by using a brown shadow instead of a black pencil and blending the edges just a tiny bit. Use a "half-lash" on the outer corner of your eyes to get that lifted, wide-eyed look without the 1966 "doll" heaviness.
Master the Look
To actually get a wearable version of this, focus on the "floating liner." Use a fine-tip liquid pen to draw a thin line just above your natural crease. Keep the rest of the lid a flat, matte cream color. This gives the illusion of huge eyes without the mess of the old-school cake liners. Skip the "concealer lips" and go for a sheer, peachy nude gloss instead. It honors the 1960s spirit of "eyes first" without making you look like a background extra from The Twilight Zone.
Invest in a high-quality white kohl pencil for your waterline. This is the oldest trick in the book for making eyes look wider and brighter—a technique perfected by 1960s icons like Jean Shrimpton and Diana Ross. It works every single time.
The 1960s taught us that the face is a canvas for art, not just a thing to be "corrected." That's why we keep coming back to it. It’s bold, it’s unapologetic, and it’s arguably the most creative decade in beauty history.