Carefully rouged lips in the right shade, finish, and definition play a crucial role in enhancing any beauty look. Whether it’s a bold, creamy red, a soft, glossy nude, or a playful, penciled pink, enhancing the lips can make a statement and complete the overall guise.
Even before the advent of social media, celebrities were at the forefront of lipstick fads. Made highly visible by their million-dollar smiles, the styles they embrace often sparked widespread admiration and imitation, thereby influencing the fluctuations of lipstick trends.
Much like how Kylie Jenner and Hailey Bieber recently brought the ’90s Cherry Cola lip trend back in vogue, the ’40s saw Joan Crawford’s sultry ‘smear’ that was achieved by wiping lipstick across the top line of the overdrawn lip, and the ’50s was dominated by the dramatically overdrawn top lip of Marilyn Monroe’s seductive pout.
As voluminous lips continue to take over the beauty world, it’s important to remember that embracing and accentuating natural features remain to be an important aspect of diversity and inclusivity in the global beauty industry. While there is nothing wrong with pursuing a fuller pout, beauty inspiration for thinner lips should include more than lip plumping and overlining. Whether it’s through subtle contouring, choosing complimentary shades, or experimenting with different finishes, there are endless possibilities to highlight the beauty of a delicate pout.
For those with thinner lips, drawing inspiration from beauty icons of past decades can offer a timeless and sophisticated approach to modern beauty trends, in addition to ideas for specific makeup styles tailored for their features. Guided by American make-up artist Kevyn Aucoin’s detailed analyses and tutorials for achieving the beauty looks of silver screen starlets from early Hollywood to the ’90s in his 1997 book Making Faces, here are some ways to incorporate the lipstick looks of cinematic icons from Greta Garbo to Maggie Cheung into your contemporary beauty routine.
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For fans of the Cherry Cola lip, try a dark flesh-toned lip liner like Greta Garbo
Drawing inspiration from the rich, deep colours of its namesake soda, the Cherry Cola lip combines reds and browns with high-shine textures for maximum drama. If the trending beauty look feels vaguely nostalgic, it’s because the pairing of dark liner with berry and red shades and a glossy shine has been around long before the trend. Art Deco icon Greta Garbo often combined the effect with a defined and pronounced lip shape for a timeless look.
To achieve this look, begin by carefully defining the lips with a pencil darker than the lip colour. Then, colour the entire mouth up to the edge of of the darker lip line with a creamy or matte lipstick in a shade lighter than the pencil. Blot, reapply and then blot again, before finishing with clear lip gloss.
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For fans of the viral blurred lip trend, experiment with a Botticelli-esque effect like Maggie Cheung
The blurred lip has taken the beauty world by storm, but its airy, romantic aesthetic isn’t entirely novel. Aucoin notes that many women from bygone eras were hesitant about the boldness of rouge and lipstick, preferring instead to achieve a more subtle effect best described as a ‘rosy glow’. This look can be seen on Maggie Cheung’s portrayal of a Shanghainese journalist in 60’s Hong Kong in Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love (2000).
Aucoin suggests to play up the look’s faraway dreaminess for a “Botticelli-esque” effect, as if one has just stepped out of an oil painting. Begin by lining the lips with a flesh-toned pencil and softening the outline with a cotton swab. Next, apply a touch of clear lip gloss to the centre of the bottom lip. There are no definite lines, not even on the lips, only creamy accentuation.
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For fans of the glazed lip, go for glossy lips with an edge like Cher
Matte might have been the lip texture of choice in the 2010s, but decade is all about shine. Glazed lips—the beauty look popularised by Hailey Bieber—is here to stay. While its resurgence was likely inspired by ’90s nostalgia, the glazed lip’s high-shine, almost wet-looking texture was actually popularised in the 70’s, when shimmer was the go-to look as pearl was added to everything from blushers to eye shadows—and of course lip glosses.
Amidst her ever-evolving beauty game throughout the years, Cher embraced the pearlescent shimmers and the three-dimensional nudes and browns in the party decade. To achieve her disco-era look, begin by lining the lips with a medium flesh-toned lip liner and follow by applying petroleum jelly using an eyeshadow brush for three-dimensional glow.
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For a classic red lip, go for a high-shine finish like Anna May Wong
You can never go wrong with a red lip, but there are few looks quite as beguiling as a perfectly glossed red lip that accentuates every curve and angle. Aucoin asserts that the dark, glossy lip was the signature look of Hollywood trailblazer Anna May Wong and retained its mysterious allure even when depicted in black and white.
To achieve the alluring pout, line the lips with with a medium flesh-toned pencil, followed by a glossy dark-red lip colour that is blotted and reapplied.
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For vampy glamour, try a heart-shaped vintage pout like Clara Bow
The original It girl Clara Bow was the ultimate beauty icon of the roaring twenties. Her famous doll-shaped lips, delicately beautiful and perpetually turned up in the middle as if in a perpetual kiss, contributed to her pouty disposition.
According to Aucoin, the secret to the silent screen star’s signature lip shape by drawing inside the natural lip line. Begin by covering the sides of the mouth with concealer and blend well into the skin. Then, use a dark-toned lip pencil to accentuate the cupid’s bow and lower lip, before filling it in for the Clara Bow lip.
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For a natural look, go for lined and penciled pink lip like Ingrid Bergman
Famously having arrived in Hollywood with a single suitcase and no makeup kit in the ’30s, Ingrid Bergman kept her minimal approach to makeup throughout her life. Her subtle, understated lips were the most important aspect of her pared back beauty look, and embodied the the grace and stature of an archetypal heroine.
To achieve this look, Aucoin suggests embracing the Casablanca star’s preference for the simplest of cosmetics and using a flesh-toned lip liner to line the lips without altering its natural contour and filling it in for an ethereal yet practical look.
