1990AD – 1999AD
After the bright, big and colourful 1980’s, the 1990’s were the total opposite and the two decades contrasted each other more than any other consecutive eras.
The main goal to the 90’s trend was to look natural, yet edgy.
Skincare:
Skincare was becoming a bigger market; companies were now selling enzymes and vitamins in their products, helping anti-aging. Also, animal testing for cosmetics was a hot topic in the beauty industry as more and more people wanted it to end.
Make-up
There were many make-up trends in the 1990’s, whether it was a ‘grunge’ look, or a pop princess. Make-up was still inspired by famous women, mainly supermodels, singers and actresses.
The skin was either very dewy or very matte, usually in a foundation lighter than the skin colour. If a grunge look was wanted, they wouldn’t try to conceal a tired eye, it would be part of the ‘look’, otherwise, skin was made to look flawless.
Inspired by the supermodels, cheekbones would be chiselled out with bronzer
To match make-up to clothing was highly fashionable. If someone was wearing a pink top, they would likely be wearing the same shade of pink on their lips, maybe even their eyes too. The 1990’s was another decade where blue eye shadow was highly popular, this time it was worn all the way up to the eyebrow, with a pearlescent white under the brow too. Pale eye shadows were worn, with metallic silver being one of the ‘go-to’ shades. However, if a more natural look was wanted, eye shadows in taupe, mochas and olives were used to create a seductive look. For eyeliner, it was fashionable to wear black kohl all the way around on the inside of the eye (tight lined), or if they wanted to make their eyes seem bigger, then they would line their inner eye with a white eye liner.
Eyes were finished with coatings of black mascara, creating ‘spider lashes’.
Eyebrows were plucked very thin, and then drawn on to be dark and defined. Electrolysis was very popular to remove hair.
Lips were either dark red and vampy (bitten lip trend), or over-lined with brown lip liner and finished with gloss, or brick-brown matte lipstick. Frosted lip gloss was also around, although hard to pull off as it would usually make teeth look yellow.
For parties, body glitter was a must! It came in gel form, or loose glitter could be applied too. Facial jewels and stickers were also popular.
Hair:
Hair was still playful, but not as voluminous as the 1980’s!
Straight hair was back ‘in’, although the crimpers were still around and used a lot.
Hair was styled in many different ways, including the ‘power-ponytail’, which was a very high ponytail with all hair scraped into it, a fringe could be left out, or 2 strands of hair to frame to face. High pigtails were also worn, usually by children, although inspired by Baby Spice from the Spice Girls. Pigtails could be twisted up into two buns too, called “Space Buns”.
Hair was also flat twisted about 10cm towards the back of the head in small sections, and then secured with butterfly clips. This could be worn down, or pinned up to create a spiky up-do.
Micro-braids were seen a lot too, with braids so tiny; they looked like thick strands of hair!
The zig-zag parting was fashionable; however a middle parting was usually the go-to look.
Popular haircuts included “The Rachel”, Jennifer Anniston’s character in ‘Friends’ hairstyle, which was a shoulder length, face framing layer cut, with added chunky highlights. The spikey pixie cut was another common style, finished with frosted tips.
There were many ways to decorate hair, with coloured hair mascaras, hair transfer tattoo stickers and glitter hair spray!
NEXT: 2000’s
BACK: 1980’s