1980AD – 1989AD
A new generation of young people were now influenced by the current music, e.g. Madonna and Cyndi Lauper. Style was very original, fun, colourful and excessive. Consumerism was at a high. Women were also still being influenced by beauty magazines, which was the total opposite of the feminist movement from the 70’s.
Skincare:
In the early 1980’s, health was linked with beauty, so skincare companies were researching scientific formulas. Anti-aging products were a growing market; Estee Lauder launched the ‘night repair complex’ in 1982. There were also products targeted to teenage skin problems, such as ‘Clearasil’, which had been around since the 1950’s.
Make-up:
Make-up came in a rainbow of colours and the phrase “less is more” was not used! More was definitely more in this era; the natural look was definitely not ‘in’.
Foundation was applied heavily and tended to be two shades lighter than their natural skin tone; this was to provide a good canvas for all the bright colours. It was set with lots of powder.
Blush was a must have, cheekbones were accentuated with shades of bright pink, coral, deep plum, bronze or red. It would be applied heavily in an angle from the temples across the top of the hollows of the cheeks, sometimes in the arch of the eyebrow.
Any bright colour on the eye lid was ‘in’, though blue, purple and pink eye shadows were highly fashionable, some people even applied all these shades into one look. It was normal to wear bright colours in the daytime too, however if someone preferred to not be so vivid, bronze colours were the next option. Heavy eyeliner was used to create a ‘rocker eye’; it was blended/smudged outwards.
Mascara came in lots of different colours, with bright blue being the most popular, though black was still used daily too.
Eyebrows were bushy, thick and natural. They were held into place with a bit of eyebrow gel.
As well as bright eye shadow, bright lips were worn too in shades of red, pink and orange. Lip liner was used, in a darker shade than the lipstick, to emphasize the lip shape. Metallic lip shades were fashionable too and even came in lip gloss form.
Madonna was very popular; some people added a beauty mark, like hers, to their faces with brown eyeliner.
Hair:
The bigger, the better, inspired by heavy metal ‘hair bands’, it was fashion for hair to be long, curly and voluminous. Those with straight hair got permanent waves (perms).
The mullet haircut took off in the mid-eighties, worn by men and women in various lengths, “business at the front, party in the back.”
Some people with fringes would tease them high and apply lots of hairspray. These were called ‘mall bangs’, and seen on famous celebrities to teenage girls.
The rise of punk culture was still about; punk hair was anything goes, with bleach being popular, brightly coloured hair and mohawks.
Crimped hair first came about in the mid-eighties, teenage girls would use crimper irons to create the frizzy waves and style into a high side ponytail with a ‘scrunchie’ bobble.
For a more sophisticated look, large rollers were used to set hair back off the face with the base layers rolled under. Then after removing, hair was teased out and sprayed in place.
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