Make Up Of The 1960's

There was really only one make-up look throughout the 1960s, that being dark eyes paired with pale lips. The cosmetics firm of Gala can take credit for much of this innovation, as they were the first to introduce the paler colours found in the houses of Dior and Lancome.

In 1957 Gala unveiled the "Lipline" - an interchangeable lipstick in pencil form. It was much faster that the old method of applying lipstick with a small brush, and opened up a market of women who previously hadn't used makeup because of the time involved in putting it on. To increase their appeal to younger shoppers, Gala copied the French and Italian designers by blending titanium into their lipsticks, to create a shimmery, pale look, and introduced new colours, such as silver and green (mind you, anything that wasn't red in the late 50s was considered a new colourÐ'...) In 1959 they extended their innovations to face powder, which had always been available in either pink or yellow. Gala began selling "mink" powder for a more tanned, natural look.

By 1961 pale had become the fashion for the face, with girls blending their own shades of lipstick at home and white eyeshadow cream one of the top sellers (it was meant to be used to brighten up eye sockets but women quickly found uses for it all over the face such as highlighting or wrinkle-hiding.) Eyes soon became the focus and were darkened considerably to contrast with the pale faces. Dark eyeshadow, liquid and kohl eyeliner, and mascara were used in abundance and smudged on eyes all over Europe and North America. Lips became paler, until girls began using white lipstick and could go no lighter. Iridescent nail varnish to match the lipstick completed the look.