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Sometimes I wonder if you folks get our jokes, especially when they’re based on things that are no longer part of the current pop culture lexicon (or are specifically American, for that matter). One example is when we refer to ad campaigns that were common in the 1980s and ’90s, and one we’ve used A LOT is “Maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s Maybelline.”
Which was a staple of magazines and TV and I guess was recently chopped down for TikTok (weird!). We’re also fond of the related “Easy, breezy, beautiful, Cover Girl,” which was dropped in 2017.
Those old advertisements were trying to say “look at these beautiful women! they don’t look like they’re wearing makeup, but they’re really wearing makeup!” But omg they really DO look like they’re wearing LOADS of makeup, and that’s why they’re ripe for our jokes when referring to frock flicks with shitty modern makeup.

Much like modern hair (which Kendra has written endlessly about), modern makeup dates a historical story to the year it was produced, instead of the year it’s supposed to be set.

Occasionally, using modern makeup is a slightly purposeful attempt to set the main character apart — I’ve ranted about Leading Character Costume Syndrome, and makeup can be a subset of that. In the early days of Hollywood, the studios controlled how actors looked, and female actors were often used to sell makeup. This meant the actors would stick to the same, recognizable, contemporary face of makeup from film to film. So you’d see Bette Davis’ 1930s-style narrow eyebrows and dark lipstick for a movie set in the 1840s.
But more often, modern makeup in frock flicks is just a combo of trying to be “relatable” and laziness. Which it doesn’t have to be! Some filmmakers try and let their makeup staff do the research, along with the costume designer. Angie Wells, makeup designer and head of the makeup department on the movie Harriet (2019) told Oprah Daily about how she used a light touch on makeup:
“I would spin the foundation with either a primer or a thinning product so that it looked like skin, as opposed to that whole perfectly doll-baby matted out skin. And we didn’t use a lot of powder so that the skin did look like skin.
I used a very small amount of cream blush … just to bring a little bit of rosiness and natural sort of flush to the cheeks. I use a tinted lip balm. Basically, it was just lip balm with a very tiny, tiny amount of color that I mixed up myself. Then for mascara we couldn’t make it look like mascara.”
Even movies where we hate the costumes, the makeup folks might still be trying, like on Mary Queen of Scots (2018), where head hair and makeup artist Jenny Shircore talked to PopSugar about the 16th-century historical styles:
“Women plucked away their eyebrows and the front of their hairlines because it was beautiful to have a high forehead and almost no eyebrows. When you’re working with a modern actress who’s got thick, beautifully shaped eyebrows, we’ve got to try and get rid of that in order to achieve the feel of the period.
You could be so tempted to use eyeliner and mascara because we’re so used to that pretty definition, but you have to resist that because otherwise you just don’t get the period feel.”
I’d like to think the most egregious modern makeup in frock flicks is behind us, but never say never…
For some snarky fun, let’s go chronologically through time, movies, and makeup! I’m ignoring a lot of silent movies and black-and-white flicks because they had to use makeup in particular ways just to get facial features to show up on screen. I can cut them a little slack. I’m also going to skip over ancient history because we know the Egyptians used kohl eyeliner and while it probably didn’t look like Elizabeth Taylor wore it in 1963’s Cleopatra, there’s plenty more to snark (including with La Liz).
Medieval Makeup Onscreen
Looking at the extant artwork and scant medicinal/cosmetic recipes, the ideal for upper-class European ladies was to have a pale face with a faint rosy glow on the cheeks, at most. This blush should seem “natural” not painted, and likewise for any lip color. Eyebrows were plucked thin and arched.
Check out these historical images — while hair and headgear styles changed, the faces on these ladies a century apart look remarkably similar:


Note how none of the women depicted in actual medieval imagery wear blue eyeshadow or coral lipstick…

Just because she’s naked, doesn’t make the heavy red lipstick correct for the 11th century:

I think we said it all here:

If you’re going to represent a real person, maybe do a smidge of research? Blanche of Burgundy is unlikely to have worn blue eyeshadow (though the blush is fine!).

Compare with her sister from around the same time:

This next lady’s hair is scraped back, sure, but that bright red lippie is too much for the early 14oos!

Y’know, like this:

Likewise, the lipstick doesn’t seem right on Joan of Arc for some reason…

Not that we really know what she looked like, but we can guess.

IDK WTFrock is going on here, because it’s not 1480s!

Renaissance Makeup Onscreen
Now we’re getting into a historical era that liked some spackle! But looking at period sources, “makeup” started out low-key, still going for that ‘somewhat natural’ look, even for notorious gals like Lucrezia Borgia. Pale skin with lightly pink cheeks and lips were the beauty ideal. Note the brows are barely there, and nothing rings the eyes.

So sorry Liz, this does not pass:

Diane de Poitiers has shown up in a few frock flicks, since she was a major figure at the French court. So pale, so demure.

In the 1950s, she gets heavy brows and a ton of lipstick (don’t even talk to me about Lana Turner’s bleach-blond ‘do).

But hey, in the same flick, Catherine de’ Medici has the same makeup!

More recently, Diane gets all the smokey eye makeup you could ask for!

Over at the English court, the classic Anne Boleyn portrait also shows the super pale face, brows, and eyes, with ever so lightly tinted lips.

But good ol’ Liz just can’t let go of the eye makeup, even when she’s just an unnamed courtier!

Lest you think the unnecessarily heavy makeup is only a problem with 1960s frock flicks, check out Anne Boleyn wearing hot pink lippie in this masquerade scene:

And Princess Elizabeth sporting full red lipstick at the banquet table!

At the end of the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth I‘s “mask of youth” style of portraiture became well-known. This depicted the aging queen as an eternal goddess figure with smooth, snow-white skin and rosebud lips.

Many fashionable upper-class women of this period were also shown with a similar face fashion.

Smokey eye makeup wasn’t a thing.

No, really, it wasn’t.

See what happens? This is a problem!

“Art” is no excuse.

Can’t hide with an unfortunate biggins either!

17th-Century Makeup Onscreen
While makeup fashions transitioned from the mask-like artifice of the late 1590s to another form of stylized court fashion, the 1600s is the century that movies and TV forgot. All we get are puritans, who wouldn’t be wearing any makeup at all, certainly not false eyelashes:

Not eyeliner and brown lipstick either:

The only other option onscreen seems to be these kind of slutty chicks at court wearing modern makeup. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Oh those smokey eyes!

18th-Century Makeup Onscreen
Now we get to rather more obvious makeup in history, but it has a specific look. Rouge — pink color on the cheeks — was the most important makeup of the 18th century, especially at the French court. The English were a little less fond of it, or at least there were more published satires of wearing makeup in England. Fashionable women still wore what they would!

Eye makeup is still not noticeable on anyone. Eyebrows are relatively thin but could be darkened (The New London Toilet book of 1778 had a recipe for blackening the brows). Eyeliner is not happening yet.

Newp, no blue eyeshadow!

Definitely not this eye makeup, and while she’s wearing blush, it’s too contoured and not pink enough for the period.

Only light color is seen much on the lips in 18th-century images, and the 1760’s The Art of Beauty has more recipes for cheek color and remedies for chapped lips compared with one recipe for “red pomatum for the lips.”
That doesn’t excuse this dark lipstick for the 1740s:

Or this hot pink lippie on Madame de Pompadour:

Poor Marie-Antoinette — she gets done dirty onscreen all the time! Sure, she was made-up for court with standard rouged cheeks and a rosy lip…

But not like this!

Or this!

Or her pal Lamballe!

Being sponsored by Shiseido Cosmetics is an explanation, but not an excuse here:

No idea why the queen’s makeup was SO heavy and modern in this flick!

All the makeup in the latest Marie-Antoinette TV series was bad (and heavy makeup was even a plot point), but it kind of starts with the Comtesse du Barry and her smokey eyes.

I mentioned that England in the 18th century was more critical of makeup — disliking it as “French fashions” and mocking the artifice in the press, even though society women still wore makeup.

Would that English disdain carry over to the American colonies? I guess not for these supposed revolutionaries … their questionable makeup abounds!

So much eye makeup.

And over in Cornwall, Caroline rocks the Wet ‘N Wild lipstick in seasons two and three!

Ladies and gentlemen, the never-changing Elizabeth Taylor:

They seek him here, they seek him there, they seek his mascara wand everywhere!

Revolutionary & Regency Makeup Onscreen
The 1790s through 1810s are when dress styles radically change to the slim, Greco-Roman inspired fashions. The makeup styles change a bit less dramatically, but cheek rouge is now seen as a sign of the deposed French aristocracy.

The 1811 handbook The Mirror of the Graces declares, “A violent rouged woman is one of the most disgusting objects to the eye,” complains about all sorts of face painting, and says “Let every woman be content to leave her eyes as she found them.”
So, while this French Revolution story may have a great calash bonnet, the doe-eyed makeup is right out!

Cat-eyes aren’t appropriate for the mistress of Britain’s Horatio Nelson either.

I’ll let the brows and lipstick pass, since Romney gave her a sultry look.

Babs loves her some cat-eyeliner too!

But if Josephine‘s makeup smudges when she cries over Napoleon, that’s a sign she shouldn’t be wearing it!

I think guyliner is hot, and I wouldn’t put it past Byron, but I don’t know that it’s historically accurate…

Compare:

Mid-Victorian Makeup Onscreen
As the 19th century progressed, most visible makeup continued to be out of fashion, but use of creams, pastes, and waters for “skincare” was quite popular. Countless recipes were published for remedies to make a women’s skin look brighter, softer, lighter, and more ‘naturally’ beautiful. Easy, breezy, beautiful! There’s even rouge recipes, such as one in the 1841 book The Cyclopædia of Practical Receipts in All the Useful and Domestic Arts — but meant only for the palest tint.
As a character in Louisa M. Alcott’s 1869 book, An Old Fashioned Girl, admits: “Half the girls do it, either paint or powder, darken their lashes with burnt hair-pins.” She’s not particularly proud of it, and the fellow who gets this confession out of her seems unpleased.
Much like the 1872 book Encyclopedia Of Practical Receipts And Processes, which has recipes for Carmine Rouge and Bloom of Roses tint, but also says:
“Paints or rouges are the means by which the natural color of the skin may be heightened or changed. They are, however, objectionable preparations, and the use of them extends very little beyond the theatres, where they are employed to produce stage effect.”
Do as I say, not as I do, lol!

Elizabeth Barrett Browning gets close but not quite — it’s the mascara that gives her away.

And while this lady has slightly sunken eyes, she doesn’t have eye makeup.

Definitely not a smokey eye!

Sure, you can see some color on this gal’s cheeks.

But she didn’t paint it an inch thick like this!

A light hand, people.

Brows, but not BROWS.

Proof that a movie can have wonderfully historically accurate costumes, but still miss the mark on the makeup.

Should be more like this…

Then it’s time for the American Civil War, when brother fought brother, and women fought over lipstick and Aqua-Net. The March sisters may have scrimped on some things, but not on mascara or lip gloss here!

Was that version of Alcott even set in the 1860s? Hard to tell.

The massive and endless North and South series commits so many makeup sins, I’m just limiting this to a couple representatively bad pix.

Just, no!

One of these things is not like the other.

Post Civil War (or post-coital in the 1870s), still not an era when contoured eyes or raisin lipstick should be found.


You can see where they went wrong.

But this next one just didn’t try at all!

Yes, the one on the left is a whore, but it’s still not a blue eyeshadow period. Why the smokey eye on the right?

Late Victorian Makeup Onscreen
The same makeup styles continued to the end of the 19th century, with perhaps a slight more emphasis on darkened brows and ever so slightly brighter lip, at least in portraiture. But that’s an idealized look at upper-class women, so not totally representative.

None-the-less, A LIGHT HAND IS NEEDED.

Fellas, too!

Oh you girls!

The actual Harvey Girls didn’t wear bright red lipstick during the day, so why would they in their nightgowns?

At the end of the 19th century, visible makeup still wasn’t acceptable for everyday use. Sorry Liz!

This fashion plate shows a slight lip tint, at most:

Not a full red lip and definitely not eye makeup!

Early 20th-Century Makeup Onscreen
At the turn of the 20th century, we still shouldn’t see bright red lipstick…

Or raisin lipstick…

Or doe-eyes…

Compare:

All that mascara just kills the look.

Same with the eyeliner.

I spy fake lashes under that bouffant!

SO MUCH EYELINER!

Less but still too much!

Mid 20th-Century Makeup Onscreen
The 1920s is really when visible makeup started to be OK on the average woman (as opposed to actresses on stage and women of questionable virtue). But none the less, frock flicks still mess up makeup!
Full red lipstick was finally the fashion for the 1940s — so why does this flick set in the ’40s go with the 1990s style of “raisin”?

Even if it was fashionable, it’s not appropriate for every occasion!

Compare, at work, hair is styled, but makeup is not elaborate!

Ditto for a nurse on the warfront in 1950s Korea — why would she be wearing a ton of eyeliner and pink lipgloss?

While this similar Korean War nurse wears some lipstick with her dress uniform, her makeup isn’t the early ’80s style of Loretta Swit, above.

Let’s do better, frock flicks!
Does modern makeup crossed with historical costumes bug you too?
Loving the snark! Heavy make up is sooooo distracting in period films! I thought P&P 1995 and 2005 did a great job except for the Mr. Darcy walking across the field scene in 2005. Smoky eye overload! Cheeks contoured into the 21st century!
Yes, I’m noticing it more thanks to this blog
So many facepalm moments; can’t help but notice that a lot of them feature Joan Collins. I’ve come to the conclusion that if something is a television film, it’s less likely to be accurate especially the hair and makeup. There was a brief golden moment in the mid-90s when the BBC seemed to do hair and makeup fairly accurately and inconspicuously, but I fear that moment has passed us by. I will say that to be fair to Jane Seymour in “The Scarlet Pimpernell,” her character was an actress who had just come off stage, and at that moment she’s in her dressing room and has only taken her costume off, but not the stage makeup. Say what you will about the character’s makeup in this film, but the costumes are to die for. Anything that was a major film production from the 1960s back, we can forget about the actors looking anything other than inhabitants of their real life time. I mean – that Lady Godiva with her wash & set curled back fringe – ugh!
I think I called out Elizabeth Taylor more than Joan Collins ;) But yeah, TV movies tend to have lower budgets & are less historically accurate overall, alas!
As long as the film industry has an obsession with youth and beauty in women, most lead actresses are going to be made-up even in period films. Even off-screen, makeup is almost required. I’ve read articles where the interviewer mentions the actress is not wearing much or any makeup–“but then, she doesn’t need it.” It’s considered almost daring for a female celebrity to appear in public without it.
Makeup isn’t the problem – obviously modern makeup in historical flicks is! Of course actors are going to wear makeup onscreen. But just like wearing a historical costume, the makeup should look relevant to the historical period that’s being portrayed.
As a rule FROCK FLICKS makes me feel young – contemplating periods so distant from our own will have that effect on a body – but being reminded that elements in the audience will quite reasonably miss the “Maybe she’s born with it …” reference because they’re too young to have seen it ‘in the wild’ makes me feel like Pericles looking at the modern Acropolis (Presumably wondering what the heck happened to his nice, shiny Parthenon*).
*Put in a nutshell, “A whole lot of history, at least one explosion and a certain amount of souvenir hunting.”
This was a great rundown, period by period, and a lot of fun!
One tiny quibble, though– it’s maybe a bit much to expect even “a smidge of research” from LA TOUR DE NESLE (1968).
Despite that French release title referencing the Alexandre Dumas play, it was a sexploitation flick known in Germany as THE TOWER OF FORBIDDEN LOVE and in the U.S. as TOWER OF SCREAMING VIRGINS and in the U.K. as SHE LOST HER… YOU KNOW WHAT. (Germany was doing a bunch of “historical” sex films at this time, like the FRAU WIRTIN series set in Napoleonic times.)
One more reason I love my favorite movie, Crimson Peak, is that they play around with diagetic makeup. The story is set in 1901, and you can see that in daytime/Out In Public scenes Lucille is clearly wearing a bit of lip and cheek rouge- contrasted with her nightwear look where it’s not present. Edith, our heroine, never seems to be wearing any at all except in her one formal scene. I’ve never seen a movie do that unless it’s the over-the-top doll myth of 17th-18th century makeup, and it’s fascinating to me.