Makeup by the Eras: Revisit your grunge era

The 1990s: We’re reaching familiar territory for some of our readers with this decade packed with formative pop culture moments and trends fondly remembered (and repeated) to this day. So let’s go back.

Some of our favorite TV shows were created in the ’90s: “Friends,” “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “Boy Meets World” — and so many more. We fell in love with celebrities  whose fame endures to this day, like Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt and Cameron Diaz, and not only could we watch them on TV, but by the end of the decade we could keep up with them and their personal lives on the internet. (The World Wide Web was invented in 1989, and by 1995 the internet had an estimated 16 million users. Today, on average, 5.44 billion people use the internet daily worldwide, according to statista.com.)

It was a decade with a wide range of fashion trends, including the rise of the grunge aesthetic. This included graphic tees, plaid flannels, distressed jeans and tights, and Dr. Martens.

On the other end of the spectrum, the 1995 movie “Clueless” inspired a bright and colorful style characterized by blazer sets, minidresses, headbands and heels, a fashion direction that lasted into the next decade.

There weren’t many rules when it came to ’90s makeup: It was a decade of self-expression and individuality. But there are a few different “trendy looks” people think of when they think of that era. As someone who has worked in the beauty industry for seven years, I think the most regrettable trend of the ’90s was the overplucked, very thin eyebrows.


The makeup on this month’s model, Sable Walburn, of Lewiston, is inspired by the grunge aesthetic. Grunge spans styles as diverse as a natural face with a tight black liner and a dark brown lip, often worn by ’90s-era Reese Witherspoon, to more of a Winona Ryder or Courtney Love look, with a darker smoky eye and smoked-out eyeliner on the bottom lash line paired with a nude lip. I knew it had to be a smoky eye when I saw Sable’s outfit.

If you’d like to revisit your grunge era at home, here’s how I would start:

• “Alexa, play Nirvana Radio.”
  
  
• Use a mattifying primer to start. One of my favorites is the Smashbox Control Mattifying Primer, which I apply mainly on areas that may produce oil throughout the day (nose, forehead).
  
  
• Apply your foundation as usual; I suggest using a foundation brush.
  
  
• Dust a translucent loose powder all over the skin to set your foundation and remove any shine from the face.
  
  
• Add a bronzer around the face, especially right underneath the cheekbones.
  
  
• I always use a mattifying concealer as an eyeshadow base. After prepping, go in with a creamy black pencil liner along the top of your lash line. It doesn’t matter if you’re a little messy with it because after you apply it you can either use your finger, a little sponge applicator or a brush to blend it up your eyelid to the crease.
  
  
• l set the creamy liner with a black eyeshadow on a blending brush.
  
  
• I added some silver shimmer on the lid with my finger to add some dimension to the eye.
  
  
• I wanted the eyes to really be the moment here, so I chose a sheer brown lipstick and used a lip brush to apply a thin layer of the color to Sable’s lips, just to add a tint and a little bit of shine.

Please reach out to me on Instagram @blackmagic._beauty or to Mary Stone at mstone@inland360.com if you are interested in being a model for the 2000s.

Johnson, of Lewiston, creates makeup looks inspired by different decades in U.S. history, using you, our readers, as her models. She can be found on Etsy at BlackMagicBeautyShop and Instagram @blackmagic._beauty.

Looking for more 1990s facts and makeup looks? Here are sources I used for this column:

• wikihow.com/Pop-Culture-of-the-90s
• illamasqua.com/blog/how-to-get-a-90s-grunge-makeup-look