80s Make Up Trends to Dress Up Your 80s Costumes

If you’re attending a 80s fancy dress party you’re going to need more than just a fun 80s costume if you want to look just right. If you think back; 80s fashion was as much about the makeup as it was about the clothes. Think Adam Ant, Toyah, Duran Duran, Madonna…the list of overly-made up icons goes on and on!

Even the best of the 80s costumes around just wouldn’t be complete without the right make up looks to compliment them. The greatest thing about getting ready for a 1980 fancy dress party is that you get to go all-out with your look and do things that you would normally ever do otherwise in terms of your make up colour choices and where on your face you use the make up! Not sure what I’m getting at?? Think back to all of your favourite 80s icons—men and women—and you’ll recall that eye shadow wasn’t only ever just worn on the eyes but rather all around them! Blush, lipstick and liner wasn’t just being used on the cheeks, lips and eyes respectively as one would expect, but rather anywhere on the face!

This 80s fancy dress make up guide is all about using make up to complete 80s costumes and take the costume to a whole new level of retro cool. The tips that we’ll focus on are those extra uses for your shadows, pencils, blushes and lipsticks that reek of 80s fabulous excessiveness! Here are a few ideas to get you started and your creative juices flowing 80s style; War Paint: Adam Ant and Toyah often sported the “war paint” look which consisted of a thick line or two of colour under one eye or both. This look, of course, would not be complete without heavily lined eyes and a bright lip. All you do is take either a lipstick or liner pencil and draw 2 thick lines under one or both of your eyes. It’s that simple! You can choose your colour based on the rest of your 80s costume, but black or red were the most popular choices back then.

Black Lined Lips: Black eyeliner wasn’t only a staple for eyes of the 80s but also the lips! Try a pale face with red lips outlined in black eyeliner as a compliment to your 80s fancy dress costume.

Designs Everywhere: 80s costumes can take on a whole new look if you incorporate this trend into your ensemble. It was all about dressing up your face back then and bold shapes were all the rage. Use your eyeliner or lip liner or even liquid liner to draw little shapes on your face. You’re not going for clown-chic here but rather just a little extra cool so avoid covering your entire face with shapes! Try a couple of little hearts or stars next to the eyes or draw on a tear drop or two. You can also add a little sparkle. And there’s always the Madonna mole which is simply duplicated using one dot of your black or brown pencil just above the corner of your lip.