Says makeup artist Dillon Pena, “Nineties eye makeup was matte powder blue or a pastel shimmer.” Pena recommends replicating the look now by blending blue shadow from the lash line just to the crease, finishing with a flick of eyeliner and volumizing mascara. This look is all about maximalism.
A palette of blues will help you pinpoint your favorite hue or even play with a little shading and contouring. We love that this palette has multiple ’90s-style baby blues, including a few with shimmer.
Monochromatic Makeup
Winnie Harlow with peach pink lips and monochromatic makeup 90s makeup trendGetty Images
“The monochromatic trend never really left,” says Lujan. Ask Victoria Beckham, who also never really stopped doing it (and her team of supermodels, with whom we assume she meets biweekly). There are good reasons this trend has stuck around: It’s simple and looks great on everyone. Explains Lujan, “The look is all about matching your makeup shades to each other. You don’t have to match all three — eyes, cheeks, lips — at the same time; you can choose to match just the eye and lip or the lip and cheek.” If this sounds like algebra to you, try Lujan’s easy hack: “Use a lipstick as a cream blush and as your lip color.”
These satin-finish lipsticks are just the right consistency to double up as a cream blush. Lujan recommends mixing the lip color with a little foundation before applying to the cheeks.
Velvety Matte Skin
There’s a difference between dehydrated skin and matte skin. Nineties-style matte skin done wrong will leave you looking chalky and parched. But when it’s done right? You’re Halle Berry. “Controlling shine at the skin-care and priming level is what will create a smooth, soft-focus, matte finish,” says Wren. Start with a mattifying moisturizer and primer, then follow with a matte-finish foundation and setting powder.
This silky primer absorbs oil without depleting your skin of moisture, thanks to the squalane and glycerin in the formula.
Follow the primer with an oil-free, matte foundation. This formula is particularly handy because it’s buildable but still lightweight enough that you don’t feel the coverage has been caked on.
The finishing touch: This formula is actually hydrating, thanks to squalane and the brand’s “aerated cream technology,” giving us dry-skin gals a chance at perfect matte skin.
More ’90s nostalgia: