How to Take '90s Makeup Trends Into 2025

makeup - demi moore, lucy liu — (Image credit: Getty Images)

The '90s were all about beauty experimentation, with the freedom to be imperfect and even a little messy. While it's easy to roll our eyes at some of the decade's trends—blue eyeshadow and glitter on glitter, anyone?—the '90s also gifted us with classic beauty looks that still loom large today.

A partial list of beauty moments we can thank the '90s for: matte colors like taupe and brown; shiny lip gloss; contrasting lip liner; peachy pink as a pop of color; monochromatic looks...I could go on. Even better? Many of these looks are easy to update (hence why '90s and Y2K beauty trends still take center stage). Below, the best '90s makeup trends to take in 2025.

Matching Lips and Cheeks

Granted, Kate Moss is backstage here at London Fashion Week, and thus this is a heavily styled monochromatic look, but choosing the same hue on your cheeks and lips is a really nice holistic makeup choice. Less so the super-thin eyebrows, but we'll get into it.

Pretty Pink

Pink was big in the '90s, and not just because Gwyneth Paltrow went to the 1999 Oscars in a gorgeous dress in that color. This gorgeous rosy color on Alicia Silverstone's cheeks and lips goes beautifully with her petal pink jacket (and complements her dark blonde hair, naturally).

Fully Lined Eyes

Lining your top and bottom lid as Elizabeth Hurley is doing here is not always a fool-proof look: when overdone, it makes your eyes look small. So the trick is to do it with a light hand, with the darker, heavier application on the corner of your eyes.

Light on the Lid

It was extremely popular in the '00s to line your brow bone with a darker color and keep a lighter color on the inner mobile lid. This is Michelle Pfeiffer way back in 1992 showing that the trend started years earlier; a more modern iteration would make the color contrast more subtle.

Dramatic Cat-Eye

Makeup in the '90s could be messy in a fun way: it looked lived-in, and (in the case of the big, smudged smokey eye with a long tail at the edge) it almost looked like you were out all night and still wearing your nighttime makeup. This shape on Claudia Schiffer is exceptional; you might just want to make it a little shorter.

Contrasting Lip Liner

Nia Long has great matte lipstick on here, with the liner around the edges darker than the more luminous middle. You can either go for a dark liner or you can layer your lipsticks, with the darker shade on the entire lip and the lighter shade in middle, giving an ombre effect.

A Glorious Tan

Whether you were going out and getting a real tan (we were not big SPF users in this decade, generally) or using a bronzer or fake tan, a warm glow was a big '90s trend. Nowadays there are tons of ways to get a warm glow without using a tanning bed—just go with a brighter lip color to match.

Party Shadow

makeup - naomi campbell and linda evangelista

We took our dark eyeshadow seriously in the '90s, as demonstrated by Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista. This is even more dramatic than a smudged cat-eye, with the gray-black eyeshadow covering all the way to the brow bone. There's a time and place for this look, but it's still cool.

The Thoughtful Side Part TK

I grant you that a side part isn't makeup, per se, but Neve Campbell's beauty look complements the sharp way her hair is cut and styled (and that bob was a favorite of hers in this decade). Go with a slightly softer look on eyes and lips, but keep the color bright so as to complement, not compete.

A French Lip

Even the '90s was most famous for its matte lip colors and dramatic liners (more on that in a bit), there was still a place for red in this decade. Brooke Shields, fashion maven and former model, demonstrates how a smooth, casual swipe of red was just as cool.

Minimal Eye Makeup

Geena Davis (here at the 1994 Oscars) literally glows in the light of the setting sun. She was never a maximalist in terms of makeup, and she really makes the case here for a touch of mascara and a pretty nude lip color as being the sum total of your look.

Smooth Shine

While much of the '90s was focused on a matte texture on your face (see also: lots of powder) you also saw a glowy look start to become popular on the red carpet (Vivica A. Fox is at the 1998 NAACP Image Awards, so it's a bit later in the decade). I happen to love a bit of natural shine like this.

A "Yellow" Red

A red lipstick with yellow undertones (so on the brighter side and almost skewing a bit orange) can work really well on light skin, as we see with Sharon Stone. As with any red, the key is to line well and create a nice even shape—bonus points if you match your brooch to it.

Perfectly Lined Lips

This is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a studio photo shoot in Paris sometime in the '90s. As such, Claudia Schiffer is getting a particularly expert application on her lips—an everyday look doesn't have to be this exact, but it IS fun to have well-defined deep nude lips.

A "Blue" Red

A red lipstick with blue undertones (running darker and even skewing a bit towards purple or brown) is great if you have yellow undertones to your skin. Phoebe Cates looks amazing here—even thinner lips look great with red lipstick, so long as the shaping is good.

Slender, Not Skinny Brows

Everyone who grew up in the '90s (myself included) will go on and on about how over-plucking their brows ruined their ability to grow them back. But I don't hate the slightly more filled-in brow—some people just have a naturally thinner brow shape, and you don't have to lose the fullness or dimension.

Black Eyeliner

Unlike a softer, smudgy smokey eye, the black cat-eye was a lot more graphic and striking. On Angela Bassett and combined with a blue-red lipstick and thick lashes, it's a lot more maximalist than other looks on this list in a really incredible way.

A Subtle Touch of Eyeshadow

Meg Ryan's signature brand of minimalism was much-beloved by anyone growing up in the '90s. This look is great top to bottom, from her bixie (bob-pixie) to the soft gray eyeshadow on her eyes bringing out the depth in her blue eyes, to the minimal gloss on her lips.

Purple Lips

In the quest to find the perfect graphic lip color, some starlets just went for it and chose colors that were even deeper than red. Brandy here is wearing a deep plum lipstick—well-lined and with a lighter color in the center for a cool ombre effect, naturally.

A Bit of Gold

Minnie Driver at the 1998 Oscars in the glow of the setting sun is a pretty perfect beauty look, to be honest. The red lipstick matching her dress perfectly is great, of course, but I love the touch of metallic eyeshadow that picks up the light and makes her eyelids shine like gold.

Pointed Brows

Pausing for a moment to recognize Cher's iconic messy updo from Clueless, I also have an appreciation for her shaped but not-too-shaped eyebrows. It's a steep arch on Alicia Silverstone, but because of the color and shape, there's also some delicate softness.

Graphic Contrast

Demi Moore's short hairdo was the haircut that a lot of '90s girls wanted during the decade, partly because she didn't shy away from the bold cut—instead leaning in with deep black, well-manicured brows, matching black eyeliner and mascara, and a deep red lip to cap things off.

Minimal Blush

A lot of beauty looks in this decade really leaned in on the blush, but here Lara Flynn Boyle uses very little, instead choosing to put the focus on lips and brows. Of course, the color on her cheek matches the color on her lips, so the vibe is minimal but impactful.

The Best Nude

Every girl was looking for The Perfect Nude Lipstick for their face, and Lucy Liu appears to have mastered it. Dark enough so as not erasing her lips: check. Soft enough to look incredibly natural: check. Balancing out any color variation in her lips and making a great shape: check check check!

Complementing Your Real Hair Color

When Nicole Kidman started showing up in movies and on red carpets with gorgeous auburn hair, it engendered a lot of hair envy (and also inspired us with curls or an unusual color to embrace our natural hair). Notably, she kept her brows red too and used her makeup to complement.

Bare Brows

In one of the better trends of the decade, starlets did very little to their eyebrows and just wore them au naturel. Catherine Zeta-Jones allows her brown brows to contrast with the darker eyeshadow she's wearing, giving a more minimal and messy vibe.

Minimal Concealer

Under-eye bags occasionally made an appearance on the red carpet, and I for one am here for it. Katie Holmes may not even have concealer or foundation on, which I honestly love: there's a bit of natural shine but the whole thing looks beautifully effortless.

Capital D Drama

On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have Madonna doing the most in her "Take a Bow" video. If the styling looks familiar for the singer, the look was designed to look like Evita, a role she was competing for at the time. That cat eye could NOT be sharper!

The Gentlest Glow

That sun-kissed look was all the rage in the '90s, and Christy Turlington (modeling for Vogue, naturally) is showing the perfect iteration: sun-kissed skin, extremely light lipstick, a little brown eyeshadow on top and bottom lid, and a perfectly messy updo.

A Natural Flush

It's wild to remember Jennifer Lopez as anything other than a massive superstar, but the up-and-comer was still figuring out what would become her signature look back in 1999. Keeping her skin glowy and adding a little shine in her lip gloss gives this whole thing a very youthful feel.

Brow Shaping

Even though many of us were laboring to get our brows as skinny as possible, fortunately Halle Berry was out here with proudly thicker brows that were still shaped to perfection. This is actually thicker than we normally see for her—and bless her for being a trendsetter.

A Brown Lip

More so than any other '90s trend, matte makeup has had the most staying power. Cindy Crawford shows off brown eyeshadow and glossy brown lips, which all coheres with her brown eyebrows and brown highlighted hair. If you like this decade, go and find your perfect brown lip.

Katherine’s a contributing syndications editor at Marie Claire who covers fashion, culture, and lifestyle. In her role, she writes stories that are syndicated by MSN and other outlets. She’s been a full-time freelancer for over a decade and has had roles with Cosmopolitan (where she covered lifestyle, culture, and fashion SEO content) and Bustle (where she was their movies and culture writer). She has bylines in New York Times, Parents, InStyle, Refinery29, and elsewhere. Her work has also been syndicated by ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar, Seventeen, Good Housekeeping, and Women’s Health, among others. In addition to her stories reaching millions of readers, content she's written and edited has qualified for a Bell Ringer Award and received a Communicator Award.

Katherine has a BA in English and art history from the University of Notre Dame and an MA in art business from the Sotheby's Institute of Art (with a focus on marketing/communications). She covers a wide breadth of topics: she's written about how to find the very best petite jeans, how sustainable travel has found its footing on Instagram, and what it's like to be a professional advice-giver in the modern world. Her personal essays have run the gamut from learning to dress as a queer woman to navigating food allergies as a mom. She also has deep knowledge of SEO/EATT, affiliate revenue, commerce, and social media; she regularly edits the work of other writers. She speaks at writing-related events and podcasts about freelancing and journalism, mentors students and other new writers, and consults on coursework. Currently, Katherine lives in Boston with her husband and two kids, and you can follow her on Instagram. If you're wondering about her last name, it’s “I go to dinner,” not “Her huge ego,” but she responds to both.